Baseball Greatness

Baseball Greatness PDF 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.

Baseball Greatness

Baseball Greatness PDF 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.

The Image of Their Greatness

The Image of Their Greatness PDF 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.

The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records

The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records PDF Author: Major League Baseball
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 0771057350
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Since the first pitch was thrown, MLB has tracked the performance of every team and player, documented every hit and measured every home run. And while some plays are part of the everyday game, there are moments in baseball when a player's performance reaches a new level of greatness and new records are made. The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records catalogs the game's most remarkable achievements, as well as some of the less traditional and quirky stats that all play a part in the game. MLB's team of in-house writers, researchers and historians have scoured the history of the game and written the most accurate, complete and definitive record of baseball stats and achievements. Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records documents the absolute best of the best and packs each achievement into this lavishly illustrated book where fans will be treated to never-before-seen photographs of their favourite players. Double-page spreads will show Henderson racing to second base to claim the stolen base record, while another full color spread celebrates Bond's crushing hit that set a new threshold for most home-runs. All the records are here, each with an account of events and spectacular photographs that make this truly the most spectacular baseball book ever published.

The Cambridge Companion to Baseball

The Cambridge Companion to Baseball PDF 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.

Greatness in Waiting

Greatness in Waiting PDF Author: Ray Istorico
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078643211X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Before they acquired Babe Ruth or won a single championship, the New York Yankees (née Highlanders) were a team that inspired the strongest of feelings in baseball circles. Stars such as Jack Chesbro, Hal Chase, and Brooklyner Willie Keeler drew loud followings, and the team made loyal fans of those who disliked the cross-town Giants or Dodgers. Even Ban Johnson prized the franchise, which gave his upstart American League a foothold in the nation’s most populous city. Baltimoreans, on the other hand, nurtured an animus toward the team, which only a few years earlier had been called the Orioles. And former Orioles manager John McGraw hatched a plan, along with Giants owner Andrew Freedman, to sabotage the new club. This heavily illustrated volume combines a fully documented history of the deadball-era Yankees with 195 photos of the people, places, and events that figured prominently in the story.

The Image of Their Greatness

The Image of Their Greatness PDF Author: Lawrence S. Ritter
Publisher: Crown Publishers
ISBN: 9780517554227
Category : Baseball
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
A history of baseball from 1900 to 1983, decade by decade. Includes 600 photographs and information on players, teams, and managers.

Major League Baseball in the 1970s

Major League Baseball in the 1970s PDF 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.

Few and Chosen Yankees

Few and Chosen Yankees PDF Author: Whitey Ford
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 162368756X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Whitey Ford, a Hall of Fame pitcher with the Yankees for 16 seasons, gives unique insight and takes on the challenge of selecting the five best players at each position in the franchise's history, which includes 26 World Series championships and 36 American League pennants--a legacy no other team comes close to achieving. Featured players include Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Mize, and Enos Slaughter.

Contesting the Myths of Samurai Baseball

Contesting the Myths of Samurai Baseball PDF 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

Defining Greatness

Defining Greatness PDF Author: Michael Hoban
Publisher: Booklocker.com
ISBN: 9781621412366
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Who belongs in baseball's Hall of Fame? That is, which players have EARNED the right to be there? In this book, Professor Michael Hoban uses Bill James' Win Shares system to come up with a formula that assigns a numerical value to a player's entire career. The system, called the CAWS Career Gauge (Career Assessment/Wins shares) establishes career benchmarks for each position - to determine if a player has obvious HOF numbers.