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In \u003cem\u003e72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee, \u003c\/em\u003eGeddy shares his love of the game and the stories behind some of his favorite baseballs and other items from his vast collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Baseball was in my bones long before music started to seriously divert my attention,\" Geddy writes. He later sang the national anthem at the 1993 All-Star Game in Baltimore, cheers for the Toronto Blue Jays from his seat behind home plate and attends MLB games across Canada and the US. That lifelong love of the game comes through in \u003cem\u003e72 Stories\u003c\/em\u003e. Told with the same charming candor that infused both of his memoir, \u003cem\u003eMy Effin' Life\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eGeddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass\u003c\/em\u003e, the stories told here relate to the legends of baseball--Satchel Paige, Joe Dimaggio, Shohei Ohtani among them--and to other famous figures who signed balls, such as the Beatles (during their final concert at Shea Stadium), Neil Armstrong, and John F. Kennedy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lively personal tour through cultural and sports history, illustrated with more than 180 color photographs, \u003cem\u003e72 Stories: From the Baseball Collection of Geddy Lee\u003c\/em\u003e is a delightful and loving tribute to the game.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0063450194\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780063450196\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Lee, Geddy\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Harper\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Sep 2025)","offer_id":45937589551301,"sku":"9780063450196","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780063450196_08b6c3bd-71bc-4479-ac89-c14289d3bb47.jpg?v=1772881273"},{"product_id":"why-we-love-baseball-a-history-in-50-moments","title":"Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWinner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNational Sports Media Association Sports Book of the Year \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn NPR \"Book of the Day\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e#1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball's history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays's catch, Babe Ruth's called shot, and Kirk Gibson's limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes, the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar, and every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player--these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Posnanski's previous book, \u003ci\u003eThe Baseball 100\u003c\/i\u003e, portrayed the heroes and pioneers of the sport, and now, with his trademark wit, encyclopedic knowledge, and acute observations, he gets at the real heart of the game. From nineteenth-century pitchers' duels to breaking the sport's color line in the '40s, all the way to the greatest trick play of the last decade and the slide home that became a meme, Posnanski's illuminating take allows us to rediscover the sport we love--and thought we knew. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhy We Love Baseball\u003c\/i\u003e is an epic that ends too soon, a one-of-a-kind love letter to the sport that has us thrilled, torn, inspired, and always wanting more.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0593472675\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780593472675\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Posnanski, Joe\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Dutton\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dutton","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Sep 2023)","offer_id":46079840387269,"sku":"9780593472675","price":28.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2025)","offer_id":46079840420037,"sku":"9780593472682","price":18.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780593472675.jpg?v=1776032161"},{"product_id":"banana-ball-the-unbelievably-true-story-of-the-savannah-bananas","title":"Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Savannah Bananas have peeled back the game of baseball and made it fun again.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is their story.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For his entire childhood, Jesse Cole dreamed of pitching in the Majors. Now, he has a life in baseball that he could have only imagined: he met the love of his life in the industry; they shaped Savannah, Georgia's professional team into the league champion Savannah Bananas; and now the Bananas have restyled baseball itself into something all their own: Banana Ball. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Fast, fun, and outrageously entertaining, Banana Ball brings fans right into the game. The Bananas throw out a first banana rather than a ball. Their first-base coach dances to \"Thriller\" or Britney between innings. Players run into the crowd to hand out roses. And the rules themselves are bananas: if a fan catches a foul ball it's an out; and players might go to bat on stilts or wearing a banana costume. And their fans absolutely love it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But the reason this team is on the forefront of a movement is less about the play on the field and more about the atmosphere that the team culture creates. For the first time in this book, Jesse reveals the ideas and experiences that allowed him to reimagine America's oldest sport by creating a phenomenon that is helping fans fall in love with the game all over again. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This is a story that's bigger than baseball and bigger than the yellow tuxedo Jesse wears as the \"ringmaster\" of every game. And to understand the movement, you have to understand the story at its core. In Jesse's telling, it takes heart, innovation, and joy (and a bit of tropical fruit) to make something wholly original out of one of America's great traditions. His story is part \u003ci\u003eMoneyball\u003c\/i\u003e, part \u003ci\u003eField of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e, part \u003ci\u003eThe Greatest Showman\u003c\/i\u003e. It is a personal story, a creativity story, and the story of a business scrapping for every success. And it has several distinct love stories--love stories like Jesse and his father, Jesse and his wife, the team and the sport of baseball, the team and the fans. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This is Jesse calling his dad from the outfield after each Bananas game, and putting unending creativity into a team with the ultimate goal of bringing the Bananas to the professional ballparks he himself never got to play in. This is his story of baseball, love, leadership, and going just a bit bananas for all.