Great Home Runs Of The 20th Century

The home run is the single most dramatic moment in baseball. Often it has been the exclamation point that appears at the end of a game, a season, a playoff, or a World Series. For fans, certain images-such as that of Carlton Fisk urging his shot fair over Green Monster or of Kirk Gibson limping around the bases-are engraved in memory.From Babe Ruth to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, the author tells of the stories, complete with box scores and photographs, of what he has selected as the thirty most memorable home runs. Many of the stories include comments from the author's interviews with home run hitters. Other sections cover sixty additional noteworthy home runs, All Star Game home runs, and milestones such as total home run production and grand slams.In Rich Westcott's journey through baseball history, fans will encounter the most famous moments and longest blast, as well as fascinating sidelights like these about balls that didn't travel as far.Who won a home run title without hitting a single ball out of the park?*Who hit the first inside-the-park home run in a World Series game?**Who hit the shortest home run, one that failed to reach the pitcher's mound?**** Ty Cobb won the title in 1909 with nine inside-the-park home runs.** Casey Stengel for the New York Giants in 1923.*** Andy Oyler of the Minnesota Millers scored on a two-foot drive into a mud puddle in front of home plate during a game in 1900. ( Baseball historians disagree on the truth of this account.) Author note: Rich Westcott has been a writer and editor for almost 40 years. He is the author of 10 other books, including The New Phillies Encyclopedia (with Frank Bilovsky), Phillies '93: An Incredible Season, and Philadelphia's Old Ballparks, all published by Temple University Press. He is the founder of Phillies Report, the nation's oldest continuous, baseball team newspaper. Currently, Westcott teaches sportswriting at LaSalle University and is an official scorer at Phillies games.

More than 150,000 major league baseball games were played in the 20th century. Here are ranked the 100 greatest, the very best (less than 1/10th of 1 percent) of the contests. They feature brilliant individual pitching performances, pitching duels, remarkable individual batting achievements, team offensive explosions, mind-numbing comebacks, multiple lead changes, team rivalries and heroics in final at-bats. The games are from the regular season, pennant races, playoffs, and the World Series. The inclusion of some games might be surprising, but all of them twanged or hammered the nerves of both spectators and participants.

The best baseball team of the 20th century? How about the 1906 Cubs? Or the 1998 Yankees? Don't forget the 1929 A’s, or the 1976 Reds. Some say the Yanks had a pretty good squad in 1927. There were so many great teams in the last century, it would be hard to compile a list of the 25 best—much less rank those clubs—but that’s what the authors have done! This is an endlessly fascinating tome, sure to prompt spirited discussions around the water cooler or above the dugout. Let the arguments (and the fun!) begin!

The proof of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just such an opportunity. Organized in the form of a calendar, this book allows readers to see the dates of famous births, deaths, and events that have affected the lives of African Americans and, by extension, of America as a whole. Each day features an entry with information about an important event that occurred on that date. Background on the highlighted event is provided, along with a link to at least one primary source document and references to books and websites that can provide more information. While there are other calendars of African American history, this one is set apart by its level of academic detail. It is not only a calendar, but also an easy-to-use reference and learning tool.

A project of SABR's Nineteenth Century Committee, INVENTING BASEBALL brings to life the greatest games to be played in the game's early years. From the "prisoner of war" game that took place among captive Union soldiers during the Civil War, to the first intercollegiate game (Amherst versus Williams), to the first professional no-hitter, the games in this volume span 1833–1900 and detail the athletic exploits of such players as Cap Anson, Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, Charlie Comiskey, Mike "King" Kelly, and John Montgomery Ward.

Over baseball history, which park has been the best for run scoring? (1) Which player would lose the most home runs after adjustments for ballpark effect? (2) Which player claims four of the top five places for best individual seasons ever played, based on all-around offensive performance? (3) (See answers, below). These are only three of the intriguing questions Michael Schell addresses in Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers, a lively examination of the game of baseball using the most sophisticated statistical tools available. The book provides an in-depth evaluation of every major offensive event in baseball history, and identifies the players with the 100 best seasons and most productive careers. For the first time ever, ballpark effects across baseball history are presented for doubles, triples, right- and left-handed home-run hitting, and strikeouts. The book culminates with a ranking of the game's best all-around batters. Using a brisk conversational style, Schell brings to the plate the two most important credentials essential to producing a book of this kind: an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a professional background in statistics. Building on the traditions of renowned baseball historians Pete Palmer and Bill James, he has analyzed the most important factors impacting the sport, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool from which players are drawn, player aging, and changes in the game that have raised or lowered major-league batting averages. Schell's book finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions, and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. It also provides rankings based on players' positions. For example, Derek Jeter ranks 295th out of 1,140 on the best batters list, but jumps to 103rd in the position-adjusted list, reflecting his offensive prowess among shortstops. Replete with dozens of never-before reported stories and statistics, Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers will forever shape the way baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime. Answers: 1. Coors Field 2. Mel Ott 3. Barry Bonds, 2001–2004 seasons

Since the beginning of major league baseball, more than 12,000 pitchers have thrown from the mound. Of them, only twenty have reached the ultimate goal of their profession: to be a 300-game winner.Rich Westcott, celebrated sports historian and journalist, offers in Winningest Pitchers profiles of each of those twenty pitchers, including Cy Young, Gaylord Perry, and Nolan Ryan. In small biographies, photographs, and stats, we gain a full picture of each of these rare players whose combined greatness contributes to baseball's continued importance to American athletic life. Author note: Rich Westcott has some idea of what it's like to stand on the mound and face an opposing hitter, having been a pitcher himself before it became apparent that his fingers were more useful pounding keyboards than gripping baseballs. He is the author of 12 previous, including, most recently, Great Home Runs of the 20th Century and A Century of Philadelphia Sports, both published by Temple. His career as a writer and editor has covered forty years, and he is the founder and for fourteen years served as editor and publisher of Phillies Report. Westcott lives in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia’s Top Fifty Baseball Players takes a look at the greatest players in Philadelphia baseball history from the earliest days in 1830 through the Negro Leagues and into the modern era. Their ranks include batting champions, home run kings, Most Valuable Players, Cy Young Award winners, and Hall of Famers—from Ed Delahanty, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Roy Campanella, Mike Schmidt, and Ryan Howard to Negro League stars Judy Johnson and Biz Mackey and other Philadelphia standouts such as Richie Ashburn, Dick Allen, Chuck Klein, Eddie Collins, and Reggie Jackson. For each player the book highlights memorable incidents and accomplishments and, above all, his place in Philadelphia’s rich baseball tradition.