Kategoria BISAC: Sports & Recreation >> Baseball - General

Inspired by the author's career as a sportswriter for the Washington Post, Squeeze Play tells the story of female reporter A. B. Berkowitz, who is assigned to cover the men of the Washington Senators -- the worst team in major league baseball. Life in the locker room shows her not just the players'...um...assets but also their all-too-human frailties. Love for the game and love for the newspaper business are the stars in this hilarious and heartbreaking novel that "will have you singing a rousing chorus of 'Take Me Out to the Locker Room'"(People).

The first guide to help you get to the next level of baseball play

To continue advancing up the ladder of competition, you need to master the game's advanced skills and techniques, those exciting plays that surface at crucial moments in competition and bring victory--the game-breaker plays and skills. The Louisville Slugger(R) Book of Game-Breaker Baseball moves beyond the basics. It features step-by-step instructions supplemented by major-league players explaining their styles in making the same plays.

This book:

• Teaches you 30 key skills...

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...

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...

Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played stood for decades until Cal Ripken Jr. broke it in 1995. Most people remember Gehrig for this record, or for the disease that claimed his life (and now bears his name). But what many forget is how prolific a hitter he was. The son of German immigrants, Gehrig rose from inauspicious beginnings to become a scholar-athlete at Columbia University, and then moved to Major League Baseball, where he knocked in almost 2,000 runs and helped his team win six world championships. William Kashatus recounts the perserverance and poise of a life which...

The last player to hit .400 in the Major Leagues, Ted Williams approached hitting as both an art and a science. Through his discipline, drive, and extraordinarily keen eyesight, "The Splendid Splinter" became the best hitter in baseball. From his early days as a cocksure rookie for the Boston Red Sox, through his two Triple Crown seasons, six batting titles, his service in two wars, and his tenure as a Major League manager, Ted Williams forged an indelible image in the minds of baseball fans. Yet Williams's public resentment toward fans and, especially, the media, made him few friends....

Rogers Hornsby has the highest career batting average of any right-handed hitter and the second highest career mark overall. The Rajah won seven batting titles and hit over .400 three times. He was also one of baseball's most successful player-managers, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a historic World Series triumph over the Yankees in 1926. Hornsby had an unrivaled passion for baseball; as a young player, he once even donned a disguise to play in a women's league. But his unyielding drive to succeed often alienated him from lesser players, and his penchant for the racetrack made him...

Pete Rose is baseball's Hit King, the Major Leagues' all-time leader in career hits. But some fans consider his off-the-field actions a black mark on the sport. Major League Baseball's investigations into Rose's gambling led to his lifetime banishment from the game--which, in turn, has barred him from otherwise--certain induction into the Hall of Fame. Rose brought to the sport an unparalleled drive to succeed. Now, people from every part of society debate the nature of his legacy. Baseball author David Jordan presents an even-handed look at Rose's life, career, and post-baseball life, and...

Barry Bonds has emerged, statistically, as the most feared hitter since Babe Ruth. Bonds, winner of a record six MVP awards, holds the single-season record for home-runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and walks, and is the only player ever to have hit 500 home-runs and stolen 500 bases. His statistical performance is beyond reproach, but his public image remains controversial, and recent allegations of steroid use have cast a shadow over his unprecedented accomplishments. This timely book strips away the hype and takes an objective look and Bonds' life and career.

It has been...

Shoeless Joe Jackson's rise from the cotton mills of the American South to the big cities of the North is a classic American tale of rags to riches. Born of sharecropping parents in South Carolina, Jackson's perfect swing and legendary fielding ability would make him a star in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately, Jackson's legend was interrupted by his alleged involvement in baseball's darkest chapter, the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, which ultimately banished him to participation in outlaw baseball leagues. Kelly Boyer Sagert recounts all phases in this legendary hitter's life--from mill...

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...