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0593473418\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780593473412\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Cole, Jesse, Yaeger, Don\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Dutton\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dutton","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (May 2023)","offer_id":46079868797125,"sku":"9780593473412","price":28.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780593473412.jpg?v=1776032319"},{"product_id":"charlie-hustle-the-rise-and-fall-of-pete-rose-and-the-last-glory-days-of-baseball","title":"Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER - A captivating chronicle of the incredible story of one of America's most iconic, charismatic, and still polarizing figures--baseball immortal Pete Rose--and an exquisite cultural history of baseball and America in the second half of the twentieth century - \"Comprehensive, compulsively readable and wholly terrific.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORKER\u003c\/i\u003e BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - WINNER OF THE PEN\/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Baseball biography at its best. With \u003ci\u003eCharlie Hustle\u003c\/i\u003e, Pete Rose finally gets the book he deserves, and baseball fans get the book we've been craving, a hard-hitting, beautifully-written tale that will stand for years to come as the definitive account of one of the most fascinating figures in American sports history.\"--Jonathan Eig, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eKing: A Life\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePete Rose is a legend. A baseball god. He compiled more hits than anyone in the history of baseball, a record he set decades ago that still stands today. He was a working-class white guy from Cincinnati who made it; less talented than tough, and rough around the edges. He was everything that America wanted and needed him to be, the American dream personified, until he wasn't. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the 1980s, Pete Rose came to be at the center of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. He kept secrets, ran with bookies, took on massive gambling debts, and he was magnificently, publicly cast out for betting on baseball and lying about it. The revelations that followed ruined him, changed life in Cincinnati, and forever altered the game. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharlie Hustle\u003c\/i\u003e tells the full story of one of America's most epic tragedies--the rise and fall of Pete Rose. Drawing on firsthand interviews with Rose himself and with his associates, as well as on investigators' reports, FBI and court records, archives, a mountain of press coverage, Keith O'Brien chronicles how Rose fell so far from being America's \"great white hope.\" It is Pete Rose as we've never seen him before. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is no ordinary sport biography, but cultural history at its finest. What O'Brien shows is that while Pete Rose didn't change, America and baseball did. This is the story of that change.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0593469399\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780593469392\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: O'Brien, Keith\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2025)","offer_id":46079956582597,"sku":"9780593469392","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780593469392.jpg?v=1776033249"},{"product_id":"a-league-of-his-own-a-g-spalding-and-the-business-of-baseball","title":"A League of His Own: A.G. Spalding and the Business of Baseball","description":"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eA League of His Own\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e tells the remarkable story of A.G. Spalding--the pitcher, mogul, and visionary who shaped baseball and the sporting goods empire.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlbert Goodwill Spalding became the initial star pitcher of the first professional sports association, cofounded baseball's National League, founded the world's greatest sporting goods empire, owned the team that became the Chicago Cubs, organized an around-the-world tour to promote baseball, broke the first players union, and crushed three rivals of the National League before retiring to San Diego. A monopolist in true Gilded Age fashion, he sought to create a bicycle trust even as he battled advocates of a baseball trust. A moralist who railed against alcohol and gambling, he sired a child with a long-time mistress. He was a man of many firsts in the fields in which he competed: the highest winning percentage as pitcher, first player to receive a percentage of gate receipts, the first player to openly wear a glove while playing (and, by virtue of his status, to make it acceptable for other players to wear gloves), the captain of the first NL champion, the founder of the first vertically integrated sporting goods firm, the first to build a chain of specialty retail stores, the first leader of the U.S. Olympic movement. This is the first comprehensive biography of Albert Goodwill Spalding's fascinating life, including his compulsion to put his name on every ball, racquet, discus, bicycle, football, bat, hat, and mask his company produced.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1493077651\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781493077656\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Stein, Mark A.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Lyons Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Lyons Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46080067797189,"sku":"9781493077656","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781493077656.jpg?v=1776034290"},{"product_id":"the-last-manager-how-earl-weaver-tricked-tormented-and-reinvented-baseball","title":"The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e- \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE CASEY AWARD FOR BEST BASEBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Baseball books don't get any better than this...Earl Weaver has at last been given his due.\" --George F. Will\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Vivid...Most sports books are pop flies to the infield. Miller's is a screaming triple into the left field corner.\" --Dwight Garner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver--who has been described as \"the Copernicus of baseball\" and \"the grandfather of the modern game\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Last Manager \u003c\/i\u003eis a wild, thrilling, and hilarious ride with baseball's most underappreciated genius, and one of its greatest characters. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLong before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History's feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing. Weaver was the first manager to use a modern radar gun, and he pioneered the use of analytical data. By moving six-foot four-inch Cal Ripken Jr. to shortstop, Weaver paved the way for a generation of plus-sized superstar shortstops, such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. He foreshadowed almost everything that Bill James, Billy Beane, Theo Epstein, and hundreds of other big-brain baseball types would later present as innovations. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeyond being a great baseball mind, Weaver was a rare baseball \u003ci\u003echaracter\u003c\/i\u003e. Major League Baseball is show business, and Weaver understood how much of his job was entertainment. Weaver's legendary outbursts offered players cathartic relief from their own frustration, signaled his concern for the team, and fired up fans. In his frequent arguments with umpires, he hammed it up for the crowds, faked heart attacks, ripped bases out of the ground, and pretended to toss umpires out of the game. Weaver also fought with his players, especially Jim Palmer, but that creative tension contributed to stunning success and a hilarious clubhouse. During his tenure as major-league manager, the Orioles won the American League pennant in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1979, each time winning more than 100 games. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Last Manager \u003c\/i\u003euncovers the story of Weaver's St. Louis childhood with a mobster uncle, his years of minor-league heartbreak, and his unlikely road to becoming a big-league manager, while tracing the evolution of the game from the old-time baseball of cross-country trains and \"desk contracts\" to the modern era of free agency, video analysis, and powerful player agents. Weaver's career is a critical juncture in baseball history. He was the only manager to hold a job during the five years leading up to and the five years after free agency upended the sport in 1976. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWeaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. \"No manager belongs there more,\" wrote Tom Boswell. \"Weaver encapsulates the fire, the humor, the brains, the childishness, the wisdom and the goofy fun of baseball.\" \u003ci\u003eThe Last Manager \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of one man--belligerent, genius, infamous--who left his mark on the game for generations.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1668030926\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781668030929\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Miller, John W.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Mar 2025)","offer_id":46080231768261,"sku":"9781668030929","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781668030929.jpg?v=1776035560"},{"product_id":"satchel-the-life-and-times-of-an-american-legend","title":"Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER - The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy \"Satchel\" Paige \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Among the rare biographies of an athlete that transcend sports . . . gives us the man as well as the myth.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige's steps across the continent. Here is the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname \"Satchel\" from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints, spent as much money as he made, and left tickets for \"Mrs. Paige\" that were picked up by a different woman at each game. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (\"Age is a case of mind over matter,\" he said. \"If you don't mind, it don't matter.\") \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e More than a fascinating account of a baseball odyssey, \u003ci\u003eSatchel\u003c\/i\u003e rewrites our history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role. This is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a shuffling stereotype to disarm critics and racists, floated comical legends about himself-including about his own age-to deflect inquiry and remain elusive, and in the process methodically built his own myth. \"Don't look back,\" he famously said. \"Something might be gaining on you.\" Separating the truth from the legend, \u003ci\u003eSatchel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eis a remarkable accomplishment, as large as this larger-than-life man.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0812977971\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780812977974\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Tye, Larry\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Random House Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (May 2010)","offer_id":46080719618245,"sku":"9780812977974","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780812977974.jpg?v=1776039557"},{"product_id":"make-me-commissioner-i-know-whats-wrong-with-baseball-and-how-to-fix-it","title":"Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It","description":"\u003ci\u003e\"Make Jane Commissioner... Leavy has a voice demanding to be heard--and Major League Baseball should listen.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e-- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling biographer and lifelong baseball devotee takes readers on an epic journey through the game that baseball has become-- a heartfelt manifesto that's perfect for lovers of the sport.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Jane Leavy has always loved baseball. Her grandmother lived one long, loud foul ball away from Yankee Stadium--the same grandmother who took young Jane to Saks Fifth Avenue and bought her her first baseball glove. It's no coincidence that Leavy was covering the game she loved for the Washington Post by the late 1970s. As a pioneering female sportswriter, she eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth. But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl, often at the expense of thrills, skills, and surprise. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: how much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions, talking with luminaries like Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Jim Palmer, Dusty Baker, and more. What Leavy uncovers is not only what's wrong with baseball--and how to fix it--but also what's right with baseball, and how it illuminates characters, tells stories, and fires up the imagination of those who love it and everyone who could discover it anew.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0306834669\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780306834660\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Leavy, Jane\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Grand Central Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Sep 2025)","offer_id":46080867303621,"sku":"9780306834660","price":32.