articles for parents, and is a popular speaker on issues related to reading and education.1brYou Don’t Start with a Home Runbrbr“You don’t start with a home run,” Jeremy said.brbr“A what?” I replied.brbr“You don’t start off with some girl jumping in bed with you. You’ve got to run the bases, you know, the first kiss, the messing around . . . and then you get to home base.”brbr“Oh, home base,” I mumbled. A girl named Allison was walking by and had caught my eye. She did a little modelling around town, sometimes appearing in newspaper supplements dressed in revealing lingerie. Today she was dressed in baggy sweats, with no makeup and fly-away hair, but she was still gorgeous.brbr“And you don’t start with somebody like that,” Jeremy went on. We both watched Allison disappear in the distance.brbr“You’ve got to start with somebody in your league,” Jeremy told me.brbr“What league is that?”brbr“Like maybe peewee. Face it, Alan, you’re never going to make it with any of the hot girls around here.”brbrJeremy and I were in the high-school cafeteria, looking around at the various groups nearby. There was a pattern to the way people sat at the tables. Rich kids sat with rich kids, eating the expensive pizza slices; poor kids sat with poor kids eating their brown-bag lunches; smart kids sat with smart kids, actually talking about math or history; the hot girls sat with the other hot girls; the losers with the losers; and I sat with Jeremy. We were beginning the Alan project–a systematic effort to find a girl for me.brbrJeremy was my project manager. At t@ë…¸Qìÿ¾Û€  (less)

to change. With help from his baseball-statistics-obsessed best friends; the new girl, Kamna; and former minor-leaguer Grandpa Spillman, Darcy looks for the connection between his favorite sport and his new love interest. With a kiss from Danalda Chase as the goal, he steps up to bat and swings for the fences."  (less)

better are the friends you make while playing out on that diamond? Here are ten fictional stories that celebrate all aspects of the game of baseball. iBaseball Crazy/i is a diverse collection that will hit a home run with all fans of the sport, from the most loyal old-timers to the newest rookies. Batter up!p Stories by: br Paul Acamporabr Joseph Bruchacbr Sue Corbettbr Ron Koertgebr Frank Portmanbr David Ricebr John H. Ritterbr Charles R. Smith Jr.br Jerry Spinellibr Maria Testa  (less)

War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front - and Robinson had a chance to lead the way. He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration. In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth.  (less)

Ted Williams? Clearing the Bases is the first book to tackle these and many other of baseball's most intriguing questions, plus it offers hard, sensible answers - answers based on exhaustive research and analysis.  (less)

in history to come back from a 3–1 deficit to win the World Series?br-Who was the only player to pinch-hit a World Series homerun?br-Who became the first to manage five straight pennant winners, and in what years did he do it?br-What 1970s team won a pennant with only one player hitting more than twenty homers, no player driving in eighty runs, no player stealing even ten bases, no player hitting .300, and only one pitcher winning more than fifteen games?brbrThe answers to these and thousands of other baseball questions can be found in this fully up-to-date, fact-filled reference book.br/divDIVbDavid S. Neft/bandbRichard M. Cohen/bare noted sports historians and co-authors of theiSports Encyclopedia/iseries. David S. Neft was a statistician and vice president of research for the Gannett Company before retiring. He lives in New York City.bMichael L Neft/b, the son of David Neft, is the director of MegaSports for the Associated Press.br/divDIVThis Is The All-Time Baseball Argument Settler!brbr“A fine contribution to baseball statistical sourcery.”br---iThe Sporting News/ibrbr“A must-have for serious baseball fans.”br---iEntertainment Weekly/ibrbr“Year in and year out, the indispensable reference.”br---iSeattle Sun Times/ibrbriThe Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball 2003/icovers the history of every player, every team, and every season from 1902 through 2002, with detailed statistics and text summaries, as well as full coverage of this year’s exciting pennant race.brbr-Which team became the first in history to come back from a 3–1 deficit to win the World Ser@? (õÂ?ÿ¾Û€  (less)

in history to come back from a 3–1 deficit to win the World Series?BR-Who was the only player to pinch-hit a World Series homerun?BR-Who became the first to manage five straight pennant winners, and in what years did he do it?BR-What 1970s team won a pennant with only one player hitting more than twenty homers, no player driving in eighty runs, no player stealing even ten bases, no player hitting .300, and only one pitcher winning more than fifteen games?BRBRThe answers to these and thousands of other baseball questions can be found in this fully up-to-date, fact-filled reference book./DIV/DIVDIVDIVP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0ptOne of the handiest and most reliable baseball reference books around./PP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt-- The San Diego Union Tribune/P/DIV/DIVDIVbDavid S. Neft/bandbRichard M. Cohen/bare noted sports historians and co-authors of theiSports Encyclopedia/iseries. David S. Neft was a statistician and vice president of research for the Gannett Company before retiring. He lives in New York City.bMichael L Neft/b, the son of David Neft, is the director of MegaSports for the Associated Press.br/divDIVDIVIThe Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball 2006/Icovers the history of every player, every team, and every season from 1902 through 2006, with detailed statistics and text summaries, as well as full coverage of this year’s exciting pennant race.BRBR-Which team became the first in history to come back from a 3–1 deficit to win the World Series?BR-Who was the only player to pinch-hit a World Series homerun?BR-Who became the first to manage five straight pennant winners, and in what year@G®záHÿ¾Û€  (less)

in history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the World Series?br-Who was the only player to hit a pinch-hit World Series homerun?br-Who became the first to manage five straight pennant winners, and in what year did he do it?br-What 1970s team won a pennant with only one player hitting more than twenty homers, no player driving in eighty runs, no player stealing even ten bases, no player hitting .300, and one pitcher winning more than fifteen games?brbrThe answers to these and thousands of other baseball questions can be found in this fully up-to-date, fact-filled reference book.br/divDIVbiDavid S. Neft/i/bis a noted sports historian and co-author of theiThe Sports Encyclopedia/iseries. He is a statistician and vice president of research for the Gannett Company. He lives in New York City.brbrbMichel L. Neft/b, the son of David Neft, assisted in the research of this book.br/div  (less)

is able to come out on top!  (less)

which date to 1857, governed the world of baseball until the formation of the first all-professional league in 1871. This book is the definitive statistical reference to that organization, from its humble beginnings through its explosive growth after the Civil War, culminating with its coast-to-coast inclusion of several hundred amateur and professional clubs. Relying for the most part on primary sources, the author has included introductory essays for each year, complete team statistics, every game score, and individual batting and pitching statistics for all players.engaging...valuable...meticulous, year-by-year statistical listi  (less)

the 1890s. PIPitching in a Pinch/I, originally published in 1912, is an insiders account blending anecdote, biography, instruction, and social history. It celebrates baseball as it was played in the first decade of the twentieth century by famous contemporaries like Honus Wagner and Rube Marquand, managers like John McGraw and Connie Mack, and many others. Always sensitive to psychology as well as technique, Mathewson describes the dangerous batters he faced, the peculiarities of big-league pitchers, the good and bad of coaching, umpiring, sign-stealing, base-running, spring training, and the importance of superstition to athletes. Matty, as he was called, makes the reader feel that tense moment when a player in a pinch must use his head./P/DIV  (less)