Baseball
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4 cassettes / 4 hours
Read by Ken Burns
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The companion AudioBook to Ken Burns's magnificent PBS Television Series
The authors of the acclaimed and history-making bestseller The Civil War now turn to another defining American phenomenon. Their subject is Baseball.
During eight months of the year, it is played professionally every day; all year round, amateurs play it, watch it, and dream about it. Baseball produces remarkable Americans: it seizes hold of ordinary people and shapes them into something we must regard with awe.
Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio . . . truly gifted human beings acting out universal fantasies that, for whatever reason, are most perfectly expressed on a baseball field.
All this and more rings through Ward and Burns's moving, crowded, fascinating history of the game - a history that goes beyond stolen bases, triple plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced our national life: politics, race, labor, big business, advertising, and social custom.
The audio covers every milestone of the game: from the rules drawn up in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright to the founding of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in 1885, from the 1924 Negro World Series through Jack Roosevelt Robinson's major-league debut in 1947, and Nolan Ryan's seventh and last no-hitter in 1991.
Monumental, affecting, informative, and entertaining - Baseball is an audio that speaks to all Americans.
Liked Baseball? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Baseball. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Nine Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction -
The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction -
The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction -
Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ‘76 Shares baseball, sports, nonfiction
“People who read Baseball tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (history about sports), start with these.”
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Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball's Color Line
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Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded
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Red Sox Century: The Definitive History of Baseball's Most Storied Franchise
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The Cooperstown Casebook: Who’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Who Should Be In, and Who Should Pack Their Plaques
“If it was the baseball that hooked you, try one of these.”
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Black and Blue: The Golden Arm, the Robinson Boys, and the 1966 World Series That Stunned America
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Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders: A Complete Guide to the Worst Decisions and Stupidest Moments in Baseball History
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Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
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Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose, and Other Reflections on Baseball
