Jane Leavy has always loved baseball. Her grandmother lived one long, loud foul ball away from Yankee Stadium--the same grandmother who took young Jane to Saks Fifth Avenue and bought her her first baseball glove. It's no coincidence that Leavy was covering the game she loved for the Washington Post by the late 1970s. As a pioneering female sportswriter, she eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth. But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl, often at the expense of thrills, skills, and surprise. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: how much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions, talking with luminaries like Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Jim Palmer, Dusty Baker, and more. What Leavy uncovers is not only what's wrong with baseball--and how to fix it--but also what's right with baseball, and how it illuminates characters, tells stories, and fires up the imagination of those who love it and everyone who could discover it anew.

The most successful franchise in American sports history, the New York Yankees, have won 26 World Series. Now author Maury Allen recalls the Yankees greatest Series events of the last 60 years starting in 1947 and moving through the Bronx Bombers most recent appearance in 2003. The magical moments are captured through the eyes of the author, the players who made them happen, and the other professional observers of baseballs most electric scenes. Each Series had its own unique contribution to the history of the games most-storied franchise, along with its heroes and its villains, and its miraculous plays and emotional moments. Included are stories from Hank Bauer, who remembers the catch he made against Sal Yvars ending the 1951 series between the Yankees and Bobby Thompsons New York Giants; and Yogi Berra, who talks of the home runs he hit off Don Newcombe of Brooklyn and the fly ball he watched sail over his head in 1960 for Bill Mazeroskis Series-clinching walk-off homer.

Stefan Fatsis sends his “stunningly perfect, consummately perfect, why-would-anyone-use-anything-else? perfect” glove to be restored by the glove designer at Rawlings. Frank Deford makes the case that the baseball cap may be the most universal article of clothing ever designed. Roger Angell considers why it is that pitchers are “so much livelier and more garrulous than hitters.” George Plimpton reflects on the slow demotion of aging or slumping players from pitcher to first base, to the outfield. United by the authors’ fervent love of the game, each chapter in this book reminds us of the unique role baseball plays in our national history and collective imagination. In addition to the authors mentioned above, the lineup includes: • Kevin Baker • Jeff Greenfield • Katherine A. Powers • Michael Shapiro • John Thorn • Sean Wilentz • And more! Published previously as Anatomy of Baseball and Great Baseball Stories , this wide-ranging collection now includes pieces by A. Bartlett Giamatti, Gay Talese, Matthew McGough, and George Vecsey. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Following the crushing defeat to Seattle in the 1995 playoffs, the Yankees replaced Buck Showalter with Joe Torre as manager and sparked a championship run that would produce four World Series titles in five years. Teeming with revelations and glorious memories, Birth of a Dynasty celebrates the unforgettable 1996 Yankees season: the season that began one of the most respected team dynasties in sports history. Veteran New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, who has spent more time with the Bronx Bombers in the past 15 years than any other writer, draws on hundreds of interviews and years of on-the-spot reporting to re-create one of the Yankees' greatest years.

A sports journalist reminisces about the days of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays, when writers hung out with ball players, before the days of agents and publicists. by the author of The Boys of Summer.

What is Roger Kahn, best-selling author of THE BOYS OF SUMMER, doing owning a near-bankrupt minor league baseball team? What is this bunch of major league rejects doing playing their hearts out for an organization that pays peanuts and rations practice baseballs? They -- and you -- are finding out if the dreams that baseball is made of can come true in real life. This funny, poignant story of one special season will make you hesitate before you ever call anything "bush league" again. "Irresistable...Read this book, whether you like baseball or not. Roger Kahn will show you the glories of getting your head in the game, be it baseball or life." (Milwaukee Journal)

Most fans know Ralph Kiner as the New York Mets' long-tenured color commentator, but as a player he was one of the most feared hitters in the game; this autobiography allows Kiner to reveal his life story and to share his learned opinion about many topics affecting the game today.

Mickey Mantle (1931-1995), the iconic number 7 of the world-famous New York Yankees, was the epitome of power, grace, and class in the 1950s. Veteran New York sportswriter Maury Allen writes candidly of Mantle's luminous achievements, including being named the American League's Most Valuable Player three times and hitting an astonishing 536 career home runs; of Mantle's uneasiness at being a national hero; of Mantle's long, eventually triumphant, struggle with alcoholism; and of Mantle's subsequent losing battle with liver cancer.

