Baseball Books

this book ships in 1 to 2 days. it is a very great book about sports. many sports writers hve never played the games they cover or had poor college careers that they blow out of proportion in order to fill out their resume, but pat jordan is not one of those people. he knows his stuff. he can compete. i think all sports fans should read this great book.

This book is a collection of essays -- long magazine articles -- by a freelance writer who used to be a professional baseball player. His careers (baseball and writing) are documented in his memoirs, A False Spring and A Nice Tuesday. Having read those books first, I had a good insight into the author, which made this book more enjoyable but was not really necessary to appreciate the writing in it.

Jordan has a very good eye for detail and is not hesitant to give his opinion of why certain people succeed and others fail. Of course, it is an opinion, but his writing style is so persuasive that the explanations are as satisfying for the reader as if they were proven facts.

I believe that the pieces in Suitors of Spring appeared in Sports Illustrated in the '70s. I wish that SI would run this type of article now. However, they have succumbed to the ESPN Magazine syndrome and now favor the hip, smack-talking articles that fit neatly on a page or two.

If that is what you prefer, this book is not for you. Instead, Jordan explores a range of baseball players some of whom had tremendous success (Tom Seaver) and some nearly none (Steve Dalkowski) and takes the time necessary to do so. Some wof these players were good organization men (Woody Huyke) and some were so nonconformist as to make you wonder how they ever played professional baseball in the first place (Bo Belinsky). What this wide range of characters share, besides baseball, is being revealed to us by a writer of uncommon insight and skill.

One note for other Pat Jordan devotees: you may want to skip the smarmy 70s-style introduction. In that introduction, Jordan uses the "I'm OK, you're OK" style so prevalent at that time and describes how writing what would be "A False Spring" was excellent therapy for him and helped him to exorcise his demons. Those of us who have read his other work know better. All-in-all, that is a minor detour that does not detract from a very enjoyable read.

Those of us who are profesional sportswriters spend a lot of time in press boxes with other writers who criticize what they see on the field, but either never played the game or never played it well. "The Suitors of Spring" is brilliantly written by Pat Jordan, who did play the game. It also brings to mind some of the best sports books ever. "Ball Four's" Jim Bouton played the game. "North Dallas Forty's" Peter Gent played the game.
Having stood on the mound, facing down a hitter with the bases loaded, the crowd yelling, the opposition hurling insults, your future on the line and the hair standing up on the back of his neck, is an experience known by few. Jordan knows it.
Here he writes about pitchers, his specialty. He writes about superstars like Tom Seaver, playboys like Bo Belinsky, hardthrowing drunks like Steve Dalkowski, 6-6 lefties who never lived up their potential, like Sam McDowell, and prep phenoms from his home state of Connecticut who met the same fate as the author.
Jordan's talent is not one that can be learned in a literary class. He is of the school of hard knoocks, rough hewn, real, human. Bravo, Pat.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"

David Niall Wilson offers us an exquisite short story about that most pastoral and elegant summer sport, baseball. Don't be fooled, though, dear reader, because this tale about the Boys of Summer is firmly embedded in the cold bedrock of terror. While the long days of warmth play host to the crack of the bat and the umpire's gruff calls, a fast pitch can kill a batter if it catches him just wrong. Or...just right. When a fastball pitcher named Jeb "Rocket" Rabinowicz fired a ninety-five-mile-an-hour pitch at a batter named Smith in the summer of 1939, the ball went wonky and Smith was left dead at the plate. The ball that killed Smith becomes a favorite attraction in a baseball museum, made famous by its tragic trajectory. However, when an elderly man shows up at the museum one day and declares the ball a fake, this knowledge places everyone he tells in jeopardy. This is a finely crafted and very spooky story that illustrates how easily guilt can become a fertile a soil in which horror can grow.

Having (to my recollection) never read any works by David Niall Wilson, the short story "Take Me Back To That Ball Game..."--available through Amazon.com's Shorts program--was the perfect introduction.

While it's difficult to describe a short story without giving the whole she-bang away, Wilson has quite successfully mixed baseball, antiques, mystery, death, a curse, and a couple of curve-ball plot twists into this 16 page offering. And, even though I'm not a fan of baseball, Wilson's smooth and easy writing, intriguing plot, and believable characters sucked me into the tale.

"Take Me Back To That Ball Game..." is certainly worth the paltry $0.49 fee from Amazon. It is one of those perfect short stories that succeeds where so many fail: it setups you up well then pays off big in a short space. I look forward to delving into some of Wilson's longer works in the near future.

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You'll enjoy this story even if you're not a baseball fanatic. Wilson throws enough curves to make it an exciting time at the plate.

