Sports Baseball Biographies

Amid strict new rules and coronavirus outbreaks on other teams that wreaked havoc on the schedule, the Dodgers maintained a laser focus as a team and organization, and, ultimately, won the first bubbled playoffs in the history of Major League Baseball. In COVID Curveball, author and Dodgers’ broadcaster Tim Neverett takes us through this unprecedented season, offering exclusive access and firsthand, edge-of-your-seat play-by-play coverage of the surreal days and weeks that led up to the dramatic championship climax.

Like many American boys, Tony Barnette yearned to one day make it to “The Show,” playing baseball professionally. The Arizona State pitcher was drafted in 2006 by the in-state Diamondbacks. Gradually ascending the minor-league ladder, it looked like this was the beginning of a blessed life, where he could play the game he loved on the grandest of stages. But things don’t always work out the way we want. On the verge of achieving his lifelong dream after notching a league-high 14 wins in Triple A, Tony looked ahead to 2010 with optimism. That’s when Japan came calling.

A baseball prodigy since the age of 10, Pat Jordan had been interviewed on television and written about in newspapers at an early age. Signed as a pitcher by the Milwaukee Braves upon his graduation from high school, he believed his success would continue for years to come. But after three diminishing seasons in the minor leagues, he was cut from the roster and began painfully constructing a new life. In the wreckage of his baseball career, Jordan found new success as a writer.

In 1942, Pete Reiser was on the road to baseball superstardom. Then he crashed into a wall—an unpadded concrete outfield wall as he tried to make a game-saving catch. And for Pete, nothing was ever the same. A year earlier, at age 22, he had won a batting title, a rookie of the year award, and a pennant with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sportswriters could not stop marveling at his skill set, highlighted by a keen batting eye, a rifle throwing arm, and speed that whisked him from home to first in three-point-six seconds.

ボールパークを創りたい、その夢を北海道で実現した男たちの物語

Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the 20th century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him.

Soon to be a major motion picture, Seeing Home: The Ed Lucas Story is the incredible true tale of a beloved Emmy-winning blind broadcaster who refused to let his disability prevent him from overcoming many challenging obstacles and achieving his dreams. In 1951, when he was only twelve years old...

Leo Durocher (1906-1991) was baseball's all-time leading cocky, flamboyant, and galvanizing character, casting a shadow across several eras, from the time of Babe Ruth to the Space Age Astrodome, from Prohibition through the Vietnam War. For more than 40 years, he was at the forefront of the game, with a Zelig-like ability to be present as a player or manager for some of the greatest teams and defining baseball moments of the 20th century.

Due to his achievements as a player and manager, as well as his sterling character, Gil Hodges deserves to be in the Hall of Fame more than any other player. A towering figure during the Golden Era of the 1950s, Hodges was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ powerful first baseman who, alongside Jackie Robinson, helped drive his team to six pennants and a thrilling World Series victory in 1955. Fans never booed the beloved home run hitter from Indiana who married a Brooklyn girl and settled in their borough, and they famously prayed for him when he slumped.

Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd gives an honest account of how he has kept his faith in God despite all the trials and temptions associated with the Major League Baseball lifestyle.

These are the unabridged works of baseball great Christy Mathewson during the time he was Manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Christy Mathewson (with the help of John N. Wheeler) was the first professional athlete to put his name to articles in newspapers and magazines. This collection completes a trio of volumes (Pitching in a Pinch, Batting in a Break, Managing in a Moment) that collect Matty's articles, interviews, observations, and writings into audiobook form.

In the hard-knuckled thirties, Joe DiMaggio was the immigrant boy who made it big. He was the dominant star in the New York Yankees dynasty. As World War II loomed, Joltin' Joe launched a fifty-six game hitting streak -- and the nation literally sang his name. In the age of postwar ease and...

In the pageantry of baseball, one select group is virtually unknown in the outside world, derided by fans, faced with split-second choices that spell victory or defeat. These men are up-close observers of the action, privy to inside jokes, blood feuds, benches-clearing brawls, and managers’ expletive-filled tirades. In this wonderful memoir, Hall of Fame umpire Doug Harvey takes us within baseball as you’ve never seen it, with unforgettable inside stories of baseball greats such as Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Whitey Herzog.

Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms brings baseball legends to life through the eyes of Elden Auker, a submarine-style pitcher in the American League from 1933-1942.

In The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, author Phil Pepe takes Yogi from St. Louis to New York's Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, including all the stops along the way - from the days he put soles on women's shoes to his induction into the Baseball's Hall of Fame, when he coined one of his most remembered phrases: "I thank everybody for making this day necessary." Phil Pepe explores Yogi Berra as a boy, player, hero, coach, manager, husband, and father, a buffoon and a human being. He relates all of the Berraisms in an absorbing treatment that is simultaneously comical, thoughtful, and biographical.

On July 10, 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher preparing to go to college and dreaming of one day taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. His dream was derailed as he crossed the parking lot of a McDonald’s, where a car sent him flying through the air and into a wall. In the wake of the accident, even as he reached the major leagues as a groundskeeper, David was tortured by the aftermath of his injuries. One Base at a Time recounts in vivid detail his subsequent 29-year struggle with PTSD.

Jon Peters had it all: record-breaking high school baseball pitcher, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a beautiful girlfriend. He was going to play professional baseball. He was going to have everything he'd ever wanted. Until a shoulder injury and four surgeries changed his life. With dreams shattered, Jon struggled to find value and happiness. After years of searching vainly to make sense of it all, alcohol, a suicide attempt, deep-seated anger, and a failed marriage made him feel even more desperate.

THE TIGER WORE SPIKES—An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb, Baseball's Greatest Player

This book is a step-by-step guide of mental training and stress management to assist you on your journey to success. This expert advice and guidance stems from many years of research and experience as a certified sport psychology coach, certified stress management coach, a former professional baseball general manager, a former college athlete, a motivational speaker, and a lifelong baseball coach.

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Negro Leagues Baseball was the only game in town for black athletes. And those leagues owed their existence and success to savvy businesspeople like Effa Manley, the black female co-owner of the Newark Eagles. Effa was the team's business manager, leading her team to win the Negro World Series in 1946. But this victory was bittersweet: Integration was on its way, and the demise of the Negro Leagues would soon follow.