When authors Billy Staples and Rich Herschlag are asked to write a baseball column for The Trentonian, they decide to put their own stamp on it. Covering primarily Philadelphia and New York, they forego the dirt and seek out baseballs role models, well known and not so well known. They sidestep the steroids and find the stories of courage, dedication and humanity the mainstream press so often misses. Shortly after the All-Star break, another storyline develops. In Philadelphia, the 2008 World Champions are beginning to reemerge. Up the turnpike in New York, the Yankees are showing shades of their former selves from a decade earlier. One by one, division rivals fall by the wayside, and on October 25 only the Yanks and Phils remain standing. The Phillies-Yankees World Series is a battle of baseball titans. For Staples and Herschlagwho in their first full year get to cover it from field levelit is the ultimate reward for doing it their way.

The proof of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just such an opportunity. Organized in the form of a calendar, this book allows readers to see the dates of famous births, deaths, and events that have affected the lives of African Americans and, by extension, of America as a whole. Each day features an entry with information about an important event that occurred on that date. Background on the highlighted event is provided, along with a link to at least one primary source document and references to books and websites that can provide more information. While there are other calendars of African American history, this one is set apart by its level of academic detail. It is not only a calendar, but also an easy-to-use reference and learning tool.

From an award-winning New York Times sports columnist, the definitive biography of one of baseball's most celebrated, mercurial, and misunderstood figures--legendary manager and baseball genius, Billy Martin

NFL placekicking has an extensive history, from the early days of the dropkick, to the placekick, to kicking barefoot, to soccer style kicking. Each season, approximately 30 percent of all games in pro football are won by field goals. Field goals and extra points account for 20 percent of the league’s yearly total points. This book discusses all aspects of NFL placekicking in historical perspective: the effectiveness of different kicking styles; the use of artificial turf and the development of domed stadiums as they relate to placekicking accuracy; individual kickers who helped to change the way a football is kicked; the mental aspects of the skill, so vital to a kicker’s success; the development of the square-toe kicking shoe used by straight-on kickers to make better contact with the ball; changes in goal posts and the shape of the ball; and the fine points of centering, blocking and holding for the kicker.

A comprehensive reference provides historical overviews of all 335 Division 1 teams, season-by-season summaries, ESPN/Sagarin rankings of top-selected college basketball programs, and more.

Michael Lewis’s instant classic may be “the most influential book on sports ever written” (People), but “you need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy and incisiveness of [Lewis’s] thoughts about it” (Janet Maslin, New York Times). One of GQ's 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century Just before the 2002 season opens, the Oakland Athletics must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players and is written off by just about everyone—but then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins. How did one of the poorest teams in baseball win so many games? In a quest to discover the answer, Michael Lewis delivers not only “the single most influential baseball book ever” (Rob Neyer, Slate) but also what “may be the best book ever written on business” (Weekly Standard). Lewis first looks to all the logical places—the front offices of major league teams, the coaches, the minds of brilliant players—but discovers the real jackpot is a cache of numbers?numbers!?collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers, and physics professors. What these numbers prove is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information had been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. He paid attention to those numbers?with the second-lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to?to conduct an astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win . . . how can we not cheer for David?

Recounts the true childhood stories and lessons of some of baseball's greatest players, including Gary Carter, Ralph Kiner, Ferguson Jenkins, and Tony Gwynn.