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 enlarge | Author: Zack Hample
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.50
You Save: $6.45 (46%)
New (37) Used (24) from $7.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 18783
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0307280322
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357
EAN: 9780307280329
ASIN: 0307280322
Publication Date: March 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Informative, easy & enjoyable to read January 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Zack Hample wrote this book in an easy-to-understand and pleasant writing style. His writing style is conversational and you almost feel as if he is there in person talking to you. He provides an extensive glossary near the back and words that are in the glossary are italicized when they're used in the body of the book. The book provides a lot of insight into professional baseball and is really useful for someone who is not an aficionado. It helped me enjoy the game more by understanding strategy and understanding baseball jargon. Hample also provides some history of the game and of the league as a tool for helping the reader understand why certain rules or strategies exist. A book on a subject like baseball could easily be written in a dry style; this book is anything but dry. I enjoyed reading it.
Table of content for this book:
Ch. 1, The Basics
Covers the draft, how players get into the Major League, How the League is organized, spring training, regular season, post season.
Ch 2, Pitchers and Catchers
Covers the signs they use, the different types of pitches (with diagrams), pitching strategy, what's really going on during time-outs at the mound.
Ch. 3, Hitting
Covers how the lineup is determined, fundamentals, stances, recognizing pitches, hitting strategy, and more.
Ch. 4 Baserunning
Covers the rules, strategy, signs, base-stealing,the various types of slides, signs given by coaches to runners, duties of the first base coach.
Ch. 5 Fielding
Covers the various types of defensive alignments (and why), why you'll probably never see a left-handed catcher, types of ball bounces and how the player responds to each, field positions and the skills needed to play each, and more.
Ch. 6 Stadiums
Covers the challenges of playing in various well-known stadiums.
Ch. 7 Umpires
How umpires get to be umpires, what life is like for an umpire, meaning of gestures used by umpires, why umpires work in fours, why the ump places a hand on the back of the catcher, why the ump puts mud on the balls, why the ump goes with the trainer when the trainer goes to the mound to talk to the pitcher, and lots more.
Ch. 8 Statistics
Lists baseball stats, gives formulas for how the stats are determined, and explains how they are used. (This chapter could have been dry, but was not. It was as fun to read as the rest of the book).
Ch. 9 Random Stuff to Know
Why the players grab and adjust their crotches, why the letter K represents a strike in scoring, how baseball began using numbers on the uniforms (and negative reaction to it), unwritten rules, controversies, and more.
Ch 10 Random Stuff to Notice
A few pages of odds and ends; some of it interesting and some of it mundane.
Glossary: Baseball Slang
42 pages of terms with definitions
Appendix A: More Statistics
Baseball stats with their abbreviations, the record holders, and informative commentaries.
Appendix B: Uniform Numbers
Shown in order by number, provides list of famous players who wore the numbers 1 - 55.
 not for the enthusiast January 3, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'd give this book to a girlfriend or anyone who wants to understand the game. It's on par with Baseball for Dummies. Not much new for the real fan. Disappointing.
great for any fan of the game December 11, 2007
excellent for all level of fans. great reference and a fun read. I have been looking for this book along time, it's not too technical (like some coaching books) and it's far from dry.
Good book for just about any knowledge level of baseball. November 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have gone to probably over two hundred baseball games and counting in my lifetime so I know quite a bit about the rules and little details of the game, and by the time I was done reading I even learned a few things that I had always been a little unclear on in the past regarding the rules, strategies, etc. The good thing is that just about any one with any knowledge level of baseball from knowing hardly anything to experienced watchers will get something out of this book. Some more than others but everyone will get something. It's also a very easy read, I think I got through it in a day or two.
Fun and Informative! November 8, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book does exactly what is promises - it greatly enhances the act of viewing baseball on TV. Not only can you read it from beginning to end to gain a step-by-step understanding of "why", but you can also use the glossary at will for the "what". Every time some ex-player commentator throws out a term like "squibber", you can just flip to "s" and get a simple explanation. Zach Hample writes with a great respect for the game, but also the insight into the casual viewer's mind. He is entertaining and educational all at once. It's an excellent book for you or as a gift - anyone who wants to know more about baseball, no matter how much they think they already know.
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