Baseball Audiobooks | Sports & Recreation

The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves

In this groundbreaking book, Keith Law, the ESPN baseball writer and author of the acclaimed Smart Baseball, offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game. For years, Daniel Kahneman’s iconic work of behavioral science Thinking Fast and Slow has been required reading in front offices across Major League Baseball. In this smart, incisive, and eye-opening book, Keith Law applies Kahneman’s ideas about decision making to the game itself. Baseball is a sport of decisions. Some are so small and routine they become the building blocks of the game itself—what pitch to throw or when to swing away. Others are so huge they dictate the future of franchises—when to make a strategic trade for a chance to win now, or when to offer a millions and a multi-year contract for a twenty-eight-year-old star. These decisions have long shaped the behavior of players, managers, and entire franchises. But as those choices have become more complex and data-driven, knowing what’s behind them has become key to understanding the sport. This fascinating, revelatory work explores as never before the essential question: What were they thinking? Combining behavioral science and interviews with executives, managers, and players, Keith Law analyzes baseball’s biggest decision making successes and failures, looking at how gambles and calculated risks of all sizes and scales have shaped the sport, and how the game’s ongoing data revolution is rewriting decades of accepted decision making. In the process, he explores questions that have long been debated, from whether throwing harder really increases a player’s risk of serious injury to whether teams actually 'overvalue' trade prospects. Bringing his analytical and combative style to some of baseball’s longest running debates, Law deepens our knowledge of the sport in this entertaining work that is both fun and deeply informative.

Keith Law (Author), Rhett Samuel Price (Narrator)

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The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923

Journalist Robert Weintraub vividly recreates the pivotal year that transformed the New York Yankees into the legendary franchise of today. Overshadowed by the New York Giants, the hapless Yankees played their home games at the ballpark of their cross-town rivals. But when Yankee Stadium was completed in 1923, Babe Ruth bounced back from a disappointing season-launching the Yankees' storied history and immortalizing the stadium as the "House That Ruth Built."

Robert Weintraub (Author), Fred Berman (Narrator)

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The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball's Greats: In Stories and Images, the Complete Roster of Inductee

A deluxe baseball treasury unlike any other, complete with essays, photos, and player bios from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Everyone dreams of Cooperstown. It's a hallowed name in baseball, for players as well as their fans. It's a house where legends live; it's everything that's great about the game. Never before has the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum published a complete registry of inductees with plaques, photographs, and extended biographies. In this unique, 75th anniversary edition, read the stories of every player inducted into the Hall, organized by position. Each section begins with an original essay by a living Hall of Famer who played that position: Hank Aaron, George Brett, Orlando Cepeda, Carlton Fisk, Tommy Lasorda, Joe Morgan, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan, and Robin Yount.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Author), Dale E. Turner, Dale Turner, Mark Comstock, Nick Omana, Pete Larkin, Various Readers, Various Readers (Narrator)

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The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the '73 Season Changed Us Forever

In 1973, baseball was in crisis. The first strike in pro sports had soured fans, American League attendance had fallen, and America's team-the Yankees-had lost more games and money than ever. Yet that season, five of the game's greatest figures rescued the national pastime. Hank Aaron riveted the nation with his pursuit of Babe Ruth's landmark home run record in the face of racist threats. George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees at a bargain basement price and began buying back their faded glory. An elderly and ailing Willie Mays nearly helped the Mets pull off a miracle with the final hit of his career. Reggie Jackson, the MVP of a tense World Series, became the prototype of the modern superstar. The season itself provided plenty of drama served up by a colorful cast of characters. The Mets, managed by Yogi Berra, performed another near miracle, rising from last place in the National League East to win the division and take the A's to seven games in the World Series. Reggie Jackson, the World Series MVP, solidified his reputation as Mr. October. Willie Mays hit the final home run of his career and retired. Future Hall of Famers Dave Winfield and George Brett played in their first major league games; Luis Aparicio and Mays played in their last. That one memorable summer changed baseball forever.

John Rosengren (Author), Barry Abrams (Narrator)

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The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond

At a 1931 barnstorming exhibition game in Tennessee, a seventeen-year-old pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back. Her name was Jackie Mitchell-"organized baseball's first girl pitcher." On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax made baseball history by pitching his fourth perfect game. In July 1970, a stripper rushed onto the field at Riverfront Stadium to kiss Johnny Bench, temporarily disrupting a game attended by President Nixon and his family. These are just some of the great, quirky, and comic moments in the annals of baseball recorded in The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told. Here also are profiles of such legendary figures as Joe DiMaggio, Pete Rose, and Yogi Berra, essays that explore the complexities and pleasures of the game, even an excerpt from the movie Bull Durham. This is the perfect book for anyone who has ever played so much as a game of catch.

Jeff Silverman (Author), Hillary Huber, Mike Chamberlain (Narrator)

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The Great Chase: The Dodgers-Giants Pennant Race of 1951

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is the longest-standing rivalry in baseball history—a feud that began in the late nineteenth century when both clubs were based in New York City. Then, on October 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson's 'shot heard around the world' ended their pennant race—one of the most dramatic ever. Interviews, contemporary newspaper articles, and memoirs of participants are used to describe the intense rivalry and provide a day-by-day look at the Giants' pennant run, including a fascinating examination of the strategy of the final game.

