Obsessed With Baseball

Includes multiple choice questions about baseball. Embedded in the book is a special computerized quiz module that lets you compete against yourself or a friend.

Recounts the author's experiences with playing a season of fantasy baseball against a host of armchair contenders, during which he researched the activity's popularity as well as the factors that contribute to winning fantasy teams.

Tenyearold Ezra, who is suffering from an advanced case of baseball fever, must convince his scholarly father that this disorder is not responsible for wasting his mind away. Reprint.

A gripping graphic novel that tells a boy’s experience in a WWII Japanese internment camp, and the lessons that baseball teaches him. Sandy Saito is a happy boy who’s obsessed with baseball — especially the Asahi team, the pride of his community. But when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, his life, like that of every North American of Japanese descent, changes forever. Forced to move to a remote internment camp, he and his family cope as best they can. And though life at the camp is difficult, Sandy finds solace in baseball, where there’s always the promise of possibilities. Through his experience, Sandy comes to realize that life is a lot like baseball. It’s about dealing with whatever is thrown at you, however you can. And it’s about finding your way home.

In the numbers-obsessed sport of baseball, statistics don't merely record what players, managers, and owners have done. Properly understood, they can tell us how the teams we root for could employ better strategies, put more effective players on the field, and win more games. The revolution in baseball statistics that began in the 1970s is a controversial subject that professionals and fans alike argue over without end. Despite this fundamental change in the way we watch and understand the sport, no one has written the book that reveals, across every area of strategy and management, how the best practitioners of statistical analysis in baseball-people like Bill James, Billy Beane, and Theo Epstein-think about numbers and the game. Baseball Between the Numbers is that book. In separate chapters covering every aspect of the game, from hitting, pitching, and fielding to roster construction and the scouting and drafting of players, the experts at Baseball Prospectus examine the subtle, hidden aspects of the game, bring them out into the open, and show us how our favorite teams could win more games. This is a book that every fan, every follower of sports radio, every fantasy player, every coach, and every player, at every level, can learn from and enjoy.

A moving, funny, inventive parenting memoir, written in a surprising form: an encyclopedia of failure in sports What can a new father learn about parenthood from reading sports almanacs? For most dads, the answer to this question is: nothing. But to Josh Wilker, whose life and writing have been defined by sports fandom, all of the joy, helplessness, and absurdity of parenthood are present between the lines. After all, what better way to think about losing control than Eugenio Velez's forty-five consecutive at-bats without a hit? How better to understand ridiculous joy than the NFL career of Walter Achiu, whose nickname was “Sneeze”? In the stories of sports figures large and small, Wilker finds the pathos in success and the humor in losing. As the terrified father of a one-day-old, Wilker recalls the 1986 World Series, when the moment was too big for the Red Sox. When he finds himself stealing away for an hour of alone time, Wilker thinks of boxer Roberto Duran, so beaten by Sugar Ray Leonard that he finally gave up. And yet, even as the frustrations and anxieties build, Wilker remembers Mets pitcher Anthony Young, who broke the baseball record for most consecutive losses—and never stopped showing up. Finding the richness of life in obscure wrestling maneuvers and pop-ups lost in the sun, Benchwarmer is a book of unique humanity and surprising wisdom.

Baseball: Then to WOW! shows readers how baseball has evolved from the early days of the 1920s to the game it is today. Using MLB action photographs, illustrations, stories, and trivia, the book is a journey through time both for baseball fans and those new to the game. Kids will learn how basic equipment has changed from fingerless gloves to specially tailored leather-bound mitts and how the evolution of game strategy has transformed the sport, players, and equipment. Players throughout history are stacked up against each other in every position so fans can dream up the perfect fantasy team with Babe Ruth playing alongside Hank Aaron and Reggie Jackson. A fun-filled section of the book explores everything fan culture-from the perfect ballpark frank to the importance of baseball cards and video games in popularizing the sport.

Andrew Larsen’s latest story celebrates the eternal hope and joy of baseball. Lenny loves playing baseball. He also loves reading about it. He wants to be in the big leagues, and, he figures, the more he knows, the better his chances. The only thing is, when he’s in the outfield, the ball somehow always ends up by his feet and not in his glove. But he and his dad practice. And practice. Lenny doesn’t give up. And it pays off. He makes a game-changing catch! Now he’s proven he can be great some of the time. Which makes him just like the greatest Hall of Famers, right? All you need is glove — as long as you believe!