Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Indiana

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Baseball

Provides color photographs and miscellaneous information about some of the fascinating individuals, lore, facts, and statistics in America's national pastime.

Baseball Miscellany

3962765e-e57f-44ca-ba94-fd702360234d-1

David Halberstam

Excellent condition, book and dust jacket. Most likely a BCE with no price on dust jacket. Priced according. 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Pennsylvania

A Portrait of a Friendship

Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky were all members of the famed 1940's Boston Red Sox. Their legendary careers led the Red Sox to a pennant championship and ensured the men a place in sports history. David Halberstam, the bestselling author of the baseball classic Summer of '49, has followed the members of the 1949 championship Boston Red Sox team for years, especially Williams, Doerr, DiMaggio, and Pesky. In this extremely moving book, Halberstam reveals how these four teammates became friends, and how that friendship thrived for more than 60 years. The book opens with Pesky and DiMaggio travelling to see the ailing Ted Williams in Florida. It's the last time they will see him. The journey is filled with nostalgia and memories, but seeing Ted is a shock. The most physically dominating of the four friends, Ted now weighs only 130 pounds and is hunched over in a wheelchair. Dom, without even thinking about it, starts to sing opera and old songs like 'Me and My Shadow' to his friend. Filled with stories of their glory days with the Boston Red Sox, memories of legendary plays and players, and the reaction of the remaining three to Ted Williams' recent death, The Teammates offers us a rare glimpse into the lives of these celebrated men-and great insight into the nature of loyalty and friendship.

The Teammates

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#hardcover #protectivecover #formerlibrarybook #smokefreehome #sports #baseball

California

A Memoir of Life on the Edge

A TOP-TEN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! AN INSTANT CLASSIC OF HUSTLE AND EXCESS ...

"Tough, straight, upsetting, and strangely beautiful. ONE OF THE BEST SPORTS AUTOBIOGRAPHIES I'VE EVER READ. It comes from the heart." -- Stephen King

"THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOUR MIND! Obviously everyone has to buy it."   -- Howard Stern

Eclipsing the traditional sports memoir, House of Nails, by former world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur, and imprisoned felon Lenny Dykstra, spins a tragicomic tale of Shakespearean proportions -- a relentlessly entertaining American epic that careens between the heights and the abyss.

Nicknamed "Nails" for his hustle and grit, Lenny approached the game of baseball -- and life -- with mythic intensity. During his decade in the majors as a center fielder for the legendary 1980s Mets and the 1990s Phillies, he was named to three All-Star teams and played in two of the most memorable World Series of the modern era. An overachiever known for his clutch hits, high on-base percentage, and aggressive defense, Lenny was later identified by his former minor-league roommate Billy Beane as the prototypical "Moneyball" player in Michael Lewis's bestseller. Tobacco-stained, steroid-powered, and booze-and-drug-fueled, Nails also defined a notorious era of excess in baseball.

Then came a second act no novelist could plausibly conjure: After retiring, Dykstra became a celebrated business mogul and investment guru. Touted as "one of the great ones" by CNBC's Jim Cramer, he became "baseball's most improbable post-career success story" (The New Yorker), purchasing a $17.5-million mansion and traveling the world by private jet. But when the economy imploded in 2008, Lenny lost everything. Then the feds moved in: convicted of bankruptcy fraud (unjustly, he contends), Lenny served two and a half harrowing years in prison, where he was the victim of a savage beating by prison guards that knocked out his front teeth.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, channeling the bewildered fascination of many observers, declared that Lenny's outrageous rise and spectactular fall was "the greatest story that I have ever seen in my lifetime."

Now, for the first time, Lenny tells all about his tumultuous career, from battling through crippling pain to steroid use and drug addiction, to a life of indulgence and excess, then, an epic plunge and the long road back to redemption. Was Lenny's hard-charging, risk-it-all nature responsible for his success in baseball and business and his precipitous fall from grace? What lessons, if any, has he learned now that he has had time to think and reflect?

Hilarious, unflinchingly honest, and irresistibly readable, House of Nails makes no apologies and leaves nothing left unsaid.

