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eBook HighlightsJune 2019
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Slide into the national pastime and discover Major League Baseball’s oldest city rivalry: the White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs. This interactive exhibit, will let you explore ballparks, the history of this epic rivalry, the teams’ logos and uniforms, and more.
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Baseball : A History of America's Favorite Game
by George Vecsey
In Baseball, one of the great bards of America’s Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from its pre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classic story seem refreshingly new.
Baseball is a narrative of America’s can-do spirit, in which stalwart immigrants such as Henry Chadwick could transplant cricket and rounders into the fertile American culture and in which die-hard unionist baseballers such as Charles Comiskey and Connie Mack could eventually become the tightfisted avatars of the game’s big-money establishment. It’s a celebration of such underdogs as a rag-armed catcher turned owner named Branch Rickey and a sure-handed fielder named Curt Flood, both of whom flourished as true great men of history. But most of all, Baseball is a testament to the unbreakable bond between our nation’s pastime and the fans, who’ve remained loyal through the fifty-year-long interdict on black athletes, the Black Sox scandal, franchise relocation, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs by some major stars.
Reverent, playful, and filled with Vecsey’s charm, Baseball begs to be read in the span of a rain-delayed doubleheader, and so enjoyable that, like a favorite team’s championship run, one hopes it never ends.
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Smart baseball : the story behind the old stats that are ruining the game, the new ones that are running it, and the right way to think about baseball
by Keith Law
Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport. For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players’ and teams’ potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement—sabermetrics—has been embraced by front offices in Major League Baseball and among fantasy baseball enthusiasts. But while sabermetrics is recognized as being smarter and more accurate, traditionalists, including journalists, fans, and managers, stubbornly believe that the \"old\" way—a combination of outdated numbers and \"gut\" instinct—is still the best way. Baseball, they argue, should be run by people, not by numbers.? In this informative and provocative book, teh renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition. While Law gores sacred cows, from clutch performers to RBIs to the infamous save rule, he also demystifies sabermetrics, explaining what these \"new\" numbers really are and why they’re vital. He also considers the game’s future, examining how teams are using Data—from PhDs to sophisticated statistical databases—to build future rosters; changes that will transform baseball and all of professional sports.
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Baseball Americana : A Visual Journey
by Harry Katz
Baseball, the sport that helped reunify the country in the years after the Civil War, remains the National Pastime. The Library of Congress houses the world's largest baseball collection, documenting the history of the game and providing a unique look at America since the late 1700s. Now Baseball Americana presents the best of the best from that treasure trove. From baseball's biggest stars to street urchins, from its most newsworthy stories to sandlot and Little League games, the book examines baseball's hardscrabble origins, rich cultural heritage, and uniquely American character. The more than 350 fabulous illustrations—many never before published—featured first-generation, vintage photographic and chromolithographic baseball cards; photographs of famous players and ballparks; and newspaper clippings, cartoons, New Deal photographs, and baseball advertisements. Packed with images that will surprise and thrill even the most expert collector, Baseball Americana is a gift for every baseball fan.
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Baseball heroes
by Glenn Stout
Baseball Heroes is the first book in the middle grade nonfiction series Good Sports, about the inspiring life stories of major league athletes who have overcome obstacles in the course of their life and careers. Each book tells the stories of athletes who have encountered and overcome significant obstacles, and whose story exemplifies character and nerve in the face of adversity. Baseball Heroes highlights players who were among the first to break through barriers of race, ethnicity and even sex in order to play professional baseball. Subjects include Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenburg, Fernando Valenzuela, and Ila Borders.
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Fenway 1912 : the birth of a ballpark, a championship season, and Fenway's remarkable first year
by Glenn Stout
Even people who aren’t fans of baseball know Fenway Park. More than just a ballpark, it is a part of American culture, and has been for nearly one hundred years. In Fenway 1912, Glenn Stout tells the remarkable story of Fenway’s first year, from the long winter when locals poured concrete and built the park to the ragtag Red Sox team that embarked on a journey to the World Series while the paint was still drying and the grass still coming in. Stout tells the stories behind the park’s notorious quirks like the Green Monster, and of the designers, builders, managers, and players who made Fenway’s first year unforgettable.
For all that has been written in tribute to the great Fenway Park, no one has ever really told the behind-the-scenes true story. Drawing on extensive new research, the esteemed baseball historian Glenn Stout delivers an extraordinary tale of innovation, desperation, and perspiration—capturing Fenway as never before.\"Fenway 1912 reads like a novel, detailing the trials and tribulations of the quaint ballpark and the team itself … Stout has made a great story out of history.”—Baseball America
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The Baseball Great Collection : Baseball Great, Rivals, Best of the Best
by Tim Green
Tim Green's thrilling Baseball Great books are perfect for middle-grade readers, and this collection contains three bestselling novels in the series. Baseball Great: Josh feels like he's starting to make it big! Jaden, the school reporter, says he's going to take the baseball team to number one. Then his dad pulls him off the field and signs him up with Coach Rocky Valentine's youth championship team, the Titans. Now Josh is gulping down Rocky's \"Super Stax\" milkshakes to build muscle and trying to fit in with his new teammates. All Josh really wants to do is play ball, but as he gets in deeper with the Titans, Josh and his new friend Jaden find themselves in a dangerous struggle with a desperate man who doesn't want them to expose the nasty secrets they uncover. Rivals: New York Times bestselling author Tim Green delivers a hard-hitting look at what some teams will do to win in this gripping companion to Baseball Great. Josh is thrilled when all his hard training pays off in a big way and his team, the Titans, makes it to a national tournament in Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. But after a dirty play and a brutal injury threaten to sideline Josh, he spies suspicious activity at the tournament. He tries to tell his good friend Jaden about what he's seen, but she's too busy spending time with the L.A. Comets' star player to want to get involved. Jaden says she's doing research for the newspaper . . . but is she? Best of the Best: Josh is still flying high from his team's tournament win when his parents start talking about a divorce. Now his dad is challenging him to play the best of the best at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But does he just want to get Josh out of the way. With the help of Benji and Jaden, Josh races to get the facts that can keep his family together—but it's ever harder to concentrate on the game and make the winning plays that will lead his team to victory.
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Gail Borden Public Library District
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Main Library - 270 N. Grove Ave., Elgin, IL 60120 - 847-742-2411
Rakow Branch - 2751 W. Bowes Rd., Elgin, IL 60124 - 847-531-7271
South Elgin Branch - 127 S. McLean Blvd., South Elgin, IL 60177 - 847-931-2090
http://www.gailborden.info/
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If a title in this list is not available in the format you prefer, please request it online.
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