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780306834660.jpg?v=1776041307"},{"product_id":"the-cloudbuster-nine-the-untold-story-of-ted-williams-and-the-baseball-team-that-helped-win-world-war-ii","title":"The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II","description":"In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals battled for the World Series title, another legendary team was taking the field on a scrappy diamond in North Carolina. The Cloudbuster Nine wasn't just any baseball team. They were big-league pros turned Navy fighter-pilot cadets, including Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain, training to become America's heroes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the heart of it all was Jim Raugh, the team's batboy. From cramped buses to war-bond exhibitions--even a game at Yankee Stadium against a Babe Ruth-led squad--Jim witnessed baseball history firsthand. He chased his own dreams as a college All-American, but life threw him a curveball: a career-ending injury that dashed his major-league dreams. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNow, Jim's daughter, Anne R. Keene, uncovers an untold story from his long-lost scrapbook, revealing memories from a sports-based training program that shaped some of America's greatest leaders: George H. W. Bush, John Glenn, Bear Bryant, and John Wooden among them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Cloudbuster Nine\u003c\/i\u003e tells, for the first time, the thrilling story of this patriotic baseball team with legends like Ted Williams who played for pride, country and the war-effort--and helped win World War II.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1683583620\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781683583622\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Keene, Anne R., Williams, Claudia\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Sports Publishing LLC\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sports Publishing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2020)","offer_id":46081387430085,"sku":"9781683583622","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781683583622.jpg?v=1776045366"},{"product_id":"the-ultimate-new-york-mets-time-machine-book","title":"The Ultimate New York Mets Time Machine Book","description":"From their ignominious 40-120 debut in 1962, to the \"Miracle Mets\" of the shocking 1969 season, to the teams of Darryl Strawberry, David Wright, and Jacob deGrom, the New York Mets have in nearly sixty years become the city's other beloved baseball franchise, with its fan base stretching well beyond the New York suburbs. The Mets' rich history is told in over two dozen engaging chapters celebrating the highlights, as well as the low lights, of baseball's most lovable team--win or lose.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1493055321\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781493055326\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gitlin, Martin\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Lyons Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Lyons Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2021)","offer_id":46081449296069,"sku":"9781493055326","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781493055326.jpg?v=1776046216"},{"product_id":"stealing-home-los-angeles-the-dodgers-and-the-lives-caught-in-between","title":"Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe \"scrupulously detailed\" (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e) story of how the fight to build Dodgers Stadium, and transform Los Angeles into a big league city, came at the cost of everyday Angelenos \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy. \u003cbr\u003e Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy -- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium. \u003cbr\u003e But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families -- including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1541742222\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781541742222\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Nusbaum, Eric\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: PublicAffairs\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"PublicAffairs","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2021)","offer_id":46081463320773,"sku":"9781541742222","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781541742222.jpg?v=1776046313"},{"product_id":"the-baseball-100","title":"The Baseball 100","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"An instant sports classic.\" --\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e * \"Stellar.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e * \"A true masterwork...880 pages of sheer baseball bliss.\" --\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review) * \"This is a remarkable achievement.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA magnum opus from acclaimed baseball writer Joe Posnanski, \u003ci\u003eThe Baseball 100\u003c\/i\u003e is an audacious, singular, and masterly book that took a lifetime to write. The entire story of baseball rings through a countdown of the 100 greatest players in history, with a foreword by George Will.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLonger than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious, \u003ci\u003eThe Baseball 100\u003c\/i\u003e is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski. In the book's introduction, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George F. Will marvels, \"Posnanski must already have lived more than two hundred years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Baseball's legends come alive in these pages, which are not merely rankings but vibrant profiles of the game's all-time greats. Posnanski dives into the biographies of iconic Hall of Famers, unfairly forgotten All-Stars, talents of today, and more. He doesn't rely just on records and statistics--he lovingly retraces players' origins, illuminates their characters, and places their accomplishments in the context of baseball's past and present. Just how good a pitcher is Clayton Kershaw in the 21st-century game compared to Greg Maddux dueling with the juiced hitters of the nineties? How do the career and influence of Hank Aaron compare to Babe Ruth's? Which player in the top ten most deserves to be resurrected from history? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e No compendium of baseball's legendary geniuses could be complete without the players of the segregated Negro Leagues, men whose extraordinary careers were largely overlooked by sportswriters at the time and unjustly lost to history. Posnanski writes about the efforts of former Negro Leaguers to restore sidelined Black athletes to their due honor and draws upon the deep troves of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and extensive interviews with the likes of Buck O'Neil to illuminate the accomplishments of players such as pitchers Satchel Paige and Smokey Joe Williams; outfielders Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cool Papa Bell; first baseman Buck Leonard; shortstop Pop Lloyd; catcher Josh Gibson; and many, many more. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Baseball 100\u003c\/i\u003e treats readers to the whole rich pageant of baseball history in a single volume. Engrossing, surprising, and heartfelt, it is a magisterial tribute to the game of baseball and the stars who have played it.