Chip is an imperfect diamond. He doesn’t appreciate anything he has. He lacks the four Cs of a quality diamond: confidence, courage, consideration, and commitment. Chip learns that in order to be a brilliant and sparkling diamond, he has to change. Will he become a true gem? Or will he remain an imperfect diamond?

From the introduction of the reserve clause in 1879 to the lockout and new basic agreement of 1990, baseball players have been engaged in one of the longest and most colorful labor struggles in our nation’s history. The Imperfect Diamond tells the stories of the players and their opponents, the powerful owners: how John Montgomery Ward led the Players League Rebellion of 1890; the rise and fall of David Fultz and the Baseball Players Fraternity (1912–18); the iron-fisted regime of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis; the case of Danny Gardella vs. Happy Chandler and the blacklisting of the players who jumped to the Mexican League; the founding of the Baseball Players Association in 1953 and the tempestuous but triumphant reign of Marvin Miller; the struggles of Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith, and Dave McNally, and how they brought about the demise of the reserve clause; the unprecedented midseason strike of 1981 and the collusion cases of the late 1980s. In the epilogue for this Bison Books edition, Lee Lowenfish guides the reader through the turbulent 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century, covering expansion teams, the monumental 1994 strike, and performance-enhancing drugs. Listed by the Society of American Baseball Research as one of the fifty essential baseball books, The Imperfect Diamond will stand for years to come as the source for the real story behind America’s national pastime.

He had had a perfectly orderly life...until she came along William, the sixth Duke of Pelham, enjoys his punctual. securely structured life. Orderly and predictable—that's the way he likes it. But he's in the public eye, and the scandal sheets will make up anything to sell papers. When the gossips link him to Juliette, one of the most beautiful and celebrated courtesans in London, chaos doesn't begin to describe what happens next. Juliette is nicknamed the Duchess of Dalliance, and has the cream of the nobility at her beck and call. It's seriously disruptive to have the duke who's the biggest catch on the Marriage Mart scaring her other suitors away. Then she discovers William's darkest secret and decides what he needs in his life is the kind of excitement only she can provide. The first in a sparkling Regency romance trilogy from acclaimed author Shana Galen following a glittering trio of celebrated courtesans whose fortunes depend on the ton believing the rumors about their mysterious lives. Celebrate the 80th birthday of Regency Romance with great books from Sourcebooks Casablanca! Jewels of a Ton Trilogy: When You Give a Duke a Diamond (Book 1) If You Give a Rake a Ruby (Book 2) Sapphires Are an Earl's Best Friend (Book 3) Praise for Shana Galen: "BRILLIANT AND SEXY! Once you start a Shana Galen book, you won't put it down until you reach the end." —Sophie Jordan, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked in Your Arms "Her engaging characters and strong plotline enhance the spirited dialogue and sense of adventure." —RT Book Reviews

The decades between the late 1960s counterculture and the advent of steroid use in the late 1980s bought tumult to Major League Baseball. Dock Ellis (Pirates, Yankees) and Dick Allen (Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, White Sox) epitomized the era with recreational drug use (Ellis), labor strife (Allen), and the questioning of authority. Both men were Black Power advocates at a time when the movement was growing in baseball. In the 1970s and 1980s, Marvin Miller and the Major League Baseball Players Association fought numerous, mostly victorious battles with MLB and team owners. This book chronicles a turbulent period in baseball, and in American life, that led directly to the performance-enhancing drug era and the dramatically changed nature of the game.

America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this book, the first installment of a highly readable, comprehensive labor history of baseball, Robert Burk d

To most Americans, baseball is just a sport; but to those who own baseball teams--and those who play on them--our national pastime is much more than a game. In this book, Robert Burk traces the turbulent labor history of American baseball since 1921. His comprehensive, readable account details the many battles between owners and players that irrevocably altered the business of baseball. During what Burk calls baseball's "paternalistic era," from 1921 to the early 1960s, the sport's management rigidly maintained a system of racial segregation, established a network of southern-based farm teams that served as a captive source of cheap replacement labor, and crushed any attempts by players to create collective bargaining institutions. In the 1960s, however, the paternal order crumbled, eroded in part by the civil rights movement and the competition of television. As a consequence, in the "inflationary era" that followed, both players and umpires established effective unions that successfully pressed for higher pay, pensions, and greater occupational mobility--and then fought increasingly bitter struggles to hold on to these hard-won gains.

This is an anthology of 20 papers that were presented at the Tenth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, held in June 1998, and co-sponsored by the State University of New York at Oneonta and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Commencing with a perceptive speech by keynote speaker G. Edward White, this Symposium examined such topics as whether a city can support two--not just one--major league team, how television broadcasters and their ball clubs interrelate and how masculine dominance in baseball mainly curtailed female advancement in the game and business. These essays, divided into sections titled "Baseball as a Business," "Baseball and Communication," "Baseball and Racial and Ethnic Perspectives," "Baseball and Gender Matters," "Baseball and Images" and "The 'Other' Leagues of Baseball," cut through the quick and easy judgments of the media and offer instead the longer, more informed view of scholars and researchers.