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Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back

Josh Hamilton

Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character " superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a 4-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball.

BEYOND BELIEF details the events that led up to the derailment. Josh explains how a young man destined for fame and wealth could allow his life to be taken over by drugs and alcohol. But it is also the memoir of a spiritual journey that breaks through pain and heartbreak and leads to the rebirth of his major-league career.

Josh Hamilton makes no excuses and places no blame on anyone other than himself. He takes responsibility for his poor decisions and believes his story can help millions who battle the same demons. "I have been given a platform to tell my story" he says. "I pray every night I am a good messenger."
Moneyball

Michael Lewis
Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective

Al Santasiere

It's been eighty-five years since Yankee Stadium opened. Soon the Yankees will leave the field, fans will file out and the lights will fade. But the lights will never go out on the Stadium that has proudly worn the moniker "The House That Ruth Built."
Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective recounts the story of this extraordinary American landmark. It captures the creation of a home for the New York Yankees that began in 1923 and was driven by co-owner Jacob Ruppert, who envisioned a ballpark grander than any other conceived at the time. It takes the reader from the field to the dugout, from the press box to the clubhouse, from principal owner George Steinbrenner's office to Monument Park. Every corner of the stadium is revealed.
But Yankee Stadium is more than a ballpark. The most iconic moments in history have taken place within its walls: Lou Gehrig's poignant farewell to his team and the fans who would never forget him; epic heavy-weight fights, from Louis versus Schmeling to Ali versus Norton; the 1958 National Football League championship, christened the "Greatest Game Ever Played"; exciting college football games, including the one immortalized by Knute Rockne in which he asked Notre Dame to "win one for the Gipper"; and the unrivaled record-breaking successes of the New York Yankees, from the very first home run hit at the Stadium by Babe Ruth to Alex Rodriguez' 500th.
With the unprecedented cooperation of the New York Yankees organization, photographs have been culled from every conceivable source. More than 250 photographs - many never before published - will allow you to walk in the Stadium beside Mantle and Maris, witness the only perfect game in World Series history, and see the Stadium during the stirring 2001 World Series.
Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective is more than just photographs. It is also graced with firsthand accounts of what it was like to be there as history unfolded. Some of the contributors include: George Steinbrenner, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Paul McCartney, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Don Shula, Sugar Ray Leonard, Frank Gifford, Regis Philbin, Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Reggie Jackson, and Cal Ripken Jr.
It has been said that the shaded outfield of Yankee Stadium houses the ghosts of long-gone Yankee greats - at least that's what the players swear they feel as the long days of summer wane into the heated race for the pennant. Or could it be the knowledge that, within those walls, they will always be measured against the titans who came before them? It is the power of the place that led Sports Illustrated to call Yankee Stadium the greatest venue of the twentieth century. And only here, within the pages of Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective, can you feel what they feel.
Bill James Handbook 2009 (Bill James Handbook)

Bill James
Every year, thousands of avid baseball fans eagerly await The Bill James Handbook the best and most complete annual baseball guide available. Full of exclusive stats, this book is the most comprehensive resource of every hit, pitch and catch in Major League Baseball's 2008 season.

Key features include:
- Player Win Shares
Sports Illustrated: The College Football Book

Editors of Sports Illustrated

Continuing its series of spectacular coffee-table books for the holiday season, Sports Illustrated presents The College Football Book, the ultimate gift for America's most passionate fans.

SI launched this series in 2005 with The Football Book, devoted to the professional game. A New York Times best-seller that year, the book has taken root as a perennial, selling more than 200,000 copies to date. Now the editors of Sports Illustrated return to the gridiron, this time to serve the most avid football fans of all.

With the best words and pictures SI has to offer, The College Football Book, brings to life the game's unparalleled excitement and pageantry, its legendary players, historic teams and epic rivalries.

In 288 pages of the greatest photography and writing available anywhere, The College Football Book spans the sport's history, from its infancy in the 1800s right up to the postseason showdowns of 2008. The book is packed with stunning pictures, award-winning stories, original stats, decade-by-decade all-star teams and iconic artifacts photographed exclusively for this book at the College Football Hall of Fame--the same exciting mix of elements that makes each book in the SI series a must-have for sports fan.
Mind Gym : An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence

Gary Mack, David Casstevens

Drawing on his work with some of the top teams in professional sports, noted sport psychology consultant Gary Mack shares with you the same techniques and exercises he uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle." These 40 accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes will help you gain the "head edge" over the competition.
The Bad Guys Won!

