The Pine Tar Game

The Pine Tar Game
Author: Filip Bondy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2015-07-21
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476777195

The New York Times bestseller—“a rollicking account” (The Kansas City Star) of the infamous baseball game between the Yankees and Royals in which a game-winning home run was overturned and set off one of sports history’s most absurd and entertaining controversies. On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar—the sticky substance used for a better grip—on Royals third baseman George Brett’s bat. Brett wildly charged out of the dugout and chaos ensued. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria. The game was a watershed moment, marking a change in the sport, where benign cheating tactics like spitballs, Superball bats, and a couple extra inches of tar on an ash bat, gave way to era of soaring salaries, labor strikes, and rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. In The Pine Tar Game acclaimed sports writer Filip Bondy paints a portrait of the Yankees and Royals of that era, replete with bad actors, phenomenal athletes, and plenty of yelling. Players and club officials, like Brett, Goose Gossage, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, David Cone, and John Schuerholz, offer fresh commentary on the events and their take on the subsequent postseason rivalry. “A sticky moment milked for all its nutty, head-shaking glory” (Sports Illustrated), The Pine Tar Game examines a more innocent time in professional sports, and the shifting tide that resulted in today’s modern iteration of baseball. Some watchers of the Royals’ 2015 World Series win over New York’s “other baseball team,” the Mets, may see it as sweet revenge for a bygone era of talent flow and umpire calls favoring New York.

The Pine Tar Game

The Pine Tar Game
Author: Filip Bondy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-08-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476777187

On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar, the sticky substance used for a better grip, on Royals third baseman George Brett's bat. Brett wildly charged out of the dugout and chaos ensued. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria. The Pine Tar Game chronicles this watershed moment, marking a pivot in the sport, when benign cheating tactics, like spitballs, Superball bats, and a couple extra inches of tar on an ash bat, gave way to era of soaring salaries, labor struggles, and rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. Filip Bondy paints a portrait of the Yankees and Royals of that era, featuring two diametrically opposed owners, in George Steinbrenner and Ewing Kauffman; a host of bad actors and phenomenal athletes; and lots of yelling. Players and club officials like Brett, Goose Gossage, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, David Cone, and John Schuerholz offer fresh commentary on the events along with their take on a rivalry that culminated in one of the most iconic baseball tantrums of all time. Rush Limbaugh, employed by the Royals at the time as a promotions director, offers his own insider's perspective. Through this one fateful game, the ensuing protest, and ultimate fallout, The Pine Tar Game examines a more innocent time in professional sports, as well as the shifting tide that gave us today's modern iteration of baseball.

The Baseball Codes

The Baseball Codes
Author: Jason Turbow
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2011-03-22
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 030727862X

An insider’s look at baseball’s unwritten rules, explained with examples from the game’s most fascinating characters and wildest historical moments. Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. All aspects of baseball—hitting, pitching, and baserunning—are affected by the Code, a set of unwritten rules that governs the Major League game. Some of these rules are openly discussed (don’t steal a base with a big lead late in the game), while others are known only to a minority of players (don’t cross between the catcher and the pitcher on the way to the batter’s box). In The Baseball Codes, old-timers and all-time greats share their insights into the game’s most hallowed—and least known—traditions. For the learned and the casual baseball fan alike, the result is illuminating and thoroughly entertaining. At the heart of this book are incredible and often hilarious stories involving national heroes (like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) and notorious headhunters (like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale) in a century-long series of confrontations over respect, honor, and the soul of the game. With The Baseball Codes, we see for the first time the game as it’s actually played, through the eyes of the players on the field. With rollicking stories from the past and new perspectives on baseball’s informal rulebook, The Baseball Codes is a must for every fan.

50 Moments That Defined Major League Baseball

50 Moments That Defined Major League Baseball
Author: Rocco Constantino
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-05-20
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1442260556

Baseball is a game of incredible moments, awe-inspiring feats, and dramatic finishes. But not all of these events actually impacted the game itself or the players still to come. Moments such as Lou Gehrig’s last Opening Day appearance, the very first All-Star game, or Mickey Mantle’s first game to hit home runs from both sides of the plate are iconic not because they were game-changing plays, but because they affected the course of baseball history. In 50 Moments That Defined Major League Baseball, Rocco Constantino provides a fresh history of the national pastime by recounting the most extraordinary and iconic moments—both renowned and obscure—that shaped the game as it moved from the Dead Ball Era, through World War II, and on to the modern era. Events include Jackie Robinson’s first All-Star Game, Babe Ruth’s 50th home run in his first season as a Yankee, Hank Aaron’s first career home run, and many more. Highlighting these moments are Constantino’s exclusive interviews with over 50 former Major League Baseball players, managers, and umpires, as they candidly share their memories and provide commentary on these impactful events. Many of the players interviewed played in the World Series or an All-Star Game, including Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, Shawn Estes, and Jeff Montgomery. 50 Moments That Defined Major League Baseball features rarely seen historic photographs of baseball immortals and modern photos of today’s stars. With two bonus chapters that include first-hand entertaining anecdotes from baseball icons and moving statements about those who helped them reach the sport’s pinnacle, this book is an engaging read for baseball fans and historians alike.

