Baseball Memoirs

Due to his achievements as a player and manager, as well as his sterling character, Gil Hodges deserves to be in the Hall of Fame more than any other player. A towering figure during the Golden Era of the 1950s, Hodges was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ powerful first baseman who, alongside Jackie Robinson, helped drive his team to six pennants and a thrilling World Series victory in 1955. Fans never booed the beloved home run hitter from Indiana who married a Brooklyn girl and settled in their borough, and they famously prayed for him when he slumped.

On July 10, 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher preparing to go to college and dreaming of one day taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. His dream was derailed as he crossed the parking lot of a McDonald’s, where a car sent him flying through the air and into a wall. In the wake of the accident, even as he reached the major leagues as a groundskeeper, David was tortured by the aftermath of his injuries. One Base at a Time recounts in vivid detail his subsequent 29-year struggle with PTSD.

John Arezzi was a lifelong Mets fan who dreamed of a job in baseball. In 1981, he took a job with the Mets Class A team in North Carolina. But Arezzi had another love: professional wrestling. Mat Memories is Arezzi's chance to hold the mic, and he holds nothing back - he names names and tells the untold behind-the-scenes stories: from the ring, the stage, and the diamond.

In One for the Record, George Plimpton recounts Hank Aaron's thrilling race to become the new home run champion. Amid media frenzy and death threats, Aaron sought to beat Babe Ruth's record. In 1974 he finally succeeded.

In descriptions of athletes, the word “hero” is bandied about and liberally attached to players with outstanding statistics and championship rings. Gil Hodges: A Hall of Fame Life is the story of a man who epitomized heroism in its truest meaning, holding values and personal interactions to be of utmost importance throughout his life - on the diamond, as a marine in World War II, and in his personal and civic life.

Opening Day: 50-for-50 is a baseball tribute like no other—a well-researched work of love representing a half-century of great stories and historical context linked to each of those 50 days. This emotional journey connects three cities, six stadiums, five home teams, and four generations while overcoming life events, baseball’s labor unrest, and the 33-year absence of a hometown team. Along the way, Ortman encountered five U.S. Presidents and more than 50 future Hall of Fame players, coaches, and broadcasters: from Reagan to Obama, Weaver to Torre, and hundreds more.

One of the most respected and successful athletes ever to grace a major-league pitcher's mound, Orel Hershiser had an approach to the game that put him in a class by himself. Now that he's retired, this Cy Young Award winner, MVP of division- and World Series-winning teams, and Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" looks back on the people, events, and decisions that most affected his life, on the field and off.

Before he wrote a memoir, Jeffrey Loria was the author of one of America's most remarkable professional careers. He began as a very private modern art dealer, and ultimately became a very public Major League Baseball team owner and World Series champion. Welcome to his unique and thrilling world.

Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms brings baseball legends to life through the eyes of Elden Auker, a submarine-style pitcher in the American League from 1933-1942.

No team in American sports has as storied a history as the New York Yankees, winners of 27 World Series. As the strength and conditioning coach for the Yankees for parts of three decades, Jeff Mangold was firmly imbedded in building the dynasty of the 1990s and 2000s. In Power and Pinstripes, Mangold shares priceless stories from his 14 seasons behind the scenes in the Bronx.

Considered to be "as monumental -- and enigmatic -- a legend as American sport has ever seen" ( Sports Illustrated), Willie Mays is arguably the greatest player in baseball history, still revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball's bold expansion to California.

Ralph Branca is best known for throwing the pitch that resulted in Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard ‘Round the World", the historic homerun that capped an incredible comeback and won the pennant for the Giants in 1951. And so Branca was on the losing end of what many consider to be baseball's most thrilling moment, but that notoriety belies a profoundly successful life and career.

As star players for the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, and prior to that as the first black players to be candidates to break professional baseball's color barrier, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella would seem to be natural allies. But the two men were divided by a rivalry going far beyond the personality differences and petty jealousies of competitive teammates. Behind the bitterness were deep and differing beliefs about the fight for civil rights.

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, Aaron Judge emerged as the biggest story in baseball in 2017 with his monstrous home runs and record-breaking ability. A three-sport athlete in high school and a Division I ballplayer at Fresno State, the Californian was drafted by the New York Yankees in the first round in 2013 and made it to the majors by August 2016. Homering in his first major league at-bat and starting in right field straight out of spring training in 2017, he gave Yankees fans hope for the future, along with "Baby Bombers" teammates such as Gary Sanchez.

The 1947 World Series was "the most exciting ever" in the words of Joe DiMaggio, with a decade's worth of drama packed into seven games between the mighty New York Yankees and underdog Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Jackie Robinson's first Series, a postwar spectacle featuring Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, and President Harry Truman in supporting roles. It was also the first televised World Series - sportswriters called it "Electric October".

In a season marked by personal and team tragedy—the death of his wife and his teammate Ray Chapman, who is the only player to die as a result of being hit by a pitch—Covey pitched three complete-game victories in the Cleveland Indians’ 1920 World Series championship.

In 1939, at the age of 29 - after playing professional baseball for 12 years - Frazier Robinson caught the legendary Satchel Paige in barnstorming games from New Orleans to Walla Walla. Robinson played several more seasons in the Negro Leagues before finishing his career in Canada. While his career was a solid one, it was less spectacular than that of his friend and Hall-of-Famer, Satchel Paige, and so more typical of the experience of most Negro Leaguers.

In time for the 50th anniversary of the Mets' miraculous 1969 World Series win, right fielder Ron Swoboda tells the story of that amazing season, the people he played with and against (sometimes at the same time), and what life was like as an "Every Man" ballplayer. Ron Swoboda wasn't the greatest player the Mets ever had, but he made the greatest catch in Met history, saving a game in the 1969 World Series, and his RBI clinched the final game. By Met standards that makes him legend.

Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy traces the bewitching story of the curse that has lain over the Red Sox since they sold Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees in 1920. He sheds light on classic Sox debacles, from Johnny Pesky's so-called hesitation throw to the horrifying dribbler that slithered between Bill Buckner's legs. Lively and filled with anecdotes, this is baseball folklore at its best.

Bucky Veil was a professional baseballer who played the game in the early years of the 20th century, a time when baseball was beginning to evolve into America's national pastime. As a 22-year-old rookie with the 1903 Pittsburg Pirates, he pitched in the first world series of modern major league baseball, thus witnessing firsthand an important milestone in the history of the sport.