While NOOK owners might argue that reading is America’s Pastime, much of the country is preoccupied with the potential that this brand new Major League Baseball season brings. April is the time when every fan still clings to the hope that this is the year the home team will finally achieve immortal glory on the diamond.
Baseball has always been a cerebral sport, and there's no shortage of excellent books celebrating the game. To help pass the time on your team’s off days, we present a collection of baseball NOOK Books that range from an inspiring autobiography to a brand new John Grisham baseball tale.
From that first home run of 1923 to the storybook World Series matchup that pitted the Yankees against their nemesis from across the Harlem River—one so acrimonious that John McGraw forced his Giants to get to the Bronx in uniform rather than suit up at the Stadium—Robert Weintraub vividly illuminates the singular year that built a classic stadium, catalyzed a franchise, cemented Babe Ruth's legend, and forever changed the sport of baseball. The House That Ruth Built is available for $3.99 for a limited time.
The systematic analysis of baseball statistics, often called "sabermetrics," has evolved in recent years to resemble something of a science, attracting fans from diverse professional and educational backgrounds, all fascinated by the analysis itself and its insights into the game. But one problem has defied solution: estimating runs saved by fielders throughout history. Traditional statistics include errors and plays made, but not hits that could or should have been prevented. The latter can now be estimated using records of the location of every batted ball, but the underlying data exists only for recent seasons and has generally been withheld from the public. In Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed—available for $3.99 for a limited time—Michael Humphreys offers the long-awaited breakthrough.
Whatever happened to Calico Joe?
It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third and headed for home. The next day, Jim Hickman, the first baseman for the Cubs, injured his back. The team suddenly needed someone to play first, so they reached down to their AA club in Midland, Texas, and called up a twenty-one-year-old named Joe Castle. He was the hottest player in AA and creating a buzz.
In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.
Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…
In John Grisham’s new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it’s what happens off the field that makes Calico Joe a classic.
On an overcast September day in 1993, Jim Abbott took the mound at Yankee Stadium and threw one of the most dramatic no-hitters in Major League history. The game was the crowning achievement in an unlikely success story, unseen in the annals of professional sports. In Imperfect, the one-time big league ace retraces his remarkable journey.
Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott as a boy dreamed of being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who saw in his condition not a disability but an extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan.
But his journey was only beginning...
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search by author name to download these spectacular seasonal reads.
