In this novel, the careers of a golden boy rookie hitter for the Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher take very different paths. The baseball is thrilling, but it is what happens off the field that makes this story a classic.

Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first--and some would say still the best--novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud takes on the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era--and invests it with the hardscrabble poetry, grand and believable, that runs through all his best work.

Ben and his friends, the Core Four Plus One, are so excited to play in their town's All-Star Baseball league. But in the first game of the season Ben gets hit by a pitch. It's never happened to him before and it shakes him up. Another player on Ben's team, Justin, is acting really weirdly. Ben has known Justin for a while and they're friendly but he's not one of Ben's closest "boys." Justin is the team's best hitter but his behavior on and off the...

An insider’s look at baseball’s unwritten rules, explained with examples from the game’s most fascinating characters and wildest historical moments.
 
Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. All aspects of baseball—hitting, pitching, and baserunning—are affected by the Code, a set of unwritten rules that governs...

"Pete the Cat is ready to play baseball! Pete's team, the Rocks, is playing the Rolls. But when the game doesn't go Pete's way, what will Pete do?"--From the publisher.

Keith Law applies Daniel Kahneman's ideas about decision making to the game of baseball, and deepens our knowledge of the sport in this fun and deeply informative book. Baseball is a sport of decisions-- some small and routine, becoming the building blocks of the game; others so huge they dictate the future of franchises. Law offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball. He explains what motivated them,...

Mark Setzer has a lot on his mind. He's worried about his upcoming bar mitzvah, and he misses his best friend, who's moved to the rich side of town and started hanging out with the obnoxious kid they used to make fun of. Mark doesn't need the aggravation of his mother signing on to manage his Little League team. But if "Mother Bagel" complicates Mark's life, she's great for the team. Suddenly, they're winning games and headed toward the championship....

"What's it like to live through sports' longest season, the 162-game Major League Baseball schedule? THE GRIND captures the frustration, impermanence, and glory felt by the players, the staff, and their families from the start of spring training to the final game of the year; classy baseball writing in the Roger Angell or Tom Boswell tradition"--

"Yahoo's lead baseball columnist offers an in-depth look at the most valuable commodity in sports-the pitching arm-and how its vulnerability to injury is hurting players and the game, from Little League to the majors. Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers-five times more than the salary of every NFL quarterback combined. Pitchers are the game's lifeblood. Their import is exceeded only by their fragility. One tiny...

Robert De Niro and Michael Moriarty star in this superbly crafted film about the unlikely friendship between two baseball players. Moriarty plays the team's ace pitcher and social charmer; De Niro is the catcher, a farm boy from Georgia who lacks all of Moriarty's sophistication. He is also dying. During their last season together on a team fraught with bickering and infighting, the two men grow into manhood and respect for themselves and each other....