For nearly ten years, Marty Appel was part of the New York Yankees' public relations team, serving as its director from 1974 to 1977. In this book he paints intimate portraits -- by turns hilarious and poignant -- of the superstars and the benchwarmers of that era, both on and off the field.The lineup of colorful characters includes tempestuous owner George Steinbrenner, managers Casey Stengel and Billy Martin, and future Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Reggie Jackson. Appel's job was to keep the Yankees in the news. And given the team's high profile, that task was rarely difficult, sometimes disastrous, and often gratifying.

For 25 years, Philadelphia waited for a team like the 2008 Phillies to come along. Waited for a team that could end the longest title drought on any city in America that fields teams in all four major professional sports. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash a quarter-century of pent-up frustration. And then these '08 Phillies hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen. Unlike so many Phillies teams that were haunted by the past, this team was inspired by it, by the chance to place its own inimitable stamp on the franchise. And as the 2 million people who attended

"Very few writers (or broadcasters for that matter) know the rules of the games they cover as Hal Lebovitz did." -- Bob Costas A fun and fact-filled collection of baseball Q&As from a legendary sportswriter and rules expert. Think it couldn't happen on a baseball field? It probably did! Just ask Hal. Hal Lebovitz reigned as a leading expert on baseball rules for more than four decades. From 1957 until his death in 2005, Hal answered readers' questions about sports in his popular "Ask Hal" newspaper column. Baseball provided the most frequent questions--and often the most curious and confounding ones. But Hal was never stumped. Many questions came from real situations--Little League, church-league softball, major league games--even the World Series. (National TV broadcasters even called him at home live during the World Series for opinions about on-field rulings) Some came straight from fans' vivid imaginations. Either way, there was always an answer, and Hal had it. This book collects the best and most entertaining questions and answers about baseball rules from four decades of "Ask Hal." Flip to any page and you'll find a question that might spark a lively debate at any dinner table or settle a bet at the local tavern. How many can you answer? A book for fans who love to "know it all."

Beyond the techniques and training, baseball begins with one player facing another and the psychological battle that they wage-the head game. In his critically acclaimed and bestselling new book, Roger Kahn presents the story of this supreme war of wits and the people who changed the course of baseball by playing, what he calls, chess at 90 miles an hour. In The Head Game , Kahn investigates not only grips, tactics, and physics, but also the intelligence, maturity, and competitive fire that has inspired some of the greatest hurlers in history. By covering renowned pitchers and pitching minds-from Christy Mathewson, Cy Young, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, and Bruce Sutter to today's reigning pitching coach, Leo Mazzone-Roger Kahn sheds new light on baseball's most pivotal contest. A delightful and edifying tour of America's favorite pastime seen through the pitcher's eyes, The Head Game "is as lively and familiar and old-shoe as the game itself, even today" (Los Angeles Times).

"Every baseball fan knows that Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols are among the best to ever play the game. But how do their high-priced contracts impact their teams' abilities to compete for a World Series title? Which managers and executives are best at getting the most out of their roster, year-in and year-out? And how does sabremetrics play into all of this? In this book, veteran ESPN columnist Jayson Stark explores these questions and many more. Supplemented with insightful commentary from countless baseball insiders, it gives baseball fans a rare, fascinating glimpse into the why behind the game's winners and losers"--

20 Writers Play Ball in 17 New Essays and 3 Classics. Stefan Fatsis sends his ?stunningly perfect, consummately perfect, why-would-anyone-use-anything-else? perfect” glove to be restored by the Glove Designer at Rawlings; Susan Perabo considers retiring from her imaginary career in the majors and assesses the likelihood of women finding actual careers on the baseball field; Sean Wilentz imagines a Cooperstown Fans’ Hall of Fame, with its cowbells, frying pans, bedsheet banners, and more. And in one of the three previously published, now-classic pieces in the collection, George Plimpton reflects on the slow demotion of aging or slumping players from pitcher to first base, to the outfield. United by the authors’ fervent love of the game, these essays remind us of the unique role baseball plays in our national history and collective imagination.

"A fantastic social history" from the author of Salt and Cod ( USA Today ) In the Dominican Republic town of San Pedro de Macorís, baseball is often seen as the only way to a better life. For those who make it, the million-dollar paychecks from Major League Baseball mean that not only they, but their entire families as well, have been saved from grinding poverty. The successful few set an example that dazzles the neighbors they left behind. But for the majority, this dream is illusory. In The Eastern Stars, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky reveals the connection between two countries' love affair with a sport, and the remarkable journey of impoverished San Pedro and its baseball players-including Rico Carty, Albert Pujols, Robinson Canó, Sammy Sosa, and Alfonso Soriano-who have sought freedom from poverty through playing ball.

