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When the Boston Red Sox faced the New York Yankees in the historic 2003 American League Championship Series, the meeting seemed to serve as the climax to perhaps the greatest rivalry in professional sports. Yet, following New York's comeback victory in scintillating Game 7, both the Red Sox and Yankees entered the off-season without a world title--and with renewed conviction to finish the job in 2004. In A Tale of Two Cities, respected baseball writers John Harper (New York Daily News) and Tony Massarotti (Boston Herald) chronicle the Yankees and Red Sox in parallel story lines through the summer of 2004. The authors take you behind the scenes with the teams, cities, and media during one of the most intense baseball seasons in history.
Baseball fans in the Bronx and beyond will delight in this incomparable, far-reaching collection of insider tales When 19-year-old Marty Appel got a job as a mail clerk for the New York Yankees, assigned to spend the summer of '68 answering Mickey Mantle's fan letters, he couldn't have known it was just the start of over a half-century entwined with the Bronx Bombers. As a PR director, television producer, writer, and historian, Appel never missed an opportunity to get to know the main characters— and supporting cast— of Yankees lore. The result is an unparalleled trove of colorful stories featuring a seemingly unending parade of characters including Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, George Steinbrenner, and everyone in between. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Pinstripes by the Tale is an intimate look at an iconic franchise through the lens of its foremost historical authority. Told as a series of captivating vignettes, it invites readers to consider the small moments that quietly shape the contours of baseball history.
In 1961, when the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida, for spring training, neither team had any idea that a feisty physician was about to turn its world upside down. To Major League Baseball, Dr. Ralph Wimbish was just a black homeowner able to house the team's African American ball players, who were segregated from their white teammates-except on the diamond-during spring training. The laws in Florida, like the rest of the South, were dictated by Jim Crow. Major League Baseball had no plans to upend it. Dr. Wimbish had other ideas. Drawing on personal interviews, newspaper accounts, archival documents, and memoirs, Adam Henig has written a story that New York Post sports columnist Mike Vacarro and Tampa Bay Times' Jon Wilson called "a must read!" A book for baseball enthusiasts that goes beyond the game, Baseball Under Siege (formerly titled Under One Roof) is an unforgettable tale of a little-known civil rights activist who risked it all to achieve racial justice in his city, in his state, and in America's favorite pastime.
Larry Andersen, Richie Zisk, and Joe Simpson made sure that everywhere bewildered manager Rene Lachemann went during the 1982 season, some Jell-O was sure to follow—from his hotel bathroom sink, tub, and toilet (filled to the brim) to a postgame can of beer. Jay Buhner, one of the stars in the Seattle Mariners’ 1995 “Refuse to Lose” season, maintained the team's proud, prank-filled history well into the ’90s with his “blurping”—vomiting on command. It’s a good thing Mariners players had senses of humor, because for many years the play on the field wasn't going to keep their spirits high, as the team lost a combined 202 games over their first two seasons. Twelve consecutive losing campaigns later, they finally posted a winning record in 1991. Four years later, they won their first division title and then their first playoff series. This reissue of Tales from the Seattle Mariners Dugout, now newly revised, chronicles Seattle's rise from a hopeless and hapless franchise in the 1970s and ’80s to a proud team in the 1990s that went on to capture three division championships and earn four playoff appearances. It’s a must-read walk down memory lane for every fan of the team. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
There is nothing in all of American sport quite like baseball's spring training. This annual six-week ritual, whose origins date back nearly a century and a half, fires the hearts and imaginations of fans who flock by the hundreds of thousands to places like Dodgertown to glimpse superstars and living legends in a relaxed moment and watch the drama of journeyman veterans and starry-eyed kids in search of that last spot on the bench.In Under the March Sun, Charles Fountain recounts for the first time the full and fascinating history of spring training and its growth from a shoestring-budget roadtrip to burn off winter calories into a billion-dollar-a-year business. In the early days southern hotels only reluctantly admitted ballplayers--and only if they agreed not to mingle with other guests. Today cities fight for teams by spending millions in public money to build ever-more-elaborate spring-training stadiums. In the early years of the 20th century, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, Al Lang, first realized that coverage in northern newspapers every spring was publicity his growing city could never afford to buy. As the book demonstrates, cities have been following Lang's lead ever since, building identities and economies through the media exposure and visitors that spring training brings.An entertaining cultural history that taps into the romance of baseball even as it reveals its more hard-nosed commercial machinations, Under the March Sun shows why spring training draws so many fans southward every March. While the prices may be growing and the intimacy and accessibility shrinking, they come because the sunshine and sense of hope are timeless.
Jackie Robinson may have smashed Major League Baseball's color ceiling in 1947, but segregation in the sport had not been entirely eliminated. Under One Roof is an unforgettable tale of a little-known civil rights activist who risked it all to achieve racial justice in America's national pastime.
A treasury of candid photos and behind-the-scenes trivia covering decades of baseball history. Baseball Fantography is a celebration of baseball through the eyes of fans, via photos they’ve taken of players, ballparks, and related subjects over the past nine decades, along with essays, sidebars, and quotes. The project originated when the author discovered an old 1960s snapshot of himself as a teenager with his idol, Roger Maris, at Yankee Stadium. Realizing he couldn’t be the only one with these hidden photographic gems, he began collecting baseball photos taken by fans. The book contains: More than 250 never-before-published images of such players as Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, and Josh Hamilton Chapters on subjects like ballparks, spring training, broadcasters, dugouts, and baseball cards Contributions from baseball aficionados and notables like Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, a thirty-five-year veteran Topps baseball photographer, and a former president of the Baseball Hall of Fame A foreword by Bob Costas
"One of the most enjoyable, satisfying sports books I have ever had the pleasure to read." —Jeff Pearlman author, Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won! Yogi Berra once said: “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” But for lifelong baseball aficionado Emma Span, it hasn’t always been that simple. Now, in this winning collection of essays, Span chronicles her love of the sport, from childhood hobby to full-blown obsession, from big break (becoming The Village Voice’s first staff sports reporter in years) to heartbreak (getting a pink slip within a year). She recounts elbowing her way to get a quote from Yankees captain Derek Jeter and waiting for Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez to put some pants on for an interview. She literally gives her lifeblood to see the Mets and hops a plane to Taiwan, home to perhaps the largest concentration of Yankees fans outside of the five boroughs. But after getting laid off and being forced to leave her press pass behind, Span wonders if her passion for the sport will fade. Highly unlikely. Baseball helped Span forge a lasting bond with her father, connect with total strangers, and endure even the toughest times. With a fresh voice, a devastating wit, and an alarmingly encyclopedic knowledge of the game, Span offers a new perspective on America’s favorite pasttime—as a journalist, a baseball nerd, a daughter, and a fervent stay-until-the-last-out fan.
