Sports Softball

Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.

Exclusive interviews with the top athletes in sports today. Trust the Grind: How World-Class Athletes Got to the Top reveals how these men and women reached the heights of their profession so that you can too. Each chapter tells a different story, as each superstar shares the habit that helped them accomplish their goals and reach the pinnacle of their profession.

In Max Scherzer: The Inspiring Story of One of Baseball's All-Star Pitchers, you will learn the story of one of baseball's best pitchers, Max Scherzer. Max Scherzer has been one of the best pitchers since entering the pros in 2006. At the time of this writing, Scherzer has been selected as an All-Star eight times, won three Cy Young Awards, pitched two no-hitters, and notably won the World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019. Scherzer has carved out quite the legacy for himself, and will go down as one of the best pitchers in modern history of the game.

Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to left field. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

A People's History of Baseball, probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, and virtuous capitalism, but power - how it is obtained, and how it perpetuates itself. Through the growth and development of baseball Nathanson shows that, if only we choose to look for it, we can see the petty power struggles as well as the large and consequential ones that have likewise defined our nation.

Baseball IQ is your ultimate guide to mastering the mental side of the game and gaining an edge every time you step on the field.

Are you ready to introduce your child to the world of baseball in a way that sparks curiosity, fosters learning, and teaches valuable life lessons? Look no further than A Kid’s Guide to Baseball Legends: Homeruns, History, and Inspiring Stories from the Diamond! Whether you're a parent, grandparent, or caregiver eager to share the joys of baseball, this book provides everything you need to ignite a lifelong love for the game—even if your child has never picked up a bat!

Discover the secrets to sports motivation that have helped countless athletes dominate their sport. Learn from the best in the business, and find the mental toughness you need to take your game to the next level.

A handbook for the dedicated player, Clean Your Cleats is filled with stories and advice learned the hard way, over a long career on the diamond. Dan Blewett, in this practical guide, helps baseball players understand all the little things in baseball that make a huge difference over a long career.

Bill Geivett draws on his 28 years of experience in professional baseball to answer these questions. He offers his insights from his time as a player, scout, and front office executive. Do You Want to Work in Baseball? is more than a "how to" description of details to remember. It is filled with Bill's real-life lessons learned from the varied roles he has held for Major League Baseball clubs including the California Angels, New York Yankees, Montreal Expos,Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Colorado Rockies.

Acclaimed sportswriter Allen Barra exposes the uncanny parallels - and lifelong friendship - between two of the greatest baseball players ever to take the field. Culturally, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were light-years apart. Yet they were nearly the same age and almost the same size, and they came to New York at the same time. They possessed virtually the same talents and played the same position. They were both products of generations of baseball-playing families, for whom the game was the only escape from a lifetime of brutal manual labor.

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.

From the beginning, ’68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing ’68 as “The Year of the Pitcher".

In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford, NPR sports commentator and Sports Illustrated journalist retells the story of an unusual friendship between two towering figures in baseball history.

Curious about the player who broke baseball's toughest barrier? Ever heard of the woman who struck out Babe Ruth? Wonder what it takes to pitch a perfect game in the World Series? Dive into the exciting world of baseball with Inspiring Baseball Stories For Kids. This book is a grand slam of tales showcasing the determination, skill, and heart that define baseball legends.

"Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, 'If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we're in deep trouble.' When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, 'Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.'" In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history.

In this deeply entertaining book, philosopher and baseball fan Alva Noë explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game. For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame. To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened.

Given unprecedented access to La Russa and his team, best-selling journalist Bissinger captures baseball's strategic and emotional essence. We watch from the dugout as La Russa's Cardinals take on their archrivals, the Chicago Cubs, in a thrilling three-game series.

Learn the inspiring story of the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds' legendary outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.! One of the many riveting listens in the Baseball Biography books series by Clayton Geoffreys. In Ken Griffey Jr.: The Inspiring Story of One of Baseball's Greatest Outfielders, you will learn the story of one of baseball's greatest outfielders, Ken Griffey Jr.