The business of baseball stands in sharp contrast to the game’s wholesome image as America’s favorite pastime. Major league baseball is a deeply troubled industry, facing chronic problems that threaten its future: persistent labor tensions, competitive dominance by high-revenue teams, migration of game telecasts to cable, and escalating ticket prices. Amid the threat of contraction, existing franchises are demanding public subsidies for new stadiums, while viable host cities are begging for teams. The game’s core base of fans is aging, and MLB is doing precious little to attract a younger audience. According to Andrew Zimbalist, these problems have a common cause: monopoly. Since 1922 MLB has benefited from a presumed exemption from the nation’s antitrust laws. It is the only top-level professional baseball league in the country, and each of its teams is assigned an exclusive territory. Monopolies have market power, which they use to derive higher returns, misallocate resources, and take advantage of consumers. Major league baseball is no exception. In May the Best Team Win, Zimbalist provides a critical analysis of the baseball industry, focusing on the abuses and inefficiencies that have plagued the game since the 1990s, when franchise owners appointed their colleague Bud Selig as MLB’s “independent” commissioner.

A trans boy enters a throw-down battle for the title of Homecoming King with the boy he dumped last summer in ZR Ellor's contemporary YA debut. Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdate school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas for the title of Homecoming King? Lukas Rivers, football star and head of the Homecoming Committee, is just trying to find order in his life after his older brother’s funeral and the loss of his long-term girlfriend—who turned out to be a boy. But when Jeremy threatens to break his heart and steal his crown, Lukas kick starts a plot to sabotage Jeremy’s campaign. When both boys take their rivalry too far, the dance is on the verge of being canceled. To save Homecoming, they’ll have to face the hurt they’re both hiding—and the lingering butterflies they can’t deny.

The New York Times bestselling authors of The Carrot Principle and All In deliver a breakthrough, groundbreaking guide for building today’s most collaborative teams—so any organization can operate at peak performance. A massive shift is taking place in the business world. In today’s average company, up to eighty percent of employees’ days are now spent working in teams. And yet the teams most people find themselves in are nowhere near as effective as they could be. They’re often divided by tensions, if not outright dissension, and dysfunctional teams drain employees’ energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. Now Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton share the proven ways managers can build cohesive, productive teams, despite the distractions and challenges every business is facing. In The Best Team Wins, Gostick and Elton studied more than 850,000 employee engagement surveys to develop their “Five Disciplines of Team Leaders,” explaining how to recognize and motivate different generations to enhance individual engagement; ways to promote healthy discord and spark innovation; and techniques to unify customer focus and build bridges across functions, cultures, and distance. They’ve shared these disciplines with their corporate clients and have now distilled their breakthrough findings into a succinct, engaging guide for business leaders everywhere. Gostick and Elton offer practical ways to address the real challenges today’s managers are facing, such as the rise of the Millennials, the increasing speed of change, the growing number of global and virtual teams, and the friction created by working cross-functionally. This is a must-read for anyone looking to maximize performance at work, from two of the most successful corporate consultants of their generation, whom The New York Times called “creative and refreshing.”

Ava and Alex are taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level in the seventh book of the It Takes Two series! It’s Homecoming Week in Ashland! That means a big game, a big dance, and, most importantly, Powder Puff. But when Alex and Ava are placed on different teams for the middle school girls’ flag football game, trouble brews. Ava is getting loads of extra attention because of her athletic ability, but this leaves Alex feeling majorly left out. Not one to hide from a little competition, Alex is determined to beat her sister at her own game by becoming her team’s secret weapon! But Ava isn’t worried about her jealous sister or Powder Puff. Because she has ADHD, she’s supposed to get extra time on her tests, but her new substitute science teacher is refusing to give it to her. Ava knows it isn’t fair—but how is she supposed to fix things in her science class and win Powder Puff for her team?

In v.1-8 the final number consists of the Commencement annual.

Baseball is America's pastime. No other sport has so captured our country's spirit and loyalty throughout the ages. We see our shiny-faced heroes on the field, signing autographs, making unbelievable plays, and doing unthinkable athletic feats night after night. We see them beaming at press conferences (always well manicured), answering 'yes ma'am, no ma'am, ' and never missing a beat. The players and heroes on the field are America's champions. But.but are they really that way? What about that one? Yes, look at that player over there. The one ogling down that woman's blouse as she leans over to wipe her child's mustard painted face? That guy seems different. Or is he? Most baseball novels follow the standard method described in the opening paragraph. As readers, we never see the real men behind the façade. What if a novel existed for the Maxim crowd about baseball? What if we could see how things really are? Now we can. Follow the always crude and crass Jack "Clutch" Thompson through a baseball season as he canoodles with monkey (women), plays pranks with his friends and teammates, and tries to break his own personal curse of only succeeding in clutch, pinch hit situations. Open up this novel and see how baseball players really are.