Heads-Up Baseball

Author: Ken Ravizza
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
ISBN: 9781570280214
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
"This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills which help speed you to your full potential."---Dave Winfield What does it mean to play heads-up baseball? A heads-up player has confidence in his ability, keeps control in pressure situations, and focuses on one pitch at a time. His mental skills enable him to play consistently at or near his best despite the adversity baseball presents each day. "My ability to fully focus on what I had to do on a daily basis was what made me the successful player I was. Sure I had some natural ability, but that only gets you so far. I think I learned how to focus; it wasn't something that I was necessarily born with." -- Hank Aaron "Developing and refining my mental game has played a critical role in my success in baseball. For years players have had to develop these skills on their own. This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills that will help speed you toward your full potential." -- Dave Winfield

The Mental Game Of Baseball

Author: H. A. Dorfman
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 1888698543
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Book Description
In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peack performance at every level of the game.

High Scoring Baseball

Author: Todd Guilliams
Publisher: Human Kinetics
ISBN: 1492581666
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
What is the definition of a high-scoring offense? How do you measure a player’s offensive productivity? How do you keep your team on track throughout the course of a long season? High-Scoring Baseball is the definitive guide for establishing an aggressive, opportunistic, and disciplined offense. Inside you’ll find detailed coverage of the four offensive team goals and the six ways to create offensive pressure that gives every team a chance to be high scorers. Then go inside the numbers for an in-depth analysis of run production. Discover the most common predictors for achieving a big inning, the importance of getting the lead-off hitter on, and the importance of collecting free bases. You’ll identify the most effective strategies based on specific game situations as well as the proper mental approach and physical adjustments to execute in those situations. Offense is more than a player’s batting average or a team’s ability to hit the long ball. It’s all about run production. It’s a player’s ability to achieve a high-quality at-bat and a team’s ability to create a big inning. High-Scoring Baseball will change the way you see and play the game.

Ninety Percent Mental

Author: Bob Tewksbury
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0738234931
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
Former Major League pitcher and mental skills coach for two of baseball's legendary franchises (the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants) Bob Tewksbury takes fans inside the psychology of baseball. In Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury shows readers a side of the game only he can provide, given his singular background as both a longtime MLB pitcher and a mental skills coach for two of the sport's most fabled franchises, the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. Fans watching the game on television or even at the stadium don't have access to the mind games a pitcher must play in order to get through an at-bat, an inning, a game. Tewksbury explores the fascinating psychology behind baseball, such as how players use techniques of imagery, self-awareness, and strategic thinking to maximize performance, and how a pitcher's strategy changes throughout a game. He also offers an in-depth look into some of baseball's most monumental moments and intimate anecdotes from a "who's who" of the game, including legendary players who Tewksbury played with and against (such as Mark McGwire, Craig Biggio, and Greg Maddux), game-changing managers and executives (Joe Torre, Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean), and current star players (Jon Lester, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew Miller, Rich Hill). With Tewksbury's esoteric knowledge as a thinking-fan's player and his expertise as a "baseball whisperer", this entertaining book is perfect for any fan who wants to see the game in a way he or she has never seen it before. Ninety Percent Mental will deliver an unprecedented look at the mound games and mind games of Major League Baseball.

The Hidden Game of Baseball

Author: John Thorn
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022627683X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 453

Book Description
The acclaimed classic on the statistical analysis of baseball records in order to evaluate players and win more games. Long before Moneyball became a sensation or Nate Silver turned the knowledge he’d honed on baseball into electoral gold, John Thorn and Pete Palmer were using statistics to shake the foundations of the game. First published in 1984, The Hidden Game of Baseball ushered in the sabermetric revolution by demonstrating that we were thinking about baseball stats—and thus the game itself—all wrong. Instead of praising sluggers for gaudy RBI totals or pitchers for wins, Thorn and Palmer argued in favor of more subtle measurements that correlated much more closely to the ultimate goal: winning baseball games. The new gospel promulgated by Thorn and Palmer opened the door for a flood of new questions, such as how a ballpark’s layout helps or hinders offense or whether a strikeout really is worse than another kind of out. Taking questions like these seriously—and backing up the answers with data—launched a new era, showing fans, journalists, scouts, executives, and even players themselves a new, better way to look at the game. This brand-new edition retains the body of the original, with its rich, accessible analysis rooted in a deep love of baseball, while adding a new introduction by the authors tracing the book’s influence over the years. A foreword by ESPN’s lead baseball analyst, Keith Law, details The Hidden Game’s central role in the transformation of baseball coverage and team management and shows how teams continue to reap the benefits of Thorn and Palmer’s insights today. Thirty years after its original publication, The Hidden Game is still bringing the high heat—a true classic of baseball literature. Praise for The Hidden Game “As grateful as I was for the publication of The Hidden Game of Baseball when it first showed up on my bookshelf, I’m even more grateful now. It’s as insightful today as it was then. And it’s a reminder that we haven’t applauded Thorn and Palmer nearly loudly enough for their incredible contributions to the use and understanding of the awesome numbers of baseball.” —Jayson Stark, senior baseball writer, ESPN.com “Just as one cannot know the great American novel without Twain and Hemingway, one cannot know modern baseball analysis without Thorn and Palmer.” —Rob Neyer, FOX Sports

