Presents sports profiles of Seattle Mariner baseball player, Ken Griffey, Jr., and his illustrious father, Ken Griffey, Sr., who played for several major league teams.
Patience, persistence, and the most unlikely of circumstances vaulted Edgar Martinez from a poor neighborhood in Dorado, Puerto Rico to the spotlight in Seattle, where he spent the entirety of his 18-year major league career with the Mariners. At last, his path is destined for one last stop: the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Long before he cemented his status as one of the finest players of his generation, Martinez honed his batting skills by hitting rocks in his backyard and swinging for hours at individual raindrops during storms. Loyal and strong-willed from a young age, he made the difficult decision at only 11 to remain behind with his grandparents while his family relocated to New York, attending school and then working multiple jobs until a chance Mariners try-out at age 20 changed everything. In this illuminating, highly personal autobiography, Martinez shares these stories and more with candor, characteristic humility, and surprising wit. Highlights include the memorable 1995 and 2001 seasons, experiences playing with stars like Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Alex Rodriguez, and life after retirement as a family man, social advocate, and Mariners hitting coach. Martinez even offers practical insight into the mental side of baseball and his training regimen, detailing how he taught himself to see the ball better than so many before and after him. Interwoven with Martinez's own words throughout are those of his teammates, coaches, and contemporaries, contributing a distinctive oral history element to this saga of a remarkable career.
Reflecting on an outstanding 19-year major-league career, this autobiography chronicles baseball great Ken Griffey, beginning with his days just out of high school. The account relates Griffey's decision to venture into the baseball business, documenting his time as a scout, coach, and manager along with his accomplishments as a father, raising two other major league ballplayers: Craig, who played briefly for the Seattle Mariners, and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Capturing the subject's time with the Big Red Machine, this record details his days playing alongside Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, highlighting the Reds' two consecutive world championships in 1975 and 1976. Finally, the ultimate thrill of Griffey's career is featured: playing in the same outfield in 1990 with his son, Ken Griffey Jr., during the game where they hit back-to-back home runs—the only father-son combination to do so in the history of Major League Baseball. Filled with amusing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it's like when baseball really does run in the family, this is a sports memoir unlike any other.
Away from the game and the players for which it was crafted, the baseball bat is a sleek but humble creation. Yet in the hands of batters both young and old who have been stepping to the plate on diamonds around the world for more than a century, the bat is a powerful tool, capable of yielding lasting memories or making legends of a lifetime. And no bat has had more impact on baseball and the players of the game than Louisville Slugger, the tool of the trade used by millions-from the major leagues to college and youth leagues. In accordance with Louisville Slugger's 125th anniversary, the complete history of the bat, its impact on the game, and the ongoing story of Hillerich and Bradsby's family business is told in these pages. Blending firsthand stories from former and current major leaguers with details from more than 100 years of craftsmanship and contribution, this comprehensive history of baseball's bat and its impact on America's game is a must-have and must-read for anyone who has ever stood at the plate waiting on a pitch-or watched as a fan-hoping for a miracle.
Patience, persistence, and the most unlikely of circumstances vaulted Edgar Martinez from a poor neighborhood in Dorado, Puerto Rico to the spotlight in Seattle, where he spent the entirety of his 18-year major league career with the Mariners. At last, his path is destined for one last stop: the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Long before he cemented his status as one of the finest players of his generation, Martinez honed his batting skills by hitting rocks in his backyard and swinging for hours at individual raindrops during storms. Loyal and strong-willed from a young age, he made the difficult decision at only 11 to remain behind with his grandparents while his family relocated to New York, attending school and then working multiple jobs until a chance Mariners try-out at age 20 changed everything. In this illuminating, highly personal autobiography, Martinez shares these stories and more with candor, characteristic humility, and surprising wit. Highlights include the memorable 1995 and 2001 seasons, experiences playing with stars like Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Alex Rodriguez, and life after retirement as a family man, social advocate, and Mariners hitting coach. Martinez even offers practical insight into the mental side of baseball and his training regimen, detailing how he taught himself to see the ball better than so many before and after him. Interwoven with Martinez's own words throughout are those of his teammates, coaches, and contemporaries, contributing a distinctive oral history element to this saga of a remarkable career.
Crazyball is a look at the wild, unusual, unimaginable, funny, and downright strange occurrences in sports. Barry Wilner and Ken Rappoport take us from the worst teams in history to sports’ craziest superstitions, wackiest pranks, and ultimate blown calls. This book is filled with moments that will make you laugh, shake your head in wonderment, lose your breath, or simply ask: “Really?!”
