baseball

Hardcover. NY, Lippincott & Crowell, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 241 pages, b&w illustrations. A scrapbook of baseball nostalgia which, in well-chosen words and rare photographs, traces the evolution of our national game.' Includes sections on the Abner Doubleday/Cooperstown controversy, ball parks, superstitions, black history, and more.

Jefferson NC, McFarland, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 250 pages illustrated in b&w. The rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants--the National League's greatest teams in its early days--took hold with the founding of the league in 1876. Between the two bitter rivals there were nine first-second finishes, eight second-third finishes, and 30 out of a possible 65 championships in the league's first six decades. Their games often showcased match-ups between baseball's most talented and toughest players and often had playoff implications. This history of the rivalry begins coverage in 1876 (when the Cubs won the first NL championship) and goes through 1932 (when John McGraw stepped down as manager of the Giants). All of the many great personalities, player match-ups, streaks, and pennant races are included. Clean copy.

NY, Crown Archetype, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it enters its second century. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history? Winding beautifully like Wrigley's iconic ivy, Will's meditation on "The Friendly Confines" examines both the unforgettable stories that forged the field's legend and the larger-than-life characters--from Wrigley and Ruth to Veeck, Durocher, and Banks--who brought it glory, heartbreak, and scandal. Drawing upon his trademark knowledge and inimitable sense of humor, Will also explores his childhood connections to the team, the Cubs' future, and what keeps long-suffering fans rooting for the home team after so many years of futility. 223 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Warner Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 290 pages. There was no big league pitcher more respected for his skill than David Cone. Smart. Articulate. Physically and mentally resilient. In his stellar career Cone won multiple championships and received countless professional accolades. However, along the way, the perennial all-star had to adjust to four different ballclubs, recover from a career-threatening arm aneurysm, cope with the lofty expectations that are standard practice for the game's highest paid players, and overcome a humbling three-month, eight-game losing streak in the summer of 2000. Cone granted exclusive and unlimited access to baseball's most respected writer--his long-time friend, Roger Angell of The New Yorker. The result is just what baseball fans everywhere would expect from Angell: an extraordinary inside account of a superstar who examines the technical aspects of pitching, the mental preparation needed to reach the top, and how Cone had to adjust to all the rewards and drawbacks that accompany fame and fortune in the major leagues. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 175 pages. For one full baseball season in 1976, Roger Kahn returned to his favorite sport to see how it was doing, talk to some of its practitioners and veterans, and try to find out whether it still the same old magic. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 472 pages, b&w photos. Traces the landmark 1969 Supreme Court case between All-Star center fielder Curt Flood and Major League Baseball, documenting how he fought to play for the team of his choice at the cost of his career and placement in the Hall of Fame but paved the way for future players to become free agents. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, HarperCollins, 4th pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The memoirs of one of America's most famous baseball sluggers and a leading player of the New York Yankees, describing playing with other famous players from 1951 onwards - e.g. Joe DiMaggio - belting three series home runs in 1964, filled with facts and anecdotes about baseball, teams, and players, as well as has his own personal story of his addiction to alcohol, his family, much more. Clean copy.

Hardcover. University of Nebraska Press, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 344 pages. Almost Yankees is a poignant and nostalgic narrative of the lives and travails of Minor League Baseball, focusing on the 1981 championship season of the New York Yankees' Triple-A farm club, the Columbus Clippers. That year was especially notable in the annals of baseball history as the year Major League Baseball went on strike in midseason. When that happened, the Clippers were suddenly the best team in baseball and found themselves the focus of national media attention. Many of these Minor Leaguers sensed this was their last, best chance to make an impression and fulfill their dreams to one day reach the majors. The Clippers' raw recruits, prospects, and Minor League veterans responded to this opportunity by playing the greatest baseball of their lives on the greatest team most of them would ever belong to. Then the strike ended, leaving them to return to their ordinary aspirational lives and to be just as quickly forgotten.

Hardcover. Library of America , 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 560 pages. Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was the most widely read sports writer of the last century and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. From the 1940s to the 1980s, his nationally syndicated columns for the New York Herald Tribune and later for The New York Times traversed the world of sports with literary panache and wry humor. "I've always had the notion," Smith once said, "that people go to spectator sports to have fun and then they grab the paper to read about it and have fun again." Now, writer and editor (and inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball) Daniel Okrent presents the best of Smith's inimitable columns--miniature masterpieces that remain the gold standard in sports writing. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Ticknor & Fields, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 282 pages, illustrated throughout with vintage b&w photos, documenting the Yankee star's career. Small nick to dust jacket along fore-edge, light edgewear, otherwise very good.

