The Tao of Baseball

The Tao of Baseball PDF Author: Gordon Bell
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN: 9780671704308
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description

The Tao of Baseball

The Tao of Baseball PDF Author: Gordon Bell
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN: 9780671704308
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Prehistories of Baseball

The Prehistories of Baseball PDF Author: Seelochan Beharry
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147661363X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Baseball's roots lie deep in our ancestral past. The ancient arts of throwing (distance warfare), hitting (close quarters combat), and running (attack and retreat) were woven into the earliest forms of baseball. Early humans recognized the importance of the sun and sought to placate it with sacrificial offerings, imitating its movements and deifying it. Myths and relics of these foundational practices and beliefs were carried westward across the Old World by Indo-European peoples. Games for the early British and Continental Europeans (notably the Celts and Druids) served military, religious, social and educational needs. As the Celts and Druids came under the control of the Roman Empire, and later the Christian Church, their customs and practices, including games, fell out of favor. Despite persecution, some folk games survived the millennia under such names as "stool-ball," "tut-ball," and "base-ball." Descendants of these peoples brought their variant games to the New World where the standardization of various informal rules led to their rapid spread. Baseball, with its underlying beliefs, superstitions and practices, still brings us together with familiar and comforting rituals as we assemble under the sun.

The Baseball Gods

The Baseball Gods PDF Author: Ronald DiFabbio
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595397328
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
Have you ever watched a baseball game and wondered why on some days every good call or lucky bounce goes in favor of the team you're rooting for, while on the other days it seems like there is a grand conspiracy perpetuated by some higher power to keep them from winning? Or maybe you've wondered why some players always seem to get the big hit in the clutch, while others wilt when the spotlight shines on them? Or on a more personal level, maybe you're someone who can't figure why your life is not what you had always hoped it would be and you feel powerless to do anything about it? The questions of baseball and life are as mysterious as the compulsions that drive us to answer them, but there are a group of beings that make their home on the ball fields of our youth and in the landscape of our dreams who can answer all our questions and teach us to live to a better life. They are the Baseball Gods and this is the story of how I met them, how they have changed my life.

The Tao of the Backup Catcher

The Tao of the Backup Catcher PDF Author: Tim Brown
Publisher: Twelve
ISBN: 1538726572
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
"This isn’t just a story about baseball. It’s about life and the beauty of knowing and accepting who you are.” —Jeff Passan, ESPN baseball columnist This fascinating book chronicles the unsung men of baseball who serve the job, the hardships they face, and their love for a game that would not always love them back―told partly through the experiences of an MLB veteran.​ In baseball there are superstars and stars and everyday players and then there are the rest. Within the rest are role players and specialists and journeymen and then there are the backup catchers. The Tao of the Backup Catcher is about them, the backup catchers, who exist near the bottom of the roster and the end of the bench and between the numbers in a sport–and a society–increasingly driven by cold, hard analytics. The Tao of the Backup Catcher is a story of grown men who once dreamed of stardom and generational wealth. Instead, they were handed a broom and a deeper understanding of who wins and why, who stands tall and who folds, and who will invest their own lives in catching bullpens and the back ends of doubleheaders. Backup catchers survive in part because every team needs one. They are necessary, once or twice a week. They prosper because the game, like the world around the game, still needs good souls, honest efforts, open eyes and ears, closed mouths, compassion for the sad parts, a laugh for the silly parts, and a heart that knows the difference. Backup catchers are sports’ big brothers, psychologists, priests, witch doctors, player coaches, father figures and drinking buddies, all wrapped in a suit of today’s polycarbonate armor and yesterday’s dirt. They come with a singular goal–to win baseball games. They play for the greater good. After that, they play for themselves. A reverie on loving the grind and the little things baseball can teach us, The Tao of the Backup Catcher profiles Erik Kratz, Josh Paul, AJ Ellis, Bobby Wilson, Drew Butera, Matt Treanor, and John Flaherty to name a few. “This isn’t just a story about baseball. It’s about life and the beauty of knowing and accepting who you are.” ―Jeff Passan

