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In the mid-1990s, a band of baseball-loving boys from the small town of Chester, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi River, pursue their dreams of state and national championships. Their fathers, guards in the local penitentiary that houses some of the worst criminals in US history, are their coaches. One dream comes true - the other doesn’t. This is the story of the dreams and of the town that made them possible.

Official manual used by professional baseball umpires. Includes interpretations of baseball rules, clarifications on plays, responsibilities of umpires, lineups and substitutions, appeals and awards, interference and obstruction, pitching regulations, and much more. A must-have for any potential umpire at any level.

With his irreverant personality, laid-back approach, and penchant for the unexpected, Joe Maddon is a singular presence among Major League Baseball managers. Whether he's bringing clowns and live bear cubs to spring training or leading the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series victory in 108 years, Maddon is always one to watch. In Try Not to Suck, ESPN's Jesse Rogers and MLB.com's Bill Chastain fully explore Maddon's life and career, delving behind the scenes and dissecting that mystique which makes Maddon so popular with players and analysts alike.

Twin brothers David and Jason Benham grew up with big dreams of baseball and an even bigger trust in God. Though they attended a small high school with no baseball field, turned down a professional offer so they could attend college together, and faced more than one missed pitch and injuries, they kept dreaming, praying together on the field, and believing in God. David and Jason’s journey, from Little League to college to professional baseball and beyond, reminds us that even when we don’t know what God is up to, He’s putting together the pieces of our life’s puzzle.

This is the story of the Houston Astros winning their first World Series in team history. In their 56th year, they ended their drought in the same year that the city of Houston was besieged with devastating flooding from Hurricane Harvey. It became the story of a team linked closely with a city.

Ralph Branca is best known for throwing the pitch that resulted in Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard ‘Round the World", the historic homerun that capped an incredible comeback and won the pennant for the Giants in 1951. And so Branca was on the losing end of what many consider to be baseball's most thrilling moment, but that notoriety belies a profoundly successful life and career.

Satchel Paige was 42 years old when he became the first Black pitcher in the American League in 1948. Although the oldest rookie around, he was already a legend. For 22 years, beginning in 1926, Paige dazzled throngs with his performance in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Then he outlasted everyone by playing professional baseball, in and out of the majors, until 1965.

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 Stadium.

Batting Stance Guy never expected he would become a YouTube celebrity, racking up more than two million views, landing profiles in The New York Times and USA Today, and even scoring an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. But when a friend and neighbor started capturing this man’s unusual talents with a video camera, that’s what happened. With uncanny precision, Batting Stance Guy can mimic any baseball player he’s ever seen, and the results will take you back - to the game last night, or last year, or in 1980, or anywhere in between.

India is a country with more than one billion people, a fanatical national cricket obsession, and exactly zero talent scouts. There, superstar sports agent J. B. Bernstein knew that he could find the Yao Ming of baseball - someone with a strong arm and enough raw talent to pitch in the major leagues. Almost no one in India is familiar with the game, but Bernstein had heard enough coaches swear that if you gave them a guy who throws 100 miles an hour, they could teach him how to pitch.

Widely praised for novels that celebrate the game of baseball while offering valuable life lessons, John H. Ritter has won such prestigious awards as the Paterson Prize for Children’s Literature. Fenway Fever honors the 100th birthday of Fenway Park, the iconic home of the Boston Red Sox. Nothing makes “Stats” Pagano happier than his beloved Red Sox and his family’s stadium-side hotdog stand. So when the team goes on a losing streak and the stand can no longer support itself, Stats comes up with a plan to turn things around.

Cricket and baseball share a parallel and occasionally intertwined history (the first international cricket match was played in the United States). Indeed, they have mirrored their countries' struggles with identity and race, and have expanded beyond the shores of their founding countries to become multinational sports commanding global followings that are, even now, challenging the future of both sports. Right off the Bat is the perfect present for fans of either sport, as well as a handy introduction to those who want to divine the deeper rhythms of play.

The year 2016 is the 60th Anniversary of Mantle's Triple Crown season, which many baseball experts consider one of the best seasons ever for a ball player. Of course, those who experienced that season are decreasing in numbers. But Mickey Mantle is more popular than ever. The value of his memorabilia is second to none. He remains respected and admired for the redemptive quality of his life.

Baseball's Natural is John Theodore's true account of the slick-fielding first baseman who played for the Cubs and the Phillies in the 1940s and became immortalized in baseball lore as the inspiration for Bernard Malamud's The Natural. Eddie Waitkus grew up in Boston and fought in the Pacific theater in World War II. Following the war, Waitkus became one of the most popular players of his era. In 1949, with his career on the rise, his life changed dramatically in a Chicago hotel when a 19-year-old shot him in the chest.

October 3, 1951. Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson hit the most dramatic home run in the history of baseball. The moment occurred in the bottom of the ninth inning of a sudden-death playoff game between the New York Giants and their arch rivals from Brooklyn, the Dodgers. People across the nation watched on their new TV sets, and the home run became known as “the Shot Heard ’Round the World.” But after clearing the left-field wall, the central artifact of the play - the ball itself - inexplicably went missing.

Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, distinct but similar-type players, were arguably baseball's greatest player and baseball's greatest hitter. In their first major league seasons, Joe scored a rookie-record 132 runs, and Ted drove home a rookie-record 145 runs. More than 70 years later, their records still stand.

Chris Coste dreamed of playing major-league baseball from the age of seven. But after 11 grueling years in the minors, a spot on a major-league roster still seemed just out of his reach, until that fateful call came from the Philadelphia Phillies in May 2006. At age 33 (going on 80), Coste was finally heading to the big time. The 33-Year-Old Rookie is like a real-life Rocky, an unforgettable and inspirational story of one man's unwavering pursuit of a lifelong goal.

The 1951 regular season was as good as over. The Brooklyn Dodgers led the New York Giants by three runs with just three outs to go in their third and final playoff game. And not once in Major League Baseball's 278 preceding playoff and World Series games had a team overcome a three-run deficit in the ninth inning. But New York rallied, and at 3:58 p.m. on October 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson hit a home run off Ralph Branca. The Giants won the pennant.

The idea of integrating baseball began as a dream in the mind of Branch Rickey. In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues, changing the sport and the nation forever. Rickey's is the classic American tale of a poor boy from Ohio whose deep-seated faith and dogged work ethic took him to the pinnacle of success, earning him a place in the Hall of Fame and in history.

Matty, as he was called, makes the listener feel that tense moment when a player in a pinch must use his head. Pitching in a Pinch, originally published in 1912, is an insider's account of the world of baseball, blending anecdote, biography, instruction, and social history. It celebrates baseball as it was played in the first decade of the 20th century by famous contemporaries like Honus Wagner and Rube Marquand, managers like John McGraw and Connie Mack, and many others.