They called him the Babe. The Bambino. The Sultan of Swat. And finally they called him a legend. But the greatest baseball player who ever lived was also a flesh-and-blood man, the freest spirit ever to give managers gray hairs. This is the story of the game he played and the life he lived to the hilt—told as only he could tell it. Here are the golden moments on the diamond and the unforgettable times off of it. Here are the highs, the lows, the friendships, the feuds, and the loves—in a b...

This #1 bestselling baseball classic of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is "a celebration of a vanished heroic age" ( The New York Times Book Review ).The summer of 1949: It was baseball's Golden Age and the year Joe DiMaggio's New York Yankees were locked in a soon-to-be classic battle with Ted Williams's Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant. As postwar America looked for a unifying moment, the greatest players in b...

“Easily the best baseball book ever produced by anyone.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer“This was the best baseball book published in 1966, it is the best baseball book of its kind now, and, if it is reissued in 10 years, it will be the best baseball book.” — PeopleFrom Lawrence Ritter, co-author of The Image of Their Greatness and The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, comes one of the bestsellin...

The New York Times bestseller by the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, capturing the 1964 World Series between the Yankees and Cardinals."Compelling . . . [ October ] 1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change." — Newsweek

A collection of quotes, anecdotes, and malaprops from one of baseball's wisest and wittiest personalities.New York Times–bestselling author Phil Pepe takes readers along on Yogi Berra's journey from St. Louis to New York's Yankee Stadium, including all the stops along the way—from his days as a tack-puller in a women's shoe factory, to a pre-game tribute in St. Louis, when he coined the phrase, "I want to thank all those that made this night necessary," to...

The author of The Boys of Summer explores the golden age of baseball, an unforgettable time when the game thrived as America's unrivaled national sport.The Era begins in 1947, with Jackie Robinson changing major league baseball forever by taking the field for the Dodgers. Dazzling, momentous events characterize the decade that followed—Robinson's amazing accomplishments; the explosion on the national scene of such soon-to-be legends as Mickey Mantl...

"A true insider's perspective on the 2004 Red Sox" and their World Series win, from the bestselling author of Curse of the Bambino ( USA Today).On October 27, 2004, the Red Sox won their first World Series Championship in eighty-six years—breaking the infamous Curse of the Bambino and giving diehard fans the thrill of a lifetime.Reversing the Curse preserves one of the greatest stories in sports history with an absorbing account of...

From the New York Times bestselling author of K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches comes the ultimate history of the World Series—a vivid portrait of baseball at its finest and most intense, filled with humor, lore, analysis, and fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from 117 years of the Fall Classic.The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It’s the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation ...

In this wonderful page-turner, veteran sports journalist Mike Vaccaro brings to life a bygone era in cinematic and intimate detail—and re-creates the magic and suspense of the world’s first classic series.Despite a major presidential election, the near-assassination of Teddy Roosevelt, and the most sensational trial of the young century, baseball dominated front-page headlines in October 1912. The Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants of that year—two of the finest ball clubs that...

Strange-but-true stories, colorful characters, and big-league bizarreness for fans of America's pastime!Why is baseball such a great subject for a Bathroom Reader? Because it's steeped in history and tradition, it's rife with scandals and controversy, and most of the men that dedicate their life to it are just a little bit . . . weird. Uncle John's spirited take on the game takes you deep into that history to paint a detailed picture of where the game came from and...

From its winners to its sinners, two bestselling sportswriters chronicle a dizzying trip through more than a century of baseball lore and legend.Some of the stories are celebrated—from Ruth's called shot to DiMaggio's streak to Mays's catch. Some of the men are titans of the game—Mantle, Williams, Koufax. But alongside those stories passed from generation to generation, Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf have assembled tales both hard-to-believe and a pleasure to read. F...

On a torridly hot August day in 1920, Ray Chapman was struck and killed by a Carl Mays fastball, in what was and remains the only on-the-field fatality in the history of major league baseball. The drama of Good Guy Chapman versus Bad Guy Mays is a wrenching human tale. Add to it an intense pennant race, the meteoric ascension of Babe Ruth to baseball supremacy, the banning of the Black Sox for throwing the previous year's World Series, and the story grows to one of the most fascinating and...