Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? PDF Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453245324
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
A “hilarious” look back at the 1962 Mets and their record as the worst baseball team in history by the New York Times–bestselling author (Newark Star-Ledger). Five years after the Dodgers and Giants fled New York for California, the city’s National League fans were offered salvation in the shape of the New York Mets: an expansion team who, in the spring of 1962, attempted to play something resembling the sport of baseball. Helmed by the sagacious Casey Stengel and staffed by the league’s detritus, the new Mets played 162 games and lost 120 of them, making them statistically the worst team in the sport’s modern history. It’s possible they were even worse than that. Starring such legends as Marvin Throneberry—a first baseman so inept that his nickname had to be “Marvelous”—the Mets lost with swashbuckling panache. In an era when the fun seemed to have gone out of sports, the Mets came to life in a blaze of delightful, awe-inspiring ineptitude—and held a record that would stand for over sixty years. They may have been losers, but a team this awful deserves to be remembered as legends. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? PDF Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453245324
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description
A “hilarious” look back at the 1962 Mets and their record as the worst baseball team in history by the New York Times–bestselling author (Newark Star-Ledger). Five years after the Dodgers and Giants fled New York for California, the city’s National League fans were offered salvation in the shape of the New York Mets: an expansion team who, in the spring of 1962, attempted to play something resembling the sport of baseball. Helmed by the sagacious Casey Stengel and staffed by the league’s detritus, the new Mets played 162 games and lost 120 of them, making them statistically the worst team in the sport’s modern history. It’s possible they were even worse than that. Starring such legends as Marvin Throneberry—a first baseman so inept that his nickname had to be “Marvelous”—the Mets lost with swashbuckling panache. In an era when the fun seemed to have gone out of sports, the Mets came to life in a blaze of delightful, awe-inspiring ineptitude—and held a record that would stand for over sixty years. They may have been losers, but a team this awful deserves to be remembered as legends. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The Worst Team Money Could Buy

The Worst Team Money Could Buy PDF Author:
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803278226
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Even before the New York Mets began the 1992 season, they had set a critical record: the highest payroll ever for a major-league team, $45 million. With players Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Bret Saberhagen, and Howard Johnson, winning another championship seemed a mere formality. The 1992 New York Mets never made it to Cooperstown, however. Veteran newspapermen Bob Klapisch and John Harper reveal the extraordinary inside story of the Mets? decline and fall?with the sort of detail and uncensored quotes that never run in a family newspaper. From the sex scandals that plagued the club in Florida to the puritanical, no-booze rules of manager Jeff Torborg, from bad behavior on road trips to the downright ornery practical ?jokes? that big boys play, The Worst Team Money Could Buy is a grand-slam classic.

Seasons in Hell

Seasons in Hell PDF Author: Mike Shropshire
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1626812616
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
“A funny, revealing, Ball Four–like romp through mid-seventies baseball” from the longtime sports columnist and author of The Last Real Season (Booklist). You think your team is bad? In this “disastrously hilarious” work on one of the most tortured franchises in baseball, one reporter discovers that nine innings can feel like an eternity (USA Today). 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. “The single funniest sports book I have ever read.”—Don Imus “The locker-room shenanigans of a lousy team of the 1970s.”—Publishers Weekly

How the Good Guys Finally Won

How the Good Guys Finally Won PDF Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Viking
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
After the Watergate scandal corrupted American democracy, it took a gang of honest politicians to restore honor Not long after burglars were caught raiding the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, Congressman Tip O Neill noticed that Democratic fundraising efforts for the 1972 election had stalled. Major contributors were under IRS investigation, and Republican lackeys were threatening further trouble if those donors didn t close their checkbooks. O Neill sensed a conspiracy coming from the Nixon administration, but it wasn t until the scandal broke that he connected the threatened donors with the Watergate burglary. In the boldest move of his career, he did something that would shock the nation: O Neill decided to impeach the President.To his fellow members of the House of Representatives, this was an ugly idea. But as evidence mounted against Nixon and his cronies, O Neill led the charge against the President. This blow-by-blow, conviction-by-conviction account is a gripping reminder of how O Neill and his colleagues brought justice to those who abused their power, and revived America after the greatest political scandal in its history.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author s personal collection."

So Many Ways to Lose

So Many Ways to Lose PDF Author: Devin Gordon
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 006294004X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
“This is a weird, wonderful, and essential book about both America and its pastime. It’s about a place as vast as New York City and as intimate as the human heart. Fred Exley meets Richard Ben Cramer—a funny, wild, heartfelt, and keenly observed portrait of yearning itself.”—Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Cost of These Dreams “Mr. Gordon’s ability to explain the Sisyphean plight of all Mets fans is truly remarkable. Bravo!”—Ron Darling, New York Times bestselling author of Game 7, 1986 The Mets lose when they should win. They win when they should lose. And when it comes to being the worst, no team in sports has ever done it better than the Mets. In So Many Ways to Lose, author and lifelong Mets fan Devin Gordon sifts through the detritus of Queens for a baseball history like no other. Remember the time the Mets lost an All-Star after Yoenis Céspedes got charged by a wild boar? Or the time they blew a six-run ninth-inning lead at the peak of a pennant race? Or the time they fired their manager before he ever managed a game? Sure you do. It was only two years ago, and it was all in the same season. The Mets have an unrivaled gift for getting it backward, doing the impossible, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and then snatching defeat right back again. And yet, just ask any Mets fan: Amazing and/or miraculous postseason runs are as much a part of our team's identity as losing 120 games in 1962. The DNA of seasons like 1969, the original Miracle Mets, and the 1973 “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets, who went from last place to Game 7 of the World Series in two months, and the powerhouse 1986 Mets, has encoded in us this hapless instinct that a reversal of fortune is always possible. It’s happened before. It’s kind of our thing. And now we've got Steve Cohen's hedge-fund billions to play with! What could go wrong? In this hilarious history of the Mets and love letter to the art of disaster, Devin Gordon presents baseball the way it really is, not in the wistful sepia tones we've come to expect from other sportswriters. Along the way, he explains the difference between being bad and being gifted at losing, and why this distinction holds the key to understanding the true amazin’ magic of the New York Mets.

