Baseball - America's Pastime

Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game by David Block

It may be America's game, but no one seems to know more...0 points

It may be America's game, but no one seems to know how or when baseball really started. Theories abound, myths proliferate, but reliable information has been in short supply-until now, when Baseball before We Knew It brings fresh new evidence of baseball's origins into play. David Block looks into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about its beginnings. He tackles one stubborn misconception after another, debunking the enduring belief that baseball descen...0 points

Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War by George B. Kirsch

During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to more...0 points

During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. While soldiers slaughtered each other over the country's fate, players and fans struggled over the form of the national pastime. George Kirsch gives us a color commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball during the Civil War. He shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian--and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American national...0 points

America's National Game by Albert G. Spalding

Albert G. Spalding's addiction to what he saw as a more...0 points

Albert G. Spalding's addiction to what he saw as a peculiarly American sport began early on the sandlot in Rockford, Illinois. One of the first professional baseball players and later a manager and club owner, he branched out to become a leading manufacturer of sporting goods. America's National Game, published a few years before his death in 1915, lays out the beginnings of baseball and its advancement while dispensing Spalding's vivid reminiscences and firm opinions. The essential nature of th...0 points

A Clever Base-Ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward by Mr. Bryan Di Salvatore

"This is a grand book--vehement, scholarly, funny, more...0 points

"This is a grand book--vehement, scholarly, funny, exuberant, and artfully evocative of the man and his time. Bryan Di Salvatore is one of the finest writers of nonfiction in America."--Ian FrazierOne of baseball's earliest stars, John Montgomery Ward (1860-1925) was a formidable talent. Today, he stands alone as the only player with more than 100 wins as a pitcher and 2,000 hits as a batter. Ward played at a time when baseball was evolving from a pastime into a business, and his most important....0 points

Cap Anson: The Grand Old Man of Baseball by David L. Fleitz

Cap Anson's plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame su more...0 points

Cap Anson's plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame sums up his career with admirable simplicity: "The greatest hitter and greatest National League player-manager of the 19th century." Anson helped make baseball the national pastime. He hit over .300 in all but three of his major league seasons, and upon his retirement in 1897, he held the all-time records for games played, times at bat, hits, runs scored, doubles and runs batted in. For much of his career, he also served as manager of the Nati...0 points

Baseball: The Early Years (Oxford Paperbacks) (Vol 1) by Harold Seymour, Dorothy Z. Seymour, Dorothy Jane Mills

These two critically-acclaimed volumes mark the beginning more...0 points

These two critically-acclaimed volumes mark the beginning of a monumental multi-volume study of baseball by the man whom Sports Illustrated has called "the Edward Gibbon of baseball history." Now available in paperback, Harold Seymour's The Early Years and The Golden Age together recount the true story of how baseball came into being and how it developed into a highly organized business and social institution. The first volume, The Early Years, traces the growth of baseball from the time of the....0 points

Slide, Kelly, Slide: The Wild Life and Times of Mike King Kelly (American Sports History) by Marty Appel

Mike King Kelly was a hard-living, hard-drinking b more...0 points

Mike King Kelly was a hard-living, hard-drinking baseball Hall of Famer, a two-time battting champion and daring base runner whose skill and infectious charm turned him into the game's first hero and one of America's first celebrities in the 1880s and 1890s.0 points

Nineteenth Century Baseball: Year-By-Year Statistics for the Major League Teams, 1871 Through 1900 by Marshall D. Wright

In March 1871, ten of the United States' most powerful more...0 points

In March 1871, ten of the United States' most powerful professional baseball clubs met in Brooklyn, New York. Out of that meeting came the sport's first major league: the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. The Philadelphia Athletics, with a record of 21-7, captured the new circuit's first championship. From the National Association through the American League's inaugural season in the final year of the century, this work is a year-by-year statistical...0 points

Autumn Glory: Baseball's First World Series by Louis P. Masur

A suspenseful account of the glorious days a century more...0 points

A suspenseful account of the glorious days a century ago when our national madness beganA post-season series of games to establish supremacy in the major leagues was not inevitable in the baseball world. But in 1903 the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates (in the well-established National League) challenged the Boston Americans (in the upstart American League) to a play-off, which he was sure his team would win. They didn't-and that wasn't the only surprise during what became the first...0 points

The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball by Frank Deford

In The Old Ball Game, America's most beloved sport more...0 points

In The Old Ball Game, America's most beloved sportswriter, Frank Deford, masterfully chronicles how a friendship between two towering figures in baseball helped make the sport a national pastime. At the turn of the twentieth century, every American man wanted to be Christy Mathewson. One of baseball's first superstars, he was clean-cut, didn't pitch on the Sabbath, and rarely spoke a negative word about anyone. He also had one of the most devastating arms in all of baseball. New York Giants mana...0 points

