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Celebrate the 150th anniversary of professional baseball with the amazing 1869 Red Stockings, the team that made baseball famous. Led by two giants of the game, brothers Harry and George Wright, and backed by a city crazy about its baseball, the Red Stockings win every game, play on both coasts, and revolutionize a sport that was only beginning to establish itself as the National Pastime. Follow the story of how a second-class amateur team from Cincinnati, isolated from the baseball hotbeds of the East, became the first openly professional team, dominated its more established competition, and became the first sports team in America to receive national acclaim. Meet the players and civic leaders behind the Red Stockings revolution, relive their key games, and experience life and travel in 1869. Then learn about the team's shocking demise after the 1870 season. The Red Stockings paved the way for the major league baseball of today, and this is the most complete look at their story.
Best-selling author Kostya Kennedy delivers evocative answers in his fascinating reexamination of Pete Rose’s life; from his cocky and charismatic early years through his storied playing career to his bitter war against baseball’s hierarchy to the man we find today—still incorrigible, still adored by many. Where has his improbable saga landed him in the redefined, post-steroid world? Do we feel any differently about Pete Rose today? Should we?
Recounts the 1975 Cincinnati Reds winning season, offering readers player biographies, essays on team management and key aspects and highlights of the season.
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As the Civil War ended, the thoughts of many Northern soldiers turned to a game that some had learned about for the first time during the war--baseball. Their newfound interest in the sport, combined with the postwar economic boom and the resultant growth of many cities, took the game from one practiced by a few amateur clubs in New York City before the war to a professional sport covering almost the entire northeastern United States. Researched from primary sources, the game of the late 1860s is described season-by-season: the fields, the crowds, the strategy, the rules, the style of play, and the confusing struggles to crown a national champion, with all the chicanery and machinations of the contenders. Such landmark events as the Washington Nationals' pioneering 1867 tour and the Cincinnati Red Stockings' undefeated 1869 season are covered.
The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage.
The Akron club's accumulation of talented ballplayers and its success against the best opposition of the time set it apart from the general development of 19th century baseball. Like many of the independent baseball teams that proliferated in the 1870s and 1880s, it was formed as a joint stock company by prominent citizens and businessmen. Its talent led it to be raided out of existence. Of the 20 men who played with the Akrons during 1881, 14 played major league ball in subsequent seasons. Most prominent were Hall of Famer Bid McPhee and Tony Mullane. This work traces the development and play of the team from its formation in 1879 through its great 1881 season and on. Biographical profiles of the players, with personal and professional details, are interspersed throughout. Appendices include the 1881 calendar of scores and 40 box scores (and compiled statistics) for the 1881 season, as well as the box score of the Akrons' victory over the Chicagos of Cap Anson in 1880.
Examining the connection between baseball and our society as a whole, How Baseball Explains America is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind journey through America's pastime. Longtime USA TODAY baseball editor and columnist Hal Bodley explores just how essential baseball is to understanding the American experience. He takes readers into the Oval Office with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as the former presidents share their thoughts on the game, he looks at the changes that America's Greatest Generation ushered in, as well as examining baseball's struggle with performance enhancing drugs alongside America's war on drugs. An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America's love affair with basebal...
The remarkable story of David Kennedy's crusade to combat America's plague of gang- and drug-related violence - with methods that have been astonishingly effective across the country. 'If you want to read a book on urban gangs and find out why they exist and why they kill each other, read this ... this is a sociology book, but it's like immersing yourself in The Wire ... When Kennedy says something, you believe him' Scotsman Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every two hundred young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of gove...
Portions of the text appeared previously in the Cincinnati Enquirer.