"A Hall of Fame writer at the top of his game." -- The Beacon Journal The best sports writing of Hall-of-Fame sportswriter Hal Lebovitz, longtime dean of Cleveland sports journalists. Several generations of sports fans grew up reading Hal Lebovitz on the sports pages. Hal covered just about every major sports event over 60 years, reporting on each with honest, straightforward words and firm opinions--and most likely a scoop on the competition. He wrote about the greats--Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Woody Hayes ... and the great moments--the Indians' 1948 playoff game, the Browns' 1964 championship season, Rocky Colavito's four consecutive home runs. His writing was featured 17 times in the annual Best Sports Stories and selected for numerous other anthologies. He won countless writing awards and been inducted into 12 halls of fame--including the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Always, Hal has written for the fans. And for as long as anyone can remember, fans have been reading Hal for his particular take on events. His constant, steady presence in the local sports pages for so many decades has made Hal Lebovitz a legitimate icon in Cleveland sports--a guy who, with his typewriter, has been as remarkable and consistent and rare as a .400 hitter.

In 1906 the baseball world saw something that had never been done. Two teams from the same city squared off against each other in a World Series that pitted the heavily favored Cubs of the National League against the hardscrabble American League champion White Sox. Now, more than a century later, noted historian Bernard A. Weisberger tells the tale of a unique time in baseball, a unique time in America, and a time when Chicago was at the center of it all. When Chicago Ruled Baseball brings to life a dazzling epoch in a land of the self-made man—where A. G. Spalding helped establish baseball as both a national pastime and a thriving business, where Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown overcame a horribly disfiguring injury and pitched his way into the Hall of Fame . . . and Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance proved that you could use teamwork to stand out as stars. Weisberger brings to life an unforgettable story of how a city that had rebuilt itself from the ashes of the Great Fire thirty-five years earlier became the focal point of an entire baseball-loving country, and one grand sporting contest staked its claim as one of the most remarkable and electrifying World Series ever to be played.

Gathers essays, stories, and poems about baseball, baseball players, and the myths and history of baseball

Baseball, first dubbed the "national pastime" in print in 1856, is the country's most tradition-bound sport. Despite remaining popular and profitable into the twenty-first century, the game is losing young fans, among African Americans and women as well as white men. Furthermore, baseball's greatest charm--a clockless suspension of time--is also its greatest liability in a culture of digital distraction. These paradoxes are explored by the historian and passionate baseball fan Susan Jacoby in a book that is both a love letter to the game and a tough-minded analysis of the current challenges to its special position--in reality and myth--in American culture. The concise but wide-ranging analysis moves from the Civil War--when many soldiers played ball in northern and southern prisoner-of-war camps--to interviews with top baseball officials and young men who prefer playing online "fantasy baseball" to attending real games. Revisiting her youthful days of watching televised baseball in her grandfather's bar, the author links her love of the game with the informal education she received in everything from baseball's history of racial segregation to pitch location. Jacoby argues forcefully that the major challenge to baseball today is a shortened attention span at odds with a long game in which great hitters fail two out of three times. Without sanitizing this basic problem, Why Baseball Matters remind us that the game has retained its grip on our hearts precisely because it has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to reinvent itself in times of immense social change.

Has any sport executive had as many words written about him as Branch Rickey? A one-time catcher, Rickey managed the St. Louis Browns and Cardinals at the end of the dead-ball era before serving as vice president of the Dodgers and general manager of the Pirates. Possessed of one of the most creative minds in the game's long history, Rickey made early use of statistical analysis, pioneered the farm system, and pressed for the expansion of major league baseball. But he is best known for integrating organized baseball, signing Jackie Robinson to a contract at a time when the U.S. armed forces were still segregated and the Civil Rights movement was years away. A courageous move, the signing also stands as proof of Rickey's foresight; by tapping the Negro Leagues, he enlarged the pool of exploitable talent. Soon after, major league ties to the talent-rich Caribbean were cinched up, and years later scouts sign players from Asia and all over the globe. Based on nearly one hundred of interviews and vast amounts of research, including exclusive access to Rickey's own papers.