Showing results by publisher "HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books" in Baseball & Softball

Baseball's Golden Age comes alive through the voices of men who were there. Selected from the original tapes on which Lawrence S. Ritter based his classic book of baseball history, The Glory of Their Times is a collection of wonderful tales that paint a vivid and evocative picture of a lively young America and the giants who starred on her ballfields, legends like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and many others.

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.

In State of Play, 12-year Major League veteran, Emmy Award-winning MLB Network analyst, and best-selling author Bill Ripken breaks down these modern statistical methods to explain which ones make sense in the game's historical context, bringing them together with proven old-school strategies. He simplifies those sabermetric terms hastily added to the baseball lexicon without being fully realized, taking new-school confusion out of old-school baseball's tried-and-true common sense.

The Oakland A's of the early 1970s were the most transformative team in baseball history. Never before had an entire organization so collectively traumatized baseball's establishment with its outlandish behavior and business decisions - or with its indisputable winning record: five straight division titles and three straight championships. The high drama that played out on the field was exceeded only by the drama in the clubhouse and front office.

Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, a baseball whisperer who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl's original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would one day become a beloved Hall of Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith.

A baseball rules book. A tape measure. A lottery ticket. These were in the pocket of Bengie Molina's father when he died of a heart attack on the rutted Little League field in his Puerto Rican barrio. The items serve as thematic guideposts in Molina's beautiful memoir about his father, who, through baseball, taught his three sons about loyalty, humility, courage, and the true meaning of success.

No team in American sports has as storied a history as the New York Yankees, winners of 27 World Series. As the strength and conditioning coach for the Yankees for parts of three decades, Jeff Mangold was firmly imbedded in building the dynasty of the 1990s and 2000s. In Power and Pinstripes, Mangold shares priceless stories from his 14 seasons behind the scenes in the Bronx.

Jim Morris is no stranger to big dreams. Since he was five years old, he passionately yearned to play baseball in the major leagues. However, despite all his hard work and determination, a series of unfortunate events and injuries scuttled his career before he was 25. Doctors told him he would never play again. Then at age 35 - after a string of highly implausible events and at an age when most players are retiring - Morris found himself on the mound as a relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Stories from the National Public Radio archives honor America's national pastime. Stories so compelling you'll stay in your car to hear them through - even if you're sitting in your own driveway. Peabody-winning Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan presents tales about the big leagues and the little, the fans in the stands, the players, the history, and the lore.

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.

Ralph Branca is best known for throwing the pitch that resulted in Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard ‘Round the World", the historic homerun that capped an incredible comeback and won the pennant for the Giants in 1951. And so Branca was on the losing end of what many consider to be baseball's most thrilling moment, but that notoriety belies a profoundly successful life and career.