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.
Dalko
Summary
Gripping and tragic, Dalko is the definitive story of Steve “White Lightning” Dalkowski, baseball’s fastest pitcher ever. Dalko explores one man’s unmatched talent on the mound and the forces that kept ultimate greatness always just beyond his reach. For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher unites all of the eyewitness accounts from the coaches, analysts, teammates, and professionals who witnessed the game’s fastest pitcher in action. In doing so, it puts listeners on the fields and at the plate to hear the buzzing fastball of a pitcher fighting to achieve his major league ambitions. Just three days after his high school graduation in 1957, Steve Dalkowski signed into the Baltimore Orioles system. Poised for greatness, he might have risen to be one of the stars in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead, he spent his entire career toiling away in the minor leagues. An inspiration for the character Nuke LaLoosh in the classic baseball film Bull Durham, Dalko’s life and story were as fast and wild as the pitches he threw. The late Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who saw baseball greats Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax pitch, said “Dalko threw harder than all of ‘em.” Cal Ripken Sr., Dalkowski’s catcher for several years, said the same. Bull Durham screenwriter Ron Shelton, who played with Dalkowski in the minor leagues, said “They called him 'Dalko' and guys liked to hang with him and women wanted to take care of him and if he walked in a room in those days he was probably drunk.” This force on the field that could break chicken wire backstops and wooden fences with his heat but racked up almost as many walks as strikeouts in his career, spent years of drinking all night and showing up on the field the next day, just in time to show his wild heat again. What the Washington Post called “baseball’s greatest what-if story” is one of a superhuman, once-in-a-generation gift, a near-mythical talent that refused to be tamed. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. Said Shelton, “In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michaelangelo’s gift but could never finish a painting.” Dalko is the story of the fastest pitching that baseball has ever seen, an explosive but uncontrolled arm.
©2020 Influence Publishers (P)2020 Influence Publishers
The Last Natural
Summary
Before Bryce Harper was the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft, before he signed the sport’s biggest contract ever for a first-year pro, he gambled his future on one make-or-break season. The Las Vegas High School sophomore had already dominated the competition like Mickey Mantle on the playground and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which dubbed him the "most exciting prodigy since LeBron James". Seeking greater tests as a hitter, the precocious phenom got his GED and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, where he could face pro prospects in a challenging wooden-bat league that prohibited the hitter-friendly aluminum bats used throughout college ball. Harper shattered the school’s home run record with 31 (the previous mark was 12) and compiled a startling 1.513 OPS while leading his team to the Junior College World Series. For his heroics, the 17-year-old became the only position player from a junior college to win the Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation’s best amateur baseball player. Las Vegas sportswriter Rob Miech was "embedded" with the Southern Nevada Coyotes team and brings us along for the ride - into the dugout and locker room and on team buses and in motel rooms, from the scorched fields to the snow-capped horizons of the Scenic West Athletic Conference - to deliver a warts-and-all account of a boy among men playing like a man among boys. Amid the media circus that descended upon team and town, we read fascinating personal stories including the dynamics between veteran coach Tim Chambers and Harper’s protective father, the camaraderie with - and jealousies of - other players, the fans and autograph seekers (and girls) who all want a piece of the young star, and how Harper is suspended from the World Series after protesting an umpire’s call, and the role his faith plays in his life. The Last Natural shows us a season in the life of baseball’s top rising star, culminating in a dramatic conclusion when Harper is drafted number-one by the Washington Nationals and, after tense negotiations that go up until just seconds before the midnight deadline, signs a $9.9 million contract. Even more than this, Miech’s book is the story of a team and its community, the hopes and aspirations of its players and coaches, and the spirit of pure baseball that lies at the heart of the American dream.