I have searched for over 20 years for a book like this; it has great quotes from former baseball players and umpires. It made me laugh, gave me great insights into the game. It is also very easy to carry around due to its small size. Small but powerful. I highly recommend it.

Silber provides an excellent overview on the game. The book is written in a compact, yet thorough manner. The great thing about it is that anyone can carry it to a game and use it as a guide to the more detailed aspects of baseball. Absolutely wonderful!

Take Me Out to the Ball Park is a great little book for the baseball novice who wants an easy way to learn about the game. Twenty minutes with this book, and you never again will feel left out of those baseball conversations around the office or at the dinner table at home. Silber has boiled down America's favorite pasttime to a few clear, easy-to-grasp concepts, illustrations, and anecdotes. The booklet is easy to read and fun to use. The spiral-bound format is great to take to the ballpark and simple to refer to when you have a question about a position, a play or anything else that those baseball fanatics sitting all around you are getting excited about.

This is a great book for Pirate fans. A must have for any real Pirate fan!

I even learned how the Pirates got their name!

I agree with the Midwest Book Review. I attended a book signing and met John McCollister. It's obvious he really knows baseball and loves our Pirates.

Compiled by native Pittsburgher and long-time Pirates fan John McCollister, Tales From The Pirates Dugout: A Collection Of The Greatest Pirates Stories Ever Told offers the reader a wealth of heartwarming and memorable stories on and about the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Looking at the team's dynamic evolution over the past century, Tales From The Pirates Dugout embraces the spirit of the sport of baseball and showcases many of the determined and adventurous athletes who give their all to the team and the game!

What a great way to learn some of the basics of statistics. This book is meant to cover most of the material that a standard statistics textbook would, but using solely examples from the game of baseball. I picked it up primarily for the sections on probability, but have enjoyed the entire thing so far. Obviously a lot of work went into its preparation, and one of the most impressive aspects is the sheer number of exercises at the end of each chapter -- more than enough to reinforce the central points.

Jim Albert is a Professor of Statistics at Bowling Green University. He is an excellent teacher and researcher. He has written a number of fine statistics books including a recent one on doing Bayesian statistics using R. He is also an avid baseball fan and has published statistical articles and books on the subject. My favorite is "Curve Ball" which he coauthored with Jay Bennett. He is one of the leaders in the American Statistical Associations section on statistics in sports.

Once at an ASA meeting I heard him give a talk about how he was able to make statistics exciting for non-statistics majors by teaching it solely using baseball examples. His course became one of the most popular in the school which is amazing. Most students who are required to take statistics don't understand why it is an important discipline to learn about. They are usually bored to tears because of the dry presentation of the usual statistics lectures. These courses are generally hated by these students and they avoid them if at all possible. Albert's approach is new and seems to be working. I think he wrote this book for statistics teachers to help them learn how to teach a course like this. This book can serve as a basic statistics text or as a reference for those fond of sabermetrics.

If there is one thing that separates the baseball fan from those of other sports, it is their fascination with statistics. By this, I mean the raw data, not the detailed analysis. An enormous amount of data is kept about baseball players and their accomplishments, and nearly all of it is online. It is very detailed, as it is possible to obtain data regarding how a particular batter performed when facing a particular pitcher with a particular ball and strike count. With all of this data available, it is possible to find some raw data that can be used to illustrate any analytical technique demonstrated in basic statistic classes.
Using this data, the authors have hit a resounding home run, and touched all the bases. The examples are easily understood, even if you have limited knowledge of the game. Nearly all of the techniques of a basic statistics class are covered, making this suitable for use as a textbook. The main points of difference are the absence of a great deal of hypothesis testing and the inclusion of a chapter on the events of an inning modeled as a Markov chain.
Baseball fans will want to read this book to settle arguments and start new ones. One can argue, as I have on many occasions, about which of two players is the best or which one should have been the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for a particular year. There are some very detailed comparisons of players, showing conclusively, at least to me, which one was best. I was fascinated about the run producing value of all of the possible offensive outcomes of a batter getting on base by getting a hit, walk or being hit by a pitch. Their analysis includes the value of advancing runners already on base, which explains why a single is worth 1.0 and a walk worth 0.61. Runners often advance more than one base on a single and a walk will advance runners only if first base is already occupied. A large collection of problems is given at the end of each chapter and the data for the problem is always included.
At this point in my professional life, I dread the examination of textbooks for basic classes. Over time, they seem to take on a bland sameness that dulls the mind, even though they do have differences. This is the liveliest, most interesting statistics book that I have ever read.