A city wrapped by the Gulf of Mexico's beaches, Mobile has a history as rich as the azalea-saturated soil on which it rests. Recipient of the All-American City distinction, Mobile is home to the original Mardi Gras celebration, the Junior Miss Scholarship Program, the Battleship U.S.S. Alabama, and Hammerin' Hank Aaron. The city's passion for baseball has endured through its tumultuous past, marked by yellow fever, World War II prominence, and the Civil Rights Movement. Spanning from the late 1800s to the present day, Baseball in Mobile recounts the introduction of baseball to the Port City, chronicles the vast talent of Mobile natives who have influenced the sport, and introduces the players and teams of modern Mobile, many of whom are sure to become tomorrow's legends. Historic photographs of the changing baseball landscape are captured in Baseball in Mobile, showcasing the fact that while the fields, uniforms, and teams have changed, the game remains ingrained in Mobile, as constant as the bay that surrounds it.

Mobile Baseball Connection is the History of Baseball in Lower AlabamaMobile, Alabama is losing its Southern League AA baseball team after the 2019 season. The Bay Bears are moving to Madison County, Alabama near Huntsville. The Biloxi Shuckers became the same team which was once the Huntsville Stars until the 2015 season. The Stars were members of the Southern League from 1985 to 2014. Hank Aaron was ONE of the GREATEST baseball players in the world...and he represents Mobile, Alabama. He is just one of the biggest reasons Mobile has such a storied history in baseball. In my opinion, Mobile can lay claim to arguably and debatable...the greatest hitter in Hank Aaron; the greatest pitcher in Satchel Paige and the greatest fielder in Ozzie Smith.MOBILE BASEBALL CONNECTION and PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL in LOWER ALABAMA are available on Create Space and Amazon.com. I have self-published three book versions about the wonderful history of BASEBALL related to Mobile, Alabama. Completing these BOOKS project is like finishing a marathon that I never thought was possible. I was rejected by hundreds of publishers although I never once let anything discourage my focus. Patience has given me courage and strength to conclude my compilation of what has been so very special to me for numerous years.MOBILE BASEBALL CONNECTION is a very unique TRIBUTE to thousands of baseball players...young and old. Thousands of the topics represent Mobilians and Hundreds of the characters written about might not be from Mobile although they are many of the greatest men and boys to ever play the game. One must purchase the book to find all the GREAT baseball news that is written and recognized between the covers. From the HALL of FAME in Cooperstown to the Major Leagues and along the minor league trail are stories, statistics and memories. The Colleges and Universities in Mobile are highlighted along with best high school players and coaches. Don't ever think for a moment standouts on the Youth level would be left out from Babe Ruth and Dixie Boys all the way to the Little League World Series.MOBILE BASEBALL CONNECTION goes in to detail about thousands of facts, figures, stats, records, memories, births, deaths, milestones, and tidbits. It is a book that the real baseball fan will cherish. MBC is a reference book a lot like an almanac. The biographies, stories and reports about the great players connected and attached to Mobile, Alabama will educate the smartest baseball experts in the world. This book is definitely a collector's item that deserves a place on shelves in libraries and museums, on coffee tables and in book bags of our youth, but most importantly between the hands of baseball readers throughout our amazing country.I have held on to this idea and ambition to write about all this outstanding baseball for more than 20 years while the great players just keep coming around. I am humble with a spiritual thankfulness to GOD for allowing me to finish this project. Putting a cap on it is an everlasting feeling.There was only one way to put it all together and I did the very best I could. It is not about profit or gratitude. The 565 pages and 44 chapters of MOBILE BASEBALL CONNECTION are about the greatest baseball players that played in and around Mobile, Alabama. It brings me true joy to know that I have been a witness to such great baseball in my lifetime.Mobile Baseball Connection displays to the entire world how much baseball players and people have contributed to the City of Mobile through the wonderful sport of baseball.Mobile is best known for Mardi Gras, the Senior Bowl College football all-star game and good ole' Deep South outdoors on the Gulf Coast in Lower Alabama. The baseball players that were born, grew up, spent time and even died in the Port City are revealed and recognized.

The untold story of baseball’s nineteenth-century origins: “a delightful look at a young nation creating a pastime that was love from the first crack of the bat” (Paul Dickson, The Wall Street Journal). You may have heard that Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright invented baseball. Neither did. You may have been told that a club called the Knickerbockers played the first baseball game in 1846. They didn’t. Perhaps you’ve read that baseball’s color line was first crossed by Jackie Robinson in 1947. Nope. Baseball’s true founders don’t have plaques in Cooperstown. They were hundreds of uncredited, ordinary people who played without gloves, facemasks, or performance incentives. Unlike today’s pro athletes, they lived full lives outside of sports. They worked, built businesses, and fought against the South in the Civil War. In this myth-busting history, Thomas W. Gilbert reveals the true beginnings of baseball. Through newspaper accounts, diaries, and other accounts, he explains how it evolved through the mid-nineteenth century into a modern sport of championships, media coverage, and famous stars—all before the first professional league was formed in 1871. Winner of the Casey Award: Best Baseball Book of the Year

