Henry Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record captivated the baseball world. So did Cal Ripken's effort to outlast Lou Gehrig's ironman streak and Rickey Henderson's attempt to swipe Lou Brock's stolen-base throne. Here are pro baseball's greatest records and the stories of the players who have held, chased, and broken them.

Some athletes not only thrill their fans with their skill on the playing field but also inspire their followers by overcoming obstacles along the way. That combination has helped make such people icons in our culture. One of those great icons is baseball's Mookie Betts. The five-foot-nine Betts always displayed great athletic ability, but many considered him too small to climb up the sports ladder. However, Betts overcame those doubters to become one of his sport's best players. In 2018, he became the first ever American League player to win baseball's Most Valuable Player, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, batting title, and World Series title in the same season. This biography tells the exciting story of the Boston Red Sox star, including the victory of his team in the 2018 World Series. This bio features stats, photographs, and the words of teammates, coaches, opponents, and Betts himself.

They say records are made to be broken, but some marks of excellence are simply out of reach. Record Breakers tells the stories behind some of the most extraordinary feats in the sports world. Learn about the amazing athletes involved, how the record was made, and the record's historical context. From big games to glorious seasons, these books will have readers clamoring for more! Book jacket.

From the authority on baseball research and statistics comes a vast and fascinating compendium of unique baseball lists and records. The SABR Baseball List & Record Book is an expansive collection of pitching, hitting, fielding, home run, team, and rookie records not available online or in any other book. This is a treasure trove of baseball history for statistically minded baseball fans that's also packed with intriguing marginalia. For instance, on July 25, 1967, Chicago's Ken Berry ended Game Two of a doubleheader against Cleveland with a home run in the bottom of the sixteenth inning -- Chicago's second game-winning homer of the day. The comprehensive lists include Most Career Home Runs by Two Brothers (Tommie and Hank Aaron have 768), Most Seasons with 15 or More Wins (Cy Young and Greg Maddux each have 18), and Highest On Base Percentage in a Season by a Rookie (listing every rookie above .400). Unlike other record books that only list the record holders -- say, most RBI by a rookie, held by Ted Williams with 145 -- SABR details every rookie to reach 100 RBI. Other record books might note the last pitcher in each league to steal home; here SABR has included every pitcher to do it. The book also includes a number of idiosyncratic features, such as a rundown of every player who has hit a triple and then stolen home, or every reliever who has won two games in one day. Many of the lists include a comments column for key historical notes and entertaining trivia (Bob Horner hit four home runs in a 1986 game, but his team lost). This is a must-have for every fan's library. Edited by Lyle Spatz, Chairman of the Baseball Records Committee for SABR

SABR 50 at 50 celebrates and highlights the Society for American Baseball Research’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history. Established in 1971 in Cooperstown, New York, SABR has sought to foster and disseminate the research of baseball—with groundbreaking work from statisticians, historians, and independent researchers—and has published dozens of articles with far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the game. Among its current membership are many Major and Minor League Baseball officials, broadcasters, and writers as well as numerous former players. The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume—from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s. To provide history and context, each notable research article is accompanied by a short introduction. As SABR celebrates fifty years this collection gathers the organization’s most notable research and baseball history for the serious baseball reader.

Breaking the Slump is the story of baseball during the 1930s when the National Pastime came of age as a business, an entertainment, and a passion, and when the teams of the American and National Leagues fielded perhaps the greatest rosters in the history of the game. Whether as rookies, stars in their prime, or legends on the wane, Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Dizzy Dean, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio all left their mark on the game and on the American imagination in the decade before America's entry into World War II. In one remarkable year, 1934, the entire starting lineup of the American League All-Stars consisted of future Hall of Famers. This surfeit of talent provided much-needed entertainment to a nation struggling through economic hardship on an enormous scale.