Ken Griffey Jr. : the Inspiring Story of One of Baseball's Greatest Outfielders


Book Description

Learn the Inspiring Story of the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds' Legendary Outfielder, Ken Griffey Jr.! Read on your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or Kindle device! One of many riveting reads 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. Griffey Jr. accomplished a lot over the course of his career, playing the bulk of it for the Seattle Mariners and the Cincinnati Reds. By the time he retired, he was a thirteen-time All-Star, American League MVP, and ten-time Gold Glove Award recipient. Ken Griffey Jr. serves as a role model for baseball fans of all ages in the way he carried himself on and off the field throughout his career and showing his dominance on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game. Pick up this unauthorized baseball biography today to learn the inspiring story behind star baseball outfielder, Ken Griffey Jr.! This is the perfect baseball chapter book for sports fans of all ages. This baseball book explores what makes Ken Griffey Jr. great, and what we can learn from his hard work. Here is a preview of what is inside this Ken Griffey Jr. book: Childhood and No Love for the Yankees High School Career and the Draft Minor League Career Major League Career: Rookie Season, Becoming the Man and the Best in Baseball The Trade, A Rough New Beginning, The Comeback, and The End of an Era Griffey Jr.'s Personal Life Griffey Jr.'s Legacy An excerpt from this Ken Griffey Jr. biography: It is never easy when you come into a league and the highest of all expectations are placed on you before you even step foot onto the field for the first time. Everyone wants greatness out of you, putting a heavy load on your shoulders. Sometimes it is easier to come into a league in any sport where not much is expected of you and you build your name up by your performance, sort of like Aaron Judge has done with the Yankees or Cody Bellinger with the Dodgers. For Ken Griffey, Jr., though, he was expected to be the Michael Jordan of baseball before he walked up to the plate for the very first time. When he did get that first at-bat against Dave Stewart and the Oakland Athletics, with the whole world wanting to see how great this young athlete was, he did not disappoint. He got a double. Twenty-two years and 9,800 at-bats later, Griffey, Jr. not only delivered on those expectations, but he also went way above and beyond them. He is now regarded as one of the best all-around players to ever play the game and sits in the Hall of Fame with the greats. Griffey, Jr. backed up all the talk with his bat and glove. He stands number 6 with 630 home runs on the all-time home run list, which some say should be even higher because some of the players above him allegedly took performance-enhancing drugs. He was the American League MVP winner in 1997 and won a Gold Glove for 10 years in a row, from 1990 to 1999. He has also been to 13 All-Star games and been awarded the Silver Slugger Award seven times. Much of Griffey's expectations were high because of who his father was. Ken Griffey, Sr. was a talented baseball player who was part of the "Big Red Machine" from the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s. While Griffey, Sr. never achieved the elite honor of a berth in the MLB Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame and had the honor of playing with his son on the Mariners at the end of his career, the first-ever father-son duo to achieve that feat. Hope you liked this excerpt! If you did, be sure to pick up a copy of this Ken Griffey Jr. bio today.




Junior


Book Description

The popular baseball player for the Seattle Mariners shares his thoughts on family, baseball, and celebrity




Ken Griffey, Jr.: The Home Run Kid


Book Description

An easy to read children's book chronicling the exciting career of Ken Griffey, JR.




Edgar


Book Description

Patience, persistence, and the most unlikely of circumstances vaulted Edgar Martinez from a poor neighborhood in Dorado, Puerto Rico to the spotlight in Seattle, where he spent the entirety of his 18-year major league career with the Mariners. At last, his path is destined for one last stop: the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Long before he cemented his status as one of the finest players of his generation, Martinez honed his batting skills by hitting rocks in his backyard and swinging for hours at individual raindrops during storms. Loyal and strong-willed from a young age, he made the difficult decision at only 11 to remain behind with his grandparents while his family relocated to New York, attending school and then working multiple jobs until a chance Mariners try-out at age 20 changed everything. In this illuminating, highly personal autobiography, Martinez shares these stories and more with candor, characteristic humility, and surprising wit. Highlights include the memorable 1995 and 2001 seasons, experiences playing with stars like Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Alex Rodriguez, and life after retirement as a family man, social advocate, and Mariners hitting coach. Martinez even offers practical insight into the mental side of baseball and his training regimen, detailing how he taught himself to see the ball better than so many before and after him. Interwoven with Martinez's own words throughout are those of his teammates, coaches, and contemporaries, contributing a distinctive oral history element to this saga of a remarkable career.




Big Red


Book Description

Reflecting on an outstanding 19-year major-league career, this autobiography chronicles baseball great Ken Griffey, beginning with his days just out of high school. The account relates Griffey's decision to venture into the baseball business, documenting his time as a scout, coach, and manager along with his accomplishments as a father, raising two other major league ballplayers: Craig, who played briefly for the Seattle Mariners, and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Capturing the subject's time with the Big Red Machine, this record details his days playing alongside Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, highlighting the Reds' two consecutive world championships in 1975 and 1976. Finally, the ultimate thrill of Griffey's career is featured: playing in the same outfield in 1990 with his son, Ken Griffey Jr., during the game where they hit back-to-back home runs--the only father-son combination to do so in the history of Major League Baseball. Filled with amusing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it's like when baseball really does run in the family, this is a sports memoir unlike any other.




