Ultimate Guide to Pro Baseball Teams (Sports Illustrated Kids: Ultimate Pro Guides)
by Nate LeBoutillier
Paperback from Capstone Press
ISBN: 1429656409
Play ball! Baseball fans have been filling the stadiums of their favorite baseball teams for more than 100 years. Learn the facts about all of the pro baseball teams that make up Americas national pastime.
Clubhouse Confidential: A Yankee Bat Boy's Insider Tale of Wild Nights, Gambling, and Good Times with Modern Baseball's Greatest Team
by Luis Castillo, William Cane
Hardcover from St. Martin's Press
Media Published: 2011-
ISBN: 0312645422
The explosive, inside story of Yankees players and managers by a bat boy who saw it allYou are invited to come behind the closed doors of the Yankees' clubhouse for the ride of your life in this intimate memoir about the team's recent glory years and the superstars who made it all possible.
For the first time ever, Luis "Squeegee" Castillo, bat boy and clubbie for the Yankees from 1998 to 2005, talks about working with Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Joe Girardi, Bernie Williams, Roger Clemens, Joe Torre, and many other modern-day Yankee greats. Luis saw and heard what really happened in the privacy of the clubhouse, at parties, and in hotel rooms, bar fights, and secret meetings from Miami to St. Louis, from Detroit to Arizona, and from Toronto to New York. He even vacationed with some players and got to know them like family, discovering their pitching and hitting secrets, joining them in all-nighters, and learning their often hilarious methods of meeting girls and having fun on the road.
Like a fly on the wall, Luis takes you backstage to show you how A-Rod's bragging when he hits home runs annoys teammates. Discover how manager Joe Torre checks racing results during games. Hear what happens inside the sanctity of the clubhouse after Roger Clemens beans Mets catcher Mike Piazza and then--a few months later during the 2000 World Series--throws a bat at him. Find out how Mariano Rivera eats junk food during games, why Posada routinely fights with El Duque, what Jeter is really saying to players on other teams as he rounds the bases, and so much more.
Everyone knows what happened on the field. Now pull up a chair and enjoy the secret stories that only Luis can tell about what really happened behind the scenes--and why.
The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates
by Bruce Markusen
Paperback from Westholme Publishing
ISBN: 1594160899
One of the Most Important Teams in the History of Sports In 1947, major league baseball experienced its first measure of integration in the modern era when the Brooklyn Dodgers brought Jackie Robinson to the National League. While Robinson's breakthrough opened the gates of opportunity for African Americans and other minority players, the process of integration proved slow and uneven. It was not until the 1960s that a handful of major league teams began to boast more than a few Black and Latino players. But the 1971 World Championship team enjoyed a full and complete level of integration, with half of its twenty-five-man roster comprised of players of African American and Latino descent. That team was the Pittsburgh Pirates, managed by an old-time Irishman.In The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, veteran baseball writer Bruce Markusen tells the story of one of the most likable and significant teams in the history of professional sports. In addition to the fact that they fielded the first all-minority lineup in major league history, the 1971 Pirates are noteworthy for the team's inspiring individual performances, including those of future Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Bill Mazeroski, and their remarkable World Series victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. But perhaps their greatest legacy is the team's influence on the future of baseball, debunking the myth that a multicultural clubhouse could not win and inspiring later championship teams such as the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics to open their doors fully to all talented players, regardless of race, particularly in the new era of free agency.
The New York Yankees: Legendary Sports Teams
by Matt Christopher, Glenn Stout
Paperback from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316011150
The New York Yankees played their first game in the American League in 1903. Since then, they have become the best team in baseball, bar none. Now this action-packed and fact-filled volume brings the Yankee's great history to life. From Babe Ruth's called shot and Lou Gehrig's tearful farewell speech, to Reggie Jackson's three hits on three pitches and Derek Jeter's game-saving catches, classic moments are recounted with such vivid description that readers will swear they can smell the popcorn and hear the crack of the bat. The book includes team records and post-season results from 1903 to 2006, as well as lists of Yankees inducted into the Hall of Famers and photos of the most memorable plays and people in Yankee history. For New York fans and people who just like to know everything about baseball, this is a must-read!
The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First
by Jonah Keri
Hardcover from ESPN
Media Published: 2011-
ISBN: 0345517652
What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens--the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history.
In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team's Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals--and prevail.
Together with "boy genius" general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the "devil" from the team's nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game's intangibles--that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one--they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane's "Moneyball" had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant.
A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life's passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.The Padres Encyclopedia
Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and "The Worst Baseball Team in History"-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers
by Mike Shropshire
Paperback from Bison Books
ISBN: 0803292775
Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we're in deep trouble.' When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.'"In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history. Seasons in Hell is a riotous, candid, irreverent behind-the-scenes account in the tradition of The Bronx Zoo and Ball Four, following the Texas Rangers from Whitey Herzog's reign in 1973 through Billy Martin's tumultuous tenure. Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-seventies
by David Porter, Joe Naiman
(Hardcover)Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams
by Robert W. Peterson
Listed under Negro Baseball LeagueMilwaukee Braves : A Baseball Eulogy
by Bob Buege
(Hardcover - October 1988)
Baseball Teams on DVD