Stealing First and Other Old-Time Baseball Stories

Stealing First and Other Old-Time Baseball Stories
Author: Chris Williams
Publisher: Sunbury Press
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre:
ISBN: 9781620063835

Whoa! You mean there actually was a player that stole first base? Yes! Catch the story about the zany guy who pulled that off in Stealing First and Other Old-Time Baseball Stories. Did you know that Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson was the star of a well-regarded Hollywood movie? The full story about #42's successful stint in front of the camera is found in the pages of this book. Learn about the All-Star career of the man who Lou Gehrig displaced as Yankees first baseman, a major crisis Major League Baseball faced in 1969, and the statistical reasons why the term "The Mendoza Line" is inaccurate and unfair. Stealing First and Other Old-Time Baseball Stories also includes a heart-felt salute to the major leaguers who lost their lives in war, a new look at the reasons behind the Phillies' historic late-season collapse in 1964, and an easy-to-understand essay that questions the importance of walks in a team's offensive strategy. The exciting baseball of the 1980s is fondly remembered with a tip-of-the-hate to the decade's high-achievers on terrible teams and there's also a big dose of baby-boomer nostalgia centered on a trip to one of baseball's historic ball parks. And that's not all! Stealing First and Other Old-Time Baseball Stories is loaded with intelligent and fun diamond stories that both stats wonks and the casual fan will enjoy.

Stealing First and Other Stories

Stealing First and Other Stories
Author: Cynthia Drew
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2020-03-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1480886793

In the American deep south in 1957, the Redbirds battle the Bayou Braves for the championship. Ronnie LeBlanc, the Redbirds’ pitcher, believes that winning the regional title is his ticket out of a dead-end job at the local sugar mill. When the Redbirds suffer a series of losses, the team’s coach quits, and the sole person willing to take the job is a former Negro League pitcher—the only African-American in a still-segregated game. Ronnie begins to suspect external forces are the cause of his team’s unlucky streak. As he digs for answers, he stumbles upon a secret: Bo Brasseux, the town’s bigoted banker, is scheming to kill the Redbirds’ new coach, throw the championship game, and ruin Ronnie’s family financially. A scout for the Chicago Cubs could be the answer, but will being tapped by the Cubs be enough to thwart Brasseux’s despicable plans against the coach and Ronnie’s family? Based on a true story, “Stealing First” is only one tale in this collection that offers glimpses of small-town politics, snake-handlers, nosey house-hunters, and the making of a murderer. Each story looks at our prejudices and conceits, our loves in all their variations, and the worst and best of us.

Stolen Bases

Stolen Bases
Author: Jennifer Ring
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2009
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252032829

A revealing look at the history of women's exclusion from America's national pastime

Stealing Home

Stealing Home
Author: Eric Nusbaum
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1541742192

A story about baseball, family, the American Dream, and the fight to turn Los Angeles into a big league city. Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy. Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy -- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium. But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families -- including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.

Stealing Home

Stealing Home
Author: J. Torres
Publisher: Kids Can Press Ltd
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1525303341

A gripping graphic novel that tells a boy’s experience in a WWII Japanese internment camp, and the lessons that baseball teaches him. Sandy Saito is a happy boy who’s obsessed with baseball — especially the Asahi team, the pride of his community. But when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, his life, like that of every North American of Japanese descent, changes forever. Forced to move to a remote internment camp, he and his family cope as best they can. And though life at the camp is difficult, Sandy finds solace in baseball, where there’s always the promise of possibilities. Through his experience, Sandy comes to realize that life is a lot like baseball. It’s about dealing with whatever is thrown at you, however you can. And it’s about finding your way home.

The Hidden Game of Baseball

The Hidden Game of Baseball
Author: John Thorn
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2015-03-20
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 022627683X

The acclaimed classic on the statistical analysis of baseball records in order to evaluate players and win more games. Long before Moneyball became a sensation or Nate Silver turned the knowledge he’d honed on baseball into electoral gold, John Thorn and Pete Palmer were using statistics to shake the foundations of the game. First published in 1984, The Hidden Game of Baseball ushered in the sabermetric revolution by demonstrating that we were thinking about baseball stats—and thus the game itself—all wrong. Instead of praising sluggers for gaudy RBI totals or pitchers for wins, Thorn and Palmer argued in favor of more subtle measurements that correlated much more closely to the ultimate goal: winning baseball games. The new gospel promulgated by Thorn and Palmer opened the door for a flood of new questions, such as how a ballpark’s layout helps or hinders offense or whether a strikeout really is worse than another kind of out. Taking questions like these seriously—and backing up the answers with data—launched a new era, showing fans, journalists, scouts, executives, and even players themselves a new, better way to look at the game. This brand-new edition retains the body of the original, with its rich, accessible analysis rooted in a deep love of baseball, while adding a new introduction by the authors tracing the book’s influence over the years. A foreword by ESPN’s lead baseball analyst, Keith Law, details The Hidden Game’s central role in the transformation of baseball coverage and team management and shows how teams continue to reap the benefits of Thorn and Palmer’s insights today. Thirty years after its original publication, The Hidden Game is still bringing the high heat—a true classic of baseball literature. Praise for The Hidden Game “As grateful as I was for the publication of The Hidden Game of Baseball when it first showed up on my bookshelf, I’m even more grateful now. It’s as insightful today as it was then. And it’s a reminder that we haven’t applauded Thorn and Palmer nearly loudly enough for their incredible contributions to the use and understanding of the awesome numbers of baseball.” —Jayson Stark, senior baseball writer, ESPN.com “Just as one cannot know the great American novel without Twain and Hemingway, one cannot know modern baseball analysis without Thorn and Palmer.” —Rob Neyer, FOX Sports

