2021 Seymour Medal FinalistNamed a Best Baseball Book of 2020 by Sports Collectors DigestNew York Times 2020 Summer Reading ListFrom the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939–2019) was the sports world’s deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by managem...

When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Dick Allen in 1960, fans of the franchise envisioned bearing witness to feats never before accomplished by a Phillies player. A half-century later, they're still trying to make sense of what they saw.Carrying to the plate baseball's heaviest and loudest bat as well as the burden of being the club's first African American superstar, Allen found both hits and controversy with ease and regularity as he established himself as the premier individual...

Winner of the 2025 Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research AwardUnder Jackie’s Shadow is a portal to the hidden world of Minor League baseball in the era just after Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.What was it like to be Black and playing in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1965, or Memphis, Tennessee, in 1973? What was it like to play for white coaches and scouting directors from the Jim Crow South who cut their professional te...

On Friday, October 7, 1977, the Philadelphia Phillies experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows in their then 94-year history--all within the span of a single grey afternoon. An afternoon that turned so dark so fast that Phils fans would refer to it forever after as Black Friday.Following a 1976 season in which the perennial laughingstock of a franchise won 101 games, the '77 Phillies had been even better. With a lineup that featured Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski in th...

When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Dick Allen in 1960, fans of the franchise envisioned bearing witness to feats never before accomplished by a Phillies player. A half-century later, they're still trying to make sense of what they saw.Carrying to the plate baseball's heaviest and loudest bat as well as the burden of being the club's first African American superstar, Allen found both hits and controversy with ease and regularity as he established himself as the premier individual...

The study of baseball history and culture shows the national pastime to be a forum of debate where issues of sport, labor, race, character and the ethics of work and play are decided. An understanding of baseball calls for consideration of different perspectives.This very readable textbook offers insights into baseball history as a subject worthy of scholarly attention. Each chapter introduces a specific disciplinary approach--history, economics, media, law and fiction--and poses r...

The stories of thirteen Black Minor League baseball players during the post–Jackie Robinson era, from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, who were figuratively and literally left behind even as both baseball and the country claimed a newfound racial progressiveness.

From the day he first stepped into the Yankee clubhouse, Jim Bouton (1939–2019) was the sports world's deceptive revolutionary. Underneath the crew cut and behind the all-American boy-next-door good looks lurked a maverick with a signature style. Whether it was his frank talk about player salaries and mistreatment by management, his passionate advocacy of progressive politics, or his efforts to convince the United States to boycott the 1968 Olympics, Bouton confronted the conservative spor...

“Seldom does a sports biography—especially a page-turner—so comprehensively explain the forces that made an icon the way they are.” – Sports IllustratedFrom the author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron comes the definitive biography of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, baseball’s epic leadoff hitter and base-stealer who also stole America’s heart over nearly five electric decades in the game.Few names in the history of...

Arguing about the merits of players is the baseball fan's second favorite pastime and every year the Hall of Fame elections spark heated controversy. In a book that's sure to thrill--and infuriate--countless fans, Bill James takes a hard look at the Hall, probing its history, its politics and, most of all, its decisions.

Benny Friedman, the son of working class immigrants in Cleveland's Jewish ghetto, arrived at the University of Michigan and transformed the game of football forever. At the time, in the 1920s, football was a dull, grinding running game, and the forward pass was a desperation measure. Benny would change all of that.In Ann Arbor, the rookie quarterback's passing abilities so eclipsed those of other players that legendary coach Fielding Yost came back from retirement to coach him. The...

A hard-hitting look at the Chicago Bears' legendary player and coach, composed of carefully curated archival Chicago Tribune columns and features.Mike Ditka was drafted by the Bears as a tight end in 1961 and went on to earn Rookie of the Year honors, multiple Pro Bowl selections, and a 1963 championship ring with Chicago during his playing career.Ditka retired in 1972 after stints with Philadelphia and Dallas (where he won Super Bowl VI), but he ret...