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Voices of All-Time Baseball Greats
Hear the voices of all-time baseball greats, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Carl Hubbell, Johnny Vander Meer, and broadcaster Mel Allen. Also, includes the radio call of Brooklyn Dodgers' Cookie Lavagetto's 1947 World Series game-winning double against the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth's final goodbye at Yankee Stadium, and the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson's three-run walk off 'Shot Heard Run The World' home run off Brooklyn's Ralph Branca to win the 1951 National League pennant.
Babe Ruth, Carl, Hubbell, Johnny Van De Meer, Lou Gehrig, Mel Allen, Unknown, Unknown (Author), Babe Ruth, Carl, Hubbell, Johnny Van De Meer, Johnny Van de Meer, Lou Gehrig, Mel Allen, Various Readers, Various Readers (Narrator)
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Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was old school and stubborn. But after twenty straight losing seasons and his job on the line, he was ready to try anything. So when he met with GM Neal Huntington in October 2012, they decided to discard everything they knew about the game and instead take on drastic "big data" strategies. Going well beyond the number-crunching of Moneyball, which used statistics found on the back of baseball cards to identify market inefficiencies, the data the Pirates employed was not easily observable. They collected millions of data points on pitches and balls in play, creating a tome of reports that revealed key insights for how to win more games without spending a dime. They discovered that most batters struggled to hit two-seam fastballs, that an aggressive defensive shift on the field could turn more batted balls into outs, and that a catcher's most valuable skill was hidden. Hurdle and Huntington got to work trying to convince the entire Pirates organization and disgruntled fans to embrace these unconventional, yet groundbreaking methods. All this led to the end to the longest consecutive run of losing seasons in North American pro sports history. The Pirates' 2013 season is the perfect lens for examining baseball's burgeoning big-data movement. Using flawless reporting, award-winning journalist Travis Sawchik takes you behind-the-scenes to reveal a game-changing book of miracles and math.
Travis Sawchik (Author), Peter Larkin (Narrator)
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The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World W
In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year's World Series, one of the nation's strongest baseball teams practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a child, Anne Keene's father, Jim Raugh, suited up as the team bat boy and mascot. He got to know his baseball heroes personally, watching players hit the road on cramped, tin-can buses, dazzling factory workers, kids, and service members at dozens of games, including a war-bond exhibition with Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium. Jimmy followed his baseball dreams as a college All-American but was crushed later in life by a failed major-league bid with the Detroit Tigers. He would have carried this story to his grave had Anne not discovered his scrapbook from a Navy school that shaped America's greatest heroes including George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, and Paul "Bear" Bryant. With the help of insights from World War II baseball veterans such as Yankees legends Dr. Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson, the story of this remarkable team is brought to life for the first time in The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II.
Anne R. Keene (Author), Anne R. Keene (Narrator)
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Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Frank Pastore stepped onto the mound in Dodger Stadium to throw another fastball—something he’d done thousands of times since childhood. But this time was different. The batter connected and the ball came rocketing back to the mound, shattering not only Frank’s pitching elbow—but also his dream of getting “rich and famous” through Major League Baseball.™ As he walked to the training room, Frank found himself asking a God he didn’t believe in, “Why is this happening to me?” There was no answer—at least not then. It was this injury that sent Frank, a lifelong atheist, on a journey that would change not only his mind but also his whole life—as a husband, father, friend, and troubled son. We all know the pain of shattered dreams. We’ve all wondered how to pick up the broken pieces after a crisis. We’ve all wondered, “Where is God?” when life hurts so bad. This is a story of how the fragments of broken dreams can be reassembled into even bigger and better things. A story of how, when life’s disasters and difficulties knock us down, they don’t have to destroy us. This is a story that shows how all of us can come to know we’re in God’s good hands. Even when we’re shattered.