Jeff Pearlman

Once upon a time, twenty-four grown men would play baseball together, eat together, carouse together, and brawl together. Alas, those hard-partying warriors have been replaced by GameBoy-obsessed, laptop-carrying, corporate soldiers who would rather punch a clock than a drinking buddy. But it wasn't always this way ...

In The Bad Guys Won, award-winning former Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jeff Pearlman returns to an innocent time when a city worshipped a man named Mookie and the Yankess were the second-best team in New York. So it was in 1986, when the New York Mets -- the last of baseball's live-like-rock-star teams -- won the World Series and captured the hearts (and other select body parts) of fans everywhere.

But their greatness on the field was nearly eclipsed by how bad they were off it. Led by the indomitable Keith Hernandez and the young dynamic duo of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, along with the gallant Scum Bunch, the Amazin's won 108 regular-season games, while leaving a wide trail of wreckage in their wake -- hotel rooms, charter planes, a bar in Houston, and most famously Bill Buckner and the eternally cursed Boston Red Sox. With an unforgettable cast of characters -- Doc, Straw, the Kid, Nails, Mex, and manager Davey Johnson (as well as innumerable groupies) -- The Bad Guys Won immortalizes baseball's last great wild bunch of explores what could have been, what should have been, and thanks to a tragic dismantling of the club, what never was.
Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big

Jose Canseco
Orthodoxy
Baseball Prospectus 2009: The Essential Guide to the 2009 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus)

The 2009 edition of the New York Times bestselling guide to major league baseball that is simply “the best book of its kind” (Rob Neyer)

Now in its fourteenth edition, the Baseball Prospectus annual is the industry leader among annual baseball guides and the rightful successor to Bill James’s legendary bestselling Baseball Abstracts. The 2009 edition contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teams. Each player’s statistics are projected for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, called “perhaps the game’s most accurate projection model” (Sports Illustrated). Baseball Prospectus 2009 also contains cutting-edge essays on performance analysis, the likes of which have inspired twenty-nine of the thirty major league teams to hire current and former Baseball Prospectus writers and analysts as consultants. The baseball bible for fantasy players and devoted fans, Baseball Prospectus can be relied upon to once again hit it out of the park.
Is This a Great Game, or What?

Tim Kurkjian

ESPN's Tim Kurkjian has spent over twenty-five years covering almost 3,000 Major League Baseball games and interviewing about that many players, coaches, managers and executives. In Is This a Great Game, or What?, Kurkjian combines his years of experience, uncanny knowledge and deep love of the game, to create a book filled with some of the most fascinating insight into Major League Baseball this side of Jim Bouton's bestseller, Ball Four. Whether he's explaining what goes through a ballplayer's mind when he faces a fastball in the chapter "My Face Was Crushed by a Bowling Ball Going 90mph", detailing bizarre rituals and superstitions performed by some of baseball's greatest players, or taking us into the locker room to see what transpires in the clubhouse of a Major League team, Kurkjian's tales are at times hilarious, other times horrifying, yet always entertaining. Kurkjian has spoken to some of the greatest ballplayers ever over the years and they have revealed details about themselves and the game they love with a candor that readers won't find anywhere else. Filled with anecdotes and fascinating insight, this is an essential book for baseball fans or anyone curious about America's pastime.
The Science of Hitting

Ted Williams, John Underwood
Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks

Zack Hample

Whether you’re a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan’s guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime.

What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did “The Wave” first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?

Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with the compulsive brilliance of Schott’s Miscellany, Watching Baseball Smarter will increase your understanding and enjoyment of the sport–no matter what your level of expertise.

Zack Hample is an obsessed fan and a regular writer for minorleaguebaseball.com. He's collected nearly 3,000 baseballs from major league games and has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows. His first book, How to Snag Major League Baseballs, was published in 1999.
Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004

Bill Simmons

The New York Times bestseller Now I Can Die in Peace is now available in paperback with a new afterword (and more footnotes) by the author
"The Red Sox won the World Series." To Citizen No. 1 of Red Sox Nation, those seven words meant "No more ‘1918’ chants. No more smug glances from Yankee fans. No more worrying about living an entire life -- that’s eighty years, followed by death -- without seeing the Red Sox win a Series." But once he was able -- finally -- to type those life-changing words, Bill Simmons decided to look back at his "Sports Guy" columns for the last five years to find out how the miracle came to pass. And that’s where the trouble began.
The result is Now I Can Die in Peace, a hilarious and fresh new look at some of the best sportswriting in America, with sharp, critical commentary (and fresh insights) from the guy who wrote it in the first place.
Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of "The House That Ruth Built"

Harvey Frommer

Diamonds aren’t forever. After the 2008 season, the seemingly immortal “House That Ruth Built” will shut its gates forever—to be replaced by a brand-new stadium just a homer’s length away. As if anything could ever replace Yankee Stadium in the hearts and memories of New York Yankees’ fans.

