sports & recreation / baseball / general

"Positioned at the crossroads of sabermetrics and cognitive science are questions that will alter the trajectory of both traditional and analytics-based baseball thinking. With a background in clinical psychology as well as experience in major league front offices, Baseball Prospectus' Russell Carleton illuminates advanced statistics and challenges cultural assumptions, demonstrating along the way that data and logic need not be at odds with the human element of baseball--in fact, they're inextricably intertwined"--Provided by publisher.

Explores the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Wrigley Field as it turns one hundred years old.

"Born to a small-town California ranching family, the youngest of eight, Vernon "Lefty" Gomez rode his powerful arm and jocular personality right across America to the dugout of the New York Yankees. Lefty baffled hitters with his blazing fastball, establishing himself as the team's ace."--Provided by publisher.

"Drawn from more than 60 interviews and hours of face time, this authorized biography offers an unprecedented inside-the-dugout look at the manager who guided the New York Yankees to their 27th world championship. Beginning with his childhood in the baseball mecca of Chicago, this book traces Joe Girardi's rise from a catcher at Northwestern University to his time in the minors, his 15 years in the majors, and his successful career as a manager. As much a character portrait of the man as a chronicle of his achievements, this study reveals the amalgam of influences--the relentless work ethic learned from his father combined with the systematic mind of an engineer, the baseball know-how instilled by the likes of Don Zimmer and Joe Torre, and the heart of his tenacious mother--that combined to propel Girardi to his current stature"--.

"The inside-the-clubhouse story of two tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were re-made from top to bottom, from the ownership of the team to management to the players on the field, becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball"--Provided by publisher.

"A ... biography of perhaps the most significant and controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb, drawing in part on newly discovered letters and documents"--Provided by publisher.

"Tells the story of the mostly forgotten world of the mercenaries, scalawags, and outcasts who made up the independent professional ball clubs. Combining meticulous research with modern analytics, the book provides a deeper understanding of how vast and eclectic the world of professional baseball was during the first half of the 20th century."--Provided by publisher.

The autobiography of major-league baseball player Jim Abbott, the disabled Michigan native who pitched for the Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees as well as other teams before retiring from the game in 1999.

"Covers everything that happens both in plain sight and behind the scenes, 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, with first-person anecdotes and insights into professional baseball, how it's played, and the "why" behind everything happening on and off the field"--Provided by publisher.