Although very few baseball games end with a final score of one to zero, and such a score line might suggest a contest devoid of drama, nothing could be further from the truth. Since the 1876 inaugural season of professional baseball, many 1-0 games have proved as compelling as those featuring a parade of pitchers and a plethora of home runs. In Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games Warren Wilbert has chronicled the tensest 1-0 nail-biters that have occurred since baseball's first professional season. Organized thematically, Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games starts by examining 1-0 games achieved on Opening Day, with the finest selected from the more than 50 that have occurred since 1876. Regular season games, in which less than three percent result in a 1-0 score, are then detailed, including those games pitched by such greats as John "Jocko" Flynn and Randy Johnson. Championship play, from the first inning of playoffs to the final out of the World Series, has its own share of 1-0 drama, and this, too, is covered extensively. These chapters are then followed by a look at the elusive perfect 1-0 game, of which only eight have been pitched since 1871--seven with a single pitcher. Pitching titans such as Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Bert Blyleven, Christy Mathewson, Dean Chance, Ed Walsh, Guy White, and Cy Young have had more than their fair share of 1-0 victories, and an additional chapter examines these pitchers and their 1-0 games. Appendixes include a full list of pitchers to have thrown a no-hit 1-0 game, pitching greats who have amassed ten or more career 1-0 victories, and 1-0 games in both the Negro Leagues and the Japanese Major Leagues. Featuring more than 30 photographs, Baseball's Iconic 1-0 Games is sure to fascinate all baseball fans, players, and historians.

In October 1960, Omaha Central and Creighton Prep met for what many Nebraskans consider the greatest high school football game ever played. Future NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers scored seventy points while leading Central's powerful offense through its first four games. Prep's strong defense, on the other hand, allowed only twenty points all season. Legendary coaches patrolled both sidelines, and Prep was aiming for its third straight state championship. The stage was set for a Friday-night showdown. Fifteen thousand fans packed into Omaha's Municipal Stadium to watch the early season championship clash. Stubborn defenses ensured parity. Back and forth the teams battled, mired around the 50-yard line, punt after punt soaring into the sky. With no overtime to settle things and the defenses holding fast, the game ended in a scoreless tie. When both teams won their remaining games, they shared the state title that year. Scoreless retells the details of this legendary game, the buildup to it, and the story behind the teams and their renowned coaches and players. It is the tale of one of the most remarkable football games in Nebraska high school sports history.

In Taking in a Game, Joseph A. Reaves examines the development of baseball in Korea, the Philippines, Mainland China, and Taiwan, as well as the more widely known story of baseball in Japan. In this entertaining and informed account, Reaves covers everything from baseball in Qing Dynasty China in the nineteenth century to the 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze-medal match between Japan and Korea. Reaves guides the reader through a history of Asian baseball, the cultures that surround it, and the future of what has become a great Asian game.

“Baseball’s most eloquent analyst” demonstrates why he has “long since attained the status of national treasure,” in this classic essay collection (The New York Times Book Review). Roger Angell's famous explorations of the summer game are built on acute observation and joyful participation, conveyed in a prose style as admired and envied as Ted Williams’s swing. Here is Angell on Fenway Park in September, on Bob Gibson brooding in retirement, on Tom Seaver in mid-windup, on the abysmal early and recent Mets, on a scout at work in backcountry Kentucky, on Pete Rose and Willie Mays and Pedro Martinez, on the astounding Barry Bonds at Pac Bell Park, and more. With twenty-nine essays divided between spring, summer, and fall, Game Time carries readers through the arc of the season with refreshed understanding and pleasure. With an introduction by Richard Ford, this collection represents Angell’s best writings, from spring training in 1962 to the explosive World Series of 2002. A New York Times Notable Book

A gripping detailed recap of the wildly insane, oft-overlooked, extra-innings classic that turned the 2004 ALCS into the most memorable playoff series in modern history. No team had ever come back from a 3–0 deficit to win a postseason series in baseball. In the history of MLB postseason play going into Game 5, there had been twenty-five series to start out 3–0. Of those, twenty ended in sweeps, two made it to a sixth game, and none had made it to a seventh game. The Forgotten Game details one of the greatest games in baseball history between the two most bitter rivals in the sport. For years the two teams fought for American League supremacy, with the Yankees usually coming out on top. Following an incredible 2003 playoff series, the two teams squared off again in 2004 for the right to go to the World Series. The Yankees won the first three games in convincing fashion, and it seemed, yet again, they would eliminate the Red Sox…until Boston miraculously won Game 4. Most fans remember the steal by Dave Roberts that sparked the game-tying rally in the ninth to keep Boston’s hopes alive. And most fans remember Curt Schilling’s sutured ankle in Game 6. But Game 5 was a do-or-die moment for the Red Sox, and they delivered in epic fashion. Yet, despite being the pivotal game in the series, it hasn’t drawn the attention the others have. The Forgotten Game breaks down Game 5 on a virtual pitch-by-pitch basis, from the battle between Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina, to the clutch performances by Tim Wakefield and David Ortiz, while breaking down the strategies the managers employed, and stories of how various players made their way to their respective teams for that fateful night. Never before has the story of Game 5 been told in such vivid and riveting detail. “If you’ve devoured everything Red Sox-Yankees you’ll LOVE IT. If you are new to the rivalry and era you will understand it for the first time. I couldn’t put it down and loved the historical context of each inning. I loved it.” —Gar Ryness (Batting Stance Guy) “While most people remember Boston's dramatic game 4 victory or Curt Schilling's bloody sock heroics in game 6, game 5 was truly the unsung hero of the series. John Vampatella does a magnificent job of explaining why while providing tremendous background and anecdotes that all baseball fans will enjoy. The Forgotten Game is an absolute must for Red Sox fans of all ages!” —Scott Cordischi, WEEI sports talk show host

The "Miracle Mets" of 1969 had great hopes and enormous expectations for the coming decade. Unfortunately, they would be forced to watch hopes and dreams slowly fade to despair. This book details the Mets' climb from last place in August of 1973 to within one game of the world championship, followed by annual struggles and a collapse in 1977. The revised edition expands on the failures of the last two seasons of the decade, which necessitated the Payson family's decision to sell the beloved franchise.

The conclusion of the Sandy Koufax Era was a wild roller coaster ride for the LA Dodgers. Overly dependent on the fragile left arm of their to-be Hall of Fame left-hander, they careened from their worst season since World War II in 1964 after losing Koufax to an injury in mid-August, to a World Series Championship in 1965 on the strength of his shutout performance on short rest in Game 7 with the Twins, to an ignominious World Series collapse to the Orioles in 1966 after he single-handedly saved the Dodgers' 1966 regular season in the final game. In the last two seasons of his career, Koufax averaged an impressive 27 complete games, 27 wins and 350 strikeouts. Yet 16 days after winning his second straight unanimous Cy Young Award, he shocked Major League Baseball by announcing he was going to retire. Like a supernova that had lit up the sports world for six years, he flamed out and was gone by age 30.