With its iconic stars and gleaming ballparks, baseball has been one of the most captivating forms of modern popular culture. In Expanding the Strike Zone, Daniel A. Gilbert examines the history and meaning of the sport's tumultuous changes since the mid-twentieth century, amid Major League Baseball's growing global influence. From the rise of ballplayer unionism to the emergence of new forms of scouting, broadcasting, and stadium development, Gilbert shows that the baseball world has been home to struggles over work and territory that resonate far beyond the playing field. Readers encounter both legendary and unheralded figures in this sweeping history, which situates Major League Baseball as part of a larger culture industry. The book examines a labor history defined at once by the growing power of big league stars -- from Juan Marichal and Curt Flood to Fernando Valenzuela and Ichiro Suzuki -- and the collective struggles of players working to make a living throughout the baseball world. It also explores the territorial politics that have defined baseball's development as a form of transnational popular culture, from the impact of Dominican baseball academies to the organized campaign against stadium development by members of Seattle's Asian American community. Based on a rich body of research along with new readings of popular journalism, fiction, and film, Expanding the Strike Zone highlights the ways in which baseball's players, owners, writers, and fans have shaped and reshaped the sport as a central element of popular culture from the postwar boom to the Great Recession.

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

"In Changing the Playbook, Howard P. Chudacoff delves into the background and what-ifs surrounding seven defining moments that redefined college sports. These changes involved fundamental issues--race and gender, profit and power--that reflected societal tensions and, in many cases, remain pertinent today: the failed 1950 effort to pass a Sanity Code regulating payments to football players; the thorny racial integration of university sports programs; the boom in television money; the 1984 Supreme Court decision that settled who could control skyrocketing media revenues; Title IX's transformation of women's athletics; the cheating, eligibility, and recruitment scandals that tarnished college sports in the 1980s and 1990s; the ongoing controversy over paying student athletes a share of the enormous moneys harvested by schools and athletic departments. A thought-provoking journey into the whos and whys of college sports history, Changing the Playbook reveals how the turning points of yesterday and today will impact tomorrow."

A must-have book by acclaimed author and expert H.A. Dorfman that highlights the crucial mental components involved in hitting a baseball and playing the game, components that are as important, if not more so, than the intense physical regimen of an athlete."...helpful to hitters in little leagues or in the big leagues. The information is clear and to the point..." -- Charles Johnson, former catcher, Florida Marlins

America has steadily regressed from a Republic under the Sign of the Cross towards a mobacracy under the Sign of the Scorpion. Social responsibility and the ethics of conscience have vacated the Field of Dreams like a Baroid tater -- an all about me cult of celebrity has evolved. Reclaiming the Strike Zone traces the metaphorical cleat marks through forbidden history. The Inside Baseball version of the Soviet Socialist Paradise and Nazi Germany is pitched shekel free. Sub-systems of the American superstructure featuring education, entertainment, youth activities and family are explored in-depth. The search for something that has been lost -- the secret of the American Dream and American Exceptionalism -- is pursued. All base paths lead to the Christian Church and Jewish Nation. Wise Christian philosophy has been Billy-Goated off the playing field -- secular humanism has taken The Hill. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud have taken a turn at-bat and gone long. Red tide has been harnessed into Economic Determinism by the F&F Boys. The hidden ball trick has been pulled on the sheeple. Disciples of General Zod lack American patriotism. Time is of the essence to restore what has been taken -- its the bottom of the 9th with two away. DO IT AMERICAN and dont give up the ship are battle cries. Intellectual Millenials must step up to the plate and reclaim what their baby booming Spock baby parents baptized in Dewey waters booted. Identifying the proton pseudos and resetting is the task. Restoring sub-systems [especially education] while playing small ball is the answer. Truth and patriotic leadership are catalysts. A burning desire to be an American -- free and independent -- without getting JFKd is the secret. There is a happy ending -- it is certain. The Good News delivers that promise.

