The Baseball & Softball category has 196 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 329 ratings. The most-rated is Moneyball.
Curveball
Summary
The painfully honest and personal story of one of baseball’s most intriguing players. In Curveball, Zito shares his story with honesty and transparency. The ups and the downs. The wins and losses. By sharing his experiences as a man who had everything except happiness, Zito offers listeners a path through adversity and toward a life defined by true success. Despite achieving the kind of fame and fortune that most people only dream about, Barry Zito was plagued by both internal forces and external circumstances that robbed him of any sense of peace - until he finally found a purpose worth living for. Barry explores the twists and turns of his own journey, including: his dad’s constant push and pursuit for excellence, which translated into a toxic father-son relationship, how achieving superstardom in the Major Leagues created crippling fear, the personal destruction brought on by fame and fortune, and the disastrous seasons with the San Francisco Giants, including being benched for the 2010 playoffs and World Series. Zito comes face-to-face with the destructiveness of his own ego - his need to be viewed as the best. He also comes face-to-face with God and with the truth that he was loved no matter what he achieved. Photos of Zito throughout his career are available in the audiobook companion PDF download. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Barry Zito (P)2019 Thomas Nelson
Full Count
Summary
Met and Yankee All-Star Pitcher David Cone shares lessons from the World Series and beyond in this essential memoir for baseball fans everywhere. "There was a sense about him and an aura about him. Even when he was in trouble, he carried himself like a pitcher who said, 'I'm the man out here.' And he usually was." (Andy Pettitte on David Cone) To any baseball fan, David Cone was a bold and brilliant pitcher. During his 17-year career, he became a master of the mechanics and mental toughness a pitcher needs to succeed in the major leagues. A five-time All-Star and five-time World champion now gives his full count - balls and strikes, errors and outs - of his colorful life in baseball. From the pitchers he studied to the hitters who infuriated him, Full Count takes listeners inside the mind of a thoughtful pitcher, detailing Cone's passion, composure, and strategies. The audiobook is also filled with never-before-told stories from the memorable teams Cone played on - ranging from the infamous late '80s Mets to the Yankee dynasty of the '90s. Along the way, Full Count offers the lessons baseball taught Cone - from his mistakes as a young and naive pitcher to outwitting the best hitters in the world - one pitch at a time.
©2019 David Cone and Jack Curry (P)2019 Hachette Audio
October 1964
Summary
The New York Times best-seller. David Halberstam, an avid sports writer with an investigative reporter’s tenacity, superbly details the end of the 15-year reign of the New York Yankees in October 1964. That October found the Yankees going head-to-head with the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series pennant. Expertly weaving the narrative threads of both teams’ seasons, Halberstam brings the major personalities on the field - from switch-hitter Mickey Mantle to pitcher Bob Gibson - to life. Using the teams’ subcultures, Halberstam also analyzes the cultural shifts of the '60s. The result is a unique blend of sports writing and cultural history as engrossing as it is insightful. "Compelling.... 1964 is a chronicle of the end of a great dynasty and of a game, like the country, on the cusp of enormous change." (Newsweek) "Wonderful.... Memorable.... Halberstam describes the final game of the 1964 series accurately and so dramatically, I almost thought I had forgotten the ending." (The Washington Post Book World)
©1994 The Amateurs Limited (P)2018 Random House Audio
The Catcher Was a Spy
Summary
The only Major League ballplayer whose baseball card is on display at the headquarters of the CIA, Moe Berg has the singular distinction of having both a 15-year career as a catcher for such teams as the New York Robins and the Chicago White Sox and that of a spy for the OSS during World War II. Here, Dawidoff provides "a careful and sympathetic biography" ( Chicago Sun-Times) of this enigmatic man.
©1994 Nicholas Dawidoff (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
My Cubs
Summary
NPR's Scott Simon's personal, heartfelt reflections on his beloved Chicago Cubs, replete with club lore, memorable anecdotes, frenetic fandom, and wise and adoring intimacy that have made the world champion Cubbies baseball's most tortured - and now triumphant - franchise. No metaphor is necessary; the Chicago Cubs have been the living example of disappointment and failure for more than a century - until now. The Cubs' 2016 World Series win marked the end of a 108-year drought in the team's history, and Game Seven will forever be remembered as one of the most thrilling, monumental moments in sports history. For Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday and a lifelong Cubs fan, it was a moment he never thought he'd live to see. My Cubs chronicles Simon's adolescence in Chicago as a die-hard fan to tell the story of the relationship between the team and the neighborhood and city, and how the condition of Cubness has both charmed and haunted the lives of so many fans. From theories and curses to jinxes and myths, Simon chronicles how a team of "loveable losers" inspired such fervor and dedication from their fans and how their 2016 win transcended sports to become an underdog narrative for the whole nation.
