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Author: David Kaiser
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476628629
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 251
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Book Description
Recent advances in baseball statistical analysis have made it possible to assess the totality of contribution each player makes to team success or failure. Using the metric Wins Above Average (WAA)--the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added because they had Mookie Betts in right field, instead of an average player--the author undertakes a fascinating review of major league baseball from 1901 through 2017. The great teams are analyzed, underscoring why they were successful. The great players of each generation are identified using simple, reliable metrics--from Ty Cobb through Mike Trout, and pitchers from Christy Mathewson to Clayton Kershaw. Surprises abound. The importance of pitching is found to be vastly exaggerated. Many Hall of Fame pitchers (and some hitters) achieved immortality almost entirely on the backs of their teammates, while a few over-qualified players still await induction. Focusing on today's rosters, the WAA assessment shows that the game is threatened by an unprecedented shortage of great players.
Author: David Kaiser
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476628629
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Get Book Here
Book Description
Recent advances in baseball statistical analysis have made it possible to assess the totality of contribution each player makes to team success or failure. Using the metric Wins Above Average (WAA)--the number of wins that the 2016 Red Sox, for example, added because they had Mookie Betts in right field, instead of an average player--the author undertakes a fascinating review of major league baseball from 1901 through 2017. The great teams are analyzed, underscoring why they were successful. The great players of each generation are identified using simple, reliable metrics--from Ty Cobb through Mike Trout, and pitchers from Christy Mathewson to Clayton Kershaw. Surprises abound. The importance of pitching is found to be vastly exaggerated. Many Hall of Fame pitchers (and some hitters) achieved immortality almost entirely on the backs of their teammates, while a few over-qualified players still await induction. Focusing on today's rosters, the WAA assessment shows that the game is threatened by an unprecedented shortage of great players.
Author: Lawrence S. Ritter
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
ISBN: 9780517587287
Category : Baseball
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A revised and updated edition of this illustrated classic, one of the most celebrated and informative books ever on the history of baseball, takes the reader decade by decade through the names and faces that have shaped America's favorite pastime. Illustrations.
Author: Leonard Cassuto
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521761824
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281
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Book Description
From Babe Ruth to the Black Sox scandal, this Companion examines baseball's history, global identity, current challenges and memorable personalities.
Author: Joseph G. Preston
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786415924
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 412
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Book Description
Many of the most powerful trends in baseball today have their roots in the 1970s. Baseball entered that decade seriously behind the times in race relations, attitudes toward conformity versus individuality, and the manager-player relationship. In a sense, much of the wrenching change that American society as a whole experienced in the 1960s was played out in baseball in the following decade. Additionally, the game itself was rapidly evolving, with the inauguration of the designated hitter rule in the American League, the evolution of the closer, the development of the five-man starting rotation, the acceptance of strikeout lions like Dave Kingman and Bobby Bonds and the proliferation of stolen bases. This book opens with a discussion of the challenges that faced baseball's movers and shakers when they gathered in Bal Harbour, Florida, for the annual winter meetings on December 2, 1969. Their worst nightmares would be realized in the coming years. For many and often contradictory reasons the 1970s game evolved into a war of competing ideologies--escalating salaries, an acrimonious strike, Sesame Street-style team mascots, and the breaking of the time-honored tradition that all players, including the pitcher, must play on offense as well as defense--that would ultimately spell doom for the majority of attendees.
