Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453245324
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
A “hilarious” look back at the worst baseball team in history—the 1962 Mets—by the New York Times–bestselling author (Newark Star-Ledger). Five 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 lost 120 of them, making them statistically the worst team in the sport’s modern history. It’s possible they were even worse than that. Starring such legends as Marvin Throneberry—a first baseman so inept that his nickname had to be “Marvelous”—the Mets lost with swashbuckling panache. In an era when the fun seemed to have gone out of sports, the Mets came to life in a blaze of delightful, awe-inspiring ineptitude. They may have been losers, but a team this awful deserves to be remembered as legends. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453245340
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
New York Times bestseller: A novel of a messy mob war in Brooklyn that “makes you laugh out loud” (Chicago Sun-Times). Kid Sally Palumbo has been a loyal servant to the Brooklyn Mafia for years. His specialty is murder, and he is so skilled at it that he has gotten the attention of Mafia boss Papa Baccala. But unfortunately for Kid Sally, murder pays poorly. He wants to make real dough, to get respect, and to be able to tell his colleagues where to sit when they eat dinner. In short, he wants to be boss. The job would be his for the taking—if only Kid Sally weren’t a Grade A moron. To keep Sally from stirring up trouble, Baccala tosses him an easy assignment: Organize a bicycle race through Brooklyn, and keep the profits. Kid Sally bungles it, setting off a turf war that quickly engulfs the borough. The dimwitted mobsters are masters in the art of murder, and they are about to put on a show. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jimmy Breslin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Anybody's Game

Author: Heather Lang
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 0807503800
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 35

Book Description
The Best Children's Books of the Year 2019, Bank Street College In 1950, girls didn't play baseball––until Kathryn Johnston changed Little League. In 1950, Kathryn Johnston wanted to play Little League baseball, but an unwritten "rule" kept girls from trying out. So she cut off her hair and tried out as a boy under the nickname "Tubby." She made the team—and changed Little League forever. This is a story about wanting to do something so badly, you're willing to break the rules, and how breaking those rules can lead to change.

The Quote Verifier

Author: Ralph Keyes
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1429906170
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
Our language is full of hundreds of quotations that are often cited but seldom confirmed. Ralph Keyes's The Quote Verifier considers not only classic misquotes such as "Nice guys finish last," and "Play it again, Sam," but more surprising ones such as "Ain't I a woman?" and "Golf is a good walk spoiled," as well as the origins of popular sayings such as "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings," "No one washes a rented car," and "Make my day." Keyes's in-depth research routinely confounds widespread assumptions about who said what, where, and when. Organized in easy-to-access dictionary form, The Quote Verifier also contains special sections highlighting commonly misquoted people and genres, such as Yogi Berra and Oscar Wilde, famous last words, and misremembered movie lines. An invaluable resource for not just those with a professional need to quote accurately, but anyone at all who is interested in the roots of words and phrases, The Quote Verifier is not only a fascinating piece of literary sleuthing, but also a great read.

Casey Stengel

Author: Marty Appel
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1101911743
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Book Description
A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year Winner of the 2017 Casey Award for the Best Baseball Book of the Year “The ultimate biography.” —The New York Times As a player, Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel's contemporaries included Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson. As a legendary manager, he formed indelible, complicated relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Billy Martin. For more than five glorious decades, Stengel was the undisputed, quirky, hilarious, and beloved face of baseball—and along the way he revolutionized the role of manager. But for a man who spent so much of his life in the limelight Stengel remains an enigma. Acclaimed New York Yankees' historian and bestselling author Marty Appel digs into Casey Stengel's quirks and foibles, unearthing a tremendous trove of baseball stories, perspective, and history. Weaving in never-before-published family documents, Appel creates a matchless and intimate portrait of a private man. Casey Stengel is a biography that will be treasured by fans of our national pastime for years to come.

The Church of Baseball

Author: Ron Shelton
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593313968
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
LA TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning screenwriter and director of cult classic Bull Durham, the extremely entertaining behind-the-scenes story of the making of the film, and an insightful primer on the art and business of moviemaking. "This book tells you how to make a movie—the whole nine innings of it—out of nothing but sheer will.” —Tony Gilroy, writer/director of Michael Clayton and The Bourne Legacy "The only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."—Annie in Bull Durham Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. Shelton explains the rarely revealed ins and outs of moviemaking, from a film’s inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts and bolts of directing, the postproduction process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film.

A Tale of Three Cities

Author: Steven Travers
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597976172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants battle it out.

The Nightly News Nightmare

Author: Stephen J. Farnsworth
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442200677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
Numerical analysis presents different faces to the world. For mathematicians it is a bona fide mathematical theory with an applicable flavour. For scientists and engineers it is a practical, applied subject, part of the standard repertoire of modelling techniques. For computer scientists it is a theory on the interplay of computer architecture and algorithms for real-number calculations. The tension between these standpoints is the driving force of this book, which presents a rigorous account of the fundamentals of numerical analysis of both ordinary and partial differential equations. The point of departure is mathematical but the exposition strives to maintain a balance between theoretical, algorithmic and applied aspects of the subject. In detail, topics covered include numerical solution of ordinary differential equations by multistep and Runge-Kutta methods; finite difference and finite elements techniques for the Poisson equation; a variety of algorithms to solve large, sparse algebraic systems; methods for parabolic and hyperbolic differential equations and techniques of their analysis. The book is accompanied by an appendix that presents brief back-up in a number of mathematical topics. Dr Iserles concentrates on fundamentals: deriving methods from first principles, analysing them with a variety of mathematical techniques and occasionally discussing questions of implementation and applications. By doing so, he is able to lead the reader to theoretical understanding of the subject without neglecting its practical aspects. The outcome is a textbook that is mathematically honest and rigorous and provides its target audience with a wide range of skills in both ordinary and partial differential equations.

Sharpening Strategic Intelligence

Author: Richard L. Russell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139465201
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 15

Book Description
This book critically examines the weaknesses of American intelligence led by the Central Intelligence Agency in informing presidential decision making on issues of war and peace. It evaluates the CIA's strategic intelligence performance during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods as a foundation for examining the root causes of intelligence failures surrounding the September 11th attacks and assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs in the run up to the Iraq War. The book probes these intelligence failures, which lie in the CIA's poor human intelligence collection and analysis practices. The book argues that none of the post-9/11 intelligence reforms have squarely addressed these root causes of strategic intelligence failure and it recommends measures for redressing these dangerous vulnerabilities in American security.

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ISBN: 9780140062175
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 124

Book Description
Recounts the trials and tribulations of the New York Mets' first year and the courage and tenacity of coach Casey Stengel