©2012 Rob Miech (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Driving Mr. Yogi
Summary
It happens every spring. Yankees pitching great Ron Guidry arrives at the Tampa airport to pick up Hall of Fame catcher and national treasure Yogi Berra. Guidry drives him to the ballpark. They watch the young players. They talk shop. They eat dinner together and tease each other mercilessly. They trade stories about the greats they have met along the way. And the next day they do the same thing all over again.As every former ballplayer can appreciate, in that routine, every spring, there emerges a certain magic. Driving Mr. Yogia is the story of how a unique friendship between a pitcher and catcher is renewed every year. It began in 1999, when Berra was reunited with the Yankees after a long self- exile, the result of being unceremoniously fired by George Steinbrenner 14 years before. A reconciliation between Berra and the Boss meant that Berra would attend spring training again. Guidry befriended “Mr. Yogi” instantly. After all, Berra had been a mentor in the clubhouse back when Guidry was pitching for the Yankees. Guidry knew the young players would benefit greatly from Mr. Yogi’s encyclopedic knowledge of the game, just as Guidry had during his playing days. So he encouraged him to share his insights. Soon, an offhand batting tip from Mr. Yogi turned Nick Swisher’s season around. Stories about handling a hitter like Ted Williams or catching Don Larsen’s perfect game captured the players’ imagination. And in Yogi, Guidry found not just an elder companion or source of amusement – he found a best friend. By turns tender and laugh-out-loud funny, and teeming with unforgettable baseball yarns that span more than 50 years, Driving Mr. Yogi is a universal story about the importance of wisdom being passed from one generation to the next, as well as a reminder that time is what we make of it and compassion never gets old.
©2012 Harvey Araton (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra
Summary
In The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, author Phil Pepe takes Yogi from St. Louis to New York's Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, including all the stops along the way - from the days he put soles on women's shoes to his induction into the Baseball's Hall of Fame, when he coined one of his most remembered phrases: "I thank everybody for making this day necessary." Phil Pepe explores Yogi Berra as a boy, player, hero, coach, manager, husband, and father, a buffoon and a human being. He relates all of the Berraisms in an absorbing treatment that is simultaneously comical, thoughtful, and biographical. Who can forget what Yogi said about a popular restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." Or Yogi's take on Little League Baseball? "I think it's wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."
©1974, 1988, 2002 Associated Features, Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Fifty-Nine in '84
Summary
In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astounding 59 games - more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball's first World Series. Fifty-nine in '84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War - a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win. It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League. Wonderfully entertaining, Fifty-nine in '84 is an indelible portrait of a legendary player and a fascinating, little-known era of the national pastime.
©2010 Edward Achorn (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Baseball Forever!
Summary
John Miley has compiled the most comprehensive audio account of baseball history in existence - a vast and wildly entertaining assemblage of game tapes from throughout the sport's history. His archive contains classic moments, like Bill Mazeroski's homer and the Shot Heard 'Round the World, and amazing feats, like Carl Hubbell striking out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin - in order - in the 1934 All-Star Game. Narrated by Bob Costas, Baseball Forever! brings you highlights from Miley's collection, with numerous clips available for the first time since their original transmission. Best-selling author Jason Turbow (The Baseball Codes) mines the archive with Miley himself, taking us to some of baseball's greatest settings - Yankee Stadium, Ebbetts Field, Fenway Park - while guided by the game's legendary broadcasters, like Mel Allen, Red Barber, Harry Caray, and Vin Scully. Miley and Turbow have carefully selected an abundance of highlights for Baseball Forever! that is sure to inform, entertain, and appeal to anybody nostalgic for baseball’s storied history.
©2013 Jason Turbow. All rights reserved. (P)2013 AudioGO
Rothstein
Summary
The model for The Great Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, and mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played "with the faith of 15 million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe." Jazz Age Broadway, with its thugs, speakeasies, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and sports heroes comes to life in this vibrant biography of the man who reigned supreme when the fast buck ruled and violence stalked the streets of Gotham.
©2003 David Pietrusza (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks
If These Walls Could Talk
Summary
A New York Times Sports and Fitness Best Seller The Boston Red Sox are one of the most iconic teams in Major League Baseball, with nine World Series championships and countless greats who have donned the Sox uniform. In If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Boston Red Sox Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box, former player and longtime broadcaster Jerry Remy provides insight into the team's inner sanctum as only he can. Listeners will gain the perspective of players, coaches, and personnel in moments of greatness as well as defeat, making for a keepsake no fan will want to miss.
©2019 Jerry Remy and Nick Cafardo (P)2019 Tantor
Alma de campeon
Summary
En 2007, Mike Lowell, el jugador de tercera base de los Red Sox, llevó a su equipo a ganar la Serie Mundial por segunda vez en cuatro años. Para lograrlo, tuvo que vencer una multitud de obstáculos.Cómo pudo triunfar es una gran historia de superación, un modelo a seguir ante la adversidad que ha experimentado a lo largo de su vida Mike Lowell, y el éxito al ser unos de los mejores jugadores de beisbol de los últimos tiempos. Este libro resulta ser un relato muy conmovedor y entusiasta, narrándonos cómo pasó su niñez en Puerto Rico, pasando por los altibajos dentro de su carrera en el deporte profesional y hasta la batalla contra el cáncer, lo que lo ha llevado a ser un ser humano excepcional y ejemplo para milliones de personas. Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.
