baseball

If you are not a baseball fanatic (and I am not) then you may not realize that 42 is about Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player to be signed to a major league team.  The title of the movie was Robinson’s jersey number and is the only number to have ever been retired from the entirety of Major League Baseball to this day.

The movie takes us back in time to 1946 when Branch Rickey, portrayed wonderfully by Harrison Ford, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decides to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball and sign Jackie Robinson.  The part of Jackie Robinson is

This is the autobiography of Frank White, the 8-time Gold Glove second baseman for the Kansas City Royals. White describes his childhood and the loving support of his family while growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, his high school days at Lincoln High School, and playing baseball as a young teen. He was a pretty good pitcher in those days. Interestingly, he describes fearful moments when visiting relatives in his birthplace, Mississippi, during the 1950s and 1960s when he and his friends dashed away from roadsides when cars filled with white people sped along the roads.

White describes

Building up to the 2014 World Series, the Kansas City Royals were in third place in the American League Central, eight games out of first place with a losing record. But that was just the beginning. What followed was an amazing run toward their first World Series showing since 1985 and everyone's attention nationwide was on the 2014 Kansas City Royals. The team, led by manager Ned Yost, stepped up to the plate and captured a spot in the AL Wild Card game. Sharp and vibrant pictures stand out and bring Out of the Blue to life. Matt Fulks captures the true color of the Royals, and takes us

  Wouldn't it have been great fun to see a pitcher so confident he could call in his outfielders and tell them all to take a seat – he’d guarantee to strike out the next batter? Leroy Satchel Paige could deliver the best sport and the best all round entertainment in baseball.  A natural showman, his lively persona and storied skills drew in the crowds, increasing the “gate” (and thereby everybody’s income), and fueling a legend.  Never mind that a goodly portion of the Satchel Paige legend was started by Satchel himself!  That was  part of the game - and the charm!

Veteran sports writer Larry

My daughters and I found this book especially fun to read. We all enjoy baseball, but we also love to learn about Japan (we have family there). My girls love learning words in Japanese, besides the fun comparisons on each page of differences between Japan and America. The art is funky and and exciting. - See more at: http://jocolibrary.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1226618036_take_me_out_t…

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach weaves a story of youth, identity and belonging against the backdrop of the perfect sport—baseball.  The president of a small midwestern college, Guert Affenlight, returns to his alma mater as a Herman Melville authority after years of study at Harvard.  Melville’s supposed connection to Wettish College inspires its president, and as the novel progresses, we see Melville’s themes of obsession and purpose drive all the characters.  The action centers around shortstop Henry Skrimshander, discovered as an obscure high school star by  Wettish player Mike

It's baseball season! If you can't get to the ballpark, at least you can pick up this contemporary romance set in the world of baseball.

Alex Winters is the devil, at least according to Maggie Jameson. Maggie has spent her life dreaming and preparing for the day when she'll take over as the CEO of the New York Saints baseball team. Unbeknownst to Maggie, her father has decided to sell the team to Alex. Maggie grudgingly agrees to help Alex through the ownership transition and in the process, they fall in love.

The Devil in Denim is Melanie Scott's first book in the New York Saint's

Sportswriter Joe Posnanski drove Buck O’Neil around America promoting the Negro Baseball Leagues at ball fields in rural towns and major league stadiums during the last year of O’Neil’s life.

Buck may have been showing his age, but he had plenty of moments when something made him snap to life and he could tell stories as well as he ever did in his younger day. Bad buses, bad hotels, and stale sandwiches eaten on the buses because they were refused service in restaurants? Don’t forget the later days - Buck’s days - when Negro Leaguers rode the best buses, stayed in the best black hotels, ate

This a wonderful book that celebrates a woman who has broken into male dominated sports. This is a story about Jackie Mitchell who achieved some element of success in the early stages of major league baseball. It celebrates her story and her life and direction. She was a pitcher who developed a very debilitating curve ball. The pitch was effective enough to strike out some of the best major league hitting stars, including Babe Ruth. This is an amazing story of the emergence of women in sports in the 1940's. There is much discussion about what part of information about Jackie Mitchell is her

Warning: This review is a bit of a bait and switch.

Underworld is the mega-novel Don DeLillo published in 1997. At 827 pages, it covers considerable ground, including the shadow of nuclear holocaust, the Cold War, American pop culture and much more.

The novel's prologue, though, is about baseball. And it's a glorious story about baseball; it focuses on what has become known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," Bobby Thomson's epic home run that earned the New York Giants the 1951 National League pennant.

A new baseball season is upon us; spring training has begun. Even if you don't want to