Join nine-year-old Hubaldo Romero Paez in Venezuela as he introduces his friends, his family, and his favorite sport-baseball. Complemented by a map and an English-Spanish baseball glossary, Hubaldo's story is an inviting introduction to a foreign land viewed through the lens of a shared passion. "This dynamic sports photo-essay will be fun for sports fans and effective for social studies units."-Booklist

THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL BOOK has more than lived up to its name. Spanning the complete history of the sport from the fledgling leagues in the late 1870s to the powerhouses of the 1990s and revealing in the process what a remarkable effect baseball has had on our collective experience, this is THE book for any and all baseball fans, certain to grace coffee and bedside tables alike. Designed with that wonderful nostalgia that the sport itself so often evokes, THE ULTIMATE BASEBALL BOOK combines timeless images with a sweeping narrative history as well as essays on various idols and icons by such heavy hitters as Red Smith, Wilfrid Sheed, Roy Blount, Jr., Tom Wicker, and Geoge Will. This new edition covers baseball through the nineties, the decade when home run records fell and the sport reclaimed its hold on America, and celebrates the national game in ultimate style.

“An exciting and engrossing book. . . . will engage fans of Charlie O. Finley and the Oakland Athletics, along with anyone captivated by baseball history.” —Library Journal, starred review The Oakland A’s of the early 1970s: Never before had an entire organization so collectively traumatized baseball’s establishment with its outlandish behavior and business decisions. The high drama that played out on the field—five straight division titles and three straight championships—was exceeded only by the drama in the clubhouse and front office. Under the visionary leadership of owner Charles O. Finley, the team assembled such luminary figures as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue, and with garish uniforms and revolutionary facial hair, knocked baseball into the modern age. Finley’s need for control—he was his own general manager and dictated everything from the ballpark organist’s playlist to the menu for the media lounge—made him ill-suited for the advent of free agency. Within two years, his dynasty was lost. A history of one of the game’s most unforgettable teams, Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic is a paean to the sport’s most turbulent, magical team, during one of major league baseball’s most turbulent, magical times. “Masterfully recounts a thrilling period in Oakland A’s history.” —Billy Beane, executive vice president of baseball operations, Oakland A’s “Not to be believed, and yet 100 percent true.” —Steve Fainaru, senior writer for ESPN and author of League of Denial “A must-read for any fan of the sport.” —Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of One Shot at Forever “Carefully researched and often hilarious.” —San Francisco Chronicle “A chance to relive a period of outlandish moments in America’s pastime.” —Publishers Weekly

Think you know how the game of baseball began? Think again. Forget Abner Doubleday and Cooperstown. Did baseball even have a father--or did it just evolve from other bat-and-ball games? John Thorn, baseball's preeminent historian, examines the creation story of the game and finds it all to be a gigantic lie. From its earliest days baseball was a vehicle for gambling, a proxy form of class warfare. Thorn traces the rise of the New York version of the game over other variations popular in Massachusetts and Philadelphia. He shows how the sport's increasing popularity in the early decades of the nineteenth century mirrored the migration of young men from farms and small towns to cities, especially New York. Full of heroes, scoundrels, and dupes, this book tells the story of nineteenth-century America, a land of opportunity and limitation, of glory and greed--all present in the wondrous alloy that is our nation and its pastime.--From publisher description.

Now even the smallest of fans can enjoy a book about their favorite sport. Rhyming riddles accompanied by colorful artwork help introduce the game's simplest, most basic elements.

During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. While soldiers slaughtered each other over the country's fate, players and fans struggled over the form of the national pastime. George Kirsch gives us a color commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball during the Civil War. He shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian--and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American nationalism. By 1860, baseball was poised to emerge as the American sport. Clubs in northeastern and a few southern cities played various forms of the game. Newspapers published statistics, and governing bodies set rules. But the Civil War years proved crucial in securing the game's place in the American heart. Soldiers with bats in their rucksacks spread baseball to training camps, war prisons, and even front lines. As nationalist fervor heightened, baseball became patriotic. Fans honored it with the title of national pastime. War metaphors were commonplace in sports reporting, and charity games were scheduled. Decades later, Union general Abner Doubleday would be credited (wrongly) with baseball's invention. The Civil War period also saw key developments in the sport itself, including the spread of the New York-style of play, the advent of revised pitching rules, and the growth of commercialism. Kirsch recounts vivid stories of great players and describes soldiers playing ball to relieve boredom. He introduces entrepreneurs who preached the gospel of baseball, boosted female attendance, and found new ways to make money. We witness bitterly contested championships that enthralled whole cities. We watch African Americans embracing baseball despite official exclusion. And we see legends spring from the pens of early sportswriters. Rich with anecdotes and surprising facts, this narrative of baseball's coming-of-age reveals the remarkable extent to which America's national pastime is bound up with the country's defining event.

* Captivating portraits that will appeal to baseball lovers of all ages * Contains thrilling accounts of pivotal games * Filled with action photographs & statistics