The first guide to help you get to the next level of baseball play To continue advancing up the ladder of competition, you need to master the game's advanced skills and techniques, those exciting plays that surface at crucial moments in competition and bring victory--the game-breaker plays and skills. The Louisville Slugger® Book of Game-Breaker Baseball moves beyond the basics. It features step-by-step instructions supplemented by major-league players explaining their styles in making the same plays. This book: Teaches you 30 key skills illustrated with 150 high-quality photographs Offers you a complete blueprint if you want to play at the game's higher skill levels Provides approximate ages to master the skills and how long it should take to learn them

Whether you're an experienced coach or a parent eager to help your child get the best experiences with a newly-formed team, you'll get everything you need from Ron Filipkowski's "Travelball: How to Start and Manage a Successful Travel Baseball Team." Filipkowski, named the 2010 13-U Coach of the Year by Travelball Select, brings more than a decade of personal expertise to this comprehensive handbook. He not only knows what it takes to keep a group of kids moving ahead toward top-level tournament goals-- he also shares amazing insights into the psychology of motivation and team management. Along the way, Ron Filipkowski shares unabashedly personal stories of his many experiences as the coach of a championship team. Some of his tales will have you splitting your sides with laughter; others will simply melt your heart. But throughout the book the author repeatedly makes one thing clear: if your team is going to be a consistent success on the baseball field, then you have to be at the top of your game when your players are off the field, too. While some travelball coaches may find themselves severely challenged by the competing needs of young players, demanding parents, petty rivalries, scheduling conflicts, hotel logistics, unethical competition, and all the other wild and unpredictable factors that go into the potentially overwhelming world of high-level travelball competition, Ron Filipkowski makes it all seem easy. Although "Travelball" features a massive amount of practical, hands-on information that will help you coach your team to peak levels of performance, this book doesn't stop there. Ron Filipkowski also takes you off the playing field, out of the dugout, past the locker room, and into the hearts and minds of anxious parents, overbearing tournament officials, and the umpires who never seem to get the respect they deserve. This is the real world of competing egos, unintentional goof-ups, and big-league stupidity that can make even veteran coaches pull their hair out-- and Filipkowski not only captures it elegantly in print; he also tells you exactly how to survive in this super-charged culture of crazy little things that all somehow make a big difference! If you're serious about being all the coach you can be, get this book and read every word. Then read it a second time, and keep a copy with you every time you get ready for a practice or head out for a tournament. And if you really want your team to succeed, make sure all your assistant coaches have their own copies, too! Here's just some of what you'll find in the exciting pages of "Travelball: How to Start and Manage a Successsful Travel Baseball Team" * Dealing with parents that are unhappy with playing time or positions. * How to handle and approach youth umpires to get them on your side. * Crazy little strategy tips that make a huge difference in travelball tournaments. * Why you should consistently treat each player different. * Creative offensive and defensive plays. * Recruiting new players from rec ball leagues and other travelball teams. * Tournament and game strategies adapted for travelball rules and formats. * Why doing things by "The Book" doesn't always work in the youth game. * Keeping other coaches from recruiting your players. * Managing playing time in tournaments to keep everyone happy while winning. * How to make travelball coexist with rec ball, school ball and other sports. * Baseball-specific strength, speed & conditioning exercises tailored for youth players. * Why home runs are evil in the youth game. * Curveballs and kids. * Why Bill Walsh-style practices are best for young players. * How to keep your team together over several seasons. * Teaching plate discipline and the mental approach at the plate. * The ethics of sign-stealing. * Why you should remove the word "umpire" from your team vocabulary. * Dealing with difficult parents of outstanding players. * Hosting tournaments as fundraisers. * And much, mu

The subject of a front-page New York Times article, Frank Messina takes the same seat at every New York Mets home game. His self proclaimed title as “The Mets Poet” is emblazoned across the back of his Mets jersey and printed on the season–ticket-holder plaque next to his seat. A collection of seventy-five of his poems that pay homage to his favorite team, Full Count is the ideal inspiration for any Mets fan, whether in those all-too-long, quiet stretches of life between games or for impassioned recitation in the bleachers or in front of the TV.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.

This unique program teaches listeners how to "decode" and reply to non-verbal signals from friends and business associates when those signals are often vague and thus frequenly ignored