At one time Ring Lardner's baseball articles reached millions of readers through hundreds of newspapers throughout America, and admirers of his writing included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmond Wilson. He was as familiar to Americans in the 1920s as Charles Lindbergh, Calvin Coolidge, and Babe Ruth. His articles about the players he knew, his World ......
There has probably never been a professional baseball player more of a puzzle than Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio had a talent for keeping his emotions suppressed and his innermost thoughts to himself. Few could say that they really knew him. And even the ones who did found him to be unpredictable. He was a walking contradiction. He was quiet, but not ......
The Untold Story of an Original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues Al
Ted Strong Jr. (1917-1978) was a two-sport athlete, a major star of the Negro Leagues and one of the original Harlem Globetrotters. His prominence in the Negro Leagues led Branch Rickey and other white baseball league owners to consider Strong as one of several possible players to integrate major league baseball, and he was a key force on the ......
The Complicated Life and Legacy of a Baseball Hall of Famer
A captivating look into the remarkable career and controversial life of a baseball Hall of Famer. Roberto Alomar was not just a five-tool Hall of Famer; he was a magician on the diamond, a generational talent whose defensive wizardry left teammates and opponents breathless. Yet, despite his twelve All-Star selections and ten Gold Glove awards, ......
Sons of Baseball is full of personal stories from sons of major league baseball players who talk about what it was like growing up with a famous father. Along the way, we get a rare glimpse of the ballplayers themselves, not as pitchers, hitters, managers, and coaches, but as dads and granddads.
Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of "base ball on the brain" raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where ......
Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's
In the early 1970s, the Oakland Athletics became only the second team in major-league baseball history to win three consecutive World Series championships. But as the decade came to a close, the A's were in free fall, having lost 108 games in 1979 while drawing just 307,000 fans. Free agency had decimated the A's, and the team's colorful owner, ......
Baseball's spread across Illinois paralleled the sport's explosive growth in other parts of the country. Robert D. Sampson taps a wealth of archival research to transport readers to an era when an epidemic of "base ball on the brain" raged from Alton to Woodstock. Focusing on the years 1865 to 1869, Sampson offers a vivid portrait of a game where ......
The Game's Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America's Pastime
An in-depth look at each of Major League Baseball's thirty ballparks from the perspectives of the game's longest-tenured storytellers-the broadcasters. With decades of broadcasting between them, 50 broadcasters share their fondest memories from the booth, encapsulating some of baseball's greatest moments.