Memories are what this book is about. From the moment it opened on April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium was a phenomenon: It was more than double the size of any ballpark at the time. And what was happening on the field was just as phenomenal. In the third inning of that opening-day game, Babe Ruth hit the home run he deemed the most satisfying of his career. That fall, the stadium hosted the first of the many World Series games that would be played there over the ensuing 85 years.

And that, of course, was just the beginning. Remembering Yankee Stadium brilliantly and beautifully documents the stadium’s entire career through a decade-by-decade account, a priceless collection of historical photographs, and, most movingly, the vivid, first-person reminiscences of the people to whom this “citadel of sport” has meant so much: entertainers and politicians, broadcasters and sportswriters, players and fans. No Yankees fan—no baseball fan—will be able to resist this incredible book.

"Spectacular new book about Yankee Stadium by Harvey Frommer, Remembering Yankee Stadium."--FOX SPORTS.COM

"In this, the last year of Yankee Stadium's storied existence, Frommer's Remembering Yankee Stadium becomes an essential keepsake for wise fans who know that newer isn't always better." TIME OUT NEW YORK

"Sportswriter Harvey Frommer's Remembering Yankee Stadium is an exhaustive account of The Cathedral of Baseball and a moving tribute from nearly a hundred voices, former players and pinstripe devotees alike."- - GELF MAGAZINE

"RYS beats any Yankee Book out there hands down. Who better to write and compile a tribute to an icon such as Yankee Stadium than renowned baseball/Yankee author Harvey Frommer who makes great use of every Yankee and baseball player he either wrote about or met over his illustrious career. My Yankee Cap is tipped to Harvey Frommer who has outdone himself once again."-BEHINDTHEBOMBERS.COM

"A stunning collection of oral history and narrative and great photos." NEW YORK ONE

"A gorgeous new over-sized book Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and
Narrative History of "The House that Ruth Built"--BRONX BANTER

"One to show. Absolute classic. Best of all the books on the subject-the Bible of Yankee Stadium books."--WCBS-Radio
Yankee Stadium: A Tribute: 85 Years of Memories: 1923-2008

Les Krantz

A nostalgic and reverent look at The House That Ruth Built -- the most famous and historic baseball stadium in professional sports

Relive 85 years of memories in Yankee Stadium with a DVD highlighting the Golden Age of Yankee stadium, exclusively produced for Yankee Stadium: A Tribute and narrated by legendary Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson.

Since its opening in 1923, Yankee Stadium has been the scene of 26 championship titles and some of the greatest achievements in baseball history, including Babe Ruth's 60th home run during the 1927 season, the race fro the home run title between teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, Jim Abbott's 1993 no-hitter, and Aaron Boone's 2006 game-winning run against the Red Sox to clinch the American League Championship Series. Yankee Stadium: A Tribute is a celebration of this great landmark and its history, a beautiful piece of nostalgia for the missions of fans who have visited baseball's most celebrated ballpark.

The House That Ruth Built was the stage for scores of other athletic events, including football and boxing. It has played host to some of the world's most important cultural events, including the first papal mass in North America in 1965 and the first memorial service for the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Yankee Stadium: A Tribute -- written with the cooperation of key Yankee players from the past and present -- celebrates this great monument and the unforgettable events of its 85-year history.
The TUFFCUFF Strength And Conditioning Manual For Baseball Pitchers: A 52-Week Guide To Pitching Workouts And Throwing Programs