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1982180595\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781982180591\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Posnanski, Joe\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2023)","offer_id":46081533411525,"sku":"9781982180591","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781982180591.jpg?v=1776047189"},{"product_id":"the-subway-series-new-york-citys-illustrious-baseball-tradition","title":"The Subway Series: New York City's Illustrious Baseball Tradition","description":"For over a quarter century, the tradition of the modern-day Subway Series has featured epic moments and iconic players squaring off to capture ultimate New York baseball bragging rights. Following a 14-year hiatus in the area rivalry, the modern-day Subway Series took shape in 1997; conjuring up the same mystique and bad blood that existed in the late nineteenth century. Tag along on a memorable journey into New York baseball's celebrated past to relive the truly unforgettable milestones and legendary moments that built the Subway Series into the longstanding rivalry that it is today\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1493092731\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781493092734\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Laughland, Rick\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Lyons Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Lyons Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Feb 2026)","offer_id":46081680834757,"sku":"9781493092734","price":21.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781493092734.jpg?v=1776048423"},{"product_id":"metropolitans-new-york-baseball-class-struggle-and-the-peoples-team","title":"Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People's Team","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMetropolitans \u003c\/i\u003eexpertly unpacks the 'cruel optimism' linking the yearning of a fanbase whose suffering is alleviated by sporadic miracles to the genuine dissident legacies that surrounded the team's creation and which have occasionally, miraculously, come back to life.\" --Jonathan Lethem, author of \u003ci\u003eMotherless Brooklyn \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Fortress of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA love letter to a franchise and a thrilling study of New York City, \u003ci\u003eMetropolitans\u003c\/i\u003e traces the electric and calamitous history of the New York Mets. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMetropolitan\u003c\/i\u003es is for Mets fans, New York partisans, and everyone interested in the Mobius strip dynamic of sports and politics, the history of the national game, or the beautiful contradiction of baseball itself: a middle-class game owned by billionaires, in which the players--like the spectators--look to traverse the diamond and ultimately safely escape its many dangers. Along the way, A.M. Gittlitz re-introduces us to an eccentric cast of Metsian characters: Joan Payson, the first woman to buy a Major League Baseball team; a young Tom Seaver with an interest in progressive politics; and the contentious but beloved Mike Piazza. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGittlitz leads us through baseball's amateur beginnings to the Mets' first heady World Series on the heels of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements that many Mets players participated in. He guides us to the bad boy years, the exploitative development of farm academies in developing nations, and their inglorious purchase by a new breed of capitalist--\u003ci\u003eeven after which they remained lovable losers\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMetropolitans\u003c\/i\u003e brilliantly shows us that sports have long been a site of political struggle, rousing class consciousness, and animating fights for racial equality. From purportedly calming riots in '69 to producing some of the greatest chokes in sporting history, from integration to desperate labor struggle against franchise owners, \u003ci\u003eMetropolitans\u003c\/i\u003e makes a deeply humane and convincing argument for the fascinating singularity of the New York Mets--and why they are not just the team of the counterculture, the freaks, and the losers, but the beloved team of anyone with a beating heart.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1662603002\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781662603006\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gittlitz, A. 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Red Sox fans grew dejected as their team often got close, but ultimately would be eliminated from contention each year as New York went on to win yet another World Series championship. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Author Chris Wrenn, a member of the Boston hardcore punk scene, had a dream of his own--to start his own record label. Embracing the do-it-yourself ethos of the scene, Chris set out to make it happen, networking and forging relationships with local bands. But such an endeavor required money he didn't have ... until he and his friends heard a familiar phrase echo out of Fenway Park, the home field of the Red Sox. The phrase \"Yankees Suck!\" was chanted at every single Red Sox game. Possessing the wherewithal to produce inexpensive merchandise and the free time to stake a claim to the sidewalks outside the baseball stadium, Chris and his crew of punks began a lucrative endeavor of selling \"Yankees Suck\" merchandise such as stickers and T-shirts to the fans. While navigating cops, competitors, a violent gang, and in-fighting within the crew, Wrenn and his friends turned Boston's rivalry with New York into \"six-figure summers,\" affording him the capital to launch Bridge Nine Records and bring local Boston hardcore bands including American Nightmare and Have Heart to stages worldwide just as the Red Sox got closer than ever to finally winning the World Series again. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A rousing story of entrepreneurship and ingenuity that also reveals fresh insight into one of the most epic rivalries in sports history, \u003ci\u003eFenway Punk \u003c\/i\u003eis a gripping read for both fans of punk music and readers of Ben Mezrich, Lizzy Goodman, and Chuck Klosterman.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798894140872\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Wrenn, Chris\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Running Press Adult\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Running Press Adult","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Feb 2026)","offer_id":46081798144197,"sku":"9798894140872","price":27.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798894140872.jpg?v=1776049544"},{"product_id":"death-in-the-strike-zone-the-mystery-of-americas-first-baseball-hero","title":"Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America's First Baseball Hero","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A fascinating must-read for baseball history buffs.