Hardcover. Urbana IL, University of Illinois Press, 2nd pr., 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 327 pages, b&w photos. An extraordinarily gifted athlete, Babe Didrikson Zaharias starred in track and field and won three Olympic medals in 1932. She picked up golf late yet quickly dominated the women's sport. She also competed in baseball, bowling, basketball, and tennis. Interviews with members of Babe's family, peers, and others inform Susan E. Cayleff's story of the athlete and the difficulties she faced as a woman trying to be her own person. The American public was smitten with Babe's wit, frankness, and "unladylike" bravado. But members of the press insinuated that her femininity, even her femaleness, were suspect. Cayleff looks at how Babe used her androgyny and athleticism to promote herself before crafting a more marketable female persona for golf. She also explores Babe's role as a cofounder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA); her marriage to George Zaharias and their partnership in shaping her career; her romantic relationship with fellow golfer Betty Dodd; and her courageous public fight against cancer. Clean copy.

Softcover. Jefferson NC, McFarland & Company, reprint, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages, b&w illustrations. Harry Ellard's Base Ball in Cincinnati, published in 1907, is an invaluable resource for those interested in the early years of professional baseball and the city that was its hometown. Ellard was uniquely positioned to write the definitive book on this topic: as a Cincinnati journalist, he knew of and consulted the best photographs and documents relating to the Cincinnati Club, and had the cooperation of several Red Stockings players. Readers will find information on stand-out clubs and games, and many of the important men who were instrumental to early baseball in Cincinnati and so to professional baseball in general. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Baseball, the sport that helped reunify the country in the years after the Civil War, remains the National Pastime. The Library of Congress houses the world's largest baseball collection, documenting the history of the game and providing a unique look at America since the late 1700s. Now Baseball Americana presents the best of the best from that treasure trove. From baseball's biggest stars to street urchins, from its most newsworthy stories to sandlot and Little League games, the book examines baseball's hardscrabble origins, rich cultural heritage, and uniquely American character. The more than 350 fabulous illustrations--many never before published--featured first-generation, vintage photographic and chromolithographic baseball cards; photographs of famous players and ballparks; and newspaper clippings, cartoons, New Deal photographs, and baseball advertisements.

Softcover. NY, Delta/Dell, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 275 pages. In his look at the role baseball plays in the lives of American men, the author recounts his own role as shortstop and discusses Bobby Thompson's home run, the 1969 Mets, and other events. By making baseball the focal point of his evocative memoir, the fifty-something Mayer can lay claim to spiritual kinship with all American males who ever aspired to major-league stardom and settled for the sidelines. Looking back on the pre-TV days when he roamed N.Y.C.'s rough diamonds as a scrawny shortstop, the author recalls the pleasures and pains of rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, an aberrant choice for a Bronx- born lad whose immigrant parents lived within walking distance of Yankee Stadium. Mayer's loyalty to the team did not survive the franchise's flight to Los Angeles; as a young newspaperman, however, he found it possible to transfer his allegiance to the Mets. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 298 pages, Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Franklin Watts, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 176 pages, b&w photos. The Contents are: Gentleman's Agreement - African Americans and Baseball's Beginning; A Ballplayer from Cooperstown - Post Reconstruction America and the Strange Career of Bud Fowler; False Spring - Fleet Walker and the Grudging Integration of the 1880s; Jim Crow Wins - Cap Anson Gets the Save; War Paint and Feathers - Jim Crow and Chief Tokohama; Second Class Immortals - Satchel Paige and the Black Babe Ruth; The Badge of Martyrdom - The Myth of Rickey and Robinson; and They Never Had It Made - from 1947 to Today; followed by Appendix: Professional Baseball Leagues Chronology; Glossary of Team Names; and an index. Clean copy.

hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st , 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket. Black & white illustrations by John Floherty, Jr. 141 pages. Young adult fiction, the story of a boy's first year in the big leagues.

Dubuque IA, William C. Brown, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, glossy pictorial boards, no dj issued. There are more than 1,300 baseball fiction titles listed in this bibliography. You can find the books by the Author's Name Alphabetically, Chronologically from 1868 to 1990, Alphabetically by Title, By Adult or Juvenile Mysteries, Books About Integration and Race, Books About Women, Girls, and the Game, and Books About Major League Teams. Clean copy.

Hardcover. West Nyack NY, Parker Publishing, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a edgeworn dust jacket with fading to spine, 241 pages. Over 200 b&w illustrations demonstrate all the fundamentals. Edwards was baseball coach at University of California, Riverside. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 216 pages. Hardcover with price-clipped dust jacket. Dust jacket shows chipping, and wear on edges. Covered with plastic sleeve. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf,otherwise clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Cincinnati Historical Society, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, magazine format, 64 pages with b&w photos. Like new.

NY, Rudolph Field, 1st, 1949, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket with light wear. Jimmy Powers was a famous Sports Columnist for the New York Daily News. Here are some of his stories about Feller, Berra, Hornsby, Paige, Ruth, Frisch, McGraw, Cobb, Rabbit Maranville, Lefty Gomez, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Mathewson, Wagner and many more. Owner's stamp on front fly leaf, otherwise tight and clean.

Hardcover. NY, Ronald Press , 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket. 361 pages. Many b&w photos, illustrations. The author was head baseball coach at Yale University. Owner's name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, A.S. Barnes, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 96 pages, in an edgeworn dust jacket. Illustrated in b&w by Tyler Micoleau. No marking.