The Crackerjack Gang is a collection of the most unorthodox, but sincerely exceptional, group of baseball players I coached over the last twenty (20) years. If you coach long enough, in any sport, you come to appreciate the true Crackerjacks every year on your team. Crackerjack players make the long hours logged on the field and the monotony of team drills worth every second. Whether it’s the hours spent cramped in uncomfortable team vans, weekend trips to tournaments, team meals, their on...

A story with a big heart about a boy, a coach, the game of baseball, and the game of life."There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind; it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever." There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Le...

**The New York Times BestsellerWith inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions.**It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions.How...

St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny's New York Times bestselling manifesto about what parents, coaches, and athletes get wrong about sports; what we can do better; and how sports can teach eight keys to success in sports and life.Mike Matheny was just forty-one, without professional managerial experience and looking for a next step after a successful career as a Major League catcher, when he succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa as manager of the St. ...

This inside view with the Cardinals' Tony La Russa by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Friday Night Lights "should appeal to any baseball fan" ( Publishers Weekly).A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year"Plenty of books have taken us inside baseball, but August takes us directly inside players' heads." — Entertainment Weekly3 Nights in August captures the strategic and...

CATCHING-101: The Complete Guide for Baseball Catchers is the most comprehensive book ever written for baseball catchers. It contains tips, drills, and proper mechanics that will help every catcher or coach better understand the most difficult position on the field. This book contains information on EVERY aspect of catching that Coach Barksdale has learned through his years of experience from coaching nationally ranked NCAA teams, and playing at almost every level from Little League to pro...

Reggie Jackson and Bob Gibson offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to understand America's pastime from their unique insider perspective.Legendary. Insightful. Uncompromising. Candid. Uncensored.Mr. October and Hoot Gibson unfortunately never faced each other on the field. But now, in Sixty Feet, Six Inches, these two legends open up in fascinating detail about the game they love and how it was, is, and should be played. Their one-of-a-kind insid...

**Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports WritingThe lively and fascinating story of baseball’s 150-year hunt for the perfect pitch**In August 2012, Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in what Terry McDermott calls “one of the greatest exhibitions of off-speed pitches ever put on.” For McDermott, a lifelong fan and student of baseball, the extraordinary events of that afternoon inspired this incisive medita...

This book will teach you how to keep score at baseball games, whether you're a fan at the ball park, a player in a league, or a family member of a young ball player.With clear instructions and over 45 diagrams, the goal is to provide you with skills you can practice immediately, even after your first lesson. Three sections (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) enhance and build upon those skills.Lots of tips, based on questions which come up most often at scorekeeping clinics....

"John's Book looks at Baseball, and its two most precious elements of Batting and Throwing, from the multiple standpoints of the 'superficially' physical and mental; from the 'meta-physically' scientific; and from the 'all-inclusiveness' of Spirituality. Therefore, Baseball's most enduring and endearing attributes can be perceived on multiple levels of conscious awareness, and thus arouse the 'dormant understanding' of all enthusiastic fanfare to more than just the mundane interests of the...

From the author of "Pitching Strategies Explained", "Pitching Mechanics Explained" is the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource for coaches, parents, and players seeking to improve all aspects of a pitcher’s development. It is one of the very few books available specifically intended to help a coach or parent instruct a pitcher on how to improve his game.Complete with dozens of drills and more than 100 photographs, "Pitching Mechanics Explained" illustrates the sequential move...

This book is for the many people that have experienced some of their deepest passions from sports. It is about players, coaches, and parents. My desire is that the reader rekindles whatever passion he/she has previously experienced, or is currently experiencing in youth sports. Hopefully, one can learn from my experiences, and use them to create positive outcomes with their children. Sport is a universal language that impacts countless people throughout the world. It is a drama of the body...