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof

The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World more...0 points

The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" First published in 1963, Eight Men Out has become a timeless classic. Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the Series in Cincinnati. Mr. Asinof vividly describes the tense meetings, the hitches in the conniving,...0 points

Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis by David Pietrusza

This book strips away the myths and facile explana more...0 points

This book strips away the myths and facile explanations to reaveal the real Kenesaw Mountain Landis--with all the subtleties and contradictions that made him not only czar of baseball, but also the most famous, popular, and controversial federal judge in America.0 points

The Player: Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century by Philip Seib

Christy Mathewson (1880-1925) was baseball's first more...0 points

Christy Mathewson (1880-1925) was baseball's first superstar pitcher who still ranks among the all-time leaders in wins, earned run average, and shutouts. Mathewson was in the first group elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, with Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson. At a time when professional ballplayers were regarded as hard-living rogues, Matty was a soft-spoken college boy who espoused clean living and did more than any other athlete to elevate the place of sports in Americ...0 points

Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero by Leigh Montville

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. more...0 points

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend - and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a fighter pilot; to embrace his fans while tangling with the media; to retreat from the limelight whenever possible into his solitary love of fishing; and to...0 points

Stengel: His Life and Times by Robert W. Creamer

One of the most endearing of American heroes, Casey more...0 points

One of the most endearing of American heroes, Casey Stengel guided the New York Yankees to ten pennants in twelve seasons. Here is the brilliant manager stripped naked—the person underneath all the clowning, mugging, and double-talking. Robert Creamer shows us Casey at twenty-two, famous from his very first day in the big leagues. We see Casey's playing career fall apart as he is traded, shunted to last-place teams, hampered by injuries, considered finished—until he bats a glorious home run...0 points

Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck by Bill Veeck, Ed Linn

Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consumm more...0 points

Bill Veeck was an inspired team builder, a consummate showman, and one of the greatest baseball men ever involved in the game. His classic autobiography, written with the talented sportswriter Ed Linn, is an uproarious book packed with information about the history of baseball and tales of players and owners, including some of the most entertaining stories in all of sports literature.0 points

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Robert Creamer

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit more...0 points

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days...0 points

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss

On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent more...0 points

On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, a book destined to become a modern classic. Much like his acclaimed biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered,...0 points

Ball Four by Jim Bouton

Twentieth-anniversary edition of a baseball classic, more...0 points

Twentieth-anniversary edition of a baseball classic, with a new epilogue by Jim Bouton.When first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And serious critics called it an important social document. Today, Jim Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimer's...0 points

Have Glove, Will Travel: Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond by Bill Lee, Richard Lally

It was 1982 when Bill Lee was famously booted from more...0 points

It was 1982 when Bill Lee was famously booted from the Montreal Expos after he went AWOL in protest of another player's mistreatment by management. His reputation for antics both on and off the field guaranteed that no other club would pick him up. The Ace from Space had landed on professional baseball's blacklist, and so it was that one of the most popular major-league pitchers of our day was fated to pack his bags and wander the globe searching for a ball game. Have Glove, Will Travel...0 points

The Wrong Stuff by Bill Lee, Lally

The return of a sports classic with a new foreword more...0 points

The return of a sports classic with a new foreword by the authorFinally back in print after many years, here is Bill Lee's classic tale of his renegade life on and off the mound. Whether walking out on the Montreal Expos to protest the release of a valued teammate or telling sportswriters eager for candid and offbeat comments more about the game than his bosses wanted anyone to know, pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee became celebrated as much for his rebellious personality as for his remarkable...0 points

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution by Neil Lanctot

The story of black professional baseball provides a more...0 points

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional...0 points

Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams by Robert Peterson

Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a sco more...0 points

Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a scout to watch a young Cuban play for Foster's American Giants, a baseball club in the Negro Leagues. During one at-bat this talented slugger lined a ball so hard that the rightfielder was able to play it off the top of the fence and throw Christobel Torrienti out at first base. The scout liked what he saw, but was disappointed in the player's appearance. "He was a light brown," recalled one of Torrienti's teammates, "and would have gone up to the major...0 points

Beyond the Shadow of the Senators : The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball by Brad Snyder

"As thorough a history of a Negro league team more...0 points

"As thorough a history of a Negro league team as can be culled from the available sources... not just the history of a team but the tale of one city in all its social complexity." --The New York Times Book Review An enthralling narrative about a lost era in both baseball and American History, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators reveals the true story of the greatest baseball dynasty most people have never heard of--the Homestead Grays--and how the fight to integrate our national pastime began with...0 points