Steven Ellis

More than a workout routine, THE TUFFCUFF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING MANUAL FOR BASEBALL PITCHERS is a 52-week, comprehensive program reveals the pitcher that has always been inside of you. TUFFCUFF shows you how to develop balanced pitching fitness -- strength, muscle mass, flexibility, power, and endurance -- without overemphasizing or shortchanging any component. It shows you how to recover from workouts and games so you get leaner and stronger when everyone else is just getting tired. And it shows you how to eat the right foods to get the energy you need to dominate the competition. This is how big league pitchers are now training for more strength and flexibility: * Training and nutrition plans. * Daily exercise and equipment lists. * Daily menu plans and grocery lists. * Performance checklists. * Exercise technique demonstrations. * Throwing routines and bullpen plans. * And more! TUFFCUFF is like having your very own pitching coach, personal trainer, nutritionist, strength specialist, and motivator all rolled into one. With TUFFCUFF's "movement based" approach to pitching training that emphasizes nutrition, recovery, and flexibility, you have a tool to transform your career and experience a new level of success. The only questions is: Are you tuff enough?
The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made it to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minors

Chris Coste

Chris Coste dreamed of playing major-league baseball from the age of seven. But after eleven grueling years in the minors, a spot on a major-league roster still seemed just out of his reach–until that fateful call came from the Philadelphia Phillies in May 2006. At age thirty-three (“going on eighty”), Coste was finally heading to the big time.

The 33-Year-Old Rookie is like a real-life Rocky, an unforgettable and inspirational story of one man’s unwavering pursuit of a lifelong goal. Beginning in a single-parent home in Fargo, North Dakota, and ending behind home plate on the flawless diamond of the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park–where fans and teammates call him “Chris Clutch” because of his knack for getting timely hits–this intimate account of Coste’s baseball odyssey is a powerful story of determination, perseverance, and passion.

For eleven seasons, Coste hustled, fought, and gritted his way to his breakthrough–and never lost faith in his abilities. Along the way, he gained the affection and admiration of baseball fans from Ottawa and Scranton to various Mexican and Venezuelan cities. Battered by years spent behind a catcher’s mask, and faced with bracing realities–there were bills to pay, and his young daughter was entering first grade–Coste decided to give it one last shot in 2006. But that year, during the Phillies’ major-league spring training, Coste was demoted to the minors at the last minute to make room for a utility outfielder, despite having hit a blistering .463 and earning the trust of the team’s pitchers. Later that season, though, Coste finally got the call-up, and he hit .364 during the Phillies’ furious battle to nail down the final postseason berth.

Coste takes us through the 2006 spring training season–with its pulse-quickening moments and close calls–and into his first season as a major-league catcher with the Phillies. From tense stretch-run games that kept Phillies’ fans on the edge of their seats to moments of intimate personal reflection, Coste’s saga offers baseball aficionados an inside look at a remarkable life and career. In this stirring, wry, and candid look at the life of a professional baseball nomad who never surrendered his dream, we savor the sometimes bittersweet fruits of victory against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

Cait N. Murphy

From the perspective of 2007, the unintentional irony of Chance's boast is manifest—these days, the question is when will the Cubs ever win a game they have to have. In October 1908, though, no one would have laughed: The Cubs were, without doubt, baseball's greatest team—the first dynasty of the 20th century.

Crazy '08 recounts the 1908 season—the year when Peerless Leader Frank Chance's men went toe to toe to toe with John McGraw and Christy Mathewson's New York Giants and Honus Wagner's Pittsburgh Pirates in the greatest pennant race the National League has ever seen. The American League has its own three-cornered pennant fight, and players like Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and the egregiously crooked Hal Chase ensured that the junior circuit had its moments. But it was the National League's—and the Cubs'—year.

Crazy '08, however, is not just the exciting story of a great season. It is also about the forces that created modern baseball, and the America that produced it. In 1908, crooked pols run Chicago's First Ward, and gambling magnates control the Yankees. Fans regularly invade the field to do handstands or argue with the umps; others shoot guns from rickety grandstands prone to burning. There are anarchists on the loose and racial killings in the town that made Lincoln. On the flimsiest of pretexts, General Abner Doubleday becomes a symbol of Americanism, and baseball's own anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," is a hit.

Picaresque and dramatic, 1908 is a season in which so many weird and wonderful things happen that it is somehow unsurprising that a hairpiece, a swarm of gnats, a sudden bout of lumbago, and a disaster down in the mines all play a role in its outcome. And sometimes the events are not so wonderful at all. There are several deaths by baseball, and the shadow of corruption creeps closer to the heart of baseball—the honesty of the game itself. Simply put, 1908 is the year that baseball grew up.

Oh, and it was the last time the Cubs won the World Series.

Destined to be as memorable as the season it documents, Crazy '08 sets a new standard for what a book about baseball can be.
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance

H A Dorfman

In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peak performance at every level of the game.