Books, Sports, Baseball, Essays & Writings

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Josh Hamilton
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back
by FaithWords (Hardcover)

Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character " superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a 4-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball. BEYOND BELIEF details the events that led up to the derailment. Josh explains how a young man destined for fame and wealth could allow his life to be taken over by drugs and alcohol. But it is also the memoir of a spiritual journey that breaks through pain and heartbreak and leads to the rebirth of his major-league career.Josh Hamilton makes no excuses and places no blame on anyone other than himself. He takes responsibility for his poor decisions and believes his story can help millions who battle the same demons. "I have been given a platform to tell my ...

The Hardball Times Writers
The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009
by ACTA Publications (Paperback)

Celebrating its fifth year in production, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009 compiles some of the best analytical and historical writing on baseball with unique and innovative statistics into a timeless annual guide. This comprehensive book covers the entire 2008 season from the first pitch to the last out, and it is also the first book of its kind to include a review of the postseason and World Series. With guest writers like Rob Neyer, John Dewan, Richard Lederer and Tom Tango, and articles on hot topics like "GM in a Box: Pat Gillick," predicting rookie performance, and a look at the "Pete Rose" class of free agents, The Hardball Times Baseball Annual is a resource you will pick up again and again.

Editors of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book
by Sports Illustrated (Hardcover)

Continuing in the tradition of Sports Illustrated’s 50th Anniversary Book and The Football Book comes a spectacular celebration of baseball that will be treasured by fans of the National Pastime. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Football Book to surpass the sales of The Anniversary Book, a New York Times best-seller, this lavish coffee-table volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great traditions of the Summer Game. In 294 oversized pages, The Baseball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the crucial plays and classic games, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have kept baseball at the heart of American sports for more than a century.

Editors of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated: The Basketball Book
by Sports Illustrated (Hardcover)

Continuing Sports Illustrated's tradition of producing best-selling coffee-table books for the holiday season, SI presents The Basketball Book, a lavish celebration of the athleticism and pageantry of both the college and professional game. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Baseball Book, The Football Book and The Anniversary Book to The New York Times best-seller list over the past three years, this volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great rivalries of the court. In 294 oversized pages, The Basketball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have created legions of passionate fans since Dr. James Naismith nailed up a peach basket and devised the Original 13 Rules of the game more than 100 years ago.

David Green
101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox
by Stewart, Tabori & Chang (Hardcover)

There is no other stadium like Fenway Park with its wooden seats, manual scoreboard, and the looming green monster; no other history that includes such an infamous trade, a curse, and a penchant for losing critical games; no other group of fans that measure up to the loyal Red Sox Nation. There is simply no other team that compares to the Red Sox. This revised and updated version of 101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox is filled with reasons to celebrate Boston's best-loved team: the 2004 World Series championship, the beloved B, five World Series titles before 1919, Yawky Way, the legendary Ted Williams, Royal Rooters, the "Impossible Dream" season, Cy Young, and Big Papi. Vintage and modern photos, baseball cards, memorable stories, and sports trivia provide a portrait of the Red Sox from their very beginning to the present. The heart of the players and fans combined with the Red Sox' storied past truly make Fenway Park a field of dreams.

Michael Lewis
Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
by W. W. Norton & Company (Hardcover)

A story with a big heart about a boy, a coach, the game of baseball, and the game of life. "There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind; it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever." There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis's ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. "I didn't have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do." The coach's message was not simply about winning but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and now thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him. 14 illustrations.

H. A. Dorfman, Karl Kuehl
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance
by Diamond Communications (Paperback)

In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peak performance at every level of the game.

Bill Simmons
Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004
by ESPN (Paperback) (Release Date: 2006-09-05)

The New York Times bestseller Now I Can Die in Peace is now available in paperback with a new afterword (and more footnotes) by the author "The Red Sox won the World Series." To Citizen No. 1 of Red Sox Nation, those seven words meant "No more ‘1918’ chants. No more smug glances from Yankee fans. No more worrying about living an entire life -- that’s eighty years, followed by death -- without seeing the Red Sox win a Series." But once he was able -- finally -- to type those life-changing words, Bill Simmons decided to look back at his "Sports Guy" columns for the last five years to find out how the miracle came to pass. And that’s where the trouble began. The result is Now I Can Die in Peace, a hilarious and fresh new look at some of the best sportswriting in America, with sharp, critical commentary (and fresh insights) from the guy who wrote it in the first place.

Tim Kurkjian
Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head---My 25 Years in Baseball
by St. Martin's Griffin (Paperback) (Release Date: 2008-05-27)

ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian has spent more than twenty-five years covering almost three thousand major league baseball games and interviewing about that many players, coaches, managers, and executives.            In Is This a Great Game, or What?, Kurkjian combines his years of experience, uncanny knowledge, and deep love of the game, to create a book filled with some of the most fascinating insight into Major League Baseball this side of Jim Bouton’s bestseller, Ball Four. Whether he’s explaining what goes through a ballplayer’s mind when he faces a fastball in the chapter “My Face Was Crushed by a Bowling Ball Going 90 MPH,” detailing bizarre rituals and superstitions performed by baseball’s greatest players, or taking us into the locker room to see what transpires in the clubhouse of a major league team, Kurkjian’s tales are at times hilarious, other times horrifying, yet always entertaining.            Kurkjian has spoken to some of the ...

Jim Bouton
Ball Four: The Final Pitch
by Midpoint Trade Books, Inc. (Hardcover)

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