Ellen Vaughn, Frank Pastore (Author), Frank Pastore (Narrator)
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Tales from the Deadball Era: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in
The Deadball Era (1901-1920) is a baseball fan's dream. Hope and despair, innocence and cynicism, and levity and hostility blended then to create an air of excitement, anticipation, and concern for all who entered the confines of a major league ballpark. Cheating for the sake of victory earned respect, corrupt ballplayers fixed games with impunity, and violence plagued the sport. At the same time, endearing practices infused baseball with lightheartedness, kindness, and laughter. Fans ran onto the field with baskets of flowers, loving cups, and cash for their favorite players in the middle of games. Ballplayers volunteered for 'benefit contests' to aid fellow big leaguers and the country in times of need. 'Joke games' reduced sport to pure theater as outfielders intentionally dropped fly balls, infielders happily booted easy grounders, hurlers tossed soft pitches over the middle of the plate, and umpires ignored the rules. Winning meant nothing, amusement meant everything, and league officials looked the other way. Mark Halfon highlights the strategies, underhanded tactics, and bitter battles that defined this storied time in baseball history, while providing detailed insights into the players and teams involved in bringing to a conclusion this remarkable period in baseball history.
Mark S. Halfon (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)
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The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game. The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions-for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music-O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
Joe Posnanski (Author), David Sadzin (Narrator)
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Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series
The remarkable story of the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals told by the Washington Post writer who followed the team most closely. By May 2019, the Washington Nationals—owners of baseball's oldest roster—had one of the worst records in the majors and just a 1.5 percent chance of winning the World Series. Yet by blending an old-school brand of baseball with modern analytics, they managed to sneak into the playoffs and put together the most unlikely postseason run in baseball history. Not only did they beat the Houston Astros, the team with the best regular-season record, to claim the franchise's first championship—they won all four games in Houston, making them the first club to ever win four road games in a World Series. "You have a great year, and you can run into a buzz saw," Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg told Washington Post beat writer Jesse Dougherty after the team advanced to the World Series. "Maybe this year we're the buzz saw." Dougherty followed the Nationals more closely than any other writer in America, and in Buzz Saw he recounts the dramatic year in vivid detail, taking readers inside the dugout, the clubhouse, the front office and ultimately the championship parade. Yet he does something more than provide a riveting retelling of the season: he makes the case that while there is indisputable value to Moneyball-style metrics, baseball isn't just a numbers game. Intangibles like team chemistry, veteran experience and childlike joy are equally essential to winning. Certainly, no team seemed to have more fun than the Nationals, who adopted the kids' song "Baby Shark" as their anthem and regularly broke into dugout dance parties. Buzz Saw is just as lively and rollicking—a fitting tribute to one of the most exciting, inspiring teams to ever take the field.
Jesse Dougherty (Author), Angelo Di Loreto (Narrator)
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The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of
In the summer of 1932, at the beginning of the turbulent decade that would remake America, baseball fans were treated to one of the most thrilling seasons in the history of the sport. As the nation drifted deeper into the Great Depression and reeled from social unrest, baseball was a diversion for a troubled country-and yet the world of baseball was marked by the same edginess that pervaded the national scene. On-the-field fights were as common as double plays. Amid the National League pennant race, Cubs' shortstop Billy Jurges was shot by showgirl Violet Popovich in a Chicago hotel room. When the regular season ended, the Cubs and Yankees clashed in what would be Babe Ruth's last appearance in the fall classic. After the Cubs lost the first two games in New York, the series resumed in Chicago at Wrigley Field, with Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt cheering for the visiting Yankees from the box seats behind the Yankees' dugout. In the top of the fifth inning the game took a historic turn. As Ruth was jeered mercilessly by Cubs players and fans, he gestured toward the outfield and then blasted a long home run. Ruth's homer set off one of baseball's longest-running and most intense debates: did Ruth, in fact, call his famous home run?
Thomas Wolf (Author), Barry Abrams (Narrator)
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How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed
The fascinating, true, origin story of baseball-how America's first great sport developed and how it conquered a nation Baseball's true founders don't have plaques in Cooperstown. The founders were the hundreds of uncredited amateurs-ordinary people-who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. 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. But that's not the way the story has been told. The wrongness of baseball history can be staggering. 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. You have read that baseball's color line was uncrossed and unchallenged until Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. You may have heard Cooperstown, Hoboken, or New York City called the birthplace of baseball, but not Brooklyn. Yet Brooklyn was the home of baseball's first fans, the first ballpark, the first statistics-and modern pitching. Baseball was originally supposed to be played, not watched. This changed when crowds began to show up at games in Brooklyn in the late 1850s. We fans weren't invited to the party; we crashed it. Professionalism wasn't part of the plan either, but when an 1858 Brooklyn versus New York City series accidentally proved that people would pay to see a game, the writing was on the outfield wall. When the first professional league was formed in 1871, baseball was already a fully formed modern sport with championships, media coverage, and famous stars. Professional baseball invented an organization, but not the sport itself. Baseball's amazing amateurs had already done that. Thomas W. Gilbert's history is for baseball fans and anyone fascinating by origin stories and American culture.
