Before he hit 400 home runs... Before he was named American League MVP... Before he was AROD to millions of fans... He was Alex. Just a kid who wanted to play baseball more than anything else in the world. Baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez has drawn on his own childhood experiences to create this exciting picture book. It's the story of a boy named Alex who knows what it's like to swing at a wild pitch or have a ball bounce right between his legs. Alex is determined not to let his mistakes set him back—even if it means getting up at the crack of dawn to work on his hitting and fielding before school each day! Full of the spirit of determination and joy in the game that put AROD in a league of his own, Out of the Ballpark is a gift from a great sports hero to every young player who dreams of becoming a star.

Take Me Out to the Ballpark is a wonderful tour through every park in the Major League, along with dozens more stadiums from the Minor Leagues, Negro Leagues and baseball's past. Packed with hundreds of photographs and loaded with facts, stories and statistics, it's the ultimate books for diehard and casual fans alike.

When we think of baseball, we think of sunny days and leisurely outings at the ballpark--rarely do thoughts of death come to mind. Yet during the game's history, hundreds of players, coaches and spectators have died while playing or watching the National Pastime. In its second edition, this ground-breaking study provides the known details for 150 years of game-related deaths, identifies contributing factors and discusses resulting changes to game rules, protective equipment, crowd control and stadium structures and grounds. Topics covered include pitched and batted-ball fatalities, weather and field condition accidents, structural failures, fatalities from violent or risky behavior and deaths from natural causes.

An exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic. From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations--bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and '60s made plain television's grip on the public's attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball's role in urban development. Throughout, Goldberger shows us the way in which baseball's history is concurrent with our cultural history: the rise of urban parks and public transportation; the development of new building materials and engineering and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game--the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands--shaped our most beloved ballparks. A fascinating, exuberant ode to the Edens at the heart of our cities--where dreams are as limitless as the outfields.

In this lively chronicle of the creation of the Baltimore Orioles' new stadium, Richmond interweaves baseball history and hardball politics, architecture and the structure ot sports in the '90s to tell a tale as filled with tussles, turmoil, and triumphs as baseball itself.

What is the relationship between sports and politics? Often, politics are thought to be serious, whereas sports are diversionary and apolitical. Using baseball as a case study, Democracy at the Ballpark challenges this understanding, examining politics as they emerge at the ballpark around spectatorship, community, equality, virtue, and technology. Thomas David Bunting argues that because spectators invest time and meaning in baseball, the game has power as a metaphor for understanding and shaping politics. The stories people see in baseball mirror how they see the country, politics, and themselves. As a result, democracy resides not only in exclusive halls tread by elites but also in a stadium full of average people together under an open sky. Democracy at the Ballpark bridges political theory and sport, providing a new way of thinking about baseball. It also demonstrates the democratic potential of spectatorship and rethinks the role of everyday institutions like sport in shaping our political lives, offering an expanded view of democracy.

In A Mathematician at the Ballpark, professor Ken Ross reveals the math behind the stats. This lively and accessible book shows baseball fans how to harness the power of made predictions and better understand the game. Using real-world examples from historical and modern-day teams, Ross shows: • Why on-base and slugging percentages are more important than batting averages • How professional odds makers predict the length of a seven-game series • How to use mathematics to make smarter bets A Mathematician at the Ballpark is the perfect guide to the science of probability for the stats-obsessed baseball fans—and, with a detailed new appendix on fantasy baseball, an essential tool for anyone involved in a fantasy league.

Ballparks are repositories of family memory, unique places that link generations. Until now, no single volume has focused on the historical development of these special spaces, from the crossroads of neighboring cornfields to the intersections of state highways. In Diamonds, Michael Gershman carefully traces the often curious genesis of these cultural landmarks that mirror, in many respects, the evolution of our urban landscape. All the great parks - Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Sportsman's Park, Ebbets Field, Shibe Park, Crosley Field, the Polo Grounds, Comiskey Park, Forbes Field, Tiger Stadium - and lesser-known gems - Baker Bowl, South End Grounds, Palace of the Fans, and Hilltop Park - are celebrated with a rich blend of meticulously researched history, illuminating anecdotes, rare photographs, and evocative illustrations. Diamonds also tells the story of more modern baseball palaces - Candlestick Park, the Astrodome, and Camden Yards - and describes parks that were proposed but ne

Baseball is a strange sport: it consists of long periods in which little seems to be happening, punctuated by high-energy outbursts of rapid fire activity. Because of this, despite ever greater profits, Major League Baseball is bent on finding ways to shorten games, and to tailor baseball to today's shorter attention spans. But for the true fan, baseball is always compelling to watch -and intellectually fascinating. It's superficially slow-pace is an opportunity to participate in the distinctive thinking practice that defines the game. If baseball is boring, it's boring the way philosophy is boring: not because there isn't a lot going on, but because the challenge baseball poses is making sense of it all. In this deeply entertaining book, philosopher and baseball fan Alva Noë explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game. For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame. To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened. Noe also explains the curious activity of keeping score: a score card is not merely a record of the game, like a video recording; it is an account of the game. Baseball requires that true fans try to tell the story of the game, in real time, as it unfolds, and thus actively participate in its creation. Some argue that baseball is fundamentally a game about numbers. Noe's wide-ranging, thoughtful observations show that, to the contrary, baseball is not only a window on language, culture, and the nature of human action, but is intertwined with deep and fundamental human truths. The book ranges from the nature of umpiring and the role of instant replay, to the nature of the strike zone, from the rampant use of surgery to controversy surrounding performance enhancing drugs. Throughout, Noe's observations are surprising and provocative. Infinite Baseball is a book for the true baseball fan.

Antes de que anotara 400 jonrones . . . antes de que lo nombraran jugador más valioso en la Liga Americana . . . antes de que fuera "AROD" para millones de fanáticos . . . era simplemente: Alex. Un niño que quería jugar béisbol más que nada en el mundo. La estrella del béisbol Alex Rodríguez se ha inspirado en sus propios recuerdos de infancia para crear este emocionante libro para niños. Es la historia de un chico, Alex, que sabe lo mal que se siente al dar un batazo ante un lanzamiento despiadado, o cuando la pelota le rebota a uno entre las piernas. Alex está decidido a no darse por vencido, ¡aún si eso significa tener que levantarse todos los días antes del amanecer para practicar bateando o aparando antes de ir a la escuela! Lleno del mismo espíritu de determinación y amor al deporte que colocó a AROD en una clase aparte, ¡Jonrón! es un regalo de este grande del deporte a todos los pequeños jugadores que sueñan con convertirse en estrellas.