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131 books match the query 'Baseball' and 3 start with h

cover of Hell of a Way to Make a Living: The Unvarnished Truth about What It's Like to Cover Major League Baseball

Hell of a Way to Make a Living

The Unvarnished Truth about What It's Like to Cover Major League Baseball

Paul Hagen

Temple University Press, 2027

For 50 years, Paul Hagen lived the dream of being a beat writer covering the Dodgers, Rangers, and Phillies. But, as Hell of a Way to Make a Living demonstrates, the enviable job isn’t always as glamorous as it seems.

This insider’s account gives readers an all-access pass to the press box, clubhouse, and dugout to discover what the experience is really about. It’s both a clear-eyed dissection of the daily grind and a breezy, occasionally gossipy, account of being to paid to watch baseball games.

Hagen features entertaining and insightful anecdotes such as confirming to manager Terry Francona that the Phillies were going to fire him two weeks before it happened and building trust with players from the last man on the roster to future Hall of Famers like Mike Schmidt, Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Wagner, and Scott Rolen. He also addresses the changing media landscape, what’s on the record and off, the ethics of reporting on a team fairly, and how sports writing has changed over the decades.

Covering all the bases, Hell of a Way to Make a Living is an ode to the importance of conscientious beat writing and building trust with readers.

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cover of High-Flying Birds: The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals

High-Flying Birds

The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals

Jerome M. Mileur

University of Missouri Press, 2009

1942: Americans suddenly found themselves at war but were not about to be distracted from the National Pastime. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees were looking to continue their World Series rivalry from the 1941 season, and a youthful team from St. Louis was determined to stop them.
With only one player older than thirty, the St. Louis Cardinals were the youngest team to win the National League pennant and World Series. Built on good pitching and tremendous speed on the base paths and in the field, the team featured rookie Stan Musial, future Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, and ace pitcher Mort Cooper, the National League’s Most Valuable Player of 1942. With their winningest season ever, posting 106 victories, the 1942 Redbirds have been called the greatest Cardinal team of all time.
Jerome Mileur was just a kid from downstate Illinois, but he well remembers his view of one game from the left-field grandstand—and the thrill of attending the second game of the World Series. In this book, he brings a sure and loving grasp of his subject to reconstructing one of the most remarkable pennant drives in modern baseball history, with the Cards winning forty-three of their last fifty-one games and clinching first place on the last day of the season.
Mileur provides a game-by-game account of the season with play-by-play action, not only capturing all the thrills on the Cards’ way to the top but also conveying the physical and mental demands that the players endured. Counted out by nearly everyone but themselves in August, the Redbirds caught fire in the season’s final weeks to pass the seemingly unbeatable Dodgers. And by winning four games out of five to defeat the New York Yankees for the championship, they handed Joe DiMaggio his only World Series defeat.
More than a recapitulation of a thrilling season, Mileur’s book is a reminder of how major-league baseball in 1942 differed in so many ways from today’s game—one startling example is Mileur’s account of how the absence of outfield warning tracks contributed to a devastating injury to Brooklyn’s star outfielder, Pete Reiser. The tenor of the times is reflected as well in the juxtaposition of the baseball season with the United States’ first year in the Second World War.
The 1942 Cardinals were not only a remarkable team unto themselves but also the beginning of a new baseball dynasty—1942’s pennant was the first of three in a row for the Cards, as well as the first of three World Series victories in a space of five seasons. This account of that tremendous season is a page-turner for anyone who loves the game and a must-read for Cardinals fans.
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cover of Home of the Braves: The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee

Home of the Braves

The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee

Patrick W. Steele

University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

When the struggling Boston Braves relocated to Milwaukee in March 1953, the city went wild for its new baseball team. Soon, the Braves were winning games, drawing bigger crowds than any team but the Brooklyn Dodgers, and turning Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Warren Spahn into Hall of Famers. Within five years the team would win a World Series and two pennants.

It seemed the dawn of a new dynasty. Impassioned fans wore their hearts on their sleeves. Yet in October 1964 team owners made a shocking announcement: the Braves were moving to Atlanta.

In the decades since, many have tried to understand why the Braves left Milwaukee. Fans blamed greedy owners and the lure of Coca Cola cash. Team management claimed they weren't getting enough local support. Patrick Steele delves deeply into all facets of the story, looking at the changing business of baseball in the 1960s, the interactions of the team owners with the government officials who controlled County Stadium, the surging success of the Green Bay Packers, and much more, to understand how the "Milwaukee Miracle" went south.
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