In the summer of 1932, at the beginning of the turbulent decade that would remake America, baseball fans were treated to one of the most thrilling seasons in the history of the sport. As the nation drifted deeper into the Great Depression and reeled from social unrest, baseball was a diversion for a troubled country—and yet the world of baseball was marked by the same edginess that pervaded the national scene. On-the-field fights were as common as double plays. Amid the National League pennant race, Cubs’ shortstop Billy Jurges was shot by showgirl Violet Popovich in a Chicago hotel room. When the regular season ended, the Cubs and Yankees clashed in what would be Babe Ruth’s last appearance in the fall classic. After the Cubs lost the first two games in New York, the series resumed in Chicago at Wrigley Field, with Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt cheering for the visiting Yankees from the box seats behind the Yankees’ dugout. In the top of the fifth inning the game took a historic turn. As Ruth was jeered mercilessly by Cubs players and fans, he gestured toward the outfield and then blasted a long home run. After Ruth circled the bases, Roosevelt exclaimed, “Unbelievable!” Ruth’s homer set off one of baseball’s longest-running and most intense debates: did Ruth, in fact, call his famous home run? Rich with historical context and detail, The Called Shot dramatizes the excitement of a baseball season during one of America’s most chaotic summers.

"Babe Ruth was already famous. But in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, he became a legend. With the game tied 4-4 and two strikes against him, the Babe did something miraculous. He first pointed toward the outfield. Then on the very next pitch he slammed a monster home run--right to where he'd pointed. With action-packed illustrations, now you can watch as the great Bambino calls his home run shot and cements his place forever as a baseball legend."--Publisher's description

Advance Praise for Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot? "Aron has found the Rosetta stone to all of baseball's enduring mysteries, and he skips it along the pond with utter disregard for the ducks. His fortunate readers will have so much fun they may not even notice that they are becoming, page by page, real experts. Here is surefire water-cooler ammo." --JOHN THORN, editor of Total Baseball "Paul Aron puts a distant replay on the most famous controversies in baseball history. This is more fun than if he'd been there with a camcorder." --ALLEN BARRA, author of Clearing the Bases and Brushbacks and Knockdowns "Paul Aron has hit a home run for baseball fans. He dissects the evidence on baseball's 28 most charming mysteries. The result is a well-written, enjoyable, enlightening tour of the last hundred years of baseball history." --ANDREW ZIMBALIST, author of Baseball and Billions "Paul Aron's book on elements of baseball is both wise and fun, illuminating and entertaining." --ROBERT ADAIR, author of The Physics of Baseball "The essential last word for every fan who loves to debate baseball fact and fiction." --MICHAEL SHAPIRO, author of The Last Good Season

Last Ride of the Iron Horse tells the tale of Lou Gehrig's final year in the Yankee lineup, as he dealt with early effects of the paralytic disease ALS. For much of the 1938 season, the legendary Gehrig -- dubbed the Iron Horse for his strength and reliability -- struggled with slumps and a mystifying loss of power that shook his confidence. Fans booed and sportswriters called for him to be benched. Then, as the Yankees battled for the pennant in August, Lou began pounding home runs like his old self -- a turnaround that in retrospect looks truly miraculous. It may have been a rare case of temporary ALS reversal. Using hard-to-find film footage, radio broadcasts, newspapers and interviews, author Dan Joseph chronicles Gehrig's roller coaster of a year. It began in Hollywood, where the handsome "Larrupin' Lou" filmed a Western that turned out to be his only movie. In subsequent months, he signed for baseball's highest salary, battled injuries that would have sidelined a lesser man, won his sixth World Series ring, and entered the political arena for the first time, denouncing the rising threat of Nazism. Joseph also seeks to answer questions that have long intrigued Gehrig's admirers: when did he sense something was wrong with his body? What were the first signs? How did he adjust? And did he still help the Yankees win the championship, even as his skills declined? 1938 turned out to be Gehrig's final hurrah. With his strength and reflexes fading, he ended his renowned consecutive games streak at 2,130 the following May. A few weeks later, doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed him with ALS. On July 4th, the Yankees retired his number in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. All along, Gehrig showed remarkable courage and grace, never more so than when he told the stadium crowd, "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."