Baseball Sleuth

Baseball Sleuth PDF Author: Mark Fidler
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595130445
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
“You buried the body in the yard?” These words, spoken to a man named Bob, crackle from the baby monitor. Phillip strains to hear more through the static. A murder! No one will believe him unless he finds out who Bob is, and where Bob lives. Phillip Crafts loves baseball but he is a terrible player. He loves mysteries, but his teammates laugh at him when he sees crimes where they don’t exist. Meanwhile, at home, his life is even worse. After twelve years of being an only child, Phillip's newborn sister has taken all of his mother's time, energy, and maybe even her love. And he is sure that he can never earn the respect of his “jock” stepfather. The only good thing in his life is his best friend Jackson, the girl next door. Armed with few clues, Phillip and Jackson work to unravel the mystery of the buried body. Their investigation builds to an exciting and dangerous climax, just as Phillip’s baseball season builds toward its final, dramatic game.

501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die

501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die PDF Author: Ron Kaplan
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496209885
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.

Classic Baseball

Classic Baseball PDF Author: John Rosengren
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538156970
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
A collection of iconic, unbelievable, and intimate stories from baseball history that celebrate the enduring impact of the national pastime. Baseball—rooted as it is in tradition and nostalgia—lends itself to the retelling of its timeless tales. So it is with the stories in Classic Baseball, a collection of articles written by award-winning journalist John Rosengren and originally published by Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, Sports on Earth, VICE Sports, and other magazines. These are stories about the game’s legends—Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Josh Gibson, Bob Feller, Frank Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Kirby Puckett—and its lesser-knowns with extraordinary stories of their own. They cover some of the game's most famous moments, like Hank Aaron hitting No. 715, and some you've never heard of, like the time the Ku Klux Klan played a game against an all-Black team. Whether it be the story of John Roseboro forgiving Juan Marichal for clubbing him in the head with a bat, Elston Howard breaking down the Yankees' systemic racism to integrate America's team, or the national pastime played on snowshoes during July in a remote Wisconsin town, these are stories meant to be read and read again for their poignancy, their humor, and their celebration of baseball.

The Deadly Tools of Ignorance

The Deadly Tools of Ignorance PDF Author: Robert Elias
Publisher: Rounder Records
ISBN: 9781579401047
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The Deadly Tools of Ignorance follows the witty and feisty Debs Kafka through the dysfunctional halls of academia, into the scandal-ridden Catholic Church, down the streets of San Francisco, and into the locker rooms of Major League Baseball. Can he fathom the chaos of these different worlds, find the culprit, and still salvage his own aspirations and stormy romance? In a nutshell this novel is: Good Will Hunting meets the Rookie on the Field of Dreams behind the Catholic Church.

Taoist Lessons for Educational Leaders

Taoist Lessons for Educational Leaders PDF Author: Daniel Heller
Publisher: R&L Education
ISBN: 1610485203
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 101

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Book Description
This book explores ways in which educational leaders can apply the wisdom of the Tao in their day-to-day work in schools. It offers an alternative to the standard ways of western thinking to give the leader more possibilities when confronting a situation. We tend to value immediate and decisive action, winning, directing, and getting one’s way. Taoist Lessons for Educational Leaders offers another way of approaching the workplace. We can also value waiting and reflection before acting, seeing all participants as winners or at least no one as a loser, following as a form of leadership, and giving away some victories, as beneficial to the governance of a school. There is more than one way to “win” and more than one way assert one’s authority, as illustrated by this book.

Rounding the Bases

Rounding the Bases PDF Author: Joseph L. Price
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 9780865549999
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
After identifying early conflicts between churches and baseball in the late-nineteenth century, Price examines the appropriation of baseball by the House of David, an early twentieth-century millennial Protestant community in southern Michigan. Turning then from historic intersections between baseball and religion, two chapters focus on the ways that baseball reelects religious myths. First, the omphalos myth about the origin and ordering of the world is reflected in the rituals and rules of the game. Then the myth of curses is explored in the culture of superstition that underlies the game. At the heart of the book is a sustained argument about how baseball functions as an American civil religion, affirming and sanctifying American identity, especially during periods of national crises such as wars and terrorist attacks. Building on this analysis of baseball as an America's civil religion, two chapters draw upon novels by W. P. Kinsella and David James Duncan to explore the sacramental potential of baseball and to align baseball with apocalyptic possibilities. The final chapter serves as a full confession, interpreting baseball affiliation stories as conversion narratives. In various ways