Usa Today Baseball Weekly 1996 Almanac

Based on America's most popular baseball publication, this new edition provides the baseball lover with all new statistics, profiles, and analyses in addition to editorial essays on high salaries and top draft prospects. Original.

With personal interviews of players and owners and with over two decades of research in newspapers and archives, Bill Marshall tells of the players, the pennant races, and the officials who shaped one of the most memorable eras in sports and American history. At the end of World War II, soldiers returning from overseas hungered to resume their love affair with baseball. Spectators still identified with players, whose salaries and off-season employment as postmen, plumbers, farmers, and insurance salesmen resembled their own. It was a time when kids played baseball on sandlots and in pastures, fans followed the game on the radio, and tickets were affordable. The outstanding play of Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Don Newcombe, Warren Spahn, and many others dominated the field. But perhaps no performance was more important than that of Jackie Robinson, whose entrance into the game broke the color barrier, won him the respect of millions of Americans, and helped set the stage for the civil rights movement. Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945-1951 also records the attempt to organize the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Mexican League's success in luring players south of the border that led to a series of lawsuits that almost undermined baseball's reserve clause and antitrust exemption. The result was spring training pay, uniform contracts, minimum salary levels, player representation, and a pension plan—the very issues that would divide players and owners almost fifty years later. During these years, the game was led by A.B. "Happy" Chandler, a hand-shaking, speech-making, singing Kentucky politician. Most owners thought he would be easily manipulated, unlike baseball's first commissioner, the autocratic Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Instead, Chandler's style led one owner to complain that he was the "player's commissioner, the fan's commissioner, the press and radio commissioner, everybody's commissioner but the men who pay him."

The first owner of the Santurce Crabbers, Pedrín Zorrilla, was a visionary, with many Negro League and big league contacts (he signed up Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Ray Dandridge and Leon Day in the first decade). Santurce was the most successful winter league team of the 1950s, with three Caribbean Series titles. Roberto Clemente, Rubén Gómez, Willie Mays, Willard Brown and Bob Thurman played for the Crabbers. Tom Lasorda used to pitch for them. Santurce set up working agreements with the Giants, Orioles, Dodgers and Astros, among other teams. Earl Weaver and Frank Robinson were team managers; several Hall of Famers were early-career Crabbers. Orlando Cepeda and Tony (Tany) Pérez played their entire winter league careers with Santurce.

Unrivaled coverage of the year in baseball offers full player statistics sorted by team and position, fantasy values for every major league player, and postseason wrap-ups from the staff of USA Today Baseball Weekly. 300 tables. Illustrations.

"600 major league players, 200 rookie prospects, complete statistics, awards and all-time leaders, year-by-year records"--Cover.

Basketball is the fastest growing spectator sport in America--and with good reason! Now readers can have a courtside seat for the new season with this book, the ultimate source for facts, stats and records for every NBA and NCAA basketball team.

Profiles the record breakers and record makers, statistics and facts for professional and amateur sports, as well as highlighting both summer and winter olympics.

ESPN has taken the original Information Please Sports Almanac, known for its thorough stats, compelling facts, and commentary, and added ESPN's unique voice, point of view, and contributions of network personalities. Taking on the witty "quick-hits" tone ESPN is famous for, the new ESPN almanac includes "Inside the Numbers" statistics, expanded quotes, rule changes, ESPN coverage of the top 40 stories and personalities of the year--with continued annual coverage of college, pro, international and Olympic Sports, bizarre sports occurrences, Hall of Fame awards, Who's Who, parks and arenas, business and media, plus much, much more.