Blue Whistler

Blue Whistler
Author: Mickey Cobb
Publisher:
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2018-07-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9780692139080

An account of the "Pine Tar Incident" in the historic game between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals, July 24, 1983.

Bottom of the 33rd

Bottom of the 33rd
Author: Dan Barry
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2011-04-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0062079026

In “a worthy companion to . . . Boys of Summer,” a Pulitzer prize winning journalist “exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace” (New York Times). From award-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues. On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys—the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves—two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game. With Bottom of the 33rd, Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America’s pastime—and America’s past. “Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax

SABR 50 at 50

SABR 50 at 50
Author: Bill Nowlin
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1496222687

SABR 50 at 50 celebrates and highlights the Society for American Baseball Research’s wide-ranging contributions to baseball history. Established in 1971 in Cooperstown, New York, SABR has sought to foster and disseminate the research of baseball—with groundbreaking work from statisticians, historians, and independent researchers—and has published dozens of articles with far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the game. Among its current membership are many Major and Minor League Baseball officials, broadcasters, and writers as well as numerous former players. The diversity of SABR members’ interests is reflected in this fiftieth-anniversary volume—from baseball and the arts to statistical analysis to the Deadball Era to women in baseball. SABR 50 at 50 includes the most important and influential research published by members across a multitude of topics, including the sabermetric work of Dick Cramer, Pete Palmer, and Bill James, along with Jerry Malloy on the Negro Leagues, Keith Olbermann on why the shortstop position is number 6, John Thorn and Jules Tygiel on the untold story behind Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, and Gai Berlage on the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s team in the 1990s. To provide history and context, each notable research article is accompanied by a short introduction. As SABR celebrates fifty years this collection gathers the organization’s most notable research and baseball history for the serious baseball reader.

Bleeding Pinstripes

Bleeding Pinstripes
Author: Filip Bondy
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2005-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1582617694

Bleeding Pinstripes is a unique, anthropological view of this most dedicated tribe of rooters?their rituals, their personal tribulations, their uncanny commitment to the Bronx ball clu . and to each other. You will meet an assortment of Bleacher Creatures, characters of a very different sort: Tina Lewis, the self-proclaimed Queen of the Bleachers, a spirited cancer survivor, and the chief lobbyist for Section 39; Donald Simpson, a 9/11 victim and the bleachers? only known millionaire; Milton Ousland, the only bleacher fan authorized to bang the cowbell during Yankee games; Bald Vinny, the ultimate T-shirt entrepreneur and a good-natured hustler who has made a living off his passion; and Luis Castillo, the Yankee clubhouse attendant and the insider who started out as just another Creature in the bleachers.

Chasing the Game

Chasing the Game
Author: Filip Bondy
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2010-04-27
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0306819058

A tantalizing account of the triumphs and travails of the U.S. men's soccer team in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, set within the historical context of American soccer on the global stage The U.S. men's soccer team was a huge disappointment at the World Cup in 2006, but a newly constituted team exceeded all expectations in June 2009 with their inspired play at the Confederations Cup in South Africa--where they upset the number one team in the world, Spain, and lost late in the championship game to a supremely talented Brazilian squad. Their impressive showing gave fans, including the ever-loyal Sam's Army, a renewed sense of hope that when the team plays up to its capabilities, the Americans can compete with anyone in the world. In Chasing the Game, Filip Bondy describes the U.S. team's path to qualifying for this year's World Cup--to be held on the African continent for the first time ever, in South Africa in June 2010. Bondy also reveals the back-and-forth saga that resulted in the hiring of Bob Bradley as the American coach, and serves up engaging profiles of several core players, including the U.S. national team's all-time leader in scoring and assists, Landon Donovan, acrobatic goalie Tim Howard, hip-hop devotee and opportunistic goal-scorer Clint "Deuce" Dempsey, up-and-comer Jozy Altidore, and the coach's son, the reticent yet dependable Michael Bradley. Chasing the Gamealso recounts the glorious highlights of past World Cup matches, like the U.S. men's team's stunning 1-0 victory over England in 1950 and the 2002 team's advance to the quarterfinals, as well as heartbreaks like the fiasco in 2006, when the U.S. mustered only four shots on goal in three games. Finally, Bondy also traces the origin of soccer and the evolution of the game in the U.S., chronicling how soccer academies like the one in Bradenton, Florida, have impacted the game at both the youth and national levels. It's all here for the first time in one book--the complete story of American soccer on the global stage.