©2017 Scott Simon (P)2017 Penguin Audio
In Pursuit of Pennants
Summary
The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants - why do some baseball teams win while others don't? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past 100-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one's circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage.
©2015 Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks
Ten Innings at Wrigley
Summary
It was a Thursday at Chicago's Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions - the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers - until they combined for 13 runs in the first inning. "The craziest game ever," one player called it. "And then the second inning started." Ten Innings at Wrigley is Kevin Cook's vivid account of a game that could only have happened at this ballpark, in this era, with this colorful cast of heroes and heels: Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Bruce Sutter, surly slugger Dave Kingman, hustler Pete Rose, unlucky Bill Buckner, scarred Vietnam vet Garry Maddox, troubled relief pitcher Donnie Moore, clubhouse jester Tug McGraw, and two managers pulling out what was left of their hair. It was the highest-scoring ballgame in a century, and much more than that. Bringing to life the run-up and aftermath of a contest the New York Times called "the wildest in modern history," Cook reveals the human stories behind the game-and how money, muscles and modern statistics were about to change baseball forever.
©2019 Kevin Cook (P)2019 Tantor
Pitching in a Pinch: Or Baseball from the Inside
Summary
Christy Mathewson's famous work Baseball from the Inside, originally published in 1912, now presented in a brand-new edition by historian, actor, writer, and biographer Eddie Frierson with additional writings by Matty never before published in audiobook form. This is a grand piece of history experienced by one of the greatest ballplayers who has ever lived. Christy Mathewson was more than baseball during his lifetime. He was the most recognizable American across the glove (along with Teddy Roosevelt) during the first two decades of the 20th century. His insights on life and the lessons he taught continue to inspire those who discover him today. The Mathewson Foundation brings you this all-new edition and hopes to introduce you, the listener, to a new friend and fascinating man.
©2018 The Mathewson Foundation and Eddie Frierson (P)2018 The Mathewson Foundation, Eddie Frierson and DWAR38 Productions
Right Off the Bat
Summary
Are baseball and cricket two sports divided by a common language? Both employ bats, balls, and innings. Fans of both love statistics, revel in nostalgia, and use baffling jargon. In Right Off the Bat, baseball nut Evander Lomke and cricket buff Martin Rowe explain "their" sport to the other sport's fans - through anecdotes, diagrams, photographs, and a curve (or dipper) or two. Cricket and baseball share a parallel and occasionally intertwined history (the first international cricket match was played in the United States). Indeed, they have mirrored their countries' struggles with identity and race, and have expanded beyond the shores of their founding countries to become multinational sports commanding global followings that are, even now, challenging the future of both sports. Right off the Bat is the perfect present for fans of either sport, as well as a handy introduction to those who want to divine the deeper rhythms of play.
©2011 Evander Lomke and Martin Rowe (P)2012 Evander Lomke and Martin Rowe
Ty Cobb
Summary
"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me, but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." (Ty Cobb) "Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit." (Babe Ruth) As one of America's oldest and most beloved sports, baseball has long been touted as the national pastime, but of all the millions of people who have played it over the last few centuries, few have influenced Major League Baseball like Ty Cobb, whose career spanned over 20 seasons. The Georgia Peach overcame early hardships to set nearly 100 MLB records in his time as a player and player-manager for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics. With an MVP and Triple Crown under his belt by the age of 25, Cobb went on to produce statistics that still lead MLB in several categories, including 4,065 combined runs scored and RBIs, a career batting average over .365, and at least 11 batting titles. In cases where he's no longer the record holder, it would take decades for players like Pete Rose to play in more games and collect more at bats and hits, for Rickey Henderson to score as many runs, and for Lou Brock to steal more bases. Even Americans who are relatively unfamiliar with baseball's storied history have likely heard of Ty Cobb and can recognize him as one of the sport's all time greats, but today his legacy is better known for controversy. In his day, Cobb was cast as a villain by fans of teams he played against, but he was portrayed in flattering manners shortly after his death. Things changed when other contemporary accounts came out and cast him as a vile racist, among other personal failings, much of which can be credited to the writing of sportswriter Al Stump and the modern biopic Cobb, released in 1994. It has only been recently that modern historians have pushed back a bit on those portrayals of Cobb and attempted to depict him in a more balanced light, and even then some of them have struggled. For example, in The Journal of American Culture, writer Hunter M. Hampton noted that biographer Charles Leerhsen's Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, released in 2015, "succeeds in debunking the myth of Cobb that Stump created, but...spawned a new myth by conflating Stump's shortcomings to depict Cobb as an egalitarian". Ty Cobb: The Life and Legacy of the Player Who Set the Most Major League Baseball Records profiles the controversial legend, both on the field and off it. You will learn about Ty Cobb like never before."