Stealing First

Stealing First
Author: Saylor Smith
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2008-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0595485901

Stealing First is the story of Jody Benson, a man of thirty-plus who is looking back on his life as a high school-aged boy in the small Nebraska town of South Bend. Living and teaching high school in Oregon during the mid-1970s, he takes a summer trip "home" in search of the impulses that made him the man he has become. He has unease about him that he (and his wife) hope this journey can assuage. Back in South Bend with his two sons, Jody visits once again the sites of some memorable experiences during the most impressionable of his growing years. The story moves back and forth between the 1950s and 1970s as he recalls significant events in his life as a young Nebraskan and tries to fit together the puzzle of his own existence. Teenage acts of mischief, scenes of first love, athletic exploits-Jody remembers them all. Old friend and neighbor Marian McKnight, still vibrant and insightful in her late sixties, provides Jody with invaluable observations, commentary and encouragement-as she did for the teenage Jody-and old pals Bo and Harley help him re-live some of their times together. His father's words, "You can't steal first," provide a guiding-and limiting-force in his life. In the end a tragic event shakes Jody from his lethargy and, ironically, leads him to self-discovery and even a measure of contentment.

Baseball’s All-Time Best Sluggers

Baseball’s All-Time Best Sluggers
Author: Michael J. Schell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1400881358

Over baseball history, which park has been the best for run scoring? (1) Which player would lose the most home runs after adjustments for ballpark effect? (2) Which player claims four of the top five places for best individual seasons ever played, based on all-around offensive performance? (3) (See answers, below). These are only three of the intriguing questions Michael Schell addresses in Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers, a lively examination of the game of baseball using the most sophisticated statistical tools available. The book provides an in-depth evaluation of every major offensive event in baseball history, and identifies the players with the 100 best seasons and most productive careers. For the first time ever, ballpark effects across baseball history are presented for doubles, triples, right- and left-handed home-run hitting, and strikeouts. The book culminates with a ranking of the game's best all-around batters. Using a brisk conversational style, Schell brings to the plate the two most important credentials essential to producing a book of this kind: an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a professional background in statistics. Building on the traditions of renowned baseball historians Pete Palmer and Bill James, he has analyzed the most important factors impacting the sport, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool from which players are drawn, player aging, and changes in the game that have raised or lowered major-league batting averages. Schell's book finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions, and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. It also provides rankings based on players' positions. For example, Derek Jeter ranks 295th out of 1,140 on the best batters list, but jumps to 103rd in the position-adjusted list, reflecting his offensive prowess among shortstops. Replete with dozens of never-before reported stories and statistics, Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers will forever shape the way baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime. Answers: 1. Coors Field 2. Mel Ott 3. Barry Bonds, 2001–2004 seasons

The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball, 2d ed.

The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball, 2d ed.
Author: Jonathan Fraser Light
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 1112
Release: 2016-03-25
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476617449

More than any other sport, baseball has developed its own niche in America's culture and psyche. Some researchers spend years on detailed statistical analyses of minute parts of the game, while others wax poetic about its players and plays. Many trace the beginnings of the civil rights movement in part to the Major Leagues' decision to integrate, and the words and phrases of the game (for example, pinch-hitter and out in left field) have become common in our everyday language. From AARON, HENRY onward, this book covers all of what might be called the cultural aspects of baseball (as opposed to the number-rich statistical information so widely available elsewhere). Biographical sketches of all Hall of Fame players, owners, executives and umpires, as well as many of the sportswriters and broadcasters who have won the Spink and Frick awards, join entries for teams, owners, commissioners and league presidents. Advertising, agents, drafts, illegal substances, minor leagues, oldest players, perfect games, retired uniform numbers, superstitions, tripleheaders, and youngest players are among the thousands of entries herein. Most entries open with a topical quote and conclude with a brief bibliography of sources for further research. The whole work is exhaustively indexed and includes 119 photographs.

The Desperado who Stole Baseball

The Desperado who Stole Baseball
Author: John H. Ritter
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2009
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780399246647

In 1881, the scrappy, rough-and-tumble baseball team in a California mining town enlists the help of a quick-witted twelve-year-old orphan and the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid to win a big game against the National League Champion Chicago White Stockings. Prequel to: The boy who saved baseball.