You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life
by Yogi Berra
from Wiley
"The most valuable team player in sports" shows you what "teamwork" really means
What does it take to be a real team player, especially in a society that glorifies selfishness and a corporate culture that often uses "team player" as a buzzword but rewards only the showboaters and prima donnas? Well, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching. In this happy and hilarious guide to teamwork, sportsmanship, and winning, Yogi Berra draws on the timeless wisdom handed down by example from ballplayers who came before him to inspire you to make the right choices and become not only a better team player—at sports, at work, and in life—but a better person.
Filled with colorful stories from his life and career, not to mention the down-to-earth wit and insight that Yogi fans love, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching shows you how to make a bad team good and a good team great.
Ball Four
by Jim Bouton
from Wiley
As a player, former hurler Jim Bouton did nothing half-way; he threw so hard he'd lose his cap on almost every pitch. In the early '70s, he tossed off one of the funniest, most revealing, insider's takes on baseball life in Ball Four, his diary of the season he tried to pitch his way back from oblivion on the strength of a knuckler. The real curve, though, is Bouton's honesty. He carves humans out of heroes, and shines a light into the game's corners. A quarter century later, Bouton's unique baseball voice can still bring the heat.
Twentieth-anniversary edition of a baseball classic, with a new epilogue by Jim Bouton.
When first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And serious critics called it an important social document. Today, Jim Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimer's Days at Yankee Stadium. But his landmark book is still being read by people who don'tordinarily follow baseball.
The Mental Keys to Hitting: A Handbook of Strategies for Performance Enhancement
by H.A. Dorfman
from Diamond Communications
This book is a must additon to every player's training and game day routines. Anyone serious about playing baseball should find this book as important as a bat or a glove.
Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book
by Editors of Sports Illustrated
from Sports Illustrated
Continuing in the tradition of Sports Illustrateds 50th Anniversary Book and The Football Book comes a spectacular celebration of baseball that will be treasured by fans of the National Pastime.With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Football Book to surpass the sales of the 50th Anniversary Book, a New York Times best-seller, this lavish coffee-table volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great traditions of the Summer Game.In 294 oversized pages, The Baseball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the crucial plays and classic games, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have kept baseball at the heart of American sports for more than a century.
Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004
by Bill Simmons
from ESPN
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.
Sports Illustrated: The Basketball Book (Sports Illustrated)
by Editors of Sports Illustrated
from Sports Illustrated
Continuing Sports Illustrated's tradition of producing best-selling coffee-table books for the holiday season, SI presents The Basketball Book, a lavish celebration of the athleticism and pageantry of both the college and professional game. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Baseball Book, The Football Book and The Anniversary Book to The New York Times best-seller list over the past three years, this volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great rivalries of the court. In 294 oversized pages, The Basketball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have created legions of passionate fans since Dr. James Naismith nailed up a peach basket and devised the Original 13 Rules of the game more than 100 years ago.
The Yogi Book : I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said
by Yogi Berra
from Workman Publishing Company
If the subtitle of this delicious collection of Yogi-isms has you scratching your head, it has done its job as stunningly as Berra used to do his behind the plate at Yankee Stadium. The Hall of Fame MVP catcher for the pinstriped dynasties of the late 1940s through the '50s and into the '60s, Berra was about as quick with his witticisms as he was with his bat and glove. But if his observations hit the heart of the plate, his grammar tended to pop out of left field, hence the creation of a unique mode of malapropism dubbed the Yogi-ism. To truly understand the title, you need to know that not every mot ascribed to Yogi actually emanated from his mouth--they only sounded like they should have. Thus, he really didn't say everything he said, which makes The Yogi Book absolutely necessary (see page 10).
To the things that Yogi did say, The Yogi Book does both service and justice. It gathers the witticisms in a single convenient volume, adds a scrapbook of photos, then lets their progenitor riff, filling in color commentary on what was happening beyond his mind and what was going through it when the famous phrases were dispatched into the public domain. He deservedly takes credit for such immortal pronunciamentos as "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." (page 16); "It's deja vu all over again." (page 30); "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." (page 48); "The future ain't what it used to be." (page 118); "It gets late early out there." (page 64); and "Ninety percent of this game is half mental." (page 69). All, like the sacred texts they happen to be, are appropriately parsed for your edification, as is the greatest Yogi-ism of them all: "It ain't over 'til it's over." (page 121).