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
A Rare Recording of Babe Ruth
Summary
On April 27, 1947, baseball legend Babe Ruth, diagnosed with a terminal case of throat cancer, attended "Babe Ruth Day" at Yankee Stadium. A 13-year-old boy representing the American Legion baseball program introduces Babe Ruth, who delivers a speech to the crowd from home plate. George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (Feb 06, 1895 - Aug 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees.
Public Domain (P)2019 Listen & Live Audio
56
Summary
Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to left field. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee center fielder kept on hitting - at least one hit in game after game after game. In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio's astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe's first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive - a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband - as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day. DiMaggio's achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.
©2011 Kostya Kennedy (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Yogi Berra on When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Just Take It!
Summary
Yogi Berra comments on his book, When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Just Take It!, a collection of his famous witticisms. The baseball legend also talks about growing up in St. Louis and his baseball career.
(P) Sports Byline USA
Pastime Lost
Summary
Long before baseball became America’s national pastime, English citizens of all ages, genders, and classes of society were playing a game called baseball. It had the same basic elements as modern American baseball, such as pitching and striking the ball, running bases, and fielding, but was played with a soft ball on a smaller playing field and, instead of a bat, the ball was typically struck by the palm of the hand. There is no doubt, however, that this simpler English version of baseball was the original form of the pastime and was the immediate forerunner of its better-known American offspring. Strictly a social game, English baseball was played for nearly two hundred years before fading away at the beginning of the twentieth century. Despite its longevity and its important role in baseball’s evolution, however, today it has been completely forgotten. In Pastime Lost David Block unearths baseball’s buried history and brings it back to life, illustrating how English baseball was embraced by all sectors of English society and exploring some of the personalities, such as Jane Austen and King George III, who played the game in their childhoods. While rigorously documenting his sources, Block also brings a light touch to his story, inviting us to follow him on some of the adventures that led to his most important discoveries. The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Will entertain and enlighten baseball aficionados and any who are fascinated by bat and ball games." (Choice) "Makes for an excellent combination of information and entertainment that is sure to please any reader." (Lance Smith, Guy Who Reviews Sports Books) “You must read this awesome, indispensable book.”(John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball)
©2019 David Block (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
Pinstripe Nation
Summary
In Pinstripe Nation, Will Bishop explores the myriad of ways in which the Yankees and their successes (or spectacular failures) became interwoven with the nation's larger cultural narrative. In 1920, with their acquisition of Babe Ruth, the Yankees rose to prominence. With his power-hitting style attracting legions of new fans, the "Great Bambino" became a national hero of the Roaring Twenties. In contrast to Ruth's flamboyance, his less flashy successors Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio captured the spirit of striving and courage that carried America through the Depression and WWII years. The Pride of the Yankees, a popular movie celebrating Gehrig's career, typified the trend. Mirroring the nation's postwar swagger and confidence, the club of the Mickey Mantle-era remained hugely popular, but "Yankee hating" set in as well. Novels like Mark Harris' The Southpaw and Douglas Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant signified a widespread resentment of the team's outsized dominance. Amid the national turmoil of the 1960s, the Yankees also went into decline. In the following decades, as player salaries soared and team infighting grabbed headlines, the once-glowing portrayals of the team gave way to tell-all books like Ball Four and The Bronx Zoo. Yet, as this informative and entertaining audiobook amply shows, the Yankees have, through all their ups and downs, retained a hold on the American imagination unmatched by any other sports franchise. The book is published by University of Tennessee Press. The audiobook will be published by University Press Audiobooks. "The Yankees have connected with American culture for a century, and Will Bishop has done readers and fans a great service by documenting it all in one volume." (Marty Appel, author of Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss)
©2018 University of Tennessee Press (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
Pete Hamill on Eddie Stanky
Summary
It's a cold spring day in 1944. A young Pete Hamill is with his father watching the Brooklyn Dodgers play the Boston Braves. The wartime teams are just dismal - many major league players are serving their country and the teams have been clogged with has-beens and guys that are 4-F. But Pete's father tells him to "watch this little guy." His name is Eddie Stanky. An ex-soccer player, Stanky bounced around the minor leagues until getting the call to the majors. He was small, but played with intensity. He risked beanings by crouching over the plate. He slid hard into second base to break up the double play. Instead of hitting home runs, he'd draw a walk, and then steal second. He wasn't a great player, but his intangibles made him stand out. Eddie Stanky represents the twilight of Hamill's youth and his growing appreciation of his father through his admiration of Stanky. A time before Jackie Robinson; before the hated Giants and before the demise of Ebbets Field. This story will appeal not only to baseball fans, but to anyone who has rooted for the underdog.
