Baseball Just for Kids


Book Description

Written for 8-12 year olds, this book covers basic rules plus and strategies to make you a better player.




Baseball is Just Baseball


Book Description

Welcome to the Yankees, Ichiro! An homage to one of the great baseball players of our era, Baseball Is Just Baseball is a wide-ranging selection of Ichiro's most startling and provocative observations. Updated to reflect his move to New York in July 2012, the book also includes a revised Introduction by acclaimed nonfiction writer David Shields. When Ichiro was traded to the Yankees on July 23, 2012, the news made headlines around the world. He will finish out the year in pinstripes before becoming a free agent in 2013. Ichiro is a ten-time All-Star, ten-time Gold Glove winner, 2001 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year, and a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame. Experience reality rather than your expectation of reality. Believe in yourself. Don't take yourself seriously, but find an activity to be passionate about and take that activity very seriously. Don't buy the hype. Dissolve hate into love. Care more about the process than the product. Find joy in the seeking itself. Such are some of the simple but profound ideas embodied in this prize of a little book--a document of not only a popular athlete but an impressively thoughtful human being.




Just Baseball


Book Description

That sound, the first crack of the bat. Every year in early spring a special kind of joy comes over those who love America’s favorite pastime, baseball. This feeling is no different for the millions of kids who dream of greatness when they pick up a bat and make their way to the plate. In Just Baseball, Mike Just has created a guide to the world of baseball. Drawing from his own journey to the pros, Just better equips parents and players to make smart decisions as they pursue the game while encouraging players to pursue excellence, maximize their talents, and inspire them to find greater satisfaction in the game. The book covers these topics and more: At what age should youngsters start playing the game? What values will define a player’s baseball character? How important is it to be a team player? What do baseball scouts look for? How can players gain an edge in recruiting? What if your head coach leaves? Is being drafted out of high school a good or bad thing? Baseball is not a one-size-fits-all journey. Learning how to make thoughtful choices that make the most sense for one’s own set of circumstances is all part of getting to the next level. Mike Just’s own experience provides valuable insight for all those who are serious about baseball, and who want to be the best.




Never Just a Game


Book Description

America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this book, the first installment of a highly readable, comprehensive labor history of baseball, Robert Burk d




Just Show Up


Book Description

New York Times Bestseller! Iron Man Cal Ripken Jr.—the 19-time All-Star, World-Series winning legend, American League MVP, and record holder who played 2,632 consecutive games—outlines eight rules for the game of baseball and life, drawn from the lessons he has learned on and off the field. Cal Ripken Jr. is a baseball legend. But legends aren't born, they're made. For twenty-one seasons, Ripken took the field day in and day out, through cold, heat, rain, and sometimes snow, playing in more than 3,000 games for the Baltimore Orioles. In 1983, the revered shortstop helped lead his team to victory in the World Series. On September 6, 1995, Ripken did the seemingly impossible, he surpassed Lou Gehrig's unbreakable fifty-six-year-old Iron Man record, setting a new mark of 2,131 consecutive games—then played another 501 consecutive games. Throughout his career, Ripken was admired for his consistency, hard work, and loyalty. There were successes and failures, but above all was an old-fashioned sense of doing what's right, every single day. Since retiring in 2001, Ripken has enjoyed a successful career as a baseball analyst, entrepreneur, and author. Now, in Just Show Up, he reflects on his life and career to offer lessons for the next generation and those to come. Ripken speaks eloquently about the timeless values he has lived by: Life is a streak,play the long game; Success and money are not the same; Play fair,win fair. And he shares stories of his legendary father, Baltimore Oriole coach and manager Cal Ripken Sr., what it took to keep the streak alive, and what it meant to bring the World Series to Baltimore. Cal Ripken's message is simple yet poignant; wisdom essential to anyone trying to forge a successful life in times that are often chaotic. Blending insights from sports, business, and a life well-lived, Just Show Up is the story of an American legend and the principles he has lived by—standards our time needs.




Just Call Me Minnie


Book Description

On May 1, 1951, a legend was born. So was an era. Newly acquired Orestes Minoso, the first Black to play Major League Baseball in the city of Chicago, stepped into the batter's box for his first turn at bat in a Chicago White Sox uniform. On the mound for the New York Yankees that May afternoon was hard-throwing right-hander Vic Raschi, one of baseball's best. With a runner on first and one out, Minoso took Raschi's first pitch, then coolly blasted his second offering 415 feet into the centre field bullpen. The crowd of Comiskey Park faithfuls cheered wildly. Today, more than 40 years later, those cheers can still be heard. The living drama of this six-decade baseball legend is told with a rare blend of candor, insight, and honesty.




Not Just Baseball


Book Description

William Bourne grew up loving baseball, playing in an under-eighteen league in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his brother. As an adult, he traced the history of Minor League baseball, traveling to various baseball towns – mostly with his brother, Jim, and son, Michael. They chose Single A teams because it gave them the chance to visit small, remote towns. Over a period of years, they traveled almost 36,000 miles via airplanes and rented cars, seeing dozens of games in twenty-two states, plus western Canada. They avoided Southern states as they were usually traveling in July and August when it was hot. Seattle was their most western point, and Portland, Maine, was the most eastern. Each trip was spontaneous, and they regularly ran into interesting people and situations. Driving into Hannibal, Missouri, introduced the author to Mark Twain, prompting him to read three of his novels as well as a biography. He learned Twain often snuck out of his house at midnight to meet his buddies down by the Mississippi River’s edge, which is where he no doubt did much of his dreaming. Join the author as he celebrates his love of baseball, family, and America, traveling through quaint villages.




How Baseball Happened


Book Description

The untold story of baseball’s nineteenth-century origins: “a delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat” (Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal). You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. Perhaps you’ve read that baseball’s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses, and fought against the South in the Civil War. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars—all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year




The Only Rule Is It Has to Work


Book Description

The New York Times bestseller about what would happen if two statistics-minded outsiders were allowed to run a professional baseball team. It’s the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies -- with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That’s what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics. Their story in The Only Rule is it Has to Work is unlike any other baseball tale you've ever read. We tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: it has to work. We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance. Will their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport’s folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion? It’s a wild ride, by turns provocative and absurd, as Lindbergh and Miller tell a story that will speak to numbers geeks and traditionalists alike. And they prove that you don’t need a bat or a glove to make a genuine contribution to the game.




The Book of Baseball Literacy


Book Description

For baseball's millions of fans, this ultimate reference to the national pastime features a listing of more than 800 memorable people, places, dates, events, terms, records, and statistics. From the game's origins in the 1840s to the present day, The Book of Baseball Literacy presents complete details on the great sport in one lively, fascinating treasury.