For baseball's millions of fans, this ultimate reference to the national pastime features a listing of more than 800 memorable people, places, dates, events, terms, records, and statistics. From the game's origins in the 1840s to the present day, The Book of Baseball Literacy presents complete details on the great sport in one lively, fascinating treasury.

With thirty-eight pennants and twenty-six World Series victories, the Yankees aren’t just the most successful baseball team of all time, they’re the most successful franchise in the history of sports. InBombers, you’ll find stories about all the Yankees legends, including DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris, Martin, Jeter, and Williams. Yankees fans will love Bombers, but this is a book for all baseball fans, one that illuminates baseball history the way it happened on the field, in the stands, and in the hearts of players and fans.

From the perspective of 2007, the unintentional irony of Chance's boast is manifest—these days, the question is when will the Cubs ever win a game they have to have. In October 1908, though, no one would have laughed: The Cubs were, without doubt, baseball's greatest team—the first dynasty of the 20th century. Crazy '08 recounts the 1908 season—the year when Peerless Leader Frank Chance's men went toe to toe to toe with John McGraw and Christy Mathewson's New York Giants and Honus Wagner's Pittsburgh Pirates in the greatest pennant race the National League has ever seen. The American League has its own three-cornered pennant fight, and players like Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and the egregiously crooked Hal Chase ensured that the junior circuit had its moments. But it was the National League's—and the Cubs'—year. Crazy '08, however, is not just the exciting story of a great season. It is also about the forces that created modern baseball, and the America that produced it. In 1908, crooked pols run Chicago's First Ward, and gambling magnates control the Yankees. Fans regularly invade the field to do handstands or argue with the umps; others shoot guns from rickety grandstands prone to burning. There are anarchists on the loose and racial killings in the town that made Lincoln. On the flimsiest of pretexts, General Abner Doubleday becomes a symbol of Americanism, and baseball's own anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," is a hit. Picaresque and dramatic, 1908 is a season in which so many weird and wonderful things happen that it is somehow unsurprising that a hairpiece, a swarm of gnats, a sudden bout of lumbago, and a disaster down in the mines all play a role in its outcome. And sometimes the events are not so wonderful at all. There are several deaths by baseball, and the shadow of corruption creeps closer to the heart of baseball—the honesty of the game itself. Simply put, 1908 is the year that baseball grew up. Oh, and it was the last time the Cubs won the World Series. Destined to be as memorable as the season it documents, Crazy '08 sets a new standard for what a book about baseball can be.

This is a book about heroism - of sorts. Roy Hobbs has an immense natural gift for playing baseball. He could become one of the great ones of the game, a player unmatched in his time - a hero. But his first hard-won big chance ends violently, at the hands of a crazy girl, and then it is years before he gets another shot. At last, in a few short seasons, or never, he must achieve the towering reputation that he feels is his right.

Baseball followers have been perpetuating, debating, and debunking myths for nearly two centuries, producing a treasury of baseball stories and "facts." Yet never before have these elements of baseball history been carefully scrutinized and compiled into one comprehensive work--until now. In Baseball Myths: Debating, Debunking, and Disproving Tales from the Diamond, award-winning researcher Bill Deane examines baseball legends--old and new. This book covers such legendary players as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Pete Rose, and Derek Jeter, while also looking at lesser-known figures like Dummy Hoy, Grover Land, Wally Pipp, and Babe Herman--not to mention people who found fame in other fields, such as Civil War General Abner Doubleday, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Deane's original research and logic will educate, amuse, and often surprise readers, revealing the truth behind such legends as the inventor of baseball, the first black player in the major leagues, and even the origin of the hot dog. With photographs, stats, and more than 80 myths examined, this book is sure to fascinate everyone, from the casual baseball fan to lifelong devotees of the sport.

In an unprecedented look at Babe Ruth's amazing batting power, sure to inspire debate among baseball fans of every stripe, one of the country's most respected and trusted baseball historians reveals the amazing conclusions of more than twenty years of research. Jenkinson takes readers through Ruth's 1921 season, in which his pattern of battled balls would have accounted for more than 100 home runs in today's ballparks and under today's rules. Yet, 1921 is just tip of the iceberg, for Jenkinson's research reveals that during an era of mammoth field dimensions Ruth hit more 450-plus-feet shots than anybody in history, and the conclusions one can draw are mind boggling.