Adult

Most sports fans know that Ted Williams ended his major league career with style, swatting a home run in his final at bat. But what about Babe Ruth? Ty Cobb? Joe DiMaggio? Willie Mays? How did some of baseball's greatest players bow out of The Game? LAST TIME OUT answers that question as it examines how the greatest players in baseball history left the game they once ruled. The stories of these men and how they finished their careers, never collected anywhere before now, show another side of the men whose achievements on the field made them legends. After hours and hours of research, through biographies, microfilm, magazines, and memories, award-winning sportswriter John Nogowski culled the stories of the final games of 25 of The Game's greatest athletes.

Josh Lewin gives baseball fans a window into the big leagues by interviewing ballplayers about their first day in the majors. Lewin creates fascinating mini-biographies of the players, highlighting the personalities hidden behind the on-field accomplishments. He lets the players recount their own memories of how they made it to the big leagues. Lewin interviews modern star players such as A-Rod, Barry Bonds, and Manny Ramirez, as well as Hall of Famers such as Jim Palmer, Don Sutton, and George Brett. More than 100 popular baseball players are profiled, complete with the box scores of their big league debuts.

SAYONARA HOME RUN! introduces curious fans to Japan's national pastime through the lens of the country's playfully beautiful baseball cards. A fascinating text traces the roots and cross-cultural history of the Japanese game, while hundreds of illustrations showcase gorgeous vintage cards. Woven throughout are profiles of key Japanese players, features on important U.S. team tours of Japan (with Japanese cards of players such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio), and insights into the social history of the cards.

Riveting, wise, and illuminating, CLEARING THE BASES is a hall of famer's look at how Major League Baseball has lost its way and how it can head back home.

In BROOKLYN REMEMBERED: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers, Allen has captured the emotion, the drama and the sweet reverie of what many baseball people and fans consider the greatest sports triumph ever, the 1955 Brooklyn Series win over the Yankees. It was the one and only Brooklyn championship for the team filled with Hall of Famers like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax and even fringe lefty Tommy Lasorda. Two years after the title the team moved from Brooklyn’s cozy Ebbets Field to laconic Los Angeles.

Every once in a while a book provides a certain view of America, and whether it is THE GREATEST GENERATION, BIG RUSS & ME, or WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR, these works strike a chord with readers everywhere. PRAYING FOR GIL HODGES is such a book. Written with power and clarity, this is a brilliant work capturing the majesty of baseball, the issue of race in America, and the love that one young boy, his parents, and the borough of Brooklyn had for their team.

In CALL THE YANKEES MY DADDY, sportswriter Cecil Harris reminisces on his years spent covering baseball’s most storied team. In his position as the first full-time black beat reporter to cover the New York Yankees, Cecil Harris had an up-close perspective of the team that he’d followed as a fan ever since the 1960s.

THE MIND OF BILL JAMES tells the story of how someone who never pitched a ball, held a bat, or managed a team fundamentally changed the way baseball is interpreted, analyzed and even played.

Michael Kun and Howard Bloom offer a sound rebuke to anyone who thinks a baseball book can’t be smart, funny and informative all at the same time.