Where Nobody Knows Your Name

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307949583
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
Minor league baseball is quintessentially American: small towns, small stadiums, $5 tickets, $2 hot dogs, the never-ending possibility of making it big. But looming above it all is always the real deal: Major League Baseball. John Feinstein takes the reader behind the curtain into the guarded world of the minor leagues, like no other writer can. Where Nobody Knows Your Name explores the trials and travails of the inhabitants of Triple-A, focusing on nine men, including players, managers and umpires, among many colorful characters, living on the cusp of the dream. The book tells the stories of former World Series hero Scott Podsednik, giving it one more shot; Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoya, shepherding generations across the line; and designated hitter Jon Lindsey, a lifelong minor leaguer, waiting for his day to come. From Raleigh to Pawtucket, from Lehigh Valley to Indianapolis and beyond, this is an intimate and exciting look at life in the minor leagues, where you’re either waiting for the call or just passing through.

Fully Equipped Playbook

Author: Brandon Guyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Book Description
Athletes who want to be great cannot rely on physical talent alone. The mission of Fully Equipped Athlete is to equip athletes with specific tools to help them unlock their full potential. The 10 tools I developed over my career that formed The Fully Equipped Playbook helped me go from a struggling high school player, to seven seasons in Major League Baseball. I guarantee once you become Fully Equipped, you will be ready to take your game to the next level!I was that kid who played outside until called for dinner. I loved and played every sport, but there was just something special about baseball. I knew early on it was my true passion and I set out to be the very best version of myself. This was a series of trial and error stories. I came to realize that hitting more balls and lifting more weights wasn't the answer for me. To achieve greatness, I knew I needed to seek and acquire tools I felt were essential in my development as a well rounded person and player. So, that's what I did. I became OBSESSED with learning ways to improve. It started with nutrition, and finding ways to fuel my body for success. It wasn't an overnight success either. Nutritional training soon turned into mental training, and functional physical training specific to baseball. If it could help me get to the next level, I was all in.I feel blessed to say I'm a 7 year veteran of Major League Baseball. It's something I am very proud of. Of course I would have loved to play 20+ years, but it wasn't in the cards, and I'm at peace with that. When I sit back and reflect on what I could have done differently, I can honestly say there's nothing. I gave my all every single day and earned everything I was able to achieve. My scholarship to the University of Virginia, my promotions in the minor leagues, my call to the show, my role as a player in the bigs. I worked for literally everything. Today I'm better for it. I'm grateful for the demotions and the promotions. I'm grateful for the strike outs and the home runs, for the hits I got robbed of and the ones that blooped in. I'm grateful for the losses and the wins, the struggles and the triumphs, the successes and failures. I'm grateful for the joy and the tears, and for the beginning and the end. I'm grateful for all of that because now I have the experience and knowledge to pass onto you.The Fully Equipped Playbook was designed from the ground up to give you a comprehensive breakdown of the tools that I have developed and used to achieve my goals, and how you can use them to achieve yours.

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches

Author: Tyler Kepner
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385541023
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From The New York Times baseball columnist, an enchanting, enthralling history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching, based on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred people from Hall of Famers to the stars of today. The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating. In K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart. Filled with priceless insights from many of the best pitchers in baseball history--from Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan to Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw--K will be the definitive book on pitching and join such works as The Glory of Their Times and Moneyball as a classic of the genre.

Life Is Yours to Win

Author: Augie Garrido
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439186944
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
A successful college baseball coach recounts his transition from a fear-based life to a rewarding career of passionate motivation, outlining the lessons he has learned about opportunity, courage, and failure.

Infinite Baseball

Author: Alva Noë
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190928190
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Baseball is a strange sport: it consists of long periods in which little seems to be happening, punctuated by high-energy outbursts of rapid fire activity. Because of this, despite ever greater profits, Major League Baseball is bent on finding ways to shorten games, and to tailor baseball to today's shorter attention spans. But for the true fan, baseball is always compelling to watch -and intellectually fascinating. It's superficially slow-pace is an opportunity to participate in the distinctive thinking practice that defines the game. If baseball is boring, it's boring the way philosophy is boring: not because there isn't a lot going on, but because the challenge baseball poses is making sense of it all. In this deeply entertaining book, philosopher and baseball fan Alva Noë explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game. For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame. To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened. Noe also explains the curious activity of keeping score: a score card is not merely a record of the game, like a video recording; it is an account of the game. Baseball requires that true fans try to tell the story of the game, in real time, as it unfolds, and thus actively participate in its creation. Some argue that baseball is fundamentally a game about numbers. Noe's wide-ranging, thoughtful observations show that, to the contrary, baseball is not only a window on language, culture, and the nature of human action, but is intertwined with deep and fundamental human truths. The book ranges from the nature of umpiring and the role of instant replay, to the nature of the strike zone, from the rampant use of surgery to controversy surrounding performance enhancing drugs. Throughout, Noe's observations are surprising and provocative. Infinite Baseball is a book for the true baseball fan.