Galveston survived the Great Depression with a healthy dose of baseball, boll weevils and bootleg business. Farmers like future Galveston Buccaneers star Buck Fausett fled the insect infestation of North Texas for the city's sunny shores along with throngs of visitors eager to visit Sam Maceo's clubs and catch a ballgame. Galvestonians had a long love affair with America's favorite pastime, fielding the first game played in the state. Cotton heir Shearn Moody purchased the Buccaneers in 19...

Blake Creekmore just cost his middle-school basketball team its shot at the district championship—and hes not even on the team. Blake would much rather be at a Boy Scout meeting than any sporting event. He convinces his best friend Dustin, the schools star athlete, to join him in an afternoon on the lake, where tragedy strikes. Dustin is injured and lost for the season, and Blake bears the blame of the team, the coach, and his classmates. Battling his guilt, Blake seeks refuge in the act...

Chad Griffin can't hit a baseball to save his life. When he steps up to home plate, he usually leaves after the umpire shouts, "Strike Three!" He always bats in the same spot for the Rangers—ninth—the worst hitter on the team. Even worse, he falls short of his dad's high expectations. But when the Rangers get a major-league all-star as their new coach, Chad's hitting begins to turn around. But hitting a baseball isn't Chad's only problem. As his team strives for the championship trophy, Chad ...

The book that inspired Harrison Ford in his portrayal of Branch Rickey in the hit movie “42”The idea of integrating baseball began as a dream in the mind of Branch Rickey. In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues, changing the sport and the nation forever. Rickey's is the classic American tale of a poor boy from Ohio whose deep-seated faith and dogged wor...

Jimmy Breslin’s nostalgic, rollicking look back at the worst baseball team in historyFive years after the Dodgers and Giants fled New York for California, the city’s National League fans were offered salvation in the shape of the New York Mets: an expansion team who, in the spring of 1962, attempted to play something resembling the sport of baseball.Helmed by the sagacious Casey Stengel and staffed by the league’s detritus, the new Mets played 162 games and...

Seeing baseball played at Fenway is an experience like no other for Red Sox fans and rivals alike because the park reminds us of what baseball used to be. Fenway may not offer fans the best seats or even adequate parking, but when game-goers walk through the park's gate, the smell of hotdogs and roasted peanuts, the sight of Fenway's brilliant green grass and the roar of the Fenway faithful overwhelms the most jaded of baseball enthusiasts, even Yankee fans.At Fenway celebrates the...

New York Times Bestseller: This true Depression-era story of a down-and-out fighter's dramatic comeback is "a delight" (David Halberstam).James J. Braddock was a once promising light heavyweight. But a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929—and Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him.Gould looked out for...

William Louis "Bill" Veeck, Jr. (1914-1986) is legendary in many ways-baseball impresario and innovator, independent spirit, champion of civil rights in a time of great change. Paul Dickson has written the first full biography of this towering figure, in the process rewriting many aspects of his life and bringing alive the history of America's pastime. In his late 20s, Veeck bought into his first team, the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. After serving and losing a leg in WWII, he b...

The NFL championship game that changed the history of football: a New York Times bestseller by the author of Black Hawk Down.Yankee Stadium, December 28, 1958. What was about to go down on this Sunday evening in front of sixty-four thousand fans and forty-five million home viewers—the largest viewership ever assembled for a live televised event—was the first sudden death overtime in NFL history. This one battle between the league’s best offense, t...

The fascinating sports history of defunct teams in baseball, hockey, basketball and more!THEY’RE GOING, GOING, GONE. . . .Their names roll off the tongue, a litany of the damned: the Providence Steam Roller, the Wilmington Quicksteps, the Cincinnati Porkers. They are the lost squads of professional sports history—teams forsaken by fans, fleeced by owners, or forgotten by time. Until now.Kiss ’Em Goodbye unearths the real stories of ...

Legendary chairman of the five-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, tells his life story for the first time. From growing up on Pittsburgh's notorious North Side, to vying with Johnny Unitas for top high school quarterback honors in Western Pennsylvania, from learning how to run a major sports franchise from his father, Art Rooney ("the Chief"), to helping shape the modern NFL, Rooney serves up a fascinating account of personal and professional achievement.He a...

Just in time for baseball season!Babe Ruth came from a poor Baltimore family and, as a kid, he was a handful. It was at a reform school that Babe discovered his talent for baseball, and by the age of nineteen, he was on his way to becoming a sports legend. Babe was often out of shape and even more often out on the town, but he had a big heart and an even bigger swing! Kids will learn all about the Home Run King in this rags-to- riches sports biography. With black-a...