Author : Alan S. Kaufman
Publisher : Carol Publishing Corporation
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 14,35 MB
Release : 1995
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780806516530
"The Worst Baseball Pitchers of All Time" offers a crop of very different players. These are the worst pitchers in major league baseball, according to a scientifically designed set of criteria that includes such statistics as losses minus wins, earned run average, and wins-above-team (well, in this case wins-below-team).
Author : Will Graves
Publisher : ABDO Publishing Company
Page : 66 pages
File Size : 13,52 MB
Release : 2014-01-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 1629681334
Although the stars change with each generation, the legends live on forever. This title introduces those legends, past and present, with colorful stories about their most memorable moments. With spotlight stats, info boxes, a glossary, additional resources, and more, this title is jam-packed with information fit for any baseball fan. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Author : Bill James
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 12,21 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 : Ben Lindbergh
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 50,40 MB
Release : 2016-05-03
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1627795650
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.
Author : Filip Bondy
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,43 MB
Release : 2014-02-25
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0307950417
Who were the best ballplayers of all time? It's an endless question, but here's something much more fun: Who was the worst of all time? Who was the lousiest pitcher? The biggest goat? The most despicable owner? The most over-paid bum? Finally, Filip Bondy answers these questions, wielding his own brand of formidable research, advanced sabermetrics and considerable wit to provide this indispensable guide to the less glorious side of our national pastime. Each chapter is filled with rich and colorful stories about the players unfortunate enough to be chosen in each category--like "Too Fat to Bat" or "Anyone Seen My Mitt." So welcome to the Hall of Shame. It's awesome.
Author : Bill James
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 21,21 MB
Release : 1995-04-06
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 1439108374
Arguing about the merits of players is the baseball fan's second favorite pastime and every year the Hall of Fame elections spark heated controversy. In a book that's sure to thrill--and infuriate--countless fans, Bill James takes a hard look at the Hall, probing its history, its politics and, most of all, its decisions.
Author : Jonah Keri
Publisher : ESPN
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 11,44 MB
Release : 2011-03-08
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 0345517652
What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail. Together with “boy genius” general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the “devil” from the team’s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game’s intangibles—that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one—they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant. A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life’s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.
Author : Jim Kaplan
Publisher : Triumph Books (IL)
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,3 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Baseball players
ISBN : 9781600783418
Intertwines the personal histories of baseball Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn with the events of their sixteen-inning pitching duel at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in the summer of 1963.
Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 34,93 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 : Jeremy Lehrman
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 26,99 MB
Release : 2016-10-04
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 147666675X
From its colorful beginnings more than a century ago, baseball's annual Most Valuable Player Award has become the most prestigious (and contentious) individual honor in the sport. No accolade means more to players, fans or the media. No other award can claim a voting history so rich in alleged snubs, grudges, conspiracies and incompetence. Examining the most controversial ballots, this book attempts to settle some arguments and answer some compelling questions: Which of the so-called "worst MVPs" holds up to modern statistical analysis? Who cast the single worst vote in MVP history? Does racial bias influence the vote? Who really deserved the award in a given year?