It's deja vu all over again! And just in time for Father's Day. Announcing a hardcover edition of the 300,000-plus -copy national bestseller that has baseball fans everywhere saying "It ain't over 'til it's over" and "90% of the game is half mental" and "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." A $12.95 jacketed edition that ships in time for Father's Day, The Yogi Book is a perfect gift for sports fans, quote book collectors, lovers of pop culture and Americana, and everyone who ever knew exactly what Yogi meant by You can observe a lot by watching.
A Home on the Field: How One Championship Soccer Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America
by Paul Cuadros
from Harper Paperbacks
A Home on the Field is about faith, loyalty, and trust. It is a parable in the tradition of Stand and Deliver and Hoosiers—a story of one team and their accidental coach who became certain heroes to the whole community.
For the past ten years, Siler City, North Carolina, has been at the front lines of immigration in the interior portion of the United States. Like a number of small Southern towns, workers come from traditional Latino enclaves across the United States, as well as from Latin American countries, to work in what is considered the home of industrial-scale poultry processing. At enormous risk, these people have come with the hope of a better life and a chance to realize their portion of the American Dream.
But it isn't always easy. Assimilation into the South is fraught with struggles, and in no place is this more poignant than in the schools. When Paul Cuadros packed his bags and moved south to study the impact of the burgeoning Latino community, he encountered a culture clash between the long-time residents and the newcomers that eventually boiled over into an anti-immigrant rally featuring former Klansman David Duke.
It became Paul's goal to show the growing numbers of Latino youth that their lives could be more than the cutting line at the poultry plants, that finishing high school and heading to college could be a reality. He needed to find something that the boys could commit to passionately, knowing that devotion to something bigger than them would be the key to helping the boys find where they fit in the world. The answer was soccer.
But Siler City, like so many other small rural communities, was a football town, and long-time residents saw soccer as a foreign sport and yet another accommodation to the newcomers. After an uphill battle, the Jets soccer team at Jordan-Matthews High School was born. Suffering setbacks and heartbreak, the majority Latino team, in only three seasons and against all odds, emerged poised to win the state championship.
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
by George F. Will
from Harper Paperbacks
In Men at Work, political pundit George Will breaks baseball down, parsing it into essential tasks: hitting, fielding, pitching, and managing. Why do some succeed grandly while others are more apt to whiff? By analyzing the way Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Orel Hershiser, and Tony LaRussa approach the game and do what they do, he finds striking similarities in intelligence, dedication, drive, and desire.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator and longtime baseball fanatic George F. Will--the #1 bestselling ultimate insider's look at the exacting craft of baseball
Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball
by Jose Canseco
from Simon Spotlight Entertainment
In 2005, Jose Canseco blew the lid off Major League Baseball's steroid scandal -- and no one believed him. His New York Times bestselling memoir Juiced met a firestorm of criticism and outrage from the media, coaches, clubs, and players, many of whom Canseco had personally introduced to steroids -- with a needle in the ass. Baseball's former golden boy, Rookie of the Year, onetime Most Valuable Player, and owner of two World Series rings was called a liar.
Now, steroids are back in the headlines. Record-breaking athletes are falling from grace, and the infamous Mitchell Report confirmed the names of major leaguers who have indeed used steroids while others remain under investigation. The answer is clear: Jose Canseco told the truth. And why wouldn't he? He started it all.
Finally, in Vindicated, Canseco picks up where Juiced left off, revealing details even more shocking than in his controversial first book. He spills never-before-implicated names -- arguably the biggest in the game of baseball -- and explores the mystery of one celebrated player about whom key information was suddenly excised from Juiced at the last minute. He talks candidly about what the Mitchell Report did -- and didn't -- get right, why steroid use became so rampant, and how his life has changed since he tore the lid off Pandora's box.
Lest there be any doubt about theveracity of his claims, Canseco subjected himself to three lie detector tests, one of which was conducted by a former FBI special agent and top polygraph examiner who investigated the Unabomber, Whitewater, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Transcripts of those taped interviews are also included in this straight-talking examination of the current state of baseball.
This time, he's not just out to clear his name. He's out to clean up the game.
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