Baseball Games

It was a Thursday at Chicago's Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions - the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers - until they combined for 13 runs in the first inning. Ten Innings at Wrigley is Kevin Cook's vivid account of a game that could only have happened at this ballpark, in this era, with this colorful cast of heroes and heels.

On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. The first pitch was thrown after dusk on Holy Saturday, and for the next eight hours the night seemed to suspend its participants between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys....

In Pastime Lost David Block unearths baseball’s buried history and brings it back to life, illustrating how English baseball was embraced by all sectors of English society and exploring some of the personalities, such as Jane Austen and King George III, who played the game in their childhoods. While rigorously documenting his sources, Block also brings a light touch to his story, inviting us to follow him on some of the adventures that led to his most important discoveries.

What’s the Endgame is a guidebook designed to help families navigate youth baseball, written by former All-American outfielder at Kansas State University and professional baseball player Sean Collins, who was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1989.

Acclaimed baseball writer Roger Kahn gives us a memoir of his Brooklyn childhood, a recollection of a life in journalism, and a record of personal acquaintance with the greatest ballplayers of several eras. His father had a passion for the Dodgers; his mother’s passion was for poetry. Somehow, young Roger managed to blend both loves in a career that encompassed writing about sports for the New York Herald Tribune, Sports Illustrated, the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and Time.

As abundant and layered as the National Pastime itself, The Big Book of Baseball Stories takes the listener on a rich journey that circles the bases of the game's history and literature—its Giants, its dramas, its tragedies, and its laughs—as it rolls through the typewriters of some of the game's mightiest scribes, from Walt Whitman and Mark Twain to Grantland Rice and Ring Lardner, even Abbott and Costello.

Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life’s savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important - and funniest - figures in the game’s history.

A tribute to America's favorite past time, Chicken Soup for the Baseball Fan's Soul is written by people at every level of competition, from World Series champions to tee-ball moms. Their inspiring stories highlight the best of baseball, the importance of sportsmanship and a love of the game. Whether these stories take place on the field of a local YMCA or under the bright lights of a major league ballpark, the focus is the same: The Love of the Game.

Bret Boone made history in 1992 as the first third-generation major leaguer in baseball history. A five-foot-ten firecracker who was spurned by scouts for his small size, supposed lack of power, and temper tantrums (one scout called him a "helmet-throwing terror"), Bret didn't care about family legacy; he wanted to make his own way. He did just that, building a 14-year career that included three all-star appearances, four Gold Gloves, a bout with alcoholism, and the ignominy of being traded for the infamous "player to be named later."

Opening Day: 50-for-50 is a baseball tribute like no other—a well-researched work of love representing a half-century of great stories and historical context linked to each of those 50 days. This emotional journey connects three cities, six stadiums, five home teams, and four generations while overcoming life events, baseball’s labor unrest, and the 33-year absence of a hometown team. Along the way, Ortman encountered five U.S. Presidents and more than 50 future Hall of Fame players, coaches, and broadcasters: from Reagan to Obama, Weaver to Torre, and hundreds more.

Best-selling author Mark Frost takes listeners back to the 1975 World Series in this thrilling account of the greatest baseball game ever played. The Reds and Red Sox endured three soggy days of inactivity to reach game six. But all that downtime could not prepare them for what happened when the skies finally cleared.

In these essays, written between 1954 and 1990, bestselling author Roger Kahn touches on locker-room controversies and politics, while inviting readers to share in the passion, grace, energy, and intense concentration involved in playing sports. Kahn pays warm tribute to his special heroes, Jackie Robinson, Roger Maris and Carl Furillo, along with those he particularly admired in the press box, John Lardner and Red Smith. Kahn also esteems football lineman Merlin Olsen, hockey goalie Glenn Hall, cager Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, outfielder Mickey Mantle, boxing promoter Don King, and Pete Rose.

Winning at modern baseball is nothing like it was even twenty years ago. In the years since the famous Moneyball revolution, baseball has grown to look less like a sport than a Wall Street firm that traded its boiler room for a field. Teams relentlessly chase every tiny advantage to win games and make money, even as it hurts fans, TV ratings, and players, courting bigger problems in the long run. This dramatic and insightful book takes you into the clubhouse with the championship players, as well as into the offices where teams constantly seek new ways to win.

The seventh game of the World Series is about to be played, and more than the world championship is at stake. A man’s destiny is on the line. Johnny Longboat, one of baseball’s greatest pitchers, is taking the mound for the New York Mohawks in what may be his final game. With millions of eyes upon him, only he is aware of the conflicts tormenting him. At 41, Johnny is a man trying to make sense of his past while fearing what the future could bring when his playing career ends.

This every-day baseball trivia book for 2024 is targeted for baseball fanatics of all ages who enjoy a daily trivia question about hardball. It contains one trivia question for each of the 366-days of the leap year, with answers following. The emphasis is entertainment and accuracy (each question and statement has been fact checked multiple times). Some baseball trivia fans have complained about getting just one trivia question for weekends, annoying for real fans.

For decades he traveled miles and miles with college teams on buses and witnessed the transformation in athletics from the introduction of Title IX to today’s “get-back” coaches. Only Andy Solomon could have done these things. And more. A career athletics administrator shares his favorite stories, accounts and anecdotes from his working career at five South Carolina colleges, a world-class resort and minor league baseball. And while most of the games were fun, the people he met along the way were indeed funner.

From the author of Pitching Around Fidel and Far Afield comes a tragic but ultimately uplifting account of the accidental death of minor league first base coach Mike Coolbaugh, illustrating the many ways in which baseball still has a hold on America.

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.

Join me on this journey as I document the road to Tokyo for the many teams that hope to compete on the Olympic stage at the summer games. I have traveled from Italy to Mexico prior to the shutdown, then back to Florida as the tournament schedule resumed, to not only report on the events, but also to get a true, authentic understanding of what baseball brings to these various cultures around the world.

Baseball's all-time Iron Man, Cal Ripken, Jr., retired from baseball in 2001 after breaking countless records, including Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. Ripken is admired by thousands of fans not only for his relentless perseverance, but also for his unparalleled integrity. Now, in a stirring audiobook that draws on his exhilarating career as well as the wisdom of his legendary father, Ripken shares rousing advice centered around his proven Eight Elements of Perseverance.