Baseball S First Year Player Draft Team By Team Through 1999

In response to escalating signing bonuses and in an attempt to bring parity to the major leagues, Commissioner Ford Frick used a gavel to open the proceedings of the inaugural First-Year Player Draft in 1965. This reference book looks back at the first 35 years of the draft, and includes data on every player selected through 1999 who made the majors. The author analyzes each big-league club's big-name picks, sleeper surprises, best and worst draft crops, and biggest busts, and current bonus babies. The analyses are supported by pertinent quotes from the players themselves, and a look at the future of the draft is offered. The book is richly illustrated with over 100 player photographs.

"A unique consideration of the role of quantitative measurement and human judgment, Scouting and Scoring provides an entirely fresh understanding of baseball by showing what the sport reveals about reliable knowledge in the modern world." --

In 1947, the University of California and Yale University baseball teams took the field in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to play the first-1ever NCAA Division I College World Series. It was a two-day, three-game series with an attendance of fewer than 4,000. Today, it is a weeklong series held in Omaha, Nebraska, with eight teams, tens of thousands of fans and millions more watching on television. This book covers each College World Series from 1947 through the 2003 series. For Division I, the authors devote a chapter to each decade, and then richly cover each game of each series. They also provide information on standout players' careers (in baseball and other professions). The NCAA Division II and III team championships are also covered comprehensively if briefly, and an appendix features short profiles of great college coaches.

This source of information on comtemporary American reference works is intended for the library and information community. It has nearly 1600 descriptive and evaluative entries, and reviews material from more than 300 publishers in nearly 500 subject areas. It should help the user keep abreast of reference publications in all fields, answer everyday questions and build up reference collections.

The complete history of Michigan State's men's athletics program is detailed for the first time, with vignettes about seasons and celebrities and a complete review of scores and statistics.

If unpredictability is so much of what makes sports compelling, the baseball draft might be the best place to look. This book explores the intricate uncertainties of the draft and the people who face it. Since the modern draft began in 1965, major league teams have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to identify and develop stars of the future. Whether because of injury, poor performance or mental and physical struggles, a large percentage of the most ballyhooed prospects never reach the game's highest level. Though teams have improved in recent years at turning top picks into major leaguers, the baseball draft is still centered on educated guesswork. This book explains why.

Perhaps even more than the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots are the team of the entire northeast from Rhode Island to Canada. Here, sports historian Robert W. Cohen ranks the 50 best players to ever take the field for the Patriots. Who can forget Wes Welker, Troy Brown, Jim Nance, Ted Bruschi, and Tom Brady. They're all here in this fascinating collection of bios, stats, quotes from opposing players and former teammates, photographs, and recaps of memorable performances and seasons. This book is a must-read not only for Patriots fans, but for all fans of professional football.