An alphabetical arrangement of the 100 greatest pitchers including their career data.

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.

Relates the stories of five outstanding baseball pitchers, from Walter Johnson to Nolan Ryan.

From Babe Ruth to Michael Phelps, Billie Jean King to Tony Hawk, American athletes have been a source of pride and accomplishment throughout the nation’s history. While there have been plenty of athlete biographies, sports profiles, and behind-the scenes looks at various professional sports, no book has attempted to rank the greatest American athletes of all time. Until now. In The100 Greatest American Athletes, Martin Gitlin ranks the best of the best using a point system to assess each individual’s achievements, versatility, and athleticism, as well as the physical requirements of the sport or sports in which they participated. The final tally of these points provides the ranking for each athlete in the book, which is sure to spark lively conversation. Some of the most iconic names in sports history can be found here, including Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Larry Byrd, LeBron James, Mickey Mantle, Joe Montana, Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Tiger Woods, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. It can be difficult to compare bobsledders to boxers, figure-skaters to football players, shot-putters to skiers. This book, however, attempts to do just that in an accurate, fair manner that honors those who made valuable contributions to American sports and culture. Sports fans will undoubtedly enjoy debating the ranking of these remarkable individuals, making The100 Greatest American Athletes a must read.

More than 150,000 major league baseball games were played in the 20th century. Here are ranked the 100 greatest, the very best (less than 1/10th of 1 percent) of the contests. They feature brilliant individual pitching performances, pitching duels, remarkable individual batting achievements, team offensive explosions, mind-numbing comebacks, multiple lead changes, team rivalries and heroics in final at-bats. The games are from the regular season, pennant races, playoffs, and the World Series. The inclusion of some games might be surprising, but all of them twanged or hammered the nerves of both spectators and participants.

Just who was the greatest baseball player of the 20th century—Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron? It's difficult to choose just one of those players over the other three megastars. Then think how really hard it is to pick (and rank) the hundred greatest players of the century, judging and juggling position players, pitchers, active players and retired ones. The authors of this work looked at statistics, the different eras, the “five tools,” and even oral legend in compiling this list of the 100 diamond dandies of the second millennium. They've ranked the Negro League players and superstars from around the globe alongside the Major League legends. Some of their choices may surprise even the most learned fans. Year-by-year playing statistics (if available) are included for all players.

Presents information, including biographical profiles and career statistics, about some of the major league baseball's best pitchers.

Each volume in the set presents brief descriptions of one hundred topics within that volume's subject area.

Contains profiles, ranked in order of significance, of the world's most influential heroes of all time.

The all-time career leader in saves, with 652, Mariano Rivera is one of the greatest professional athletes in history. Since taking over the closer’s role for the New York Yankees in 1997, until his retirement in 2013, Rivera saved 30 or more games in every season but one. In addition, he has an astonishing MLB record 42 postseason saves, with 11 of them coming in the World Series. After 19 seasons in the Major Leagues, his preeminence among relief pitchers is assumed and his induction into Cooperstown assured. And he accomplished it all, mostly, with one devastating pitch: his signature cut fastball. As third baseman Corey Koskie put it: “You knew what pitch [Rivera’s] going to throw, a cutter. . . . You start to swing at the pitch and the next thing you know, the ball explodes your bat. I tried multiple things hoping to figure out a way get the barrel [of the bat] on one of his pitches. . . . Nothing worked.” Far from a conventional biography, Facing Mariano Rivera offers perspectives and testimonials from opponents and teammates alike, including Rivera’s minor-league roommate and the final batter he faced in the major leagues. Some opponents had uncommon success against “The Sandman,” and they share their secrets for hitting him. Most, however, echo the sentiments of five-time All-Star Mike Sweeney: “When you’re at Yankee Stadium and Mariano Rivera is coming in the game, it feels like a horror movie . . . when you hear the music and you’re scared to death, because you know what’s going to happen.” Truly dominant pitchers come along only rarely. This book tells the reader what it’s like to battle one of the all-time best, in the words of the players who did just that. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.