\"--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHe threw the first fastball. The first curveball. He was baseball's first star--and its first tragedy.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eDeath in the Strike Zone\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed historian Thomas W. Gilbert uncovers the forgotten life of James Creighton, the first American ballplayer to become a national sensation. On the eve of the Civil War, Creighton invented something utterly new in baseball - modern pitching. Creighton was so dominant, so mesmerizing, that the game had to rewrite the rulebook to catch up with him. He is the reason we have a strike zone. Then, in one fateful game he collapsed--and four days later, he was dead at the age of twenty-one. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWas it a freak injury or was baseball somehow to blame? Was there a cover-up? Why has Creighton been denied the credit he deserves? \u003ci\u003eDeath in the Strike Zone\u003c\/i\u003e is part biography, part detective story, and part time machine. With vivid storytelling and groundbreaking research, Gilbert revives a vanished era of barehanded fielders, heroes and gamblers, and the strange, thrilling beginnings of America's pastime and sports stardom itself. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeath in the Strike Zone\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkable journey into the past that will keep you on the edge of your seat and profoundly change how you see the game of baseball.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1567927599\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781567927597\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gilbert, Thomas W.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: David R. Godine Publisher\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"David R. 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He grew up in the small, hard town of Alvin, Texas, was graced with a fastball, and fell in love with a woman named Ruth, then honored all three in his pursuit of hardball perfection. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Alongside Nolan's personal story, renowned sportswriter Tim Brown offers a thoughtful, deeply researched history of baseball in the Lone Star State, and an unforgettable account of three glorious decades in the Major Leagues. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Nolan Ryan's story is about dominating on the field, then growing old in the game, then just plain growing old. It's about the man who has become a symbol of the game at its best, the way it used to be. It's about deeds over words. About cattle matching the hat. About fastballs over all else. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eNolan\u003c\/i\u003e makes the case that there has never been another like him. And there won't be again.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1538726521\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781538726525\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Brown, Tim\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Grand Central Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Grand Central Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (May 2026)","offer_id":46099764216005,"sku":"9781538726525","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781538726525.jpg?v=1776644558"},{"product_id":"the-first-all-star-game-babe-ruth-fdr-and-america-at-the-crossroads","title":"The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroads","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAcclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan tells the story of baseball in America, from its rough-and-tumble origins through the first decades of the twentieth century and into the pivotal summer of 1933--when national crisis and a sport's fight for survival converged in baseball's first All-Star Game\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Breadlines stretched around city blocks, and shantytowns sprawled in the shadows of skyscrapers. American optimism was fading--and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, fans stayed home, and even the mighty Babe Ruth seemed to have lost some of his magic. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out--missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually bring together the world's best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was a newspaperman's idea: \u003ci\u003eThe Game of the Century\u003c\/i\u003e. Put the world's best players on one field and let the public decide who belonged there. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World's Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America's standing on the world stage. But abroad, dark clouds were gathering. Hitler was Germany's new chancellor, and Mussolini had consolidated his power. As visitors strolled the fairgrounds, Italian warplanes flew overhead, and a zeppelin sent by the German delegation circled the city emblazoned with a swastika.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe First All-Star Game\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a nation and a sport at a crossroads, and a sweeping look back at baseball's early history and the America that shaped it. Deeply researched and filled with remarkable characters--legendary players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Lefty Grove rubbing shoulders with Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, and Charles Lindbergh--Randall Sullivan explores the history of an American obsession and captures the moment when both the sport and the nation found renewal in a single spectacle of hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0802167365\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780802167361\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Sullivan, Randall\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Atlantic Monthly Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Atlantic Monthly Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jun 2026)","offer_id":46099797737669,"sku":"9780802167361","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780802167361.jpg?v=1776644853"},{"product_id":"out-of-the-ballpark-how-to-think-about-baseball","title":"Out of the Ballpark: How to Think about Baseball","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eFrom America's Pastime to a global phenomenon--the life of the spectacular game as it is played and celebrated in communities around the world\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAll over the world, masses of people watch, follow, document, and obsess over baseball. Everything remarkable about the impact of baseball derives from the game's history and cultural status as events that draw people together in these ways. Understanding baseball as a cultural phenomenon is therefore less a matter of mastering the vocabulary of the game or merely recollecting its iconic stadiums, players, and stats. While all those details compel insiders and inspire fans, baseball's peculiar and persistent appeal can only be understood by adopting a wider lens. It requires reckoning with the history of structured competition. The classic backyard game of catch between a father and son draws meaning from its associations with the organized sport and its history. The challenge lies less in finding one perfect spot to look, but rather in identifying the many different places where baseball has accumulated significance. