Baseball's Retired Numbers

Baseball's Retired Numbers
Author: Thomas W. Brucato
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2004-03-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786417625

The retiring of a number to honor a player likely began with the New York Yankees. The Yankees were not the first team to experiment with numbers on uniforms to identify players, but they were the first to wear numbers permanently and retired Lou Gehrig's number 4 in 1939. This book covers retired numbers in baseball's major and minor leagues. In the major league section of the book, a player's name is followed by his retired number, the name of the team that retired it, the year that it was retired, the player's primary position, and the teams he was affiliated with during his playing career. The author then presents a brief summary of the player's career and lists any major awards or honors he won. Retiring numbers in the minor leagues is a bit different; a player who excels in the minors isn't usually with a team for long because he is promoted to the majors. In the minor league section, a player's name is followed by a brief summary of his significance. After both the major and minor league sections, readers will find team-by-team and numerical lists of honored players.

Now Batting, Number...

Now Batting, Number...
Author: Jack Looney
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781579125752

Unlike other baseball statistics books that reveal only information about the numbers players put on the board, this unique take on America's favorite pastime reveals the little-known facts and nuances behind the numbers players wear on their backs. In Now Batting, Number...baseball historian Jack Looney delves into every aspect of baseball uniform numbers. Here are topics including "Boyhood Idols" (players who chose numbers to honor heroes, fathers, grandfathers, and friends), "Birthday Babes" (players who have worn the same number as their day, month, or year of birth), "Caretakers" (inside stories on how numbers are distributed and the bartering of numbers among players), and "Early Innings" (the history of numbering in Major League baseball). At the center of Now Batting, Number...is a substantial section listing the complete rosters of all thirty Major League teams including each player's number and position. Other lists include every retired number listed by league and team, every retired number listed by position, and famous players' numbers and every other player who ever honored them by wearing that number (listed by number). In a controversial chapter called "Dream Teams," player from various eras, who wore the same number durin their careers, are selected to play together on the same Dream Team. Statistics for fifty teams are included. Also included are dozens of some of the toughest, number-related trivia questions that will have even the most knowledgeable fan scratching his or her head.

Big Hair and Plastic Grass

Big Hair and Plastic Grass
Author: Dan Epstein
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1250007240

Epstein takes readers on a funky ride through baseball and America in the swinging '70s in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade. Includes 8-page photo insert.

The Los Angeles Almanac 2001

The Los Angeles Almanac 2001
Author: Gerhard F. Thornton
Publisher: Given Place Publishing Company
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2001-02-01
Genre: Almanacs
ISBN: 9780970576903

Ball Four

Ball Four
Author: Jim Bouton
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 716
Release: 2012-03-20
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0795323247

The 50th Anniversary edition of “the book that changed baseball” (NPR), chosen by Time magazine as one of the “100 Greatest Non-Fiction” books. When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries. Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four. Fans liked discovering that athletes were real people—often wildly funny people. David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer for his reporting on Vietnam, wrote a piece in Harper’s that said of Bouton: “He has written . . . a book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.” Today Ball Four has taken on another role—as a time capsule of life in the sixties. “It is not just a diary of Bouton’s 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros,” says sportswriter Jim Caple. “It’s a vibrant, funny, telling history of an era that seems even further away than four decades. To call it simply a ‘tell all book’ is like describing The Grapes of Wrath as a book about harvesting peaches in California.” Includes a new foreword by Jim Bouton's wife, Paula Kurman “An irreverent, best-selling book that angered baseball’s hierarchy and changed the way journalists and fans viewed the sports world.” —The Washington Post

Dutch Clark

Dutch Clark
Author: Chris Willis
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0810885204

In Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of an athlete from a small town in Colorado who would become one of the NFL's greatest players. Throughout his seven-year NFL career (1931-1932, 1934-1938), quarterback Dutch Clark was selected first team NFL All-Pro six times, led the league in scoring three times, was team captain of the Detroit Lions, and helped the Lions win the 1935 NFL Championship in just their second season in Detroit. Supplemented with archival interviews, never-before-seen photos, newspaper quotes, and anecdotes, Dutch Clark tells the rags-to-riches story of one of the NFL's first stars.

The Kansas City Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs
Author: Janet Bruce
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1985
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

An illustrated study of the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the top teams in the Negro National League, which served as a training ground for Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and over twenty other players who were eventually sent to the major leagues.

The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia

The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia
Author: Gary Gillette
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1880
Release: 2008
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781402760518

Details statistics from United States baseball teams and players from before 1900 through the previous season, including draft information, and provides lists of award winners and world champion teams.

It's a Numbers Game! Baseball

It's a Numbers Game! Baseball
Author: James Buckley, Jr.
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2021
Genre: Baseball
ISBN: 9781426371578

With every hit, ball, strike, and home run numbers are being calculated on the baseball field. Get ready to learn all the ways digits and math factor into the game, from the countless statistics used to measure an individual player's game to the exact timing used to steal a base. Read about all the greatest players from baseball history and get fun facts, like what the most retired jersey number is. Discover what countries dominate in the Little League World Series and check out cool graphics that show the frequency of hits to every part of the field. Jam-packed with sports trivia, awesome photos, and fun activities at the end of every chapter, this number-focused look at the game is the ultimate grand slam.