Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball stardom. As a 14-year old he fashions a baseball bat from an oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability. His talent also catches the eye of a sportswriter who eventually becomes instrumental in Hobbs' career. The appearance of a mysterious woman, however, shatters his dream. Years later Hobbs reappears as a rookie for the New York Knights and has...

Keith Law applies Daniel Kahneman's ideas about decision making to the game of baseball, and deepens our knowledge of the sport in this fun and deeply informative book. Baseball is a sport of decisions-- some small and routine, becoming the building blocks of the game; others so huge they dictate the future of franchises. Law offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball. He explains what motivated them,...

"What's it like to live through sports' longest season, the 162-game Major League Baseball schedule? THE GRIND captures the frustration, impermanence, and glory felt by the players, the staff, and their families from the start of spring training to the final game of the year; classy baseball writing in the Roger Angell or Tom Boswell tradition"--

"In Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury shows readers a side of the game only he can provide, given his singular background as both a longtime MLB pitcher and a mental skills coach for two of the sport's most fabled franchises, the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. Fans watching the game on television or even at the stadium don't have access to the mind games a pitcher must play in order to get through an at-bat, an inning, a game. Tewksbury...

Psychologist Stadler goes beneath the surface of the game to explore the psychology behind the actions of the game's greats. He begins with the mind's role in the game's basic skills, explaining the anticipatory thinking that can make a hitter see a "rising fastball," the complex muscular coordination required to throw a major league heater, and the intense spatial calculations the brain must perform in a split second in order for a fielder to catch...

Does team chemistry actually exist? Is there scientific or mathematical proof? Is team chemistry as real and relevant as on-base percentages and wins above replacement? Team chemistry alone won't win a World Series, but talent alone won't win it, either. And by interviewing more than 100 players, coaches, managers, and statisticians, as well as over five years of extensive research in neuroscience, biology, physiology, and psychology, the author proves...