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eOut of the Ballpark \u003c\/em\u003ereconsiders the character, meaning, and delights of the game by exploring both baseball's unusual features and the sport's many resonances with other aspects of modern life. To this end, it abandons several assumptions and mythologies that underlie most approaches to histories of baseball: that it is unique among sports and fundamentally different from other kinds of entertainment; that it is specific to the United States; that it has changed fundamentally in recent years; and that the keys to understanding it lie primarily in examining what happens on the field of play. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInstead, David M. Henkin moves across time and space to examine baseball's history since the nineteenth century and beyond US borders. He takes readers inside the structures of clubs and leagues, interprets the sacred scripture of rulebooks, and illuminates some of baseball's rites and rituals that are often associated with honor and manhood. He charts baseball's significance along the routes of American and Japanese imperial expansion and the shifting maps of race and ethnicity in the US. Baseball is found at negotiating tables that pit capital against labor and in pivotal moments in the history of mass media. Here, we are shown how baseball might offer a complex and capacious space for thinking about such things as spectatorship, success, community, order, and contingency in the modern world.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0197789552\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780197789551\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Henkin, David M.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Mar 2026)","offer_id":46099827982533,"sku":"9780197789551","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780197789551.jpg?v=1776645683"},{"product_id":"baseballs-outcast-the-story-of-ron-leflore","title":"Baseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron Leflore","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the prison cage to the batting cage, Ron LeFlore's journey to the major leagues was anything but ordinary.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen twenty-three-year-old Ron LeFlore played his first organized baseball game, it was in a yard at the State Prison of Southern Michigan where he was serving five to fifteen years for armed robbery. An extraordinary athlete, the Detroit native had luck on his side: his coach, a convicted felon, had connections to the Detroit Tigers. Within three-and-a-half years, Ron went from a prison inmate to a Tiger centerfielder. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eBaseball's Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore\u003c\/i\u003e, Adam Henig tells for the first time in full the unbelievable life and career of Ron LeFlore. Blessed with blinding speed and a powerful swing, Ron shed his jailbird past to become one of the game's premiere hitters and its most dangerous base stealer during the latter half of the 1970s. His rags-to-riches life story became a bestselling book and a made-for-television movie starring actor LeVar Burton, fresh from his performance in \u003ci\u003eRoots\u003c\/i\u003e. But the good times did not last. Less than a decade after making his Major League debut, Ron was finished with baseball. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBaseball's Outcast \u003c\/i\u003eis not just another book about the rise and fall of a troubled athlete. Henig goes deeper, tracing the star player's family roots, exploring the segregated world that Ron was raised in, examining the criminal justice system he was subjected to, and revealing how childhood trauma shaped his success and downfall. Filled with insight from Ron himself, as well as from former teammates, coaches, front-office personnel, inmates, childhood friends, and relatives, \u003ci\u003eBaseball's Outcast \u003c\/i\u003eprovides unprecedented access into Ron's life story and the obstacles he faced every step of the way.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1538194953\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781538194959\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Henig, Adam\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury Academic\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Apr 2026)","offer_id":46099993985221,"sku":"9781538194959","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781538194959.jpg?v=1776647116"},{"product_id":"dave-mcnally","title":"Dave McNally","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat lies ahead for a boy growing up in Billings, Montana, in the 1950s, who lost his father during combat in World War II? Can he realize the dream of thousands of youngsters and become a major-league pitching star? And can he shape the sport for decades after his retirement and death? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYes, he can. This is the true story of Dave McNally, who began playing baseball as a Little Leaguer in Billings, became an American Legion star, and then developed into a stalwart of the Baltimore Orioles' pitching staff. McNally won 184 games in the major leagues, 181 for the Orioles and three for the Montreal Expos. He won twenty or more games in four consecutive seasons. He remains the only pitcher to have hit a grand slam home run in World Series play. But off the pitching mound, McNally took a principled stand in 1975 that brought workplace fairness to baseball players and other professional athletes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVeteran journalist Dennis Gaub, who spent most of his career in Billings, has written the first biography of an unassuming man from Middle America. It will inspire you-and maybe the book will get you thinking about actions you could take to better your world or community, even if you're not a star athlete. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReading about McNally will give you renewed optimism. You'll gain or regain a belief that a better future is possible for you, if you have a vision for achieving it through realistic steps you can take now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798888193280\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gaub, Dennis\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Sunbury Press, Inc.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sunbury Press, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Oct 2025)","offer_id":46100238336197,"sku":"9798888193280","price":21.