The Baseball 100


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year “An instant sports classic.” —New York Post * “Stellar.” —The Wall Street Journal * “A true masterwork…880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.” —BookPage (starred review) * “This is a remarkable achievement.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of the 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will. Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,? The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize–winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than two hundred years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?” Baseball’s legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the game’s all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesn’t rely just on records and statistics—he lovingly retraces players’ origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball’s past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the 21st-century game compared to Greg Maddux dueling with the juiced hitters of the nineties? How do the career and influence of Hank Aaron compare to Babe Ruth’s? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history? No compendium of baseball’s legendary geniuses could be complete without the players of the segregated Negro Leagues, men whose extraordinary careers were largely overlooked by sportswriters at the time and unjustly lost to history. Posnanski writes about the efforts of former Negro Leaguers to restore sidelined Black athletes to their due honor and draws upon the deep troves of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and extensive interviews with the likes of Buck O’Neil to illuminate the accomplishments of players such as pitchers Satchel Paige and Smokey Joe Williams; outfielders Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cool Papa Bell; first baseman Buck Leonard; shortstop Pop Lloyd; catcher Josh Gibson; and many, many more. The Baseball 100 treats readers to the whole rich pageant of baseball history in a single volume. Engrossing, surprising, and heartfelt, it is a magisterial tribute to the game of baseball and the stars who have played it.




Diamonds from the Dugout


Book Description

""What hit meant the most to you and why?" The simple question led award-winning sportswriter Mark Newman on an eight-year journey that would bring about surprising stories and empowering life lessons from the minds of the most fabled Major League hitters in our time." -- Back cover.




Stan Musial


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Veteran sports journalist George Vecsey finally gives this twenty-time All-Star and St. Louis Cardinals icon the biographical treatment he deserves. Stan Musial is the definitive portrait of one of the game’s best-loved but most unappreciated legends—told through the remembrances of those who played beside, worked with, and covered “Stan the Man” over the course of his nearly seventy years in the national spotlight. Away from the diamond, Musial proved a savvy businessman and a model of humility and graciousness toward his many fans in St. Louis and around the world. From Keith Hernandez’s boyhood memories of Musial leaving tickets for him when the Cardinals were in San Francisco to the little-known story of Musial’s friendship with novelist James Michener, Vecsey weaves an intimate oral history around one of the great gentlemen of baseball’s Greatest Generation.




A Constraints-Led Approach to Baseball Coaching


Book Description

A Constraints-Led Approach to Baseball Coaching presents a new approach to baseball coaching and practice. Applying a CLA to the player development process across the skill spectrum from the beginners to elite, this book uses practical examples to demonstrate the theoretical principles of the constraints-led coaching style embedded in research showing the numerous benefits of the approach. This book incorporates case studies and examples of how constraints are manipulated to develop more adaptable players that can perform at a higher level with a reduced risk of injury, shifting the reader’s view of skill acquisition from the concept of the one “correct” solution, acquired through repetition, to the ecological dynamics framework focused on variability, adaptability, and self-organization. Individual chapters cover major topics such as hitting, pitching, and fielding for players from Little League to the pros. This book illustrates the underlying principles so that coaches can develop their own practice activities. A Constraints-Led Approach to Baseball Coaching is a key reading for undergraduate students and practicing sports coaches, physical education teachers and sport scientists alike as well as practicing players and coaches in baseball and related sports.




Core Four


Book Description

Tracing the careers of four instrumental players who turned around the Yankees ball club, this book shares behind-the-scenes stories from their early days together in the minors through the 2012 season, and follows them on their majestic ride to the top of the baseball world. At a time when the New York Yankees were in free fall, having failed to win a World Series in 17 years and had not played in one in 14 years--the Bronx Bombers' longest drought since before the days of Babe Ruth--along came four young players whose powerful impact returned the franchise to its former glory. They were a diverse group from different parts of the globe: Mariano Rivera, a right-handed pitcher from Panama, who was destined to become the all-time record holder in saves and baseball's greatest closer; Derek Jeter, a shortstop raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who would become the first Yankee to accumulate 3,000 hits; Jorge Posada, an infielder-turned-catcher from Puerto Rico, who would hit more home runs than any Yankees catcher except the legendary Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; and Andy Pettitte, a left-handed pitcher born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who would win more postseason games than any player in baseball history. Together they formed the "Core Four," and would go on to play as teammates for 13 seasons during which time they would help the Yankees advance to the postseason 12 times, win the American League pennant seven times, and take home five World Series trophies. This book follows these phenoms from the minor leagues to the present, detailing their significant contributions to a winning major league franchise.