Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 43,60 MB
Release : 2003-06-02
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0743241746
Presents a series of lineups from each baseball franchise and explores the careers of baseball players both famous and obscure.
Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 28,72 MB
Release : 2007-11-01
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1416592148
BLOOPER: BALL SQUIRTS THROUGH BILLY BUCKNER'S LEGS. BLUNDER: BILLY BUCKNER'S MANAGER LEFT HIM IN THE GAME. Baseball bloopers are fun; they're funny, even. A pitcher slips on the mound and his pitch sails over the backstop. An infielder camps under a pop-up...and the ball lands ten feet away. An outfielder tosses a souvenir to a fan...but that was just the second out, and runners are circling the bases (and laughing). Without these moments, the highlight reels wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. Baseball blunders, however, can be tragic, and they will leave diehard fans asking why...why...why? Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders does its best to answer all those whys, exploring the worst decisions and stupidest moments of managers, general managers, owners, and even commissioners. As he did in his Big Book of Baseball Lineups, Rob Neyer provides readers with a fascinating examination of baseball's rich history, this time through the lens of the game's sometimes hilarious, often depressing, and always perplexing blunders. · Which ill-fated move cost the Chicago White Sox a great hitter and the 1919 World Series? · What was Babe Ruth thinking when he became the first (and still the only) player to end a World Series by getting caught trying to steal? · Did playing one-armed Pete Gray in 1945 cost the Browns a pennant? · How did winning a coin toss lead to the Dodgers losing the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'round the World"? · How damaging was the Frank Robinson-for-Milt Pappas deal, really? · Which of Red Sox manager Don Zimmer's mistakes in 1978 was the worst? · Which Yankees trade was even worse than swapping Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps? · What non-move cost Buck Showalter a job and gave Joe Torre the opportunity of a lifetime? · Game 7, 2003 ALCS: Pedro winds up to throw his 123rd pitch...what were you thinking? These are just a few of the legendary (and not-so-legendary) blunders that Neyer analyzes, always with an eye on what happened, why it happened, and how it changed the fickle course of history. And in separate chapters, Neyer also reviews some of the game's worst trades and draft picks and closely examines all the teams that fell just short of first place. Another in the series of Neyer's Big Books of baseball history, Baseball Blunders should win a place in every devoted fan's library.
Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 25,68 MB
Release : 2000
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9780393320084
Assesses the top fifteen baseball teams of the twentieth century, including such legendary squads as the 1927 Yankees and the 1970 Orioles, to determine which team was the greatest of the modern era.
Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 17,77 MB
Release : 2018-10-09
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0062853635
“Winner of the 2018 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.” The former ESPN columnist and analytics pioneer dramatically recreates an action-packed 2017 game between the Oakland A’s and eventual World Series Champion Houston Astros to reveal the myriad ways in which Major League Baseball has changed over the last few decades. On September 8, 2017, the Oakland A’s faced off against the Houston Astros in a game that would signal the passing of the Moneyball mantle. Though this was only one regular season game, the match-up of these two teams demonstrated how Major League Baseball has changed since the early days of Athletics general manager Billy Beane and the publication of Michael Lewis’ classic book. Over the past twenty years, power and analytics have taken over the game, driving carefully calibrated teams like the Astros to victory. Seemingly every pitcher now throws mid-90s heat and studiously compares their mechanics against the ideal. Every batter in the lineup can crack homers and knows their launch angles. Teams are relying on unorthodox strategies, including using power-losing—purposely tanking a few seasons to get the best players in the draft. As he chronicles each inning and the unfolding drama as these two teams continually trade the lead—culminating in a 9-8 Oakland victory in the bottom of the ninth—Neyer considers the players and managers, the front office machinations, the role of sabermetrics, and the current thinking about what it takes to build a great team, to answer the most pressing questions fans have about the sport today.
Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 825 pages
File Size : 23,17 MB
Release : 2008-04-01
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1416564918
The latest and greatest in ESPN.com baseball guru Rob Neyer's Big Book series, Legends is a highly entertaining guide to baseball fables that have been handed down through generations. The well-told baseball story has long been a staple for baseball fans. In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends, Neyer breathes new life into both classic and obscure stories throughout twentieth-century baseball -- stories that, while engaging on their own, also tell us fascinating things about their main characters and about the sport's incredibly rich history. With his signature style, Rob gets to the heart of every anecdote, working through the particulars with careful research drawn from a variety of primary sources. For each story, he asks: Did this really happen? Did it happen, sort of? Or was the story simply the wild invention of someone's imagination? Among the scores of legends Neyer questions and investigates... Did an errant Bob Feller pitch really destroy the career of a National League All-Star? Did Greg Maddux mean to give up a long blast to Jeff Bagwell? Was Fred Lynn the clutch player he thinks he was? Did Tommy Lasorda have a direct line to God? Did Negro Leaguer Gene Benson really knock Indians second baseman Johnny Berardino out of baseball and into General Hospital? Did Billy Martin really outplay Jackie Robinson every time they met? Oh, and what about Babe Ruth's "Called Shot"? Rob checks each story, separates the truths from the myths, and places their fascinating characters into the larger historical context. Filled with insider lore and Neyer's sharp wit and insights, this is an exciting addition to a superb series and an essential read for true fans of our national pastime.
Author : Bill James
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 50,21 MB
Release : 2008-06-16
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1439103771
Preeminent baseball analyst Bill James and ESPN.com baseball columnist Rob Neyer compile information on pitches and their origins, nearly two thousand pitchers, and more in this comprehensive guide. Pitchers, the pitches they throw, and how they throw them—they’re the stuff of constant scrutiny, but there's never been anything like a comprehensive source for such information…until now. Bill James and Rob Neyer spent over a decade compiling the centerpiece of this book, the Pitcher Census, which lists specific information for nearly two thousand pitchers, ranging throughout the history of professional baseball. Their guide also includes a dictionary describing virtually every known pitch, biographies of great pitchers who have been overlooked, and top ten lists for fastballs, spitballs, and everything in between. James and Neyer also weigh in on the debate over pitcher abuse and durability, offer a formula for predicting the Cy Young Award winner, and reveal James’s Pitcher Codes. Learn about the origins and development of baseball’s most important pitches and more knuckleballers and submariners than you ever thought existed! Baseball’s action always starts with the pitchers. Begin to understand them and join in on entertaining debates while having a great deal of fun with the history of the game that captivates so many with this one-of-a-kind guide.
Author : Pete Cava
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 10,80 MB
Release : 2015-10-02
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1476622701
Indiana boasts a rich baseball tradition, with 10 native sons enshrined in Cooperstown. This biographical dictionary provides a close look at the lives of all 364 Hoosier big leaguers, who include New York City's first baseball superstar; the first rookie pitcher to win three games in a World Series; the man who caught most of Cy Young's record 511 career wins; one of the game's first star relievers; the player who held the record for consecutive games played before Lou Gehrig; an obscure infielder mentioned in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip; baseball's only one-legged pitcher; Indiana's first Mr. Basketball, who became one of baseball's greatest pinch-hitters; the first African American to play for the Cincinnati Reds; the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in the World Series; the skipper of the 1969 "Miracle Mets"; the pitcher for whom a ground-breaking surgical procedure is named; and the only two men to have played in both the World Series and the Final Four of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Author : Kevin Morrisey
Publisher : Ambassador International
Page : 133 pages
File Size : 50,78 MB
Release : 2012-01-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1935507664
“God’s Lineup” is a collection of testimonies from Major League baseball players and how Christ has impacted their lives on and off the field. There are trying times in the sport of baseball and among Christians. This book is a breath of fresh air for both baseball fans and Christians. It illustrates how all people, including the top baseball players, face trying times and how being saved has changed them and the way they play the game. Each chapter focuses on one ball player and tells the story about how their life was before knowing Christ, how they came to know Him and how their life has changed.
Author : Ron Kaplan
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 567 pages
File Size : 49,60 MB
Release : 2018-08-01
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN : 1496209885
Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.
Author : Bryan Steverson
Publisher : WestBow Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 37,91 MB
Release : 2018-02-22
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1973616874
In the Book of Genesis, when Cain is confronted by God regarding the death of his brother, he replies, Am I my brothers keeper? Within these pages, players respond affirmatively to this centurys age old question. They took stands against prejudice during times in our country when it was not the norm. Their courage serves as a model for all of us today. These players lived the biblical challenge of loving your neighbor. This is the third book by the author of inspirational stories about players from our national pastime. Fifteen members of our National Baseball Hall of Fame are here as well as others of lesser fame. The examples include 19th century baseball, Babe Ruth and Pete Rose. Each player was special. Each story inspirational.