Reflecting on an outstanding 19-year major-league career, this autobiography chronicles baseball great Ken Griffey, beginning with his days just out of high school. The account relates Griffey's decision to venture into the baseball business, documenting his time as a scout, coach, and manager along with his accomplishments as a father, raising two other major league ballplayers: Craig, who played briefly for the Seattle Mariners, and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Capturing the subject's time with the Big Red Machine, this record details his days playing alongside Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, highlighting the Reds' two consecutive world championships in 1975 and 1976. Finally, the ultimate thrill of Griffey's career is featured: playing in the same outfield in 1990 with his son, Ken Griffey Jr., during the game where they hit back-to-back home runs—the only father-son combination to do so in the history of Major League Baseball. Filled with amusing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it's like when baseball really does run in the family, this is a sports memoir unlike any other.
A collective biography of the top 10 home run hitters, both past and present, which includes accounts of game action, career statistics, and more"--Provided by publisher
The perfect beer-table book for fans of the Great American Pastime—regardless of team affiliation! Beginning with Comiskey Park in 1990, author Ken Finnigan used to take road trips to many ancient remaining ballparks with his oldest brother. The idea was to see them just before they got knocked down, instead of imagining what they were like after demolition. They went on journeys to quite a few other old baseball stadiums in the early 1990s and even investigated some of the former sites where ballparks were decommissioned years before. Most of the sites he saw in the early 1990s are no longer standing. Remembering Torn-Down Ballparks, Over a Cold Beer, through vintage full-color art featured on beer coasters, reveals what it may have been like to see the stadiums that are no longer around. From the journal-styled observations of each ballpark, to the artwork from the coasters and the artifacts depicted, Finnigan offers baseball enthusiasts a sense of having a piece from each ballpark.
Explores Jackie Robinson’s compelling and complicated legacy Before the United States Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public schools, and before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie Robinson walked onto the diamond on April 15, 1947, as first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, making history as the first African American to integrate Major League Baseball in the twentieth century. Today a national icon, Robinson was a complicated man who navigated an even more complicated world that both celebrated and despised him. Many are familiar with Robinson as a baseball hero. Few, however, know of the inner turmoil that came with his historic status. Featuring piercing essays from a range of distinguished sportswriters, cultural critics, and scholars, this book explores Robinson’s perspectives and legacies on civil rights, sports, faith, youth, and nonviolence, while providing rare glimpses into the struggles and strength of one of the nation’s most athletically gifted and politically significant citizens. Featuring a foreword by celebrated directors and producers Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, this volume recasts Jackie Robinson’s legacy and establishes how he set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick.
The all-time champion and host of Jeopardy! gives you the chance to test your trivia mettle in this ingeniously organized book of 8,888 questions. For example–February 21: In 1912, on this day, Teddy Roosevelt coined the political phrase “hat in the ring,” so Ken Jennings fires off a series of “ring” questions. In 1979, who became the first NFL quarterback with four Super Bowl rings? What rings are divided by the Cassini Division? Also on this date, in 1981, the “goth” music scene was born in London, so here’s a quiz on black-clad icons like Darth Vader, Johnny Cash, and Zorro. Do you know the secret identities of Ivanhoe’s Black Knight or Men in Black’s Agent M? In this ultimate book for trivia buffs and other assorted know-it-alls, the 365 entries feature “This Day in History” factoids, trivia quizzes, and questions categorized by Jennings as “Easy,” “Hard,” and “Yeah, Good Luck.” Topics cover every subject under the sun, from paleontology to mixology, sports feats to Bach suites, medieval popes to daytime soaps. This addictive gathering of facts, oddities, devilishly clever quizzes, and other flights of fancy will make each day a fun and intriguing new challenge.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A hockey life like no other. A hockey book like no other. Scotty Bowman is recognized as the best coach in hockey history, and one of the greatest coaches in all of sports. He won more games and more Stanley Cups than anyone else. Despite all the changes in hockey, he coached at the very top for more than four decades, his first Cup win and his last an astonishing thirty-nine years apart. Yet perhaps most uniquely, different from anyone else who has ever lived or ever will again, he has continuously experienced the best of hockey since he was fourteen years old. With his precious standing room pass to the Montreal Forum, he saw "Rocket" Richard play at his peak every Saturday night. He saw Gordie Howe as a seventeen-year-old just starting out. He scouted Bobby Orr as a thirteen-year-old in Parry Sound, Ontario. He coached Guy Lafleur and Mario Lemieux. He coached against Wayne Gretzky. For the past decade, as an advisor for the Chicago Blackhawks, he has watched Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Connor McDavid. He has seen it all up close. Ken Dryden was a Hall-of-Fame goaltender with the Montreal Canadiens. His critically acclaimed and bestselling books have shaped the way we read and think about hockey. Now the player and coach who won five Stanley Cups together team up once again as Dryden gives his coach a new test: Tell us about all these players and teams you've seen, but imagine yourself as their coach. Tell us about their weaknesses, not just their strengths. Tell us how you would coach them and coach against them. And then choose the top eight teams of all time, match them up against one another in a playoff series, and, separating the near-great from the great, tell us who would win. And why. Scotty is about a life—a hockey life, a Canadian life, a life of achievement. It is Scotty Bowman in his natural element, behind the bench one more time.
