Crack of the Bat

Crack of the Bat
Author: Bob Hill
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2002
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781582614342

Crack of the Bat is a comprehensive and entertaining look at the most famous icon in the history of baseball, the Louisville Slugger bat. It includes the evolution of bats from pioneer wagon tongues to the sleek aluminum models of today. It examines the amazing physics involved in hitting a baseball, where .003 seconds means the difference between a home run and a foul ball. It tells the fascinating history of the still family-owned Hillerich & Bradsby Company, which in just 80 years went from making butter churns to making seven million bats a year. Reinforcing this are dozens of stories about the bats themselves, and the personal idiosyncracies of the most famous hitters in baseball history, including Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr. and Derek Jeter. The book explains why the players picked the bats they did, the amazing lengths they would go to to protect them, and how valuable these bats have now become in the hands of collectors. Illustrated with hundreds of archival photographs, baseball decals, and icons, many in color, this book will become as much a cherished keepsake as some of the bats it describes.

The Louisville Slugger Ultimate Book of Hitting

The Louisville Slugger Ultimate Book of Hitting
Author: John Monteleone
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Total Pages: 288
Release: 1997-03-15
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780805044133

Reveals the collected wisdom of the legends of the game, from Ty Cobb to Tony Gwynn, from Babe Ruth to Barry Bonds, and helps parents, coaches, and players at all levels sort through the advice to find the hitting style that's just right for them.

The Pizza Pie Slugger

The Pizza Pie Slugger
Author: Jean Marzollo
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1989
Genre: Baseball stories
ISBN: 9780394828817

"Billy can't seem to connect with a pitch, and is convinced that his bad luck at bat is caused by his baby sister's irritating wail. How he works through not only his athletic crisis but also his family concerns forms the basis of the story. Marzollo's latest effort is sure to score a hit with young sports fans."--"School Library Journal.

Harmon Killebrew

Harmon Killebrew
Author: Steve Aschburner
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1600787029

"A biography of baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew"--

Full Count

Full Count
Author: Frank Messina
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2009-04-14
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1599217570

The subject of a front-page New York Times article, Frank Messina takes the same seat at every New York Mets home game. His self proclaimed title as “The Mets Poet” is emblazoned across the back of his Mets jersey and printed on the season–ticket-holder plaque next to his seat. A collection of seventy-five of his poems that pay homage to his favorite team, Full Count is the ideal inspiration for any Mets fan, whether in those all-too-long, quiet stretches of life between games or for impassioned recitation in the bleachers or in front of the TV.

Blastin' the Blues

Blastin' the Blues
Author: LOREN LONG
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2012-12-11
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1471109615

#1 New York Times Best Seller LOREN LONG’s illustrations have received two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and his first picture book, Angela Johnson’s I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for Illustrations and his inspired interpretation of Walt Whitman’s When I Heard Learn’d Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor. A much sought after editorial artist whose work has appeared in Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly, Loren is widely known for the illustrations in Madonna’s #1 New York Times Best Seller Mr. Peabody’s Apples. And Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could. He lives in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, Griffith and Graham.

The Slugger's Game

The Slugger's Game
Author: Robert E. Howard
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1473398231

This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in 1930 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Slugger's Game' is a story in the Sailor Steve Costigan series about a travelling boxer. Robert Ervin Howard was born in Peaster, Texas in 1906. During his youth, his family moved between a variety of Texan boomtowns, and Howard - a bookish and somewhat introverted child - was steeped in the violent myths and legends of the Old South. At fifteen Howard began to read the pulp magazines of the day, and to write more seriously. The December 1922 issue of his high school newspaper featured two of his stories, 'Golden Hope Christmas' and 'West is West'. In 1924 he sold his first piece - a short caveman tale titled 'Spear and Fang' - for $16 to the not-yet-famous Weird Tales magazine. Howard's most famous character, Conan the Cimmerian, was a barbarian-turned-King during the Hyborian Age, a mythical period of some 12,000 years ago. Conan featured in seventeen Weird Tales stories between 1933 and 1936 which is why Howard is now regarded as having spawned the 'sword and sorcery' genre. The Conan stories have since been adapted many times, most famously in the series of films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Baseball’s All-Time Best Sluggers

Baseball’s All-Time Best Sluggers
Author: Michael J. Schell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0691171114

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 Slugger's Shadow

The Slugger's Shadow
Author: Bob Temple
Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1631636758

Aaron is a 12-year-old baseball phenom, and it’s all come down to his final at-bat. Just then, he spots his superstar-athlete older brother, Will, who completely abandoned him. Can Aaron come through at the plate, and will his brother come through for him?