Author: Christopher T. Keaveney
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888455826
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241
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Book Description
Almost right from the introduction of baseball to Japan the sport was regarded as qualitatively different from the original American model. This vision of Japanese baseball associates the sport with steadfast devotion (magokoro) and the values of the samurai class in the code of Bushidō, in which greatness is achieved through hard work under the tutelage of a selfless master. In Contesting the Myths of Samurai Baseball Keaveney analyzes the persistent appeal of such mythologizing, arguing that the sport has been serving as a repository for traditional values, to which the Japanese have returned time and again in epochs of uncertainty and change. Baseball and modern culture emerged and developed side by side in Japan, giving cultural representations of this national pastime special insights into Japanese values and their contortions from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Keaveney explains the origins of the cultural construct “Samurai baseball” and reflects on the recurrences of these essentialist discourses at critical junctures in Japan’s modern history. Since the early modern period, writers, filmmakers, and manga artists have alternately affirmed and debunked these popular myths of baseball. This study presents an overview of these cultural products, beginning with Masaoka Shiki’s pioneering baseball writings, then moves on to the long history of baseball films and the venerable tradition of baseball fiction, and finally considers the substantial body of baseball manga and anime. Perhaps what is most striking is the continuous relevance of baseball and its values as a point of cultural reference for the Japanese people; their engagement with baseball is a genuine national love affair. “A fascinating study of samurai baseball and the culture it represents viewed through historical and contemporary literature, poetry, manga, and movies. An important, original work that is full of insights. Christopher Keaveney has put enormous effort into researching this book and he is to be congratulated. I learned a lot by reading it.” —Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa and The Meaning of Ichiro “Keaveney’s book offers a nuanced introduction to the Japanese model of samurai baseball along with an analysis of many of the works that treat the guiding principles of that model. A fresh look at Japan’s national pastime.” —Bobby Valentine, former MLB player and manager and former manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball “Christopher Keaveney effortlessly combines a thorough knowledge of Japanese baseball—its players, managers, fans—with the cultural productions surrounding it. The result is a nostalgic trip through history and an edifying survey of literature, film, and manga.” —David Desser, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Author: Joe Posnanski
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982180609
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 702
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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year “An instant sports classic.” —New York Post * “Stellar.” —The Wall Street Journal * “A true masterwork…880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.” —BookPage (starred review) * “This is a remarkable achievement.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of the 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will. Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,? The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize–winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than two hundred years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?” Baseball’s legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the game’s all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesn’t rely just on records and statistics—he lovingly retraces players’ origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball’s past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the 21st-century game compared to Greg Maddux dueling with the juiced hitters of the nineties? How do the career and influence of Hank Aaron compare to Babe Ruth’s? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history? No compendium of baseball’s legendary geniuses could be complete without the players of the segregated Negro Leagues, men whose extraordinary careers were largely overlooked by sportswriters at the time and unjustly lost to history. Posnanski writes about the efforts of former Negro Leaguers to restore sidelined Black athletes to their due honor and draws upon the deep troves of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and extensive interviews with the likes of Buck O’Neil to illuminate the accomplishments of players such as pitchers Satchel Paige and Smokey Joe Williams; outfielders Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cool Papa Bell; first baseman Buck Leonard; shortstop Pop Lloyd; catcher Josh Gibson; and many, many more. The Baseball 100 treats readers to the whole rich pageant of baseball history in a single volume. Engrossing, surprising, and heartfelt, it is a magisterial tribute to the game of baseball and the stars who have played it.
Author: Michael D. Goldsmith
Publisher: Tate Publishing
ISBN: 1620244012
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
It was a classic showdown between Minnesota and Los Angeles in the Metrodome. No one could understand why we were in game seven of the World Series and Eli McBrien had not been seen since game one, when he struck out twenty-four batters in eight innings. Todd Rucket was up to bat. Against the LA pitching staff, he had been making all the pitchers look like rank amateurs. Henderson, LA's manager, walked out to the mound. Eli had been warming up gently through the last inning. His arm seemed a bit sore. But when the game was on the line, they were going to go with their twenty-year-old sensation. Young Eli McBrien has a secret ambition. This ambition is not to be the greatest pitcher ever to step on a baseball diamond (even though he is). It's not to make millions of dollars (even though he eventually does.) His secret ambition is developed by God the Father Himself as he guides Eli through his life. Every aspect of his life is pointed toward that secret ambition. Follow along on Eli's journey in Eli: Greatness Begins to see how the Father guides Eli McBrien through trials and triumphs on and off the diamond.
Author: William M. Simons
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498897
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299
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Book Description
Generally acknowledged as the preeminent gathering of baseball scholars, the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture has made significant contributions to baseball research and pedagogy. This collection of 17 new essays is selected from the approximately 100 presentations of the 2013 and the 2014 symposia, covering topics whose importance extends beyond the ballpark. Presented in six themed parts, the essays consider the congruence of culture and baseball, the importance of ballpark itself, the myths, legends and icons of the baseball imagination, international and ethnic game variations, the work of baseball museum curators and a context for the game's rules of play and labor.
Author: Robert Santelli
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762440317
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
No sports fans are more in touch with the history and ephemera of their game than baseball fans. Hitting the sweet spot of our national pastime, The Baseball Fans Bucket List presents a list of 162 absolute must things to do, see, get, and experience before you kick the bucket. Entries range from visiting Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ (site of the first pro baseball game), to starting a baseball card collection; experiencing Opening Day; attending your favorite teams Fantasy Camp; reading classic books like Ball Four, and much more! Each entry includes interesting facts, entertaining trivia, and practical information about the activity, item, or travel destination. Also included is a complete checklist so the reader can keep a running tally of their Bucket-List achievements. With todays tabloid stories of steroid abuse and off-the-field shenanigans encroaching on baseballs idyllic charm, this unique guidebook encourages readers to celebrate all thats good about being a fan.
Author: Dennis Purdy
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761153764
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1185
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Book Description
Baseball historian, Dennis Purdy, performs the feat of marrying statistics, scholarship, biography, trivia, and anecdote to create a massively pleasurable work.
