Big League, Big Time
Author: Len Sherman
Publisher: Beyond Words/Atria Books
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 368
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Tells of the birth of the Phoenix-based major-league baseball franchise from the very beginning to opening day.
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Big League, Big Time
Author: Len Sherman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1999-03
Total Pages: 364
ISBN-13: 0671003445
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →On March 31, 1998, more than 48,500 fans cheered the arrival of Major League Baseball's newest expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the first book ever to chronicle the birth of a major-league baseball franchise from conception to Opening Day, Big League, Big Time takes you inside the Diamondbacks dugout -- and their corporate suite -- to examine the billion-dollar business of baseball and its enormous impact on our culture. While many prominent people went to bat for baseball in Phoenix, sports entrepreneur Jerry Colangelo, the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, swung for the fences and scored a league-envious, $355 million state-of-the-art baseball facility. Big League, Big Time discloses how Colangelo's revolutionary vision for the Diamondbacks affected all aspects of the club -- especially his choice of personnel, from Jay Bell and Andy Benes to former Yankees manager Buck Showalter, "a young man with old-fashioned ideas." But even before they had drafted a player, the Diamondbacks front office was well aware that marketing "The Show" was the off-the-field game they couldn't afford to lose. Read the inside story of how they chose the team's name and colors, successfully maneuvered multimillion-dollar deals with a host of major sponsors, determinedly wooed the vast Mexican market, attracted such celebrity coinvestors as Billy Crystal and Lou Gosset, Jr., and became one of the five highest revenue-producing franchises before a single game was played. Complete with player profiles, an exclusive inside-the-war-room took at the expansion draft, and a dissection of the media's role in the global growth of the sports industry, Big League, Big Time is a rare glimpse into the politics, business, and promise of baseball -- a fascinating analysis of how one city cultivated a very special field of dreams.
Last Time Out
Author: John Nogowski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2022-07-01
Total Pages: 329
ISBN-13: 1493068474
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Most sports fans know that Ted Williams ended his major league career with style, swatting a home run in his final at bat. But what about Babe Ruth? Ty Cobb? Joe DiMaggio? Willie Mays? How did some of baseball's greatest players bow out of The Game? Last Time Out answers that question as it examines how the greatest players in baseball history left the game they once ruled. The stories of these men and how they finished their careers, never collected anywhere before now, show another side of the men whose achievements on the field made them legends. After hours and hours of research, through biographies, microfilm, magazines, and memories, award-winning sportswriter John Nogowski culled the stories of the final games of 25 of The Game's greatest athletes-Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, Carlton Fisk, Bob Feller, Joe Morgan, and Carl Yastrzemski are among those featured. This impressive work recounts the circumstances surrounding these final games and puts you in a box seat to witness and sense the moment as these glorious careers ceased, most often with little fanfare. Whether it be Shoeless Joe Jackson, Lou Gehrig, Pete Rose, or Cal Ripken, Jr., Last Time Out beautifully captures in words and photographs the essence of these players' last time in uniform and celebrates the magic of the game these famed players mastered and loved.
Becoming Big League
Author: Bill (William) Mullins
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2013-06-18
Total Pages: 361
ISBN-13: 0295804734
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Becoming Big League is the story of Seattle's relationship with major league baseball from the 1962 World's Fair to the completion of the Kingdome in 1976 and beyond. Bill Mullins focuses on the acquisition and loss, after only one year, of the Seattle Pilots and documents their on-the-field exploits in lively play-by-play sections. The Pilots' underfunded ownership, led by Seattle's Dewey and Max Soriano and William Daley of Cleveland, struggled to make the team a success. They were savvy baseball men, but they made mistakes and wrangled with the city. By the end of the first season, the team was in bankruptcy. The Pilots were sold to a contingent from Milwaukee led by Bud Selig, who moved the franchise to Wisconsin and rechristened the team the Brewers. Becoming Big League describes the character of Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s, explains how the operation of a major league baseball franchise fits into the life of a city, charts Seattle's long history of fraught stadium politics, and examines the business of baseball. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hwhl5sLoQs&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw&index=1&feature=plcp
Out Of My League: A Rookie's Survival in the Bigs
Author: Dirk Hayhurst
Publisher: Citadel Press
Published: 2012-02
Total Pages: 416
ISBN-13: 0806535539
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In a follow up to "The Bullpen Gospels," the author details his major league rookie season, revealing that for him, it isn't just about the game, but about the people and events in it.