©2008 Mike Lowell y Rob Bradford Prefacio, Josh Beckett (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC
Clemente
Summary
Anyone who saw Roberto Clemente, as he played with a beautiful fury, will never forget him. He was a work of art in a game too often defined by statistics. During his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won four batting titles and led his team to championships in 1960 and 1971, getting a hit in all 14 World Series games in which he played. His career ended with 3,000 hits, the magical 3,000th coming in his final at-bat, and he and the immortal Lou Gehrig are the only players to have the five-year waiting period waived so they could be enshrined in the Hall of Fame immediately after their deaths. There is delightful baseball here, including thrilling accounts of the two World Series victories of Clemente's underdog Pittsburgh Pirates, but this is far more than just another baseball book. Roberto Clemente was that rare athlete who rose above sports to become a symbol of larger themes. Born near the canebrakes of rural Carolina, Puerto Rico, on August 18, 1934, at a time when there were no blacks or Puerto Ricans playing organized ball in the United States, Clemente went on to become the greatest Latino player in the major leagues. He was, in a sense, the Jackie Robinson of the Spanish-speaking world, a ballplayer of determination, grace, and dignity who paved the way and set the highest standard for waves of Latino players who followed in later generations and who now dominate the game. The Clemente that Maraniss evokes was an idiosyncratic character who, unlike so many modern athletes, insisted that his responsibilities extended beyond the playing field. In his final years, his motto was that if you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.
©2006 David Maraniss (P)2006 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. Audioworks is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division
Dalko
Summary
Gripping and tragic, Dalko is the definitive story of Steve “White Lightning” Dalkowski, baseball’s fastest pitcher ever. Dalko explores one man’s unmatched talent on the mound and the forces that kept ultimate greatness always just beyond his reach. For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher unites all of the eyewitness accounts from the coaches, analysts, teammates, and professionals who witnessed the game’s fastest pitcher in action. In doing so, it puts listeners on the fields and at the plate to hear the buzzing fastball of a pitcher fighting to achieve his major league ambitions. Just three days after his high school graduation in 1957, Steve Dalkowski signed into the Baltimore Orioles system. Poised for greatness, he might have risen to be one of the stars in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead, he spent his entire career toiling away in the minor leagues. An inspiration for the character Nuke LaLoosh in the classic baseball film Bull Durham, Dalko’s life and story were as fast and wild as the pitches he threw. The late Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who saw baseball greats Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax pitch, said: “Dalko threw harder than all of ‘em.” Cal Ripken Sr., Dalkowski’s catcher for several years, said the same. Bull Durham screenwriter Ron Shelton, who played with Dalkowski in the minor leagues, said: “They called him “Dalko”, and guys liked to hang with him and women wanted to take care of him, and if he walked in a room in those days, he was probably drunk.” This force on the field that could break chicken wire backstops and wooden fences with his heat but racked up almost as many walks as strikeouts in his career, spent years of drinking all night and showing up on the field the next day, just in time to show his wild heat again.
©2020 Influence Publishers (P)2020 Influence Publishers
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book
Summary
Calling all New York Yankees fans! The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book is a staple for anyone who loves baseball, sports trivia, and the Bronx Bombers. You will be tested on your knowledge of mind-blowing facts from the early days when Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Lou Gehrig owned New York, as well as the current era of Bronx baseball led by the likes of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. In this audio, you will find answers to over 350 trivia questions as well as hundreds of interesting facts, including: How many times was Billy Martin hired and fired as Yankees manager? (More times than you’d think.) In Derek Jeter’s junior high yearbook, students were asked to write what they planned to be doing in 10 years. Jeter answered, “Playing shortstop for the New York Yankees.” In a high school football game, former Yankee Johnny Damon suffered his first sports concussion at the hands of which NFL star? Back in 1998, former Yankee Alex Rodriguez was asked by a reporter who his dream date would be with. His answer? Jennifer Lopez. And 22 years later, J-Lo and A-Rod are currently engaged to be married. Who threw the Yankees’ very first no-hitter in 1917? Whether you’re a lifelong Yanks fan or are simply looking to hit one out of the park on MLB Trivia Night at your local bar, The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book is a grand slam.
