Baseball Science

On his 11th birthday, Jackson is nervous about moving up to middle school where he knows he'll be bullied by older kids, so he makes his wish, "I don't want to grow up!" When his 12th birthday rolls around, he discovers his wish came true: he's still 11, and he's starting fifth grade (again). At first, this is the perfect life. Jackson is the smartest kid in his class, the best on his baseball team, and the star of the school band. But after a few years of being eleven, he realizes his life is passing him by.

After facing a flamethrowing Little League hurler, 13-year-old “Stosh” Stoshack time-travels back to 1942 to join Satchel on an unforgettable road trip to the Negro League World Series. With nobody out and the series on the line, Stosh watches as Old Satch intentionally walks three straight batters, waves all but his catcher off the field, and then challenges the best hitter in baseball.

Stosh thought he was finished traveling back in time. But then Ralph Branca shows up in his room one night, begging for Stosh's help. In 1951, Branca pitched a ball to Bobby Thomson that would become the "Shot Heard Round the World", a home run that won the National League pennant for the New York Giants and changed the lives of Branca and Thomson forever. Branca says the Giants were cheating, and he needs Stosh to use his power with baseball cards to go back in time and set things right.

Best-selling author Dan Gutman delights young listeners with the what-if appeal and gentle humor of his Baseball Card Adventures, featuring a time-travelling boy who loves baseball. When Stosh travels into the past to meet Roberto Clemente, a legendary ballplayer and a beloved humanitarian, he’s got only one goal - to warn Roberto not to get on the doomed plane that will end his life in a terrible crash.

Joe Stoshack may be an awkward kid, but he knows baseball - and baseball cards. Since he was seven, he has been collecting them. So when his mother tells him he can earn five dollars by cleaning out an old lady's attic, Joe dreams of the cards he can buy.

In Imperfect, Jim Abbot retraces his remarkable journey. Born without a right hand, Jim Abbott as a boy dreamed of being a great athlete. Raised in Flint, Michigan, by parents who saw in his condition not a disability but an extraordinary opportunity, Jim became a two-sport standout in high school, then an ace pitcher for the University of Michigan. But his journey was only beginning. By 21, he’d won the gold medal game at the 1988 Olympics and cracked the starting rotation of the California Angels....

Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.

Of all the sports played across the globe, none has more curses, superstitions, or supernatural events like baseball, America's national pastime. While some of these can easily be explained, there are just as many that cannot. Field of Fantasies delves right into that superstition with short stories written by several key authors about baseball and the supernatural.

Nearly 10 years in the making, Intangibles is packed with stories and characters from the usually hidden subculture of locker rooms worldwide, and threaded with fascinating insights about the human mind and human relationships. Ryan pulls from a range of science disciplines - neuroscience, sociology, psychology and more - to debunk the notion that team chemistry is just a throwaway explanation for every fun-loving, underdog team that wins. Instead, she makes the case that team chemistry is a biological construct with a single function: to elevate performance.

Dan Gutman has won a wide and growing audience among young readers, who have eagerly devoured all the books in the sports-loving author’s Baseball Card Adventure series. In Ted & Me, time-traveling Stosh has finally been found out by the FBI. Tasked with using his Ted Williams card to go back to 1941 to prevent the attack on Pearl Harbor, Stosh also seizes on the chance to help the Splendid Splinter add even more home runs to his already legendary tally.

Why does a football spiral? How do some athletes jump so high? The answer is science! The Secret Science of Sports helps kids better understand concepts of science, technology, engineering, and math through the sports they love to play and watch.

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.

Documenting multiple challenges at every turn - as a target for racism from society at large and sexism both inside and outside of the Negro League - this is the unique story of the first woman to play professional baseball on a men's team, breaking barriers in sports while believing, "There's got to be a first in everything. Maybe it will be me." The text explains that as players began to leave the Negro League for major league teams, Toni Stone seized her only opportunity to play professional ball and replaced Henry Aaron on the Negro League's top team.

Jim & Me finds Stosh and his nemesis Bobby Fuller joining forces to help one of their heroes. Native American baseball legend Jim Thorpe was an Olympic champion - but then lost his medals due to scandal. Now only Stosh and Bobby have the power to change history and give Jim the legacy he deserved.

Every good hitter is fighting a battle.... Do you know what yours is and how to turn it to your advantage on the field? Three out of every four appearances at the plate result in an out. You probably know this...so why are you doubting your skills? To hit like a pro, you need to think like a pro - and that means mastering a specific mental attitude as well as your physical technique.

Two exciting Magic Tree House adventures, narrated by author Mary Pope Osborne. A Big Day for Baseball: Batter up! The magic tree house has whisked Jack and Annie back in time to the 1940s. They're in Brooklyn, New York for a very special baseball game. Hurricane Heroes in Texas: Jack and Annie are on a mission! When the magic tree house whisks them back to Galveston, Texas, in 1900, they find out that a big storm is coming.

Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start were committing a political act simply by being on the field.

Crack of the Bat takes listeners from the 1920s to the present, examining the role of baseball in the development of the radio industry and the complex coevolution of their relationship. Despite cable television’s ubiquity, live video streaming, and social media, radio remains an important medium through which fans engage with their teams.

When Joe Stoshack holds a baseball card, his hand starts to tingle. And if the card is old enough - like the rare Babe Ruth card his father gives him for his 12th birthday - Joe can travel back in time! One of baseball's greatest mysteries is whether or not the Babe actually called his fifth-inning home run in the 1932 World Series. With Joe's new card, he can solve that mystery once and for all. But when Joe and his father travel back in time, they find more than the answer to a baseball mystery.

For nearly 15 years NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture has been a leading scholarly journal of baseball history. Covering the cultural and historical implications of America’s national pastime, NINE has explored baseball from the earliest matches and little-known players of the 1800s to the modern billion-dollar industry and its superstars of today. Here, gathered for the first time, are the best essays from NINE that center on the complex and multifaceted topic of African Americans in baseball.