This little book will teach you all you need to know about the most frustrating yet entertaining pitch in baseball: the knuckleball. It makes batters look foolish when it works; it embarrasses pitchers when it doesn't...or if it works too well. It humiliates catchers and umpires. It confounds spectators. Dave Clark has spent most of a lifetime studying the knuckleball, talking to the major league pitchers who have thrown it, and throwing a few of his own. His book explains the strange workings of the pitch and how it's used, no matter what your interest—whether you're a pitcher, batter, catcher, umpire, coach, spectator, or parent of any of the above. Everything Mr. Clark demonstrates in The Knucklebook is carefully illustrated with line drawings, so if you're an average high school pitcher who can throw strikes, you'll be able to throw a knuckleball exactly like a legendary Hall of Famer. You'll find appropriate and hilarious comments from those who have experienced the game of baseball as it's been affected by the wandering floater. Like those who throw the knuckler, all this information was scattered to far-flung corners of the baseball world until Mr. Clark gathered and compiled it. Reading his little book, you'll end up less mystified and more enlightened about this antic pitch. Or, like the pitch itself, you can just ride the breezes and enjoy the dancing flight from beginning to end. With 51 black-and-white line drawings.

"Joe Morgan again shows himself a rare bird: an ex-jock with savvy and the ability to communicate it." —People "This book has something for everybody, from longtime fans to Little Leaguers." —New York Newsday Baseball For Dummies, Third Edition, is for baseball fans at all levels, from players and coaches to spectators who love the game. Baseball Hall of Fame player and ESPN baseball analyst Joe Morgan explains baseball with remarkable insight, using down-to-earth language so everyone from the casual observer to the die-hard fan can gain a fuller appreciation of the sport. This updated edition features: Everything you need to know about the game, from what it takes to play each position and how to hit and run the bases to what to watch for in the game and how to appreciate the finer points of the sport Coverage of new star players, new stadiums, and game milestones The lowdown on today’s baseball Web resources The latest on stats and sabermetrics The inside story on the new steroid rules From how to throw a knuckleball or hit an inside pitch to how to keep a scorecard or pick a winning fantasy league team, Morgan covers all the bases, showing you how to get the most out of the game. You’ll see how to: Improve your hitting, pitching, and fielding Find a team to play on, from Little League on up Evaluate stats, players, and records Coach or umpire effectively Get more out of a trip to the ballpark Complete with Morgan’s personal lists of top-ten pitchers, fielders, and relievers, as well as new quotes from Derek Jeter and Keith Hernandez, Baseball For Dummies gives you all the inside tips, facts, and stats so you can play like a Major Leaguer!

A biography of Sandy Koufax, considered by some to be the best left-handed pitcher of all time, drawing from interviews with friends, former teammates and opponents, and sports journalists to examine Koufax's life growing up as a Jew in Brooklyn, his career achievements, and his retirement.

FIELD & STREAM, America’s largest outdoor sports magazine, celebrates the outdoor experience with great stories, compelling photography, and sound advice while honoring the traditions hunters and fishermen have passed down for generations.

Tim McCarver, major league baseball's premier analyst, has been surprising and delighting viewers for years with his remarkable insight. Fans who once were content to merely watch baseball were stimulated into wanting to think baseball as well. McCarver brings to the booth a combination of twenty-one years of major league service and nearly twenty more in broadcasting. There is nobody better at explaining the game than McCarver, and it is a rare game in which the viewer does not learn something new and unusual. Now he is putting down on paper all he knows about the sport, producing this unique perspective on how America's pastime should be played and watched. With his unmistakable wit and storytelling verve, McCarver succinctly explains the fundamentals and proper mechanics of baseball at the level necessary for success in the major leagues. Once the skills have been learned, the viewer can devise smart strategies, getting into the heads of the players, coaches, and managers: When should a player or manager be conservative or aggressive; what factors change as the count goes deeper; how do you set up an effective running game, and how can a defense try to sabotage it? This book is a gold mine for all fans, from brain surgeons and rocket scientists to beginners who want to start with the basics. (Even major leaguers will be able to pick up some pointers.) With a deeper knowledge and understanding of baseball, any fan will be able to watch it like a pro.