Going as far back as the mid-nineteenth century, to the early days of Cuban baseball, Wendel traces the spread of American baseball fever in the Caribbean and Mexico; discusses lesser-known historical standouts, including Adolfo Luque and Martin Dihigo; and describes the days when only light-skinned Latinos wereallowed to participate in Major League competition as well as the linguistic barrier many Latinos faced when playing on teams with "English only" rules.

Featuring interviews with Latino superstars past and present; a foreword by Bob Costas; the first-ever-published Latino...

Nobody knows baseball like Kevin Kennedy

Kevin Kennedy was a catcher and a Montreal, coach in the minors, a farm director for the Expos and a bench coach for Felipe Alou before moving on to manage the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox. Now one of the sport's most respected analysts and commentators, he offers a fresh look at baseball from the viewpoint of a "lifer," capturing the intricacies of the professional game with a sharp analytical eye and unabashed candor, including:

• The lengths to which teams and players will go to gain the competitive edge -- from doctored...

When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game.

The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions--for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music--O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when...

Praise for Pure Baseball:

"We have never seen the game scrutinised with such care and detail. Hernandez provides commentary on two ball games in the 1993 season: a Philles-Braves match-up and an extra innings battle between the Tigers and the Yankees. He] examines the overall strategies of the game and offers good analyses of fielding...

Baseball has always had its share of colorful characters, and over the years they have expressed themselves in eminently quotable ways. In this treasury of more than 5,000 quotations, noted baseball writer and observer Paul Dickson has captured the flavor of the game, in the words of its most important participants and onlookers.

They are all here--from Aaron (Estella, Hank's mother) to Zoldack ("Sad Sack" Sam), and everyone in between. From the players, sportswriters, and politicians, to noted personalities in other fields (a very diverse group), everyone has his or her say on our...

A comprehensive guide to baseball fundamentals that helps players and coaches build winning teams together

Watching major-league baseball today, many fans wonder what happened to the fundamentals of the game when they see a highly paid outfielder miss the cutoff man or a multimillion-dollar pitcher fail to lay down a bunt. What's missing are the basics--and that's precisely the content of this classic bestseller.

Updated and revised to address today's baseball rules and trends, Basic Baseball Strategy helps you, whether you're a beginning coach, a player...

Youth baseball players learn the secrets of hitting smart and batting big

Batting is more than just making contact; it is about the swing, the stance, the follow-through. Majorleague hitting coordinator Jack Maloof--who has fixed the mechanics of such explosive hitters as Tony Gwynn, Roberto Alomar, and Cliff Floyd--shares the same techniques he used with these big leaguers to help players in senior youth leagues and up hone their individual hitting form and make the most of every atbat.

Hit Like a Big Leaguer is a compendium of how-to hitting, including...

Organized baseball from the establishment of the National Commission in 1903 to the period of national expansion in the 1950s and 1960s--buffeted by the winds of two world wars and a Great Depression--is chronicled here in colorful detail.

The glories of the Silver Age--Ty Cobb's record-setting, Ed Walsh's pitching innovations, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance fielding orchestration--might have been eclipsed by World War I and the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. Instead, the Roaring Twenties boomed for baseball as well as the stock market. Baseball stars like Babe Ruth rivaled movie stars like...

How did "America's National Game" evolve from a gentlemen's pastime in the 1850s to a national obsession in the Roaring Twenties? What really happened at Cooperstown in 1839, and why does the "Doubleday legend" persist? How did the commissioner system develop, and what was the impact of the "Black Sox" scandal? These questions and many others are answered in this book, with colorful details about early big league stars such as Mike "King" Kelly and pious Billy Sunday, Charles Comiskey and Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie and "Cy" (Cyclone) Young.

The author explores historically the four...

This smart and funny fan s guide to baseball explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will appeal to anyone whether you're a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or a beginner.

What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?

At which stadium did The Wave first make an appearance?

How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?

Which positions are never played by lefties?

Why do some players urinate on their...

Leo Mazzone is pro baseball's premier pitching coach. In his years with the Atlanta Braves, he has trained several Cy Young Award winners and helped lead his team to the World Series.

In Pitch like a Pro, Mazzone and coauthor Jim Rosenthal offer step-by-step instructions for players and coaches in Little League through high school. They teach all of the pitching basics and give athletes advice on how they can use the right training techniques to grow stronger and stay healthier. Contents include:

Mazzone's between-starts throwing program
How to grip different...

What goes on in a baseball player's mind is critical to the outcome of the game. Since most major leaguers are in peak physical condition, the difference between success and failure on the field often depends on a player's mental approach.

Looking at everything from a player's confidence to his leadership skills, instincts, and hunches, Smart Baseball uses entertaining anecdotes to get inside the mind of baseball's greats and show fans what goes through a player's head when he steps onto the field.

Smart Baseball presents the knowledge and accumulated experience...

Baseball is increasingly popular throughout the world, as evidenced by the many talented players (such as Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, and Hideki Matsui) coming to the Major Leagues from around the globe. The influx of such players is testament to the many high-quality professional and amateur leagues that thrive throughout the world. In this reference book--the first of its kind-- narrative chapters trace the history of baseball in Australia, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and throughout the rest of the world. Bjarkman profiles...

Immortalized in song and story, Joe DiMaggio is one of baseball's most accomplished players--and also one of its most enigmatic stars. DiMaggio's life is often seen as embodying the American Dream. The son of Sicilian immigrants, he rose from an unexceptional childhood in San Francisco to stardom on the national pastime's greatest stage--Yankee Stadium. As a player, DiMaggio fought off injuries and earned a reputation for unyielding excellence, exemplified by his Major-League-record 56-game hitting streak. DiMaggio's celebrity and sense of style and grace transcended the game, and his...

Thomas Boswell, longtime "Washington Post syndicated sports columnist, has been called "an astute observer of the human condition disguised as a first-rate sportswriter." Boswell will be featured as a major on-screen spokesman in Ken Burns's PBS series on baseball, which airs in fail '94 and will attract millions of viewers. His three previous baseball collections have won wide praise across the country and sold close to two hundred thousand...