Take Me Out to the Ballpark is a wonderful tour through every park in the Major League, along with dozens more stadiums from the Minor Leagues, Negro Leagues and baseball's past. Packed with hundreds of photographs and loaded with facts, stories and statistics, it's the ultimate books for diehard and casual fans alike.

Before he hit 400 home runs... Before he was named American League MVP... Before he was AROD to millions of fans... He was Alex. Just a kid who wanted to play baseball more than anything else in the world. Baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez has drawn on his own childhood experiences to create this exciting picture book. It's the story of a boy named Alex who knows what it's like to swing at a wild pitch or have a ball bounce right between his legs. Alex is determined not to let his mistakes set him back—even if it means getting up at the crack of dawn to work on his hitting and fielding before school each day! Full of the spirit of determination and joy in the game that put AROD in a league of his own, Out of the Ballpark is a gift from a great sports hero to every young player who dreams of becoming a star.

Join one little boy and his family for two ballgames—on opposite sides of the world! You may know that baseball is the Great American Pastime, but did you know that it is also a beloved sport in Japan? Come along with one little boy and his grandfathers, one in America and one in Japan, as he learns about baseball and its rich, varying cultural traditions. This debut picture book from Aaron Meshon is a home run—don’t be surprised if the vivid illustrations and energetic text leave you shouting, “LET’S PLAY YAKYU!”

"There's too much nature in that ballpark"--Harry Chiti And make no mistake, whether it's the wind full-tilt off Lake Michigan, an early-season snowstorm at Waveland and Sheffield, or spring ivy hiding the batted balls of the visiting nine, nature seems to have Wrigley Field and the Cubbies under its thumb. In this book, John Skipper talks with 35 former Chicago Cubs who relive their ball-playing days and speculate on the eternally middling and undeniably popular Northsiders. This troop of now-grizzled bears, including Claude Passeau, Hank Wyse, Alvin Dark, Don Kessinger, Joe Niekro, Pete LaCock, and slugger Hank Sauer, hold forth on the front office moves, gruelling day-game scheduling and sometimes agonizing play of one of baseball's oldest, unluckiest and yet most revered franchises.

In this rendering of the beloved song Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Jim Burke captures an exciting era of America's favorite pastime - as well as the incredible story of one controversial contest that went down in the history books: In 1908, the year the anthem was written, one of the all-time most memorable match-ups in baseball history occurred when the New York Giants faced the reigning World Series champion Chicago Cubs with their greatest weapon - Christy Mathewson, the greatest pitcher in Giants history and America's first true sports superstar. Filled with fan-pleasing trivia and nostalgic paintings, here is a remarkable orchestration that brings the sights, sounds and smells of the ballpark, a century ago, vividly to life.

For anyone who has ever sung ?Take Me Out to the Ball Game? during the seventh-inning stretch and wondered why we sing it when we are already at the ball game, this entertaining book supplies the answers. And why did this song become the sport?s anthem rather than one of hundreds of other baseball songs, such as George M. Cohan?s ?Take Your Girl to the Ball Game,? written the same month? This story, told here in full for the first time, evokes the bright hope of turn-of-the-century America, the backstage drama of vaudeville, and the beguiling charm of baseball itself. Amy Whorf McGuiggan supplies the fascinating details behind the song?s beginnings in 1908, when Jack Norworth, a vaudeville headliner and Tin Pan Alley songwriter who had never even been to a game, was inspired by a subway advertisement to create the song that, though a hit in its day, did not become a time-honored tradition until broadcaster Harry Caray and team owner and marketing genius Bill Veeck Jr. reintroduced it during the 1970s. Here is America?s game and the American century seen through the prism of one impossibly catchy tune and illustrated throughout with vintage photographs, advertising images, and sheet music culled from America?s premier collections.

The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd . . . Four rising star authors celebrate the love of the game with these sweet and seductive baseball romances. Trade Off by Elley Arden: Traded and jaded, catcher Ben Border is considering stepping out from behind the plate. Then he runs into former flame Scarlett Dare. Turns out the sexy marketing executive still sends him into a fever pitch. But is she willing to trade Fortune 500 success for a happily ever after? Slugger Gone South by Alicia Hunter Pace: When New York Yankee Marc MacNeal comes to Merritt, Alabama, for a charity golf tournament, he’s shocked to be reunited with his ex-fiancee Bailey Watkins. It could be the perfect chance to get some long-awaited closure—or the start of a whole new ball game . . . That Ol’ Team Spirit by Bea Moon: Someone’s haunting the Sharks’ stadium and creating some major league mischief. So psychic Peg Noonan and her granddaughter Trish are determined to discover who’s menacing their concessions stand. With the help of Trish’s high school love, sportswriter Rob Hanks, they just might have a ghost of a (second) chance. Safe at Home by Leslie P. Garcia: Amanda Warner hates baseball, but knows it’ll take a swing for the fences to save her dad’s hardware store. Hoping his star power will bring the crowds in, she sets her sights on Scorpions’ All-Star Josh “Hotstuff” Arrevalos brings unexpected surprises. But is her heart ready to play ball again? Sensuality Level: Sensual