©1990 Pete Hamill and Danny Peary (P)2001 Random House, Inc.
Sixty Feet, Six Inches
Summary
Legendary. Insightful. Uncompromising. Candid. Uncensored. Mr. October and Hoot Gibson unfortunately never faced each other on the field. But now, in Sixty Feet, Six Inches, these two legends open up in fascinating detail about the game they love and how it was, is, and should be played. Their one-of-a-kind insider stories recall a who's who of baseball nobility, including Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, Albert Pujols, Billy Martin, and Joe Torre. This is an unforgettable baseball history by two of its most influential superstars.
©2009 Bob Gibson (P)2009 Random House
The Eastern Stars
Summary
In the town of San Pedro in the Dominican Republic, baseball is not just a way of life. It's the way of life. By the year 2008, 79 boys and men from San Pedro had gone on to play in the Major Leagues - that means one in six Dominican Republicans who have played in the Majors have come from one tiny, impoverished region. Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez, and legions of other San Pedro players who came up in the sugar-mill teams flocked to the United States looking for opportunity, wealth, and a better life. Because of the sugar industry and the influxes of migrant workers from across the Caribbean to work in the cane fields and factories, San Pedro is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the Dominican Republic. A multitude of languages are spoken there, and a variety of skin colors populate the community; but the one constant is sugar and baseball. The history of players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many men who sought freedom from poverty through playing ball. The story of baseball in San Pedro is also that of the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries and, on a broader level, opens a window into U.S. history. As with Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this small story, rich with anecdote and detail, becomes much larger than ever imagined. Kurlansky reveals two countries' love affair with a sport and the remarkable journey of San Pedro and its baseball players. In his distinctive style, he follows common threads and discovers wider meanings about place, identity, and, above all, baseball.
©2010 Mark Kurlansky (P)2010 Tantor
Pitching in a Pinch
Summary
An inside baseball memoir from the game’s first superstar, with a foreword by Chad Harbach Christy Mathewson was one of the most dominant pitchers ever to play baseball. Posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the “Five Immortals,” he was an unstoppable force on the mound, winning at least 22 games for 12 straight seasons and pitching three complete-game shutouts in the 1905 World Series. Pitching in a Pinch, his witty and digestible book of baseball insights, stories, and wisdom, was first published over a hundred years ago and presents listeners with Mathewson’s plainspoken perspective on the diamond of yore - on the players, the chances they took, the jinxes they believed in, and, most of all, their love of the game. Baseball fans will love to listen to first-hand accounts of the infamous Merkle’s Boner incident, Giants manager John McGraw, and the unstoppable Johnny Evers and to learn how much - and just how little - has really changed in a hundred years.
Public Domain (P)2018 Tait Productions, LLC
Ann Liguori's Audio Hall of Fame: Goose Gossage
Summary
Goose Gossage won his claim to fame as a relief pitcher in crucial games. He recorded the final out to clinch a division, league or World Series title seven times. Between 1972 and 1994, Gossage played 22 seasons for nine different teams, spending his best years with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. His wild facial hair and a gruff demeanor only added to the intimidation of his blistering fastball. By the end of the 1987 season he trailed only Rollie Fingers in major league history in career saves. His eight All-Star selections as a reliever were a record until recently, and Goose Gossage was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. Gossage is interviewed here by Ann Liguori, award-winning luminary in sports broadcasting with a celebrated career that spans two decades. Liguori has interviewed some of the most legendary sports personalities, drawing out their success stories, their opinions on a variety of issues, and their love of the game.
©2009 Ann Liguori (P)2009 Ann Liguori