"Mariano Rivera never dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He didn't grow up collecting baseball cards, playing Little League, or cheering on his home team at the World Series. He had never heard of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle. One day, that all changed. From a childhood playing pickup games in Panama to an epic career with the New York Yankees, Mariano's rise to greatness has been anything but ordinary. He's the guy...

A history of the national pastime as told through the craft of pitching draws on years of archival research and interviews with more than three hundred star athletes to reveal the colorful stories and folklore behind ten major pitches.

"Twelve-year-old Shane Woods is just a regular boy. He loves pitching for his baseball team, working on his graphic novel, and hanging out with his best friend, Josh. But Shane is keeping something private, something that might make a difference to his friends and teammates, even Josh. And when a classmate threatens to reveal his secret, Shane's whole world comes crashing down. It will take a lot of courage for Shane to ignore the hate and show the...

"Every year, Major League Baseball spends upward of $2 billion on pitchers - five times the salary of all NFL quarterbacks combined. Pitchers are the lifeblood of the sport, the ones who win championships, but today they face an epidemic unlike any baseball has seen. One tiny ligament in the elbow keeps snapping and sending teenagers and major leaguers alike to undergo sugery, an issue the baseball establishment ignored for decades. For three years,...

"On October 3, 2000, 21-year-old pitcher Rick Ankiel took the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game One of the National League division series. All was going well until Ankiel, who'd been lauded as the next Bob Gibson, threw a pitch that missed the mitt--wildly. Then he threw another. Then another, five in all. Slowly at first, then rapidly, his once-impenetrable pitcher's psyche crumbled. He would forever look back