Mention "The Penguin" to any Dodgers fan and you're sure to evoke not just memories of the beloved third baseman Ron Cey, but also of the glory years of modern Dodgers baseball, a rollicking run through the '70s and '80s highlighted by the loquacious Tommy Lasorda, Fernandomania, a historic infield anchored by Cey, and an unforgettable 1981 World Series title. In Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and a One-in-a-Million Big League Journey, "The Penguin" Ron Cey and veteran Dodgers scribe Ken Gurnick take fans on an amazing ride from Cey's formative years in the Pacific Northwest through his stardom on and off the field in Los Angeles and beyond. As part of the longest running infield in MLB history, six-time All Star and 1981 co-World Series MVP Cey joined Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Bill Russell to help the Dodgers triumph after years of postseason heartbreak, and bring the first World Series back to Los Angeles since Sandy Koufax and the Boys of Summer of 1965. Featuring charming stories from Cey's time in a memorable clubhouse alongside Dodger legends Lasorda, Garvey, and Fernando Valenzuela, with Vin Scully and Jaime JarrÍn in the booth, as well as tales of the life of a star during a magical time in Los Angeles, Penguin Power is a must-read for fans of an unforgettable era of Dodgers baseball.
When it comes to baseball glory, no other team comes close to the New York Yankees, winners of forty American League pennants and twenty-seven World Series championships. Amazing Tales from the Yankee Dugout is a compilation of the funniest, strangest, and most unique stories, anecdotes, and tall tales that have been attributed to baseball’s legendary New York Yankees through the years. Fans will gain new insights about the famed Bronx Bombers that they’ve never read before.
For ten years Ken Bossone, president of the World Positive Thinkers club, has been researching and writing about what the main ingredient is that all winners possess. Ken wanted to find out and write about what drove winners on in the face of defeat and adversity. Was it what they did or thought? Was it goals? Having goals is nothing new. Man has achieved goals since the beginning of time. Was it hard work? Everyone knows you must work hard to achieve goals. After all, the only thing that sits its way to success is a hen. Was it intelligence? Many brilliant people wind up on skid row, as Ken has interviewed them there. Was it wealth? Many wealthy people are unhappy and wind up committing suicide. And so the search went on. Then one night Ken watched a middleweight championship boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and his opponent, and after hearing the words Leonard's opponent uttered Ken realized the words were the key to the secret. It hit Ken like a lightning bolt. That was his breakthrough and he researched furiously to prove he was on the right path. As Robert Frost, the great poet said, "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." To Kens utter delight and amazement he realized unequivocally, after personally experiencing financial tragedy, a death threat, loss of drivers license and car, and other personal setbacks, and with much research, that the main ingredient coupled with goals is a three-word motto that all winners have imbedded in their very souls to achieve winning and happiness. As President of the World Positive thinkers club with over 500 sports and business winners Ken wants to share this amazing revelation with the world.
From early classics like Contact to marvels like High Speed, gaming publisher Williams dazzled arcade goers with its diverse range of quality pinball games. The age of video games catapulted the company into legend with blockbusters like Defender and Joust, and by the end of the 1980s it was the largest coin-op publisher in North America. Williams' acquisition of Bally/Midway began a period of hits that included Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, as well as the best-selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family. The history of Williams spans nearly six decades and is filled with great games, huge gambles and technical innovations that impacted every aspect of pinball and arcade video games. With interviews of 40+ former designers and executives from Williams/Bally/Midway, as well as information from hundreds of contemporaneous news reports and documents, this book presents a never-before-seen chronology of how the small company became a coin-op juggernaut. Thirty pinball and 26 video game classics are examined in depth with direct input from the people who made them, along with the story of the events that shaped one of gaming's greatest publishing houses.
