A Dog Named Slugger

Author: Leigh Brill
Publisher: BelleBooks
ISBN: 1935661086
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
"Irresistible . . . Slugger is the heart and soul of the book, and his dedication, devotion, and love make him an unforgettable character." --Booklist "Brill has written a fitting tribute to her special friend named Slugger." --Southern Lit Review "A wonderful read for teens and adults." --School Library Journal With him by her side, there were no limits. With hundreds of stellar reviews, including Booklist and School Library Journal, this heart-wrenching and heart-warming book (winner of the Epic nonfiction award) tells the inspiring story of cerebral palsy sufferer Leigh Brill and her service dog, Slugger. As a college student, Brill's battle with her affliction seemed lost. The pain and lack of mobility made an independent life seem impossible. But then she discovered the world of service dogs, and met Slugger. The big Labrador retriever transformed her life. Leigh Brill published her first story at the age of 15; since then her writing has reached national and international audiences through publications including Chicken Soup to Inspire the Body & Soul, the Guideposts book Soul Menders, and the magazines, Just Labs: A Celebration of the Labrador Retriever, and Ability. Leigh has shared more than a decade of her life in the company of service dogs and continues to do so. She serves on the Board of Directors for Saint Francis Service Dogs, and lives with her family in rural Virginia. Find her on Facebook.

Crack of the Bat

Author: Bob Hill
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781582614342
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description
Crack of the Bat is a comprehensive and entertaining look at the most famous icon in the history of baseball, the Louisville Slugger bat. It includes the evolution of bats from pioneer wagon tongues to the sleek aluminum models of today. It examines the amazing physics involved in hitting a baseball, where .003 seconds means the difference between a home run and a foul ball. It tells the fascinating history of the still family-owned Hillerich & Bradsby Company, which in just 80 years went from making butter churns to making seven million bats a year. Reinforcing this are dozens of stories about the bats themselves, and the personal idiosyncracies of the most famous hitters in baseball history, including Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr. and Derek Jeter. The book explains why the players picked the bats they did, the amazing lengths they would go to to protect them, and how valuable these bats have now become in the hands of collectors. Illustrated with hundreds of archival photographs, baseball decals, and icons, many in color, this book will become as much a cherished keepsake as some of the bats it describes.

The Other End of the Leash

Author: Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307489183
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Learn to communicate with your dog—using their language “Good reading for dog lovers and an immensely useful manual for dog owners.”—The Washington Post An Applied Animal Behaviorist and dog trainer with more than twenty years’ experience, Dr. Patricia McConnell reveals a revolutionary new perspective on our relationship with dogs—sharing insights on how “man’s best friend” might interpret our behavior, as well as essential advice on how to interact with our four-legged friends in ways that bring out the best in them. After all, humans and dogs are two entirely different species, each shaped by its individual evolutionary heritage. Quite simply, humans are primates and dogs are canids (as are wolves, coyotes, and foxes). Since we each speak a different native tongue, a lot gets lost in the translation. This marvelous guide demonstrates how even the slightest changes in our voices and in the ways we stand can help dogs understand what we want. Inside you will discover: • How you can get your dog to come when called by acting less like a primate and more like a dog • Why the advice to “get dominance” over your dog can cause problems • Why “rough and tumble primate play” can lead to trouble—and how to play with your dog in ways that are fun and keep him out of mischief • How dogs and humans share personality types—and why most dogs want to live with benevolent leaders rather than “alpha wanna-bes!” Fascinating, insightful, and compelling, The Other End of the Leash is a book that strives to help you connect with your dog in a completely new way—so as to enrich that most rewarding of relationships.

The Kid

Author: Ben Bradlee Jr.
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316084484
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 804

Book Description
From acclaimed journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. comes the epic biography of Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams that baseball fans have been waiting for. Williams was the best hitter in baseball history. His batting average of .406 in 1941 has not been topped since, and no player who has hit more than 500 home runs has a higher career batting average. Those totals would have been even higher if Williams had not left baseball for nearly five years in the prime of his career to serve as a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea. He hit home runs farther than any player before him -- and traveled a long way himself, as Ben Bradlee, Jr.'s grand biography reveals. Born in 1918 in San Diego, Ted would spend most of his life disguising his Mexican heritage. During his 22 years with the Boston Red Sox, Williams electrified crowds across America -- and shocked them, too: His notorious clashes with the press and fans threatened his reputation. Yet while he was a God in the batter's box, he was profoundly human once he stepped away from the plate. His ferocity came to define his troubled domestic life. While baseball might have been straightforward for Ted Williams, life was not. The Kid is biography of the highest literary order, a thrilling and honest account of a legend in all his glory and human complexity. In his final at-bat, Williams hit a home run. Bradlee's marvelous book clears the fences, too.