Bigger Than the Game
Author: Dirk Hayhurst
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 0806534877
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"The best writer in a baseball uniform." --Tyler Kepner, The New York Times After nearly a decade in the minors, Dirk Hayhurst defied the odds to climb onto the pitcher's mound for the Toronto Blue Jays. Newly married, with a big league paycheck and a brand new house, Hayhurst was ready for a great season in the Bigs. Then fate delivered a crushing hit. Hayhurst blew out his pitching shoulder in an insane off-season workout program. After surgery, rehab, and more rehab, his major-league dreams seemed more distant than ever. From there things got worse, weirder, and funnier. In a crazy world of injured athletes, autograph-seeking nuns, angry wrestlers, and trainers with a taste for torture, Hayhurst learned lessons about the game--and himself--that were not in any rulebook. Honest, soul'searching, insightful, hilarious, and moving, Dirk Hayhurst's latest memoir is an indisputable baseball classic. Praise for The Bullpen Gospels and Out of My League "Dirk Hayhurst writes about baseball in a unique way. Observant, insightful, human, and hilarious." --Bob Costas "A fun read. . .This book shows why baseball is so often used as a metaphor for life." --Keith Olbermann "Entertaining and engaging. . .reminiscent of Jim Bouton's Ball Four." --Booklist "A rare gem of a baseball book." --Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated "A humorous, candid, and insightful memoir of Hayhurst's rookie season in the majors. . .Grade: Home Run." --Cleveland Plain Dealer
Throwback
Author: Jason Kendall
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014-05-13
Total Pages: 303
ISBN-13: 1250031834
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Structured to mirror the flow of a baseball game, THROWBACK covers everything that happens both in plain sight and behind the scenes (or sometime in whispered invective at the plate or in the bullpen), from the players' pre-game routines and the pitcher's warm-up tosses, to the hidden signs the catcher and pitcher use to communicate to outwit hitters; from infielders' often amusing conversations with men at first and third bases, to the specific positions outfielders often take based on the pitch they anticipate will next be thrown. Based on Kendall's15 years of professional MLB experience, THROWBACK weaves hilarious first-person anecdotes together with wonderfully illuminating "Oh, that's why they do that!" insights into professional baseball, how it's played, and the "why" behind everything you see happening on and off the field"--
Stadium Games
Author: Jay Weiner
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 550
ISBN-13: 9780816634347
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Stadium Games begins with the events leading to the arrival of the Twins and Vikings to the state in 1961 and traces subsequent controversies about professional sports in the region up to the present. Weiner discusses the factors that make Minnesota the poster child for the nation's stadium debates - the recent departure of the North Stars hockey team, the near departure of the Timberwolves, the strong opposition of taxpayers, and the apparent greed of team owners. Stadium Games reveals the behind-the-scenes deals and inside scoop on what went wrong in the recent unsuccessful campaign for a new ballpark, divulging how public relations experts failed and how government leaders conspired to fake out Minnesota's citizens."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Big League Ballparks
Author: Gary Gillette
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781435114524
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Extensive guide to all 30 big-league ballparks detailing the best and worst seats in the park, inside scoop on concessions, where to stay, and how to make the most out of your baseball experience.
Home Game
Author: Bret Boone
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Published: 2016-05-10
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 1101904917
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →From the first third-generation player in Major League history, a sometimes moving, always candid inside look at his family’s seventy years in baseball A five-foot-ten fireball questioned by scouts because of his small stature, supposed lack of power, and cocky attitude, Bret Boone didn’t care about family legacy as he fought his way to the Major Leagues in 1992; he wanted to make his own way. He did just that, building a career that featured three All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves, a bout with alcoholism, and the mixed blessing of being traded three times. But now that he’s coaching minor leaguers half his age—and his fifteen-year-old son has the potential to be the first fourth-generation Major Leaguer—Bret has a new perspective on his remarkable family, with its ten All-Star appearances, 634 home runs, 3,139 RBIs, and countless kitchen-table debates about the game’s greatest players. For the first time, he’s ready to share his adventures as part of the sport’s First Family. Infused with Bret’s candor and deep love of the game, Home Game traces baseball’s evolution—on the field and behind the scenes—from his grandfather Ray’s era in the 1950s to his father Bob’s in the ’70s and ’80s to the one he shared with his brother Aaron in the ’90s and 2000s—sometimes called the PED era—when players made millions, dined on lobster in the clubhouse, and, in some cases, indulged in performance-enhancing drugs. Along the way, his book also touches on Boone family lore, from Ray playing with his hero Ted Williams and Bob winning a World Series with the 1980 Phillies to Bret’s flop in a nationally televised home-run derby and Aaron’s historic home run in the 2003 playoffs. Blending nostalgia, close analysis of the game, insight into baseball’s unwritten codes, and controversial thoughts on its future as a sport and a business, Bret Boone offers a one-of-a-kind look at the national pastime—from the colorful, quotable scion of a family whose business is baseball.