A Game of Inches

A Game of Inches PDF Author: Peter Morris
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
ISBN: 1566639549
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
A fascinating and charming encyclopedic collection of baseball firsts, describing how the innovations in the game—in rules, equipment, styles of play, strategies, etc.—occurred and developed from its origins to the present day. The book relies heavily on quotations from contemporary sources.

The World of Jimmy Breslin

The World of Jimmy Breslin PDF Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453245332
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist’s early columns “peopled by some of the funniest, looniest and saddest characters anywhere outside of a zoo” (The New York Times). In the 1960s, as the once-proud New York Herald Tribune spiraled into bankruptcy, the brightest light in its pages was an ebullient young columnist named Jimmy Breslin. While ordinary columnists wrote about politics, culture, or the economy, Breslin’s chief topics were the city and Breslin himself. He was chummy with cops, arsonists, and thieves, and told their stories with grace, wit, and lightning-quick prose. Whether covering the five boroughs, Vietnam, or the death of John F. Kennedy, Breslin managed to find great characters wherever he went. This collection includes some of Breslin’s most famous early writing. Here are the unforgettable New Yorkers Sam Silverware and Larry Lightfingers, the celebrated interview with President Kennedy’s gravedigger, and the classic “People I’m Not Talking To Next Year.” But the most important voice here is Breslin’s—as vibrant as ever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?

Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? PDF Author: Leslie Connor
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062999389
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
A big-hearted, beautiful, and funny novel told from multiple viewpoints about neurodiversity, friendship, and community from the award-winning author of The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, Leslie Connor. Eleven-year-old Aurora Petrequin’s best friend has never spoken a word to her. In fact, Frenchie Livernois doesn’t talk. Aurora is bouncy, loud and impulsive—“a big old blurter.” Making friends has never come easily. When Frenchie, who is autistic, silently chose Aurora as his person back in third grade, she chose him back. They make a good team, sharing their love of the natural world in coastal Maine. In the woods, Aurora and Frenchie encounter a piebald deer, a rare creature with a coat like a patchwork quilt. Whenever it appears, Aurora feels compelled to follow. At school, Aurora looks out for Frenchie, who has been her classmate until this year. One morning, Frenchie doesn’t make it to his classroom. Aurora feels she’s to blame. The entire town begins to search, and everyone wonders: how is it possible that nobody has seen Frenchie? At the heart of this story is the friendship between hyper-talkative Aurora and nonvocal Frenchie. Conflict arises when Aurora is better able to expand her social abilities and finds new friends. When Frenchie goes missing, Aurora must figure out how to use her voice to help find him, and lift him up when he is found. Featuring a compelling mystery and a memorable voice, this is a natural next-read after Leslie Connor’s The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle. * Kids’ Indie Next Pick * New England Book Award Finalists 2022 * “Leslie Connor brilliantly depicts a genuine and meaningful friendship between a dynamic girl and her nonvocal friend. By showing the ways Aurora and Frenchie communicate, Connor gives us a blueprint for seeing autistic children in a new light. I loved, loved, loved this book!” —Cammie McGovern, author of Frankie and Amelia and Chester and Gus

A False Spring

A False Spring PDF Author: Pat Jordan
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504033647
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
“One of the best and truest books about baseball, and about coming to maturity in America.” —Time In the late 1950s, acclaimed sportswriter Pat Jordan was a young pitching phenom, blowing away opposing batters for his Fairfield, Connecticut, high school baseball team. Fifteen major league clubs offered him a contract, but it was the Milwaukee Braves who won out, signing Jordan to a $45,000 bonus—one of the largest paid to any new player by the organization—and shipping him off to McCook, Nebraska, to play for their Class D ball club. It did not take long, however, for Jordan to realize he was out of his depth in professional baseball’s backwoods. He battled with inconsistency and a lack of control for three dismal seasons in such far-flung locales as Keokuk, Iowa, and Palatka, Florida, before the Braves released him and he gave up his dreams of big league greatness. Declared “unforgettable” by the Los Angeles Times and “a major triumph” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, A False Spring is a powerful and deeply affecting memoir about the gift of athletic talent and the heartbreak of unfulfilled promise.

Rex Barney's Thank Youuuu for 50 Years in Baseball from Brooklyn to Baltimore

Rex Barney's Thank Youuuu for 50 Years in Baseball from Brooklyn to Baltimore PDF Author: Rex Barney
Publisher: Cornell Maritime Press/Tidewater Publishers
ISBN: 9780870334436
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Barney pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and 1946-1950, including a no-hit game, then became a sportscaster, radio talk-show host, and finally stadium announcer for the Baltimore Orioles 1974-1997.