My Home Team

Author: Dave Kindred
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541702220
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
In this poignant memoir, a legendary sports journalist writes about the team that changed his life: the Morton High School Lady Potters basketball team. Dave Kindred has covered dozens of Super Bowls and written about stars like Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. But a high-school girls basketball team—the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois—stands apart from the rest. In this moving and intimate story, Kindred writes about his rise to professional success and the changes that brought him back to his hometown late in life. As he dealt with personal hardship, his urge to write sustained him. For years, he has recapped the games of the Lady Potters, including their many runs to state championships. He attended game after game, sitting in the stands and making notes, paid nothing but Milk Duds. And the team and their community were there for him as he lost a grandson to addiction and his wife to long-term illness. Tender and honest, Kindred’s story reminds readers what sports are really about. He trades in the exhausting spectacle of Super Bowl Sunday for the joy of togetherness, the fire of competition, and the inexhaustible hope for victory tomorrow.

Chili Dog MVP

Author: David Fletcher
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737923633
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
"Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, The 1972 White Sox and A Transforming Chicago" re-creates a unique time and place in baseball and Chicago history, when the arrival of a controversial slugger lifted the bedraggled Sox out of a daunting hole and briefly united a fractious fan base for the two hours-plus he played.Lead author John Owens, along with Dr. David Fletcher and George Castle, weave an entertaining narrative of Allen, his teammates and broadcaster Harry Caray bringing pride to a franchise that had one foot out of town to Milwaukee just 2 1/2 years previously and equal status in profile with the dominant Chicago Cubs.The best baseball books endeavor to re-create the time, place and "feel" of a team and the people around it. "Chili Dog MVP" follows in that tradition to recall a more innocent time in baseball intertwining with the hard truths of a hyper-political city like Chicago. In both baseball and life, for which the game is often a metaphor, past is prologue.Edited by baseball writer par excellence, George Castle. George has written 21 books, and is a historian for the Chicago Baseball Museum.

Lake Wobegon Summer 1956

Author: Garrison Keillor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101495693
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
Meet fourteen-year-old Gary. A self-described "tree-toad,"a sly and endearing geek, Gary has many unwieldy passions, chief among them his cousin Kate, his Underwood typewriter and the soft-porn masterpiece, High School Orgies. The folks of Lake Wobegon don't have much patience for a kid's ungodly obsessions, and so Gary manages to filter the hormonal earthquake that is puberty and his hopeless devotion to glamorous, rebellious Kate through his fantastic yarns. With every marvellous story he moves a few steps closer to becoming a writer. And when Kate gets herself into trouble with the local baseball star, Gary also experiences the first pangs of a broken heart. With his trademark gift for treading "a line delicate as a cobweb between satire and sentiment"(Cleveland Plain Dealer), Garrison Keillor brilliantly captures a newly minted post-war America and delivers an unforgettable comedy about a writer coming of age in the rural Midwest.

Sports Illustrated Kids Top Dogs

Author: The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids
Publisher: Sports Illustrated Kids
ISBN: 9781618930514
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
From the imagination of Sports Illustrated Kids' editors comes one of the most playful - and visually funny - sports titles ever produced. Top Dogs - Babe Ruff and the Legendary Canines of Sports promises to showcase some of the greatest stars and most memorable moments from sports history as depicted by dogs. From current baseball slugger Albert Poodles to legendary Cleveland running back Jim Bow-wow-wown, kids will learn about the rich history of sports while laughing at visually arresting photo collages of dog faces on real athlete bodies. The text write-ups will include real sports facts enlivened with pet puns. (For example, who can forget how New York Yankees great Babe Ruff helped the Bronx Bombers fetch four of their 27 world championships from 1923 to 1932. Or how swimmer Michael Yelps lapped up the competition at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.) Sports fans and dog lovers alike will sit up and beg for more!

S is for Slugger

Author: James Littlejohn
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 164125436X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Book Description
Batter up! The creators of B is for Baller and G is for Golazo are back with a dynamic, colorful parade of baseball legends. Featuring dozens of superstars and historical figures like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Ken Griffey Jr., and David Ortiz, S is for Slugger is the ultimate ABC book for budding baseball fans.

The Captain & Me

Author: Ron Blomberg
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1641255862
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
The deeply personal story of a friendship between two teammates, and of a human bond which ultimately transcends the game itself. As back-to-back No. 1 draft picks for the New York Yankees, Ron Blomberg and Thurman Munson made for an odd couple. One was a good-looking, gregarious kid from Atlanta who cheerfully talked anyone's ear off at the slightest provocation; the other was a dumpy, grumpy dude from the Midwest rust belt who was about as fond of making idle chit-chat as he was of shaving. Despite the surface differences, the two men would form a close attachment as they ignited a youth movement with the 1970s Yankees. Now, over 40 years after Munson's shocking death in a plane crash at age 32, Blomberg opens up to author Dan Epstein about the beloved Yankees captain in an extraordinary memoir that reaches far beyond baseball.? By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, The Captain & Me shares tales of clubhouse hijinks during the infamous Bronx Zoo era, adventures on the road, and even rubbing shoulders with mobsters. Blomberg also offers a fascinating glimpse into baseball history, including the first-ever strike and lockout, the escalation of the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry, and the start of full-scale free agency. This illuminating remembrance of Munson is filled with untold stories about his analytical-yet-hard-nosed approach to baseball, as well as his kindness and generosity off the field.