The Pittsburgh Crawfords by James Bankes

The Pittsburgh Crawfords were one of the Negro Lea more...0 points

The Pittsburgh Crawfords were one of the Negro League's best and most exciting teams. At the heart of the line-up were five men who would go on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history; Josh Gibson, a hitting catcher who rivaled Babe Ruth; Cool Papa Bell, one of the game's fastest runners; Oscar Charleston, perhaps one of the all-around best players; and Judy Johnson, a skilled third baseman. This work takes a close look at th...0 points

The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues

Now available in a handsomely produced oversized p more...0 points

Now available in a handsomely produced oversized paperback-with expanded information and 24 pages of black-and-white photographs-The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues documents more than four thousand players on Negro League teams from 1872 through 1950. Called "one of the best reference books of the year" by Library Journal and named an outstanding academic book of the year by the American Library Association, this is the first book to cover comprehensively the c...0 points

Maybe I'll Pitch Forever by Leroy Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige was forty-two years old in 1948 when more...0 points

Satchel Paige was forty-two years old in 1948 when he became the first black pitcher in the American League. Although the oldest rookie around, he was already a legend. For twenty-two years, beginning in 1926, Paige dazzled throngs with his performance in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Then he outlasted everyone by playing professional baseball, in and out of the majors, until 1965. Struggle-against early poverty and racial discrimination-was part of Paige's story. So was fast living and...0 points

Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues by William Brashler

Perhaps baseball's greatest hitter, Gibson was kno more...0 points

Perhaps baseball's greatest hitter, Gibson was known as the black Babe Ruth. In this illuminating biography, William Brashler introduces an authentic American sports hero and recaptures the mood and style, the excitement and poignance of a world of black baseball that has vanished from the American scene. A balanced account that...brings him into clear focus as one of the outstanding baseball players of his era. --New York Times Book Review0 points

Bull Durham

Baseball season gets off to a rocky start when the more...0 points

Baseball season gets off to a rocky start when the Durham Bulls' new catcher, "Crash" Davis (Kevin Costner), punches out the cocky young pitcher, "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), he's just been hired totrain. Then sexy Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) informs both men that each season she chooses one player to share her bedand Nuke and Crash are this year's "draft picks." After Crash passes on the offer, Nuke eagerly enlists as Annie's summer fling...until Crash's jealousy takes over and he convinces N...0 points

Cobb

Tyrus Raymond Cobb played baseball like a man char more...0 points

Tyrus Raymond Cobb played baseball like a man charging a machine-gun nest. He gave no quarter, took no prisoners. And when his Hall of Fame career was over, Ty Cobb attacked life the same way. Tommy Lee Jones portrays the legendary - and equally cheered and detested - Georgia Peach in this acclaimed film from writer/director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Dark Blue), also starring Robert Wuhl and Lolita Davidovich. From its recapturing of the outfielder's playing days (Roger Clemens portrays a rival...0 points

Eight Men Out

John Cusack (Con Air) and Charlie Sheen (Major Lea more...0 points

John Cusack (Con Air) and Charlie Sheen (Major League) lead a "superb ensemble of actors" (Newsweek) delivering "striking performances" (The New York Times) in this "mesmerizing story" (Los Angeles Times) about the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal, certainly one of the saddest chapters in the annals of professional sports. Buck Weaver (Cusack) and Hap Felsch (Sheen) are young idealistic players with the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey Â- a penny-pi...0 points

61*

In the summer of 1961, Roger Maris and Mickey Mant more...0 points

In the summer of 1961, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle took on Babe Ruth's record - the 1927 single-season 60 home run slam. It would be a summer that no one would forget. Mickey Mantle is a Yankee favorite. The natural heir to his predecessors Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth. Also at bat is a young Midwesterner, Roger Maris. Maris is Mantle's opposite in almost every way. Quiet and soft-spoken, he doesn't add up to everything a sports legend should be. As the summer of 1961 unfolds, both Maris...0 points

The Natural

Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfillin more...0 points

Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball superstardom. Robert Redford stars in this inspiring fable that begins when 14-year-old Hobbs (Redford) fashions a powerful bat from a fallen oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability, fixing his extraordinary talent in the mind of sportswriter Max Mercy (Duvall), who eventually becomes instrumental in Hobbs' career. But a meeting with a mysterious woman shatters his dream. Years pass and an...0 points

A League of Their Own

LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN - DVD Movie0 points

Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns

Ken Burns tops himself with this epic of American more...0 points

Ken Burns tops himself with this epic of American history, told in "nine innings," with a skilled narration by John Chancellor and the voices of Paul Newman, Jason Robards, Billy Crystal, and other stars. The series spans 150 years, starting with the myth-debunking tale of baseball's true beginnings -- when it was a game "one degree above mayhem." Then follow the growth of America's National Pastime through the decades of glory and record-setting achievements, as well as the scandals, the bigotr...0 points

The Bad News Bears

First of a trilogy of films takes an unflinching l more...0 points

First of a trilogy of films takes an unflinching look at the underbelly of little league baseball in Southern California. Former minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker is a lazy, beer swilling swimming pool cleaner who takes money to coach the Bears, a bunch of disheveled misfits who have virtually no baseball talent. Realizing his dilemma, Coach Buttermaker brings aboard girl pitching ace Amanda Whurlizer, the daughter of a former girlfriend, and Kelly Leak, a motorcycle punk who happens to be the be...0 points

Tales from the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates: Remembering "The Fam-A-Lee" by John C McCollister PH.D.

