Best Baseball Essays & Writings

The Phenomenon is the story of how St. Louis Cardinals prodigy Rick Ankiel lost his once-in-a-generation ability to pitch--not due to an injury or a bolt of lightning, but a mysterious anxiety condition widely known as "the Yips." And then, after reconsidering his whole life at the age of twenty-five, Ankiel made an amazing turnaround: returning to the Major Leagues as a hitter and playing seven successful seasons. "Revealing, vulnerable, and triumphant, Rick Ankiel and Tim Brown provide a poignant reminder in this age of statistics- and computer-driven analysis that it is real people who play the game. --Jim Abbott , former MLB pitcher and bestselling author of Imperfect "Each year lots of baseball books roll off the presses. His book is a candid and powerful story of his pitching success, his cruel and dramatic career derailment, and his historic resurrection as a power-hitting outfielder. --Hall of Famer Joe Torre, four-time World Series Championship manager and MLB's chief baseball officer. "A great story of a young man's ability to persist in the face of complicated and difficult issues--I admire him for it and the success he eventually achieved." "A former Major League Baseball player offers an affecting account of his unique professional career and dramatic personal life. Born in 1979, Ankiel debuted with the Cardinals a month after his 20th birthday, and became the first major-league player since Babe Ruth to win at least 10 games as a pitcher and hit at least 50 home runs. With his wife, Lory, and sons Declan and Ryker, Ankiel lives in Jupiter, Fla. Tim Brown is an award-winning writer with 25 years' experience covering Major League Baseball at the Los Angeles Times, the Newark Star-Ledger, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Los Angeles Daily News and Yahoo!

Now, with fresh and sober eyes, the Mets’ beloved Dr. K shares the intimate details of his life and career, revealing all the extraordinary highs and lows: The hidden traumas in his close-knit Tampa family. His heartbreaking attempts at getting sober, the senseless damage to family and friends, and the unexpected way he finally saved his life—on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. When the Mets had their parade to celebrate the series win, Gooden was alone in a dingy hotel room trying to straighten up after a bender. Gooden learned to play baseball from his dad, who would spend endless hours with his son in Tampa’s parks. But once Gooden discovered cocaine, his life became an endless cycle of rehab, denial, and addiction. Amazingly, the rehab that seems to have succeeded was the reality television show in which second-rate celebrities are the focus. Let this be said again: Against all precedent, Doc is outstanding; a brutally honest, oft-painful retelling of the life of a onetime pitching phenom whose existence has been largely ruined by nearly three decades of on-again, off-again drug and alcohol abuse." —Newsday "Why it's hot: Few athletes have known such highs and lows as Gooden, a 19-year-old star with the Mets in 1984 who, in a comeback with the Yankees, threw a no-hitter in 1996." "He is now two years sober, the author of a superb new bio (' Doc: A Memoir ') that is excruciating, entertaining, and heartbreaking all at once, and baseball is still his favorite subject." His breezy writing style takes the reader along the way a fan can enjoy the patient nature of a pitcher going the distance." "While Doc is a sobering testament to one athlete’s remarkable fall from grace, it’s also a tale of redemption." "Dwight Gooden pulls no punches—the book jacket calls it a “brutally honest memoir” and that is exactly what it is. "Gooden says he has been sober for over two years: ‘It’s a tough, relentless battle that I’m facing…but I am as well-armed as I can be.’ That directness, rarely seen in athlete-penned memoirs, distinguishes this book." The question seemed to be not whether he would make the Hall of fame but where he would rank among the very greatest pitchers who ever lived. "When I was in the batter’s box and Doc was throwing those inside fastballs at me, I wish I’d known what a damn nice guy he was.

Survival is the name of the game when two obsessed men teeter on the cusp of madness in a war over a kids' baseball field in this thriller based on a true story. He's backed by a corrupt board of directors, a sports-fixated high school administration, and a mob of crazy travel baseball parents. He is fighting his own civil war as he struggles to make a difference in the town he cherishes without harming the family he loves. Captivating characters lead double lives and keep secrets in this award-winning page-turner, laced with humor, about a man who takes a stand and risks it all to make a difference in a world gone mad. New York Times bestselling author Margot Livesey says Swyers "has created a man for all seasons" in David Thompson and calls Saving Babe Ruth "an absorbing and compulsively readable novel." Read Saving Babe Ruth as the prequel to the Lawyer David Thompson Series which starts with the The Killdeer Connection as the first book. Faced with increasingly difficult choices on behalf of his baseball league, his town and his family, Thompson rises magnificently, and surprisingly, to the occasion. You don't have to be a baseball fan but only a fan of human drama to relish this story of intrigue and dedication on and off the diamond. Like any good baseball game, there's something for everyone, a little history, some family conflict and personal revelation. Hidden nuances add subtle humor as well as reveal sensitivity to the propensity of character flaws to produce obsessive behavior patterns. He lives in a nice home with his family near the Mohawk River in Upstate New York and writes from behind a locked basement door when Becky has had enough of him. Saving Babe Ruth is his first novel and these are some of the awards it has received: Gold Winner, "Best First Book: Fiction," 2015 Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Book Awards. Silver Winner, "Best Popular Fiction," 2015 Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Book Awards.

Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era ( Liar's Poker , The New New Thing ), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team.

Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era ( Liar's Poker , The New New Thing ), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team.

Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era ( Liar's Poker , The New New Thing ), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team.