In the 150 years since its humble birth, baseball has shown an infinite capacity for exhilarating triumphs, heart-breaking losses, amusing blunders, and awe-inspiring feats. Willie Mays's amazing catch of Vic Wertz's monstrous drive in the 1954 World Series, Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world," the "Black Sox" Scandal of 1919, DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, even the pitiful 1962 Mets, who finished 60 games (or two full months) out of first place--these are all part of baseball lore and part of its allure. A banquet for baseball fans, Baseball Anecdotes offers a colorful and highly entertaining anecdotal history of America's National Pastime, from the founding of the first professional baseball team, Cincinnati's Red Stockings, by George Wright (the son of a famous English cricketer) and the forming of the first league (in a New York bar on St. Patrick's Day), to the miraculous comeback of the Mets in the Sixth Game of the 1986 World Series. Here you will meet the game's great innovators (from John Montgomery Ward, who invented the pitching mound--and also pitched the second perfect game in history--to Bill Veeck, who introduced the exploding scoreboard in Comiskey Park); the colorful eccentrics (such as King Kelly, who was accompanied off the field by a black monkey and a Japanese valet) and the self-effacing stars (such as Harmon Killebrew, who, when asked what his hobbies were, said, "Well, I like to wash dishes"); the penny-pinching owners (when Babe Ruth requested tickets for the Yankee's 1936 season opener at The House That Ruth Built, the team management said sure, just send in a check); and, most of all, the legendary players: Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Lefty Gomez, Sandy Koufax, Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and countless others. Along the way, readers are treated to instant replays of some of baseball's most memorable moments, such as Roger Maris' quest for Ruth's 61-home-run record, Don Larsen's perfect World Series game, and Ted Williams' final major league at bat (he hit a home run). Okrent and Wulf, two highly regarded baseball writers, touch all the bases in this vividly written volume, capturing the whole human drama of baseball in a cascade of stories that offers a nostalgic feast (or, as Yogi Berra would put it, "Deja vu all over again") as well as a fascinating introduction to baseball lore for the newest generation of fans.

Baseball Anecdotes

Literature & Fiction

Okrent, Daniel

Wulf, Steve

Humor & Satire

Oxford University Press

A collection of two hundred photographs taken by Ozzie Sweet, the premier photographer for SPORT magazine from the late 1940s through the 1960s, features portraits of legends such as Mickey Mantle, Bobby Hull, and Paul Hornung.

Legends of the Field: The Classic Sports Photography of Ozzie Sweet

Sports & Outdoors

Studio

A veteran of seven decades of professional baseball reminisces about his days in the Negro Leagues, offers an intimate portrait of Satchel Paige, and reveals his current work scouting for the Kansas City Royals at age eighty-two

I Was Right on Time

Biographies & Memoirs

Conrads, David

O'neil, Buck Wulf steve

Community & Culture

Simon&Schuster

A lavish feast of baseball facts and legends from the earlier organized games through the present day.

Baseball

HarperAudio

A humorous collection of photo-illustrations from the popular back page of ESPN The MagazineImagine Joe Paterno as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. Or Terrell Owens sitting at a table for eleven at Thanksgiving. Or celebrity dogs playing poker. These are some of the humorous images that can be found on 0:01, the satirical back page of ESPN The Magazine. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes evocative, always current, 0:01s chronicle the personalities, events, and cultural touchstones of sports, and prove just what a slightly twisted picture is worth. Organized thematically -- bad boys, animals, holidays, et cetera -- and with behind-the-scenes accounts of how the images are designed and created, 0:01 offers as many laughs as it does commentaries on the sports world. And as a bonus, the book will include some 0:00s -- shots the creative team behind 0:01 wish they had made.

0:01: Parting Shots From the World of Sports

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

ESPN

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Books by Wulf, Steve