When authors Billy Staples and Rich Herschlag are asked to write a baseball column for The Trentonian, they decide to put their own stamp on it. Covering primarily Philadelphia and New York, they forego the dirt and seek out baseballs role models, well known and not so well known. They sidestep the steroids and find the stories of courage, dedication and humanity the mainstream press so often misses. Shortly after the All-Star break, another storyline develops. In Philadelphia, the 2008 Wo...

Bryce Harper's unprecedented ascent to the major leagues, from a 17-year-old first overall draft pick to a headline-creating, 19-year-old rookie center fielder for the Washington Nationals, dropped him into the middle of the best season of D.C. baseball since the Great Depression. Washington Post sports reporters chronicled each moment on and off the field, from his first press conference in Washington, to watching him wash dishes after dinner at his parents' house, to his debut at Dodger ...

A collection of essays for ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication—whether we're eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a fog delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about Americ...

The man Newsweek once called "the guru of baseball" offers profiles of top managers, sidebars, statistics, and snapshots of each decade.Widely considered to be one of the greatest minds in the history of the game, Bill James has changed the way we think about the sport of baseball. In this chronicle of field generals, strategists, and occasional cannon fodder, James writes with piercing insight about the men who hold what may be the most important spot in ...

"The Last Nine Innings is the last word on the inside of baseball. It's full of wonderful revelations and perceptions that help us understand the game in ways that we might never have imagined. Charlie Euchner has done a marvelous job in getting players to talk, simply, about how they play, and we're the wiser for it."—Frank Deford"Charlie takes an unorthodox approach to an emotional week and succeeds at finding the heart of both the tension of the World Series and the tech...

Pitching Strategies Explained is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book in the world today on the mental strategies used by top collegiate and professional pitchers. It is a must-have for any player, parent or coach hoping to maximize success at any level of the game.Pitching Strategies Explained leaves no stone unturned as it delves into every aspect of a pitcher’s strategic universe. In addition to drills, warm-ups and sample game plans, it includes a number of charts and tab...

“If we could have scored one more run than the White Sox in each game, I think we would have won the series”---so opined Boston manager Terry Francona. Sharp observations such as this have brightened the Red Sox Nation through the years. “All literary men are Red Sox fans,” said John Cheever. And while the Red Sox made it to the top of the baseball world in 2004 after a long and tortured history, presidential hopeful John Kerry remarked, “If anything prepares you to be president, it’s bein...

Funny, moving, and each one a diamond in the rough of the American consciousness, the essays in this book are the ultimate baseball conversation that pays homage to the perfect sport, in this perfect companion for all our personal baseball journeys.For some people baseball means a memory-of a certain dusty ball field on a certain summer day, or the first time they walked into a major league park and saw the perfect emerald playing field. For some, baseball means on...

This volume, formatted to current ebook standards and with an active table of contents, contains three complete books that provide an inside view of early baseball. Two of the authors are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.Works included are:“Pitching in a Pinch,” by Christy Mathewson“A Ball Player’s Career,” by Adrian C. (Cap) Anson”Base-Ball: How to Become a Player,” by John Montgomery Ward

Casey Award Winner for Best Baseball Book of the Year: "Deep knowledge and punchy prose . . . a treat for dedicated fans." — Publishers WeeklyOn September 8, 2017, the Oakland A's faced off against the Houston Astros in a game that would signal the passing of the Moneyball mantle. Though it was only one regular-season game, the match-up demonstrated how Major League Baseball had changed since the early days of Athletics general manager Billy Beane and the p...

"If you were much of a boy growing up in the Maspeth section of Queens in the late 1930s and 1940s, you had the baseball fever. It seemed contagious, but it struck mostly from within. . . . Often, in later years, when I was writing a long series of books on the game, some well-intended philistine would ask to have explained to him the fascination with baseball. I offered my stock answer: 'If you have to ask the question, you'll never understand the answer.'" With this small confession Dona...

"...one of the most heart-felt baseball books to come out in the last few months, written not by a journalist with nice advancement but by a simple fan who put up his own money, got it self published, and got himself heard." - Tom Hoffarth, columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News"His take on some of baseballs major events and personalities are refreshingly different from the conventional wisdom of baseball insiders." - Jeffrey Stuart, author of Twilight Teams"...t...