Harvey Rosenfeld (Author), Barrett Whitener (Narrator)

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The Great Chase

Harvey Rosenfeld (Author), Barrett Whitener (Narrator)

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The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series

From the New York Times bestselling author of K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches comes the ultimate history of the World Series-a vivid portrait of baseball at its finest and most intense, filled with humor, lore, analysis, and fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from 117 years of the Fall Classic. The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It's the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman's glove. And there's no one better to bring this rich history to life than New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner, whose bestselling book about pitching, K, was lauded as "Michelangelo explaining the brush strokes on the Sistine Chapel" by Newsday. In seven scintillating chapters, Kepner delivers an indelible portrait of baseball's signature event. He digs deep for essential tales dating back to the beginning in 1903, adding insights from Hall of Famers like Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Dennis Eckersley and many others who have thrived - and failed - when it mattered most. Why do some players, like Madison Bumgarner, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz, crave the pressure? How do players handle a dream that comes up short? What's it like to manage in the World Series, and what are the secrets of building a champion? Kepner celebrates unexpected heroes like Bill Wambsganss, who pulled off an unassisted triple play in 1920, probes the mysteries behind magic moments (Did Babe Ruth call his shot in 1932? How could Eckersley walk Mike Davis to get to Kirk Gibson in 1988?) and busts some long-time myths (the 1919 Reds were much better than the Black Sox, anyway). The Grandest Stage is the ultimate history of the World Series, the perfect gift for all the fans who feel their hearts pounding in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Seven.

Tyler Kepner (Author), Tyler Kepner (Narrator)

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The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It

'Oh, the game was very different in my day from what it's like today. I don't mean just that the fences were further back and the ball was deader and things like that. I mean it was more fun to play ball then.' - Davy JonesFirst published in 1966, The Glory of Their Times is a universally hailed classic. A loving look back at the way baseball used to be, and the legends who played the game--immortals like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and many others--it's a delightfully evocative work full of fascinating characters and wonderful anecdotes.This is also the story of author Lawrence S. Ritter's six year quest to find the heroes of a bygone era. He interviewed more than two dozen players from the turn of the century and the decades shortly thereafter, including many now in the Baseball Hall of Fame, then let them tell their own stories, in their own words. The scorecard includes Rube Marquard, Chief Meyers, Goose Goslin, Smoky Joe Wood, Wahoo Sam Crawford, and many more. This new audio compilation of the original interviews is great news for baseball fans and anyone who loves old-time tales of America's national pastime.

Lawrence S. Ritter (Author), Various, Various Artists (Narrator)

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The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I

The Gas and Flame Men is the first full account of Major League ballplayers who served in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Four players, two club executives, and a manager served in the small and hastily formed branch, six of them as gas officers. Remarkably, five of the seven-Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, and Eppa 'Jeptha' Rixey-are now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. The son of a sixth Hall of Famer, player and manager Ned Hanlon, was a young officer killed in action in France with the First Gas Regiment. Prominent chemical soldiers also included veteran Major League catcher and future manager George 'Gabby' Street and Boston Braves president and former Harvard football coach Percy D. Haughton. The Gas and Flame Men explores how these famous baseball men, along with an eclectic mix of polo players, collegiate baseball and football stars, professors, architects, and prominent social figures all came together in the Chemical Warfare Service. Jim Leeke examines their service and its long-term effects on their physical and mental health-and on Major League Baseball and the world of sports. The Gas and Flame Men also addresses historical inaccuracies and misperceptions surrounding Christy Mathewson's early death from tuberculosis, long attributed to wartime gas exposure.

Jim Leeke (Author), Barry Abrams (Narrator)

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The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball's Power Brokers

The incredible inside story of power, money, and baseball's last twenty years In the fall of 1992, America's National Pastime is in crisis and already on the path to the unthinkable: cancelling a World Series for the first time in history. The owners are at war with each other, their decades-long battle with the players has turned America against both sides, and the players' growing addiction to steroids will threaten the game's very foundation. It is a tipping point for baseball, a crucial moment in the game's history that catalyzes a struggle for power by three strong-willed men: Commissioner Bud Selig, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and union leader Don Fehr. It's their uneasy alliance at the end of decades of struggle that pulls the game back from the brink and turns it into a money-making powerhouse that enriches them all. This is the real story of baseball, played out against a tableau of stunning athletic feats, high-stakes public battles, and backroom political deals--with a supporting cast that includes Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, Joe Torre and Derek Jeter, George Bush and George Mitchell, and many more. Drawing from hundreds of extensive, exclusive interviews throughout baseball, The Game is a stunning achievement: a rigorously reported book and the must-read, fly-on-the-wall, definitive account of how an enormous struggle for power turns disaster into baseball's Golden Age.

Jon Pessah (Author), Jeremy Arthur (Narrator)

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The Forgotten League: A History of Negro League Baseball

★★★ The greatest baseball players...you've never heard of ★★★ Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Monte Irvin, Buck Leonard...they are some of the greatest players to ever play the game; so why have so few people heard of them? Because they never played in the MLB; they were the heroes of a baseball league often forgotten: The Negro League. This book traces the history of the league from the early days of Professional Black Baseball and the formation of leagues to post-integration decline. HistoryCaps is an imprint of BookCaps Study Guides. With each book, a brief period of history is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to science and philosophy), so check our growing catalog regularly to see our newest books.

Frank Foster (Author), Jason Sullivan (Narrator)

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Baseball Audiobooks in Sports & Recreation