Sandlot Stats

Sandlot Stats
Author: Stanley Rothman
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1421408678

Sandlot Stats uses the national pastime to help students who love baseball learn—and enjoy—statistics. As Derek Jeter strolls toward the plate, the announcer tosses out a smattering of statistics—from hitting streaks to batting averages. But what do the numbers mean? And how can America’s favorite pastime be a model for learning about statistics? Sandlot Stats is an innovative textbook that explains the mathematical underpinnings of baseball so that students can understand the world of statistics and probability. Carefully illustrated and filled with exercises and examples, this book teaches the fundamentals of probability and statistics through the feats of baseball legends such as Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams—and more recent players such as Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Alex Rodriguez. Exercises require only pen-and-paper or Microsoft Excel to perform the analyses. Sandlot Stats covers all the bases, including • descriptive and inferential statistics • linear regression and correlation • probability • sports betting • probability distribution functions • sampling distributions • hypothesis testing • confidence intervals • chi-square distribution Sandlot Stats offers information covered in most introductory statistics books, yet is peppered with interesting facts from the history of baseball to enhance the interest of the student and make learning fun.

Henry Aaron's Dream

Henry Aaron's Dream
Author: Matt Tavares
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2010
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0763632244

A picture book biography of African-American baseball player Hank Aaron.

Benchwarmer

Benchwarmer
Author: Josh Wilker
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781610394017

A moving, funny, inventive parenting memoir, written in a surprising form: an encyclopedia of failure in sports What can a new father learn about parenthood from reading sports almanacs? For most dads, the answer to this question is: nothing. But to Josh Wilker, whose life and writing have been defined by sports fandom, all of the joy, helplessness, and absurdity of parenthood are present between the lines. After all, what better way to think about losing control than Eugenio Velez's forty-five consecutive at-bats without a hit? How better to understand ridiculous joy than the NFL career of Walter Achiu, whose nickname was “Sneeze”? In the stories of sports figures large and small, Wilker finds the pathos in success and the humor in losing. As the terrified father of a one-day-old, Wilker recalls the 1986 World Series, when the moment was too big for the Red Sox. When he finds himself stealing away for an hour of alone time, Wilker thinks of boxer Roberto Duran, so beaten by Sugar Ray Leonard that he finally gave up. And yet, even as the frustrations and anxieties build, Wilker remembers Mets pitcher Anthony Young, who broke the baseball record for most consecutive losses—and never stopped showing up. Finding the richness of life in obscure wrestling maneuvers and pop-ups lost in the sun, Benchwarmer is a book of unique humanity and surprising wisdom.

Fenway Fever

Fenway Fever
Author: John Ritter
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2012-04-12
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101571985

Happy 100th Birthday, Fenway Park! "Stats" Pagano may have been born with a heart defect, but he lives for three things: his family's hot dog stand right outside fabled Fenway Park, his beloved Red Sox, and any baseball statistic imaginable. When the family can no longer make ends meet with the hot dog stand, life becomes worrisome for Stats. Then the Sox go on a long losing streak and the team's ace pitcher--and Stats's idol--becomes convinced the famed Curse of the Bambino has returned. Stats just has to help . . . but how? As the Sox faithful sour on their team, Stats forms a plan that ultimately unifies an entire city and proves that true loyalty has a magic all its own. In honor of Fenway Park's 100th birthday, baseball novelist John H. Ritter delivers an inspiring tale for the sports fan in each of us, regardless of team allegiance.

On the Field with...Derek Jeter

On the Field with...Derek Jeter
Author: Matt Christopher
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 90
Release: 2009-12-19
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0316094137

The number one sports writer for kids discusses the personal life and baseball career of Derek Jeter, the young man from Michigan who achieved his dream to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. Includes career highlights and player's stats. Illustrations.

Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words

Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words
Author: Peter Ephross
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786489669

Between 1870 and 2010, 165 Jewish Americans played Major League Baseball. This work presents oral histories featuring 23 of them. From Bob Berman, a catcher for the Washington Senators in 1918, to Adam Greenberg, an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs in 2005, the players discuss their careers and consider how their Jewish heritage affected them. Legends like Hank Greenberg and Al Rosen as well as lesser-known players reflect on the issue of whether to play on high holidays, responses to anti-Semitism on and off the field, bonds formed with black teammates also facing prejudice, and personal and Jewish pride in their accomplishments. Together, these oral histories paint a vivid portrait of what it was like to be a Jewish Major Leaguer.

Living In The Shadow Of Death

Living In The Shadow Of Death
Author: Sheila M. Rothman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1994-03-20
Genre: History
ISBN:

Sheila M. Rothman documents a fascinating story. Each generation had its own special view of the origins, transmission, and therapy for the disease, definitions that reflected not only medical knowledge but views on gender obligations, religious beliefs, and community responsibilities. In general, Rothman points out, tenacity and resolve, not passivity or resignation, marked people's response to illness and to their physicians.

Big and Little Poison

Big and Little Poison
Author: Clifton Blue Parker
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2015-10-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786481404

The Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd--also known as "Big Poison" and "Little Poison"--played together for fourteen seasons in the same Pittsburgh outfield in the 1920s and 1930s. More than half a century after retiring, they still rank as the best-hitting brothers in major league history with a combined 5,611 hits--517 more than the three Alou brothers, 758 more than the three DiMaggio brothers, and 1,400 more than the five Delahanty brothers. And both Waners are in the Hall of Fame, the only playing brothers so honored. This work tells the story of the Waner brothers from their early lives in Oklahoma through their playing days, which included a World Series against the legendary 1927 New York Yankees. It is also the story of two American eras: the Roaring Twenties and the Depression years. Both put up impressive numbers individually: Paul amassed 3,152 hits, and his .333 lifetime average ranks among the highest ever in the game. Lloyd, a lifetime .316 hitter, collected 2,459 hits, and had it not been for health problems, he might have cleared the 3,000 hit milestone as well. Together, they were baseball heroes.

Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper

Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper
Author: Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0061860794

As a boy, Stephen J. Dubner's hero was Franco Harris, the famed and mysterious running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Dubner's father died, he became obsessed—he dreamed of his hero every night; he signed his school papers "Franco Dubner." Though they never met, it was Franco Harris who shepherded Dubner through a fatherless boyhood. Years later, Dubner journeys to meet his hero, certain that Harris will embrace him. And he is . . . well, wrong. Told with the grit of a journalist and the grace of a memoirist, Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper is a breathtaking, heartbreaking, and often humorous story of astonishing developments. It is also a sparkling meditation on the nature of hero worship—which, like religion and love, tells us as much about ourselves as about the object of our desire.