"The Way Baseball Works will change the way you view America's national pastime. By breaking baseball down into its integral parts, the book explains the importance of each to the whole through minute analysis and highly detailed visuals. Veteran baseball writer Dan Gutman answers the big questions and then opens your eyes to elements you hadn't even imagined. Not just a simple how-to book, The Way Baseball Works covers all the bases, including equipment: how the tools of the game - the bat, ball, glove, mask, and so many more - were born, how they developed, and how they influenced the game; strategy: how the manger makes decisions, what each player is thinking as the pitcher goes into his windup, the psychological warfare that goes on in the confrontation between hitter and pitcher; and playing the game: how the fastball, curver, splitter, slider and knuckler are thrown, and what a batter can do to hit them. The beauty of the double play. The art of the stolen base." "Through photos, charts, and computer-generated graphics, this fascinating and instructive book will deepen every fan's understanding and appreciation of the game. Created in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame, The Way Baseball Works carries the mark of one of America's most venerable institutions and the world's best source for baseball knowledge."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Major League All-Star Green shares how his baseball career has taught him to live life being fully present in every moment.

Describes the fundamental and advanced techniques of three major areas of baseball--fielding, hitting, and base running.

The New York Times bestseller about what would happen if two statistics-minded outsiders were allowed to run a professional baseball team. It’s the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies -- with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That’s what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics. Their story in The Only Rule is it Has to Work is unlike any other baseball tale you've ever read. We tag along as Lindbergh and Miller apply their number-crunching insights to all aspects of assembling and running a team, following one cardinal rule for judging each innovation they try: it has to work. We meet colorful figures like general manager Theo Fightmaster and boundary-breakers like the first openly gay player in professional baseball. Even José Canseco makes a cameo appearance. Will their knowledge of numbers help Lindbergh and Miller bring the Stompers a championship, or will they fall on their faces? Will the team have a competitive advantage or is the sport’s folk wisdom true after all? Will the players attract the attention of big-league scouts, or are they on a fast track to oblivion? It’s a wild ride, by turns provocative and absurd, as Lindbergh and Miller tell a story that will speak to numbers geeks and traditionalists alike. And they prove that you don’t need a bat or a glove to make a genuine contribution to the game.

The untold story of baseball’s nineteenth-century origins: “a delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat” (Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal). You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. Perhaps you’ve read that baseball’s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses, and fought against the South in the Civil War. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars—all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year

What an amazing journey for Edith and Harold's only Son! I have spent 33 years in the Major Leagues, traveling around the world eating at the best restaurants, such as Tramonti in Delray Beach, Florida to La Scarola in Chicago IL to Hunan Homes in San Francisco, CA. I have shared meals with some of the world's greatest people such as Neil Armstrong, Charles Barkley, Bob Knight, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Jack Buck and so many more. My spectacular journey includes stories from behind-the-scenes of my professional baseball career that, until now, were only told in clubhouses, dugouts, or when out to dinner with me. Life is a journey...enjoy the meal! Bon Appetit!