Sports & Recreation : Baseball

With a journalist’s eye for detail and a novelist’s feel for storytelling, Tom Swift takes readers on Bender’s improbable journey—from his early years on the White Earth Reservation, to his development at the Carlisle Indian School, to his big break and eventual rise to the pinnacle of baseball. The story of a paradoxical American sports hero, one who achieved a once-unfathomable celebrity while suffering the harsh injustices of a racially intolerant world, Chief Bender’s Burden is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative of a unique American life. more...

Price: $24.95

A narrative account of the life of the Puerto Rican baseball star traces his impoverished childhood, victories during the 1960 and 1970 World Series games, humanitarian contributions, and ongoing legacy for Latino major league players. more...

Price: $11.99

The authoritative sourcebooks for parents, players, and coaches. Baseball is a complicated game to learn, particularly for a 9- to 12-year-old's attention span. Bewildered managers, coaches, and parents of the more than 2.5 million Little League Baseball® players need all the help they can get. Filled with fun and easy-to-follow instructions and advice on teaching the fundamentals of baseball, the bestselling Little League Baseball® series is sure to score with coaches and kids alike. COACHING THE LITTLE LEAGUE® PITCHER. This book provides Little League coaches and parents with valuable information on how to help their pitchers improve, covering everything from the kinds of pitches and the strategic aspects of pitching to tips for keeping players healthy and fit. more...

Price: $14.95

Coaching young players, developing their skills, and cultivating a love for the sport may be the most rewarding experience baseball can offer. Cal and Bill Ripken understand this like few others. more...

Price: $14.95

From the perspective of 2007, the unintentional irony of Chance's boast is manifest—these days, the question is when will the Cubs ever win a game they have to have. In October 1908, though, no one would have laughed: The Cubs were, without doubt, baseball's greatest team—the first dynasty of the 20th century. Crazy '08 recounts the 1908 season—the year when Peerless Leader Frank Chance's men went toe to toe to toe with John McGraw and Christy Mathewson's New York Giants and Honus Wagner's Pittsburgh Pirates in the greatest pennant race the National League has ever seen. The American League has its own three-cornered pennant fight, and players like Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and the egregiously crooked Hal Chase ensured that the junior circuit had its moments. But it was the National League's—and the Cubs'—year. Crazy '08 , however, is not just the exciting story of a great season. It is also about the forces that created modern baseball, and the America that produced it. In 1908, crooked pols run Chicago's First Ward, and gambling magnates control the Yankees. Fans regularly invade the field to do handstands or argue with the umps; others shoot guns from rickety grandstands prone to burning. There are anarchists on the loose and racial killings in the town that made Lincoln. On the flimsiest of pretexts, General Abner Doubleday becomes a symbol of Americanism, and baseball's own anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," is a hit. Picaresque and dramatic, 1908 is a season in which so many weird and wonderful things happen that it is somehow unsurprising that a hairpiece, a swarm of gnats, a sudden bout of lumbago, and a disaster down in the mines all play a role in its outcome. And sometimes the events are not so wonderful at all. There are several deaths by baseball, and the shadow of corruption creeps closer to the heart of baseball—the honesty of the game itself. Simply more...

Price: $11.95