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798888193280.jpg?v=1776648476"},{"product_id":"l-a-dodgers-hollywood-ending","title":"L.A. Dodgers Hollywood Ending","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCelebrate the 2025 World Series champion with this limited-edition, officially licensed collection of original photographs covering the season up through the Fall Classic.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003eRelive the unforgettable journey of the 2025 MLB World Series Champions with this stunning, officially licensed commemorative book. From Opening Day through the final out of the Fall Classic, this deluxe hardcover edition captures the triumph, heartbreak, and glory of an extraordinary season. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Collector's Must-Have\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eOfficially Licensed by Major League Baseball \u003c\/b\u003e- the only hardcover book celebrating the 2025 World Series winners. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLimited Edition Hardcover\u003c\/b\u003e - beautifully bound and designed for fans and collectors. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eUnforgettable Photography\u003c\/b\u003e - packed with full-color action shots, behind-the-scenes candids, and iconic World Series moments. Complete Season Journey - covering the regular season, All-Star break, playoffs, and the World Series victory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for Every Fan\u003c\/b\u003e - a timeless keepsake for your bookshelf, coffee table, or to gift to the baseball lover in your life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eOwn the Ultimate Celebration of a Champion Season\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhether you were at the ballpark, cheering from home, or following every pitch on the go, this book lets you relive the magic of your team's unforgettable championship run. Produced in limited quantities, it's a true collector's item that every fan will treasure for years to come.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798992108484\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Major League Baseball\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Skybox Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Skybox Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Feb 2026)","offer_id":46100364918981,"sku":"9798992108484","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798992108484.jpg?v=1776649583"},{"product_id":"we-sacrifice-everything-to-baseball-how-the-czech-republics-amateur-underdogs-became-world-baseball-classic-heroes","title":"We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball: How the Czech Republic's Amateur Underdogs Became World Baseball Classic Heroes","description":"\u003cp\u003eDespite long odds and low funds, the Czech Republic's national baseball team of amateur players managed to shock the world at the 2023 World Baseball Classic--the sport's World Cup--when they took an upset win against Spain in the WBC qualifiers and then defeated China in the actual tournament, securing their place in the upcoming 2026 tournament. While the rest of the teams in the WBC rely on experienced professionals, and some like Italy and Great Britain bring in American \"passport\" players, the Czech Republic's roster consists almost entirely of amateur players who were born and have played only within the Central European nation. The team's roster consists of firefighters, teachers, financial auditors, and field caretakers--even the manager is a neurologist!--and yet the team managed to not only compete on the international stage but succeed against global superstars like Shohei Ohtani.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a world where athletes have become multi-million-dollar legends, \u003ci\u003eWe Sacrifice Everything to Baseball\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how teamwork, sacrifice, and self-belief can still make a difference. Michael Clair, who spent time with the Czech team throughout the 2023 World Baseball Classic, has unparalleled insight on the team and their unlikely success.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike the Jamaican bobsled team in \u003ci\u003eCool Runnings\u003c\/i\u003e, Leicester City's unexpected Premier League soccer title, and the United States' remarkable victory against Russia in the 1980 Olympics, the Czech Republic baseball team has an underdog story everyone can cheer for. Their story proves it's still possible to build a team from the ground up, with a small player pool, little attention, and a low budget, and compete on the world stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1496242661\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781496242662\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Clair, Michael\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: University of Nebraska Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Apr 2026)","offer_id":46291809173701,"sku":"9781496242662","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781496242662.jpg?v=1780113115"},{"product_id":"royal-treatment-jackie-robinson-montreal-and-the-breaking-of-baseballs-color-barrier","title":"Royal Treatment: Jackie Robinson, Montreal, and the Breaking of Baseball's Color Barrier","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe story of Jackie Robinson's prodigious talent, his courageous journey, and his influence on both the game of baseball and American society writ large has been told well and often. What hasn't been told is the full story of his first season in the minor leagues in Montreal. In 1946, before moving up to the Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson spent a season thrilling home crowds in a Canadian city with Major League aspirations. He played for the AAA Montreal Royals of the International League, leading the team to victory in the Junior World Series.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs it turned out, postwar Montreal was the ideal location for Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey's \"great experiment\" to finally integrate America's pastime. Although both Rickey and Robinson have rightly been at the center stage of this story, it was the masses of cheering Montrealers who first showed the world that professional baseball was ready to bury race-based segregation. As Robinson told a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter years later, \"Had it not been for the fact that we broke in in Montreal, I doubt seriously if we would have made the grade so rapidly. The fans were just fantastic, and my wife and I had nothing but the greatest of memories.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eRoyal Treatment\u003c\/i\u003e Sean J. McLaughlin explores Robinson's experience in Canada as a Minor Leaguer and the warm embrace he received from Montrealers well before he became one of baseball's household names. Bringing the early fan experience of Robinson directly to the foreground, \u003ci\u003eRoyal Treatment\u003c\/i\u003e is an intimate look at a pivotal juncture in Robinson's career, and the overwhelmingly positive relationship he had with the community that supported his rise to fame. 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