House of Nails

ec7769c1-f678-4db8-ac4f-8e69b41137a1-1

Florida

Mickey Mouse and the Great Lot Plot

Mariano Rivera

Wayne Coffey

The greatest relief pitcher of all time shares his extraordinary story of survival, love, and baseball. Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic. What he did know: that he loved his family and his then girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time. With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, the bosses (including The Boss), the rivalries, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States and of maintaining Christian values in professional athletics. The thirteen-time All-Star discusses his drive to win; the secrets behind his legendary composure; the story of how he discovered his cut fastball; the untold, pitch-by-pitch account of the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2001 World Series; and why the lowest moment of his career became one of his greatest blessings. In The Closer, Rivera takes readers into the Yankee clubhouse, where his teammates are his brothers. But he also takes us on that jog from the bullpen to the mound, where the game -- or the season -- rests squarely on his shoulders. We come to understand the laserlike focus that is his hallmark, and how his faith and his family kept his feet firmly on the pitching rubber. Many of the tools he used so consistently and gracefully came from what was inside him for a very long time -- his deep passion for life; his enduring commitment to Clara, whom he met in kindergarten; and his innate sense for getting out of a jam. When Rivera retired, the whole world watched -- and cheered. In The Closer, we come to an even greater appreciation of a legend built from the ground up.

The Closer

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New Jersey

And Other Tales from a Baseball Life

With its superb balance of humor, behind-the-scenes insight, and sensitive portrayal, this book gives readers reason to laugh, cry, relate, and relax - and love baseball that much more.

Bullet Bob Comes to Louisville

4718adeb-6e2d-4376-947f-13a01d04ce38-1

#sports #history #baseball #newyork #politics


1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City

“Masterful . . . In Mahler’s expert hands, the city’s outsized citizens are flawed, fierce, bickersome, and as indomitable as the metropolis itself.” —Mike Sokolove, author of The Ticket Out A passionate and dramatic account of a year in the life of a city, when baseball and crime reigned supreme, and when several remarkable figures emerged to steer New York clear of one of its most harrowing periods. By early 1977, the metropolis was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed “Son of Sam.” And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in New York’s history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city’s mayoralty. Buried beneath these parallel conflicts—one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of the city—was the subtext of race. The brash and confident Jackson took every black myth and threw it back in white America’s face. Meanwhile, Koch and Cuomo ran bitterly negative campaigns that played upon urbanites’ fears of soaring crime and falling municipal budgets. These braided stories tell the history of a year that saw the opening of Studio 54, the evolution of punk rock, and the dawning of modern SoHo. As the pragmatist Koch defeated the visionary Cuomo and as Reggie Jackson finally rescued a team racked with dissension,1977 became a year of survival but also of hope.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

32ef6169-7f4f-4d94-9c77-ea00a1b98748-1

#hardcover #swindle #baseball #action #youngadult #ya #scholastic 

Texas

Ocean's 11 . . . with 11-year-olds, in a super stand-alone heist caper from Gordon Korman!

After a mean collector named Swindle cons him out of his valuable Babe Ruth baseball card, Griffin Bing must put together a band of misfits to break into Swindle's compound and recapture the card. There are many things standing in their way - a menacing guard dog, a high-tech security system, a very secret hiding place, and their general inability to drive - but Griffin and his team are going to get back what's rightfully his . . .

This is Gordon Korman at his crowd-pleasing best, perfect for readers who like a hoot, a howl, and a heist.

Swindle

b02b7a05-89f5-4077-a8f7-e5152fcc835f-1

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

New York

A Memoir

By the award-winning author of Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball. Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans. We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early life: her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her housebound: and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood.

Wait till Next Year

025b737c-c4e2-4ab3-95a4-dc3bbd22748a-1

#hardcover #librarydiscard #zombie #baseball 

Illinois

While practicing for their next baseball game, thirteen-year-old friends Rabi, Miguel, and Joe discover that the nefarious activities of the Delbe, Iowa, meatpacking plant have caused cows to turn into zombies.

Zombie Baseball Beatdown

362aa39b-d88b-45bb-89f7-69d936419219-1

John Grisham

A Novel

Follows the divergent paths of a rookie hitter for the Chicago Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher.

