The legendary New York Yankee catcher tells the incredible story of his personal journey, offering an unexpected, behind-the-plate view of his career, his past, and the father-son bond that fueled his love of the game.
This book is a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account of how chaos, confusion, and craziness pervaded the once proud and mighty New York Yankee franchise and doomed it to a decade of decay. The man to think is a man of action and vision, a volatile and exacting shipbuilder from Tampa named George Steinbrenner. He bought the team in 1973, rebuilt it into a World Series champion, and then plunged it into a state of constant turmoil that hopelessly destroyed its quest for sustained success. This explosively revealing, mercilessly hilarious dissection of the "Bronx Bombers", by two of the most experienced and insightful reporters of the game, is a book George Steinbrenner is going to hate- and baseball fans are sure to love. -- from Book Jacket.
Late on the afternoon of June 29, 1905, Archibald Graham bolted out of the New York Giants' dugout and took his position in right field for the first and only time as a major league baseball player. He played only an inning and a half. The Giants made their last out as Graham waited in the on-deck circle. The 27-year-old journeyman, who was affectionately known as "Moonlight" because of his off-season occupation as a medical student, was sent back to the minors and, presumably, into permanent obscurity. In the mid-1980s, nearly 20 years after Graham's death, author W. P. Kinsella stumbled across a single line entry in the Baseball Encyclopedia while he was researching a book about Shoeless Joe Jackson. It was the name Moonlight Graham that first caught Kinsella's attention, but the fact that Graham never got to bat in the majors made him even more interesting to a fiction writer. Graham became a secondary character in Kinsella's book, Shoeless Joe. In 1989, Hollywood director and screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson decided that Graham deserved a larger audience. In Robinson's cinematic classic, Field of Dreams, Academy Award-winning actor Burt Lancaster played Doc Graham in what would be his final screen appearance. The once little-known country doctor from Chisholm, Minnesota, became an international icon---a man whose longing to bat in the majors became a reality on the dream-inspired diamond near the town of Dyersville, Iowa. More than a million people have since traveled to the corn-framed movie set in hopes that some of Graham's baseball magic might be channeled into their own lives. He became so well known as a ballplayer that a film crew traveled from Tokyo, Japan, to do a documentary about him and a California company trademarked his name for its line of baseball-themed apparel. But what's the real story of Moonlight Graham? Why did a quiet North Carolina native, whose family was well known throughout the state, spend the bulk of his adult life in an isolated Iron Range community not far from the Canadian border? In Chasing Moonlight, the authors follow Graham's life from his youth spent with his younger brother, Frank Porter Graham, who became the president of the University of North Carolina and a United States senator; through his career as a medical student in Baltimore and New York while he played baseball at the same time; through his minor league successes in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In Graham's Minnesota years, the authors reveal a man whose pioneering research on children's blood pressure is still used at institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and whose quiet philanthropy made him beloved in his community. Although the line between fact and fiction has been blurred with respect to the events of Graham's life, Chasing Moonlight shows that the real Moonlight Graham was just as iconic and endearing as the fictional character. - Publisher.
An all-star baseball player, former Yankees co-captain, and former New York Mets manager describes his Brooklyn childhood, the family and friends who influenced his career, and his hard-won efforts to become a big-league coach. Legendary New York Yankee Willie Randolph tells the story of his life playing and coaching for the most storied professional sports franchise in the world, detailing his career on and off the field with some of baseball biggest stars. Along the way he discusses his triumphs and struggles on the field and in the dugout, as well as his time spent as manager of the Yankees' crosstown rivals, the Mets. A moving portrait of a legendary team, a unique city, and a remarkable man.
With candor, heart, and intelligence, Rafael Nadal takes readers on his life's dramatic and triumphant journey, never losing sight along the way of the prize he values above all others: the unity and love of his family. In this memoir, written with award-winning journalist John Carlin, Nadal, one of the greatest players in the history of tennis, reveals the secrets of his game and shares the inspiring personal story behind his success. From the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, where he was coached by his uncle Toni from the age of four, to becoming the youngest professional tennis player ever to win all four Grand Slam titles, Nadal has managed the uncommon feat of being an acclaimed global celebrity while remaining an unfailingly gracious, relentlessly hardworking role model for people in all walks of life.--From publisher description.
The journey home by Jorge Posada | Literally Just Books