Thomas W. Gilbert (Author), George Newbern (Narrator)
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The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell: Speed, Grace, and the Negro Leagues
The ?rst full biography of the star Negro Leaguer and Hall of Famer James "Cool Papa" Bell (1903-1991) was a legend in Black baseball, a lightning-fast switch hitter elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Bell's speed was extraordinary; as Satchel Paige famously quipped, he was so fast he could ?ip a light switch and be in bed before the room got dark. In The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell, experienced baseball writer and historian Lonnie Wheeler recounts the life of this extraordinary player, a key member of some of the greatest Negro League teams in history. Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Bell was part of the Great Migration, the movement of African Americans from the southern states to the northern states from 1910 through 1930. In St. Louis, baseball saved Bell from a life working in slaughterhouses. Wheeler charts Bell's ups and downs in life and in baseball, in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, where he went to escape American racism and major league baseball's color line. Rich in context and suffused in myth, this is a treat for fans of baseball history.
Lonnie Wheeler (Author), David Sadzin (Narrator)
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Moon Baseball Road Trips: The Complete Guide to All the Ballparks, with Beer, Bites, and Sights Near
Sunshine, hot dogs, friends, and the excitement of the game: Baseball is called America's pastime for a reason. Experience the best of the MLB cities and stadiums with Moon Baseball Road Trips. - Flexible Itineraries: Explore the 30 major league cities with a variety of road trip options, including a Boston to DC route, a loop through the Midwest, a dip into Toronto, a cruise along the West Coast, and more - Visit all the Ballparks: From the ivy walls of Wrigley to Fenway's Green Monster and Dodger Stadium's gorgeous mountain views, experience every ballpark in the league and dive into local fan culture - Catch a Game: Find valuable tips for snagging tickets and get the inside scoop on the best places to park or catch public transit, where to eat and drink nearby, and events like music festivals, the Hall of Fame Weekend, Fourth of July celebrations, and more - Explore the Major League Cities: Get to know the MLB hometowns with full chapters on each city. Pay respects to Babe Ruth in Baltimore, visit Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and stroll through the Boston Common. Find the best local craft breweries, and chow down on chili dogs, barbecue, fresh crab, and more foodie specialties. Hold back a tear at the Field of Dreams, grab a seat for a Spring Training game, or rent a kayak on the bay and try to catch a fly ball from San Francisco's Oracle Park - Expertise and Know-How: Former baseball writer and avid Phillies fan Timothy Malcolm shares his advice for planning the perfect baseball road trip - Maps and Driving Tools: Easy-to-use maps, along with mileages, driving times, and directions, with full-color photos throughout - Helpful resources on COVID-19 - Planning Tips: Where to stay, when and where to get gas, how to avoid traffic, and tips for driving in different road and weather conditions, plus suggestions for seniors, families with kids, and more With Moon Baseball Road Trips' practical tips, local expertise, and flexible itineraries, you're ready to step up to the plate and hit the road.
Timothy Malcolm (Author), George Newbern (Narrator)
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Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir
Greg Larson was a starry-eyed fan when he hurtled headfirst into professional baseball. As the new clubhouse attendant for the Aberdeen IronBirds, a Minor League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, Larson assumed he'd entered a familiar world. He thought wrong. He quickly discovered the bizarre rituals of life in the Minors: fights between players, teammates quitting in the middle of the games, doomed relationships, and a negligent parent organization. Despite the team's struggles and his own lack of baseball talent, he yearned to join the exclusive fraternity of professional ballplayers. Like most Minor Leaguers, the gravitational pull of baseball was still too strong for Larson-even if chasing his private dream might cost him his girlfriend, his future, and, ultimately, his love of the game. That is, until an unlikely shot at a championship gives Larson and the IronBirds one final swing at redemption. An unflinching look at the harsh experience of professional sports, Clubbie will be a touchstone in baseball literature for years to come.
Greg Larson (Author), Kyle Tait (Narrator)
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