Calico Joe

2a49135d-549a-4c11-becd-f5918cc55e4c-1

#fiction #youngadult #ya #youngadultfiction #hardcover #baseball #sports #vintage

Kansas

Strike Him Out!

Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World's Most Loved (and Hated) Team





Everyone has an opinion about the Yankees. More than an opinion in most cases, but an opinion at the very least.

--From the Introduction

Love them or hate them, the New York Yankees have been an American institution for nearly a century. With their rich history and colorful cast of characters, the Yankees never fail to inspire or provoke. In this exciting compendium, some of today's most acclaimed writers--including Pete Dexter, Colum McCann, Roy Blount Jr., Dan Barry, Jane Leavy, Charles P. Pierce, J. R. Moehringer, Daniel Okrent, Frank DeFord, Bill James, and many more--step up to the plate to take their cuts. The result is a collection of original essays as idiosyncratic and expansive as the team that has inspired them: ruminations on Babe Ruth's gravestone, Derek Jeter's swing, and the upper-deck vantage of the Oldest Living Yankee; dual allegiances; mortal rivalries; and every other subject that spans from the hilarious (the Yankee wife-swap of the '70s) to the sublime (the grace of Catfish Hunter).

Superbly written, deeply insightful, and full of both passion and humor, Damn Yankees is a completely fresh look at baseball's most enduring franchise by a Murderers' Row of writers as stacked as that of the 1927 Yanks.

Damn Yankees

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has a tear on the back side of the dust jacket. otherwise excellent conditio. 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Utah

featuring Jackie Robinson, alex rodriguez, hank aaron, babe ruth, mike schmidt, cy young and more

Discover the greatest baseball players of all time!

Which guys playing right now will they still be talking about in 100 years? A-Rod? Pujols? How about Jeter?

Why do the best pitchers receive the Cy Young Award?

Was Honus Wagner anything but a face on a $2,800,000 baseball card?

Who was this Babe Ruth guy, anyway?

Sportscaster and New York Times bestselling author Len Berman had lots of questions about the game of baseball. So he put together a group of experts that included all-stars, Emmy Award winners, writers, radio hosts, and enough World Series rings to fill one hand's fingers.

Is your Favorite player on the list?

From New York Times bestselling author Len Berman comes an action-packed collection for sports fans of all ages.

If you had to pick the best baseball players of all time, who would they be? Len Berman gave it a try, and asked a blue-ribbon panel--with experts including World Series champion Bernie Williams and radio host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo--to weigh in too.

Full of photos, facts, and fun, The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time gives you the stories behind the names. Why do so many people love Babe Ruth? What makes Alex Rodriguez so great? Was Jackie Robinson as important on the field as he was off the field? Discover why Len Berman thinks the 25 players in this book are the greatest--then it's time to start your own debate!

So who are the 25 greatest baseball players and why?

Who would be on your list?

Let the arguments begin!

Praise for Len Berman's The Greatest Moments in Sports

"His writing is lively, humorous, and informative--just right to sustain kids' (or adults') interest...this is an excellent choice for anyone who is into sports." --School Library Journal

"Readers and browsers will enjoy paging through this compendium's stories and action-filled photos." --Booklist

"It's an eclectic roundup that's likely to have readers mulling their own personal favorites." --Publishers Weekly

"Great book, great stories--a gold medal performance." --Mike Eruzione, captain of the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Len Berman is an Emmy Award-winning sportscaster who has covered just about every major sports event, including multiple Super Bowls, World Series, and Olympics during his 40-year career in broadcasting.

He is the creator of "Spanning the World," a monthly collection of sports bloopers, which was a 20-year staple on NBC's Today show. He is also the creator of Sports Fantasy, which aired on NBC and pitted regular viewers against famous sports stars.

He is the recipient of eight Emmy Awards and is a six-time winner, New York Sportscaster of the Year. His daily Top 5 email is featured in the Huffington Post and is received by thousands around the country. This is his fifth book.

A native New Yorker, Len graduated from Syracuse University. He resides on Long Island with his wife, Jill. They have three children.

