Books about Innings from Amazon.com

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Price: $9.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the tradition of Friday Night Lights comes an unforgettable portrait of a small New Jersey town that became known throughout the world for the remarkable exploits of its Little League stars.

Summertime in Toms River means two things: tourists and champions. The tourists head for the beaches; the 12-year-old Little League champions can be found on the baseball diamonds, where they win titles at the local, regional, and international levels.

The Toms River dynasty began in the 1990s, when the team made it to the Little League World Series three times in five years and brought home a historic world championship victory in 1998. But with each passing summer in Toms River comes renewed pressure, as the latest collection of All-Stars strives to leave its mark on the town's imposing baseball legacy.

In Six Good Innings, acclaimed sportswriter Mark Kreidler deftly illuminates the sometimes tense relationship between Toms River and the team that carries the town's hopes and dreams. Following the most recent juggernaut through one tumultuous All-Star season, Kreidler chronicles how the coach, John Puleo, works to strike a balance between healthy competition and bloodless ambition, and how the players themselves reckon with their own fleeting fame as they tumble headlong into adolescence.

Puleo, a man with a gift for inspiring young athletes, commands a team whose recent string of successes has led to speculation that this might be the squad to extend the Toms River tradition of reaching Williamsport, site of the Little League World Series. But along the path to glory, Puleo's players will deal with unexpected injuries, a brutally difficult schedule of games, and the daunting knowledge that they have been identified throughout their region—and within the neighborhood blocks of their own baseball-crazy town—as the team to beat.

With deep empathy, incisive reporting, and intimate access, Kreidler weaves the stories of the coaches, the parents, the fans, and the true boys of summer into a memorable tableau.

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Price: $12.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When Alta Weiss throws a corncob at a tomcat chasing her favorite hen, folks know one thing for sure: she may be a girl, but she's got some arm. At the age of six Alta can nail any target, and by seventeen she's outpitched every boy in town. Then one day her father takes Alta to Vermilion, Ohio -- home of the semipro baseball team called the Independents. "Where do I sign up?" she asks. But one look at Alta tells the coach all he needs to know: She's a girl, and girls can't play baseball. But faster than you can say "strike out," Alta proves him wrong: Girls can play baseball!

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Price: $2.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Daniel Okrent, the author of The Ultimate Baseball Book, has written not just another windy paean to the national pastime, full of labored metaphors and recollections of demolished stadiums, but a detailed, digressive breakdown of a single early-season game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Baltimore Orioles on June 10, 1982. Along the way the reader learns about the history of the slider, the building of the Orioles by their famed manager, Earl Weaver, how batters' swings reveal their personality, and even which brand of vitamin C can be found in a certain player's locker. It's a labor of love, but an enthralling one that reveals the complexities at the heart of this most complex and maddening game..
Price: $6.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

What leads a man in his mid to late thirties to take up the sport of baseball after a fifteen year hiatus? Especially when stressful and potentially humiliating tryouts are involved? The Lutherville, Maryland, Athletics are a ball team composed of plumbers, demolition guys, investment bankers, security guards and salesmen who play for the love of the game. How their passion for the game of baseball affects their lives is the subject of this book. Focusing on Smith's lifelong love affair with sport of baseball, this volume provides a firsthand account of a season in the Baltimore County, Over-30 league from tryouts to the final game. Beginning with childhood experiences in the Kentwood League in Raleigh, North Carolina, it follows Smith through his high school and college years as his interest in the game of baseball waned. The true focus of the book is the re-emergence of the sport as an important part of Smith's life during his mid-thirties and the glory he and his teammates find in simply being ballplayers. Baseball is presented as a unifying force and a thread of stability through the experiences of an ever-shifting world. The changes and appeal of major league baseball are also discussed from the vantage point of Smith and his teammates..
Price: $25.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Life is More Than 9 Innings" is a unique collection of stories covering a lifetime of memories by former Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan. His 10-year Major League career is the source of a fascinating insider's look at the sport and some of the legendary players of the '50s and '60s. As the title implies, however, there are many more stories to be told including his early years growing up in California, Army service during the Korean War, and forty-three years of life in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. Put together in a very readable short story format, each account stands on its own as a captivating tale told by a master storyteller. Along with its wonderful collection of photographs, the book is a storehouse of memories to be savored and enjoyed by sports fans and casual readers alike..
Price: $18.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“The Last Nine Innings is the last word on the inside of baseball. It’s full of wonderful revelations and perceptions that help us understand the game in ways that we might never have imagined. Charlie Euchner has done a marvelous job in getting players to talk, simply, about how they play, and we’re the wiser for it.”
-Frank Deford

“Charlie takes an unorthodox approach to an emotional week and succeeds at finding the heart of both the tension of the World Series and the technical foundations of the baseball profession. This is a different book, in a very good way.”
-Howard Bryant, the Washington Post, and author of Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball

“The lengthy description of game 7 makes for dramatic reading, and the interviews with key players from that game add a human dimension.”
-Booklist

“I enjoyed Charles’s book. It’s an interesting read, rich in thought-provoking detail and context, in the manner of Malcolm Gladwell. He deftly pulls off a difficult double play: educating the serious fan while entertaining the casual one.”
-Tom Verducci, Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated

“The Last Nine Innings is entertaining, engaging and enlightening. You’ll never watch a baseball game the same way.”
-Andrew Zimbalist, author of Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime and Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College

“Memo to ESPN analysts, FOX color announcers and daily baseball scribes: stop telling us about who had a haircut, who didn’t have a haircut and who collects stamps. Rip out the red thread on the baseball, peel back the cowhide and talk about all the stuff that’s wound up inside the game. That’s what Charles Euchner does in The Last Nine Innings and it’s fascinating.”
-Leigh Montville, author of Ted Williams, Biography of an American Hero and Why Not Us?: The 86-Year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans from Unparalleled Suffering to the Promised Land of the 2004 World Series


The Great American Pastime has changed. For the first time in the history of the game, the three major forces that drive the evolution of modern pro baseball-The Triple Revolution-is revealed:

The Triple Revolution:
(1) Globalization of Recruiting and Business
(2) Scientific Analysis & Reduction of Physical Baseball Movements
(3) Evolution Effect of Modernized Stat-Crunching

Charles Euchner uses a dramatic moment-by-moment narrative of the seventh game of the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks to display the Triple Revolution; and to reveal the hidden dimensions of the “game within the game”: From pitching motions to batting styles, from fielding and base-running, to training and strategy.

Euchner uses extensive interviews with all the players from this modern classic to produce a comprehensive view of the game that will fascinate casual fans, and stimulate baseball experts. The insider narrative includes Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez and Curt Schilling, along with the game's coaches, managers, support staff, even medical researchers and top game stats experts.

Among the questions answered: What is the ideal pitching motion? How can we judge defensive performance? What makes managers succeed and fail? What changes the odds over the course of the game? And much more. Whether a recreational fans, or serious student of the game, The Last Nine Innings enlightens; as baseball author Andrew Zimbalist writes, “You'll never watch a baseball game the same way.”
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Price: $7.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Marc Brown's new chapter book series features Arthur and his friends for sports fans ready to read on their own. Each book features a longer, sports-related Arthur Adventure and has loads of kid appeal. Arthur is in top form as he and his friends train for a literacy fund-raising race, try to help Binky cope with bench-sitting, give George a boost at recess, and adjust to a new soccer coach. Arthur fans will want to read and collect all of these new chapter books!.
Price: $11.86 [Notify me when price goes down.]