©2020 HRP House (P)2021 HRP House
The Man in the Crowd
Summary
The celebrated author of The Game They Played offers a must-have memoir for Yankees fans. For Stanley Cohen, baseball is the prism through which he views the events of the last 70 years. In The Man in the Crowd, Cohen chronicles America’s changing mood and lifestyle from the years of World War II through the silent generation of the 50s, the revolutionary turmoil of the 60s through the social decay of the 70s, the excess of the 80s through the technological transformation of the 90s, up through the sobering uncertainty of the post-9/11 present day. His narrative spans four generations as he recounts in sparkling prose how, for his immigrant father, sports was a means of assimilation into life in the New World; the warmth of watching his son and, later, his grandson both fall heir to his devotion; and how the game of baseball has provided his life with its truest sense of continuity.
©1981 Stanley Cohen. New material copyright © 2012 Stanley Cohen (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Red Sox Nation
Summary
For baseball enthusiasts everywhere, the names of the greatest Boston Red Sox are synonymous with the game itself: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Dom DiMaggio, Carl Yastrzemski, Johnny Damon, and so many more. And no other franchise can claim as many moments that have become indelible parts of baseball’s history: Williams’ last at-bat, Carlton Fisk’s Game 6 home run, Bill Buckner’s fatal error. Red Sox Nation is the finest, most comprehensive history of this storied franchise, told from the point of view of the people who lived it. From every disappointment to each triumph, culminating with the 2004 World Championship, Red Sox Nation takes you into the dugout and onto the field to relive each moment.
©1992, 1997, 2005 Peter Golenbock (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Teammates
Summary
More than six years after his death, David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize winner for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them best sellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves. The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons - when they were young and seemingly indestructible - to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the audiobook is the friendship of these four very different men - Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams - who remained close for more than 60 years. The book starts out in early October 2001, when Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend, Ted Williams, whom they know is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group - "my guys", Williams used to call them - is unable to join them. This is a book - filled with historical details and first-hand accounts - about baseball and about something more: the richness of friendship.
©2015 David Halberstam (P)2015 Hachette Audio
Talking on Air
Summary
Talking on Air: A Broadcaster's Life in Sports highlights the 40-year career of Ken Coleman. The audiobook details a broadcasting life seen not only from inside the booth, but also from inside the minds and throughout the experiences of many of sports' greatest names.
©2000 Ken Coleman and Dan Valenti (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Lou Gehrig
Summary
"A compelling rumination by a baseball icon and a tragic hero." (Sports Illustrated) The lost memoir from baseball icon Lou Gehrig - a sensational discovery, published for the first time as a book and audiobook. "I guess every youngster who ever tossed a ball or swung a bat has dreams of some day breaking into big league baseball. I know I did...." So begins Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir. At the age of 24, Gehrig sat down to write the remarkable story of his life and career. He was one of the most famous athletes in the country, in the midst of a record-breaking season with the legendary 1927 World Series-winning Yankees. In an effort to grow Gehrig’s star, pioneering sports agent Christy Walsh arranged for this tale of baseball greatness to syndicate in several newspapers. Until now, those columns were lost to history. Lou comes alive in his inspiring memoir. It is a heartfelt rags-to-riches tale about a poor kid from New York who became one of the most celebrated ballplayers of all time. Fourteen years after he wrote his account, Lou would tragically die from ALS, a neuromuscular disorder now known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His poignant autobiography is followed by an insightful biographical essay by Alan D. Gaff, the historian who uncovered this treasure. Here is Lou - Hall of Famer, all-star, and MVP - back at bat.
©2020 Alan Gaff (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
Opening Day
Summary
April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first Black man to break into major-league baseball. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front, and Robinson had a chance to lead the way. He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed, he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration. Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
©2007 Jonathan Eig (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.
The Forgotten League
Summary
The greatest baseball players...you've never heard of! Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell, Monte Irvin, Buck Leonard...they are some of the greatest players to ever play the game. So, why have so few people heard of them? Because they never played in the MLB; they were the heroes of a baseball league often forgotten: the Negro League. This book traces the history of the league from the early days of professional Black baseball and the formation of leagues to post-integration decline. HistoryCaps is an imprint of BookCaps Study Guides. With each book, a brief period of history is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to science and philosophy), so check our growing catalog regularly to see our newest books.
©2021 Golgotha Press (P)2021 Golgotha Press
The Kid
Summary
At long last, the epic biography Ted Williams deserves - and that his 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. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2013 Ben Bradlee Jr. (P)2013 Hachette Audio