Baseball Science

For more than a decade, New York University president John Sexton has used baseball to illustrate the elements of a spiritual life in a wildly popular course at NYU. Using great works of baseball literature as well as the actual game’s fantastic moments, its legendary characters, and its routine rituals - from the long-sought triumph of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to the heroic achievements of players like the saintly Christy Mathewson and the sinful Ty Cobb to the loving intimacy of a game of catch between a father and son - Sexton teaches that through the game we can touch the spiritual dimensions of life.

Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start were committing a political act simply by being on the field.

Weaving elements of memoir, philosophical reflection, sports writing, and humour, Fail Better is an intellectual love letter to baseball by one of North America's most engaging philosophers. Kingwell illustrates complex concepts like theoretically infinite game-space, "time out of time", and the rules of civility with accessible examples drawn from the game, its history, and his own halting efforts to hit 'em where they ain't.

In Circling the Bases, leading sports economist Andrew Zimbalist continues his discussion and analysis of the major issues and challenges confronting the sports industry in the second decade of the 21st century. Presenting a general overview of the sports business at the college and professional levels, this volume places concerns such as the antitrust status of sports leagues, the stalled progress of gender equity in college sports, and the control of performance enhancing drugs in historical context.

In The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, veteran baseball writer Bruce Markusen tells the story of one of the most likable and significant teams in the history of professional sports. In addition to the fact that they fielded the first all-minority lineup in major league history, the 1971 Pirates are noteworthy for the team's inspiring individual performances.

In Imperfect, Jim Abbot retraces his remarkable journey. Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott as a boy dreamed of being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who saw in his condition not a disability but an extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan. But his journey was only beginning. By 21, he’d won the gold medal game at the 1988 Olympics and cracked the starting rotation of the California Angels....

Does team chemistry actually exist? Is team chemistry as real and relevant as on-base percentages and wins above replacement? In Joan Ryan's groundbreaking audiobook, we discover that the answer to all of the above is a resounding "Yes". As Ryan puts it, team chemistry, or the combination of biological and social forces that boosts selfless effort among more players over more days of a season, is what drives sports teams toward a common goal, encouraging the players to be the best versions of themselves. These are the elements of teams that make them "click".

Play ball! Jack and Annie aren’t great baseball players... yet! Then Morgan the librarian gives them magical baseball caps that will make them experts. They just need to wear the caps to a special ballgame in Brooklyn, New York. The magic tree house whisks them back to 1947! When they arrive, Jack and Annie find out that they will be batboys in the game - not ballplayers. What exactly does Morgan want them to learn? And what’s so special about this game? They only have nine innings to find out!

The riveting story of four men - Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige - whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.

Crack of the Bat takes listeners from the 1920s to the present, examining the role of baseball in the development of the radio industry and the complex coevolution of their relationship. Despite cable television’s ubiquity, live video streaming, and social media, radio remains an important medium through which fans engage with their teams.

From Major League Baseball's inception in the 1880s through World War II, team owners enjoyed monopolistic control of the industry. Despite the players' desire to form a viable union, every attempt to do so failed. In the mid-1960s, star players Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale staged a joint holdout for multiyear contracts and much higher salaries. Their holdout quickly drew support from the public; for the first time, owners realized they could ill afford to alienate fans, their primary source of revenue.

Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—was a bastion of small town baseball where the professional game had been played uninterrupted since 1897. Many jobs have evaporated or gone overseas, but its good families haven’t, and one remaining jewel of Batavia is the Muckdogs’ quirky ballpark that attracts a hefty portion of the local population from June to August every year. In Homestand, acclaimed author and journalist Will Bardenwerper explores the question "What is baseball?," and uses that as a lens to explore "What is America today."

Rosie: Capricorn. Her talisman: a magical jacket from her mother's past that gets people to do whatever she says. Caro: Taurus. Rosie's older sister. Her talisman: a baseball bat that fixes whatever it breaks. Zeke: Certified Triple Pisces. His talisman: a manifestation stone that will make anyone fall in love with him. Rosie, Caro, and Zeke—and their talismans—find themselves intertwined in a magical, hilarious, and whip-smart Outsiders for the modern day.

A mild mannered CPA and baseball fan travels back in time to prevent the 1919 World Series from being fixed, and saving the reputations of Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte. Along the way, he meets lots of interesting characters from that era. He not only must stop the scandal, but has a murderer on his tail trying to stop him.

Some of baseball's rebels are widely recognized, but most of them are either little known or known primarily for their baseball achievements—not their political views and activism. Many players, owners, reporters, and other activists challenged both the baseball establishment and society's status quo. Baseball Rebels tells stories of baseball's reformers and radicals who were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America's broader political and social protest movements, making the game—and society—better along the way.

A People's History of Baseball, probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, and virtuous capitalism, but power - how it is obtained, and how it perpetuates itself. Through the growth and development of baseball Nathanson shows that, if only we choose to look for it, we can see the petty power struggles as well as the large and consequential ones that have likewise defined our nation.

How does a piece of wood become a brand-new baseball bat? Follow each step in the process - from cutting the wood to shipping the bat to a store - in this fascinating book!

Megan, the mage, leaves her friend, Edmund, in charge of the kingdom while she and her beloved succubus, Kendra, take a short vacation together. Edmund lets his friend, Phil, an ogre mercenary, talk him into organizing a game which goes very badly, and then, the kingdom in invaded by a beautiful dark elf sorceress named Lorelei and her companions, which include two scientists, a museum curator, and her pet Ankylosaurus. After a fierce battle, the two sides join forces to steal a magical artifact from a dryad, with many other bad ideas along the way.

Al final de la temporada de 2010, más de ochenta y seis jóvenes y hombres de la empobrecida ciudad de San Pedro de Macorís jugaban en las Grandes Ligas -lo que significa que uno de cada seis dominicanos de las Grandes Ligas vinieron de los mismos equipos locales de los ingenios azucareros, y acudieron en masa a los Estados Unidos en busca de oportunidades, de riqueza, y de una vida mejor.

This audiobook is the window into the underground world of cheating at the highest levels, which set off a frenzy of activity and hand-wringing in the offices of Major League Baseball and Congress. Through the authors' pursuit of sources and documents, they were able to open for public view a world in which elite athletes trade money and risk their health for the edge that will allow them to run faster, hit harder, and compete longer, and then cash in on the fame and wealth.