This chronicle provides stories on the great Pirat more...0 points

This chronicle provides stories on the great Pirates teams of the late 1970's that culminated with a memorable 1979 World Series championship.0 points

The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees by Sparky Lyle, Peter Golenbock

Relief Pitcher Sparky Lyle was the 1977 American L more...0 points

Relief Pitcher Sparky Lyle was the 1977 American League Cy Young Award winner for his role in helping the New York Yankees to their first World Series championship since 1962. The following winter, the Yankees - who changed the face of baseball in those early years of free agency - went out and aquired Pittsburgh closer Goose Gossage, relegating Lyle to an observer's role for the 1978 season. As it turned out, Lyle proved to be a more astute observer than anyone could have predicted. And, as luc...0 points

The Long Ball: The Summer of '75--Spaceman, Catfish, Charlie Hustle, and the Greatest World Series Ever Played by Tom Adelman

The 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox a more...0 points

The 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds is generally considered the best of all time, and baseball historians often rank its sixth game as the greatest single game ever played. Adelman opens his story of this epochal summer with the dramatic preseason showdown between owners and players that catalyzed free agency, increased player salaries, and launched an age when baseball would be less about the game and more about 'the green.' THE LONG BALL then tells the dram...0 points

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler

"Masterful . . . In Mahler's expert hands, the more...0 points

"Masterful . . . In Mahler's expert hands, the city's outsized citizens are flawed, fierce, bickersome, and as indomitable as the metropolis itself." -Mike Sokolove, author of The Ticket Out A passionate and dramatic account of a year in the life of a city, when baseball and crime reigned supreme, and when several remarkable figures emerged to steer New York clear of one of its most harrowing periods. By early 1977, the metropolis was in the grip of hysteria caused by a...0 points

When The Bucs Won It All: The 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates by Bill Ranier; David Finoli

The 1970s were both successful and tragic for the more...0 points

The 1970s were both successful and tragic for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They won five NL Eastern Division crowns and the 1971 World Championship, but lost the great Roberto Clemente in a plane crash and pitcher Bob Moose in a car accident during this time. By the end of the 1970s, the Pirates were a good team but no longer considered favorites to win a World Series. Thanks to a fantastic finish in 1978, the Pittsburghers gained new hope for the 1979 season. As intriguing as the season was, it wasn...0 points

Baseball's Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Oakland A's by Bruce Markusen

0 points

0 points

The Minors by Neil J. Sullivan

This impressive history of baseball in the smaller more...0 points

This impressive history of baseball in the smaller towns and cities of the U.S. is divided into three sections. The first covers the years from 1877 to 1920, when the modern game was evolving and the general outlines of major and minor leagues were taking shape; the second treats the period from 1920 to 1950, the golden age of the minors; the third is devoted to the expansion of the majors and the rise of television, both of which all but destroyed the minors, reducing the number of leagues from...0 points

Slouching Toward Fargo:: A Two-Year Saga Of Sinners And St. Paul Saints At The Bottom Of The Bush Leagues With Bill Murray, Darryl Strawberry, Dakota Sadie And Me by Neal Karlen

In Slouching Toward Fargo, author Neal Karlen describes more...0 points

In Slouching Toward Fargo, author Neal Karlen describes his two-year journey with the St. Paul Saints--the most audacious bushleague ballclub ever to plumb the bottom of the pro sports barrel. Coowned by comedian Bill Murray and run by Mike Veeck--son of the infamous sports promoter Bill Veeck--this motley collection of mutts, hopefuls, and has-beens has become a national phenomenon for playing with as much gusto off the field as on ... while proudly adhering to the timeless sports credo that it...0 points

The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates by Bruce Markusen

One of the Most Important Teams in the History of more...0 points

One of the Most Important Teams in the History of Sports In 1947, major league baseball experienced its first measure of integration in the modern era when the Brooklyn Dodgers brought Jackie Robinson to the National League. While Robinson's breakthrough opened the gates of opportunity for African Americans and other minority players, the process of integration proved slow and uneven. It was not until the 1960s that a handful of major league teams began to boast more than a few Black and Latino...0 points