The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time

940cb48b-aad1-47f9-bb36-e1455681d3fb-1

Karen Mullarkey

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

Baseball in America

9074d84a-f1cc-44a8-882c-40e2a941d709-0

Louisiana

"The food is fast, the money is always low, and the knowledge is always there that a few are on the way up, a few are on the way out, and the majority are stuck in baseball limbo. 'Come on, Mister, look,' says a small boy at the book's end, gazing at a Royals' game from an airplane window. 'This is real baseball.'."-- Chicago Tribune

Basepaths #27

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#hardcover #baseball #sports #sportshistory 

Tennessee

Old Ball Game Baseball's Beginning

b8e7e72e-30ee-4bbe-90f5-5eb06fee69a6-1

#hardcover #sports #baseball #sportshistory

The Hurlers - Pitching Power and Precision 

c6dc35f7-a046-40bb-97f1-8c30d735a9e7-1

#hardcover #sports #baseball #sportshistory 

The Sluggers - Those Fabulous Long Ball Hitters

96484ad4-8ab0-4311-885e-c160c679b73e-1

Alfred Slote

A baseball pitcher with an incurable blood disease is determined to get in as much time on the mound as possible.

Hang Tough, Paul Mather

0c069f96-87b8-4939-9f04-a5b2e8cabaf2-1

The Explosive Sixties Baseball's Decade of Expansion 

cffa3691-cd79-4748-8637-40b1ddc6ec1b-1

Harry Turtledove

With a library book so has plastic cover and stamps. Book is In great reading condition. 

From Harry Turtledove, "the Master of Alternate History," comes a tale of minor league baseball set in an alternate Great Depression America full of wild magic

Since the Big Bubble popped in 1929, life in the United States hasn't been the same. Hotshot wizards will tell you nothing's really changed, but then again, hotshot wizards aren't looking for honest work in Enid, Oklahoma. No paying jobs at the mill, because zombies will work for nothing. The diner on Main Street is seeing hard times as well, because a lot fewer folks can afford to fly carpets in from miles away.

Jack Spivey's just another down-and-out trying to stay alive, doing a little of this and a little of that. Sometimes that means making a few bucks playing ball with the Enid Eagles, against teams from as many as two counties away. And sometimes it means roughing up rival thugs for Big Stu, the guy who calls the shots in Enid.

But one day Jack knocks on the door of the person he's supposed to "deal with"--and realizes that he's not going to do any such thing to the young lady who answers. This means he needs to get out of the reach of Big Stu, who didn't get to where he is by letting defiance go unpunished.

Then the House of Daniel comes to town--a brash band of barnstormers who'll take on any team, and whose antics never fail to entertain. Against the odds Jack secures a berth with them. Now they're off to tour an America that's as shot through with magic as it is dead broke. Jack will never be the same--nor will baseball.

The House of Daniel

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Oregon

Stories for the Thinking Fan

A marvelously diverse and literate collection of baseball stories--including works by Robert Coover, W.P. Kinsella, and Jay Neugeboren--that use the boy's game played by grown men as a vehicle for exploring virtually every aspect of the human condition.

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Matthew Silverman

Baseball Miscellany

David Halberstam

The Teammates

Lenny Dykstra

House of Nails

Disney

Mickey Mouse and the Great Lot Plot

Mariano Rivera; Wayne Coffey

The Closer

John Morris

Bullet Bob Comes to Louisville

Jonathan Mahler

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

Gordon Korman

Swindle

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Wait till Next Year

Paolo Bacigalupi

Zombie Baseball Beatdown

John Grisham

Calico Joe

Harold M. Sherman

Strike Him Out!

Rob Fleder

Damn Yankees

Len Berman

The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time

Karen Mullarkey

Baseball in America

Jerry Klinkowitz

Basepaths #27

Mark Alvarez

Old Ball Game Baseball's Beginning

Kevin Kerrane

The Hurlers - Pitching Power and Precision

John B. Holway (Editor)

The Sluggers - Those Fabulous Long Ball Hitters

Alfred Slote

Hang Tough, Paul Mather

William B. Mead

The Explosive Sixties Baseball's Decade of Expansion

Harry Turtledove

The House of Daniel

Peter C. Bjarkman

Baseball and the Game of Life

John Grisham

Calico Joe