The Four Home Runs Club

In baseball, one record shines as the most coveted for batters: four home runs in a single game. Only eighteen players have accomplished this feat, making it rarer than the perfect game. This book profiles these batsmen, detailing their lives, the game that launched them into the four-home-run club, and their careers after that triumphant moment.

From the authority on baseball research and statistics comes a vast and fascinating compendium of unique baseball lists and records. The SABR Baseball List & Record Book is an expansive collection of pitching, hitting, fielding, home run, team, and rookie records not available online or in any other book. This is a treasure trove of baseball history for statistically minded baseball fans that's also packed with intriguing marginalia. For instance, on July 25, 1967, Chicago's Ken Berry ended Game Two of a doubleheader against Cleveland with a home run in the bottom of the sixteenth inning -- Chicago's second game-winning homer of the day. The comprehensive lists include Most Career Home Runs by Two Brothers (Tommie and Hank Aaron have 768), Most Seasons with 15 or More Wins (Cy Young and Greg Maddux each have 18), and Highest On Base Percentage in a Season by a Rookie (listing every rookie above .400). Unlike other record books that only list the record holders -- say, most RBI by a rookie, held by Ted Williams with 145 -- SABR details every rookie to reach 100 RBI. Other record books might note the last pitcher in each league to steal home; here SABR has included every pitcher to do it. The book also includes a number of idiosyncratic features, such as a rundown of every player who has hit a triple and then stolen home, or every reliever who has won two games in one day. Many of the lists include a comments column for key historical notes and entertaining trivia (Bob Horner hit four home runs in a 1986 game, but his team lost). This is a must-have for every fan's library. Edited by Lyle Spatz, Chairman of the Baseball Records Committee for SABR

Baseball "by The Book."

When third-year football coach Sherm Blaser walked into his first team meeting for the upcoming season he asked the team what their team goal should be for the upcoming season. The first hand that went up was that of senior defensive lineman Benten Hall, who suggested a winning season would be an appropriate team goal. A winning season might not seem like a lofty goal, but it is certainly a practical one. The previous year the Kavemen did go 5-4 but finished sixth in conference play and did not make the playoffs. Benten's sophmore and freshman years those varsity teams went a combined 7-12. In fact, since Benten and his fellow seniors on the team started the first grade eleven years ago the Kuna football teams have a combined record of forty-three wins and sixty-two losses. The football program has not won a conference championship since 1998 and has won just one playoff game this century! Blaser was not seen as the savior of this program when he was hired two years before. Before coming to Kuna his record was 15- 21 at two previous schools. In his two previous years on the Kuna campus, his record was only 8-10. So how could this team, led by this coach, make it all the way to the state championship game? Fortunately for me, my son Ryan, who was starting his fourth season as part of Sherm Blaser's coaching staff and was living with me as he was finishing his master's program in psychology, so I had a front-row seat to this amazing season.

The last independent major league ended its brief run in 1915, after only two seasons at the national pastime’s top level. But no competitor to establishment baseball ever exerted so much influence on its rival, with some of the most recognizable elements of the game today—including the commissioner system, competition for free agents, baseball’s antitrust exemption, and even the beloved Wrigley Field—traceable to the so-called outlaw organization known as the Federal League of Base Ball Clubs. This comprehensive history covers the league from its formation in 1913 through its buyout, dissolution, and legal battles with the National and American leagues. The day-to-day operation of the franchises, the pennant races and outstanding players, the two-year competitive battle for fans and players, and the short- and long-term impact on the game are covered in detail.

Looks at the historic achievements of baseball's heavy hitters, the home run sluggers, including the likes of Rogers Hornsby, Hank Greenberg, Micky Mantle, and of course Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.