Best of the Best profiles thirty-five today's hottest stars and gives the reader a look into the personality behind the performances on the field. Each chapter gives a short biography of one of the players, an overview of his time in the Major Leagues, highlights from the previous season's play and color photographs showing the athlete both on and away from the -- diamond at work and at the player's career are also included.
Offers comprehensive facts, figures, and explanations of the events, people, and places in the news, with original articles on recent issues and topics.
This book looks at the professional career and personal life of Mario Lemieux, the star center for hockey's Pittsburgh Penguins who overcame adversity and was voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, following his retirement from the game.
Scottie Pippen, the star forward for the Chicago Bulls, was virtually unknown when the Bulls made him their first pick in the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. Playing in the shadow of the legendary Michael Jordan, Pippen has had to work hard to make a name for himself and to prove himself as one of the NBA's top stars. Author Ken Rappoport follows Pippen's emergence from Jordan's shadow, to his present status as one of the NBA's living legends.
Discusses the personal life and professional career of the basketball star from the Virgin Islands, Tim Duncan, who was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 1997.
This book is a compilation of my daily blogs that were mostly written during 2016. It includes reactions, observations, criticisms, accolades, or just plain head shaking frustration regarding some issue or event of the day. The blogs stem from either a TV or newspaper item or a personal encounter with everyday madness in daily life.
Recognizing that our society has a great need for role models, and few individuals successfully rise to the challenge, The Homefield Advantage assures readers that "Yes, you are a role model...whether you own up to it or not. You are being watched. You are touching lives. You are shaping young lives for good or for incalculable harm." Filled with the stories of everyday heroes who may never make the pages of Sports Illustrated-but who may very well find their way into heaven's highlight clips-The Homefield Advantage offers powerful advice for men who want to maximize their influence for generations to come.
Featuring over 1,500 questions on all aspects of baseball, its players, and history, "The Baseball Encyclopedia Quiz Book" "touches all the bases" to test the knowledge of fans. Arranged in the same order as the content of "The Baseball Encyclopedia", this quiz book features information on award-winners, all-time leaders, winning and losing streaks, player stats, and much more.
The reader's decisions control the course of an adventure in which an evil arcade owner lures players to his home, where he engages them in the ultimate life-or-death game.
When deciding which athletes to profile, our editors take into account not only a player's statistics, but also his character. SPI takes care to select athletes who are known to be community minded and can serve as role models. The biographical material on each athlete covers him from his earliest days to the present.
What makes Alex Rodriguez a Super Sports Star? Alex Rodriguez is the shortstop for the Texas Rangers in the American League of Major League Baseball. Alex Rodriguez is big and strong. He covers a lot of ground with his long legs and he has a powerful throwing arm. Rodriguez hits for a high average and already holds many batting records for shortstops. Book jacket.
Since Babe Ruth started drawing big crowds with his big bat in the 1920s, the home run has meant more to baseball than just about any other individual achievement. What can be more exciting than the crack of the bat and the ball flying to the far reaches of a baseball stadium? From Ruth to Aaron to Bonds, Ken Rappoport examines the ten greatest sluggers to ever step up to the plate. The other players included are Lou Gehrig, Josh Gibson, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Sadaharu Oh, and Alex Rodriguez.
Away from the game and the players for which it was crafted, the baseball bat is a sleek but humble creation. Yet in the hands of batters both young and old who have been stepping to the plate on diamonds around the world for more than a century, the bat is a powerful tool, capable of yielding lasting memories or making legends of a lifetime. And no bat has had more impact on baseball and the players of the game than Louisville Slugger, the tool of the trade used by millions-from the major leagues to college and youth leagues. In accordance with Louisville Slugger's 125th anniversary, the complete history of the bat, its impact on the game, and the ongoing story of Hillerich and Bradsby's family business is told in these pages. Blending firsthand stories from former and current major leaguers with details from more than 100 years of craftsmanship and contribution, this comprehensive history of baseball's bat and its impact on America's game is a must-have and must-read for anyone who has ever stood at the plate waiting on a pitch-or watched as a fan-hoping for a miracle.
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