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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 21st century, the game is losing young fans. 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 American culture.

What does clinical hypnosis that cured a 12-year old's bed wetting and the wisdom of a Persian Holy Man's book have to do with major league pitching? A phenomenal rookie pitcher and an over-the-hill bullpen catcher invent "weasel ball", which employs the power of suggestion rather than common trash talk to affect opposing hitters. The pitcher, a used bookstore junkie and student of ancient wisdom, carries a mysterious book in his hip pocket.

For over two centuries, it’s been what Walt Whitman called “our game”. It’s America’s favorite pastime, our national preoccupation. It’s more than a game, more than a sport. It’s who we are as a people, as a culture. But where did baseball come from?

In the 1930s, Monroe, Louisiana, was a town of 26,000 in the northeastern corner of the state, an area described by the

New Orleans Item as the "lynch law center of Louisiana." Yet for a few years in the early 1930s, this unlikely spot was home to the Monarchs, a national-caliber Negro League baseball team. Crowds of Black and White fans eagerly filled their segregated grandstand seats to see the players who would become the only World Series team Louisiana would ever generate, and the first from the American South.

No immortal in the history of baseball retired so young, so well, or so completely as Sandy Koufax. After compiling a remarkable record from 1962 to 1966 that saw him lead the National League in ERA all five years, win three Cy Young awards, and pitch four no-hitters including a perfect game, Koufax essentially disappeared. Save for his induction into the Hall of Fame and occasional appearances at the Dodgers training camp, Koufax has remained unavailable, unassailable, and unsullied.

In A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it enters its second century. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history?

Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players - friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies - and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.

General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past 100-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams.

There was nobody like Casey before him and no one like him since. For more than 50 years, Casey Stengel lived baseball, first as a player (he was the only person in history to play for all the New York teams - the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets) and then as a manager (for the Yankees and Mets, among others). He made his biggest mark on the game revolutionizing the role of manager while winning an astounding 10 pennants and seven World Series championships (including five straight!) with the Yankees.

Sports fans will cheer for these exciting titles, which capture some of the most thrilling moments in college and professional sports. From buzzer-beater basketball shots and amazing trick football plays to soccer’s World Cup goals and baseball’s World Series home runs, these titles are packed with action stories. Listeners will also meet each sport’s superstars and record holders—and revel in all the fascinating facts every fan wants to know.

Trust is the name of the game. If you can build trust with someone, you can then hold them accountable, and ultimately, get the results that you want. The fact of the matter is, words matter. And how you use them either increases trust or demolishes it. This book was written to help you communicate at a higher level, build trust with them, and help them become the self-reliant athlete (and human) you know they can be.

Instead of relying on hand-holding by costly medical or performance professionals, Dr. David Meyer PT, DPT, tells you how to save you time, money, agony, and, most importantly, to empower you to utilize a seemingly negative physical challenge as a massive opportunity to retrain your mind, body, and spirit to achieve your fullest potential both on and off the field. Working from the belief that you can learn what he has by taking the time to understand it, Dr. Meyer PT, DPT, offers you his extensive academic training and experience working in Major League Baseball.

The Dodgers’ final game in Brooklyn was played on September 24, 1957. From the author of The Giants of The Polo Grounds, here's a thoughtful, entertaining new account of that last game played by the Brooklyn Dodgers at baseball's fabled Ebbets Field.

This umpire manual is the definitive resource for professional and amateur umpires alike. It is the official umpire manual and rulebook for Minor League Baseball Umpire Development (formerly PBUC). This MiLB manual contains over six hours of narration of the official rule interpretations and clarifications used throughout Minor League Baseball.Changes in the 2019 edition include the numbering of interpretations. These have changed from previous editions due to the addition of 20 new interpretations for this season.

At the tender age of 24, Lou Gehrig decided to tell the remarkable story of his life and career. He was one of the most famous athletes in the country, in the midst of a record-breaking season with the legendary 1927 World Series-winning Yankees. In an effort to grow Lou’s star, pioneering sports agent Christy Walsh arranged for Lou’s tale of baseball greatness to syndicate in newspapers across the country. Those columns were largely forgotten and lost to history - until now.

In the mid-1990s, a band of baseball-loving boys from the small town of Chester, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi River, pursue their dreams of state and national championships. Their fathers, guards in the local penitentiary that houses some of the worst criminals in US history, are their coaches. One dream comes true - the other doesn’t. This is the story of the dreams and of the town that made them possible.

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.

Official manual used by professional baseball umpires. Includes interpretations of baseball rules, clarifications on plays, responsibilities of umpires, lineups and substitutions, appeals and awards, interference and obstruction, pitching regulations, and much more. A must-have for any potential umpire at any level.

With his irreverant personality, laid-back approach, and penchant for the unexpected, Joe Maddon is a singular presence among Major League Baseball managers. Whether he's bringing clowns and live bear cubs to spring training or leading the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series victory in 108 years, Maddon is always one to watch. In Try Not to Suck, ESPN's Jesse Rogers and MLB.com's Bill Chastain fully explore Maddon's life and career, delving behind the scenes and dissecting that mystique which makes Maddon so popular with players and analysts alike.

Twin brothers David and Jason Benham grew up with big dreams of baseball and an even bigger trust in God. Though they attended a small high school with no baseball field, turned down a professional offer so they could attend college together, and faced more than one missed pitch and injuries, they kept dreaming, praying together on the field, and believing in God. David and Jason’s journey, from Little League to college to professional baseball and beyond, reminds us that even when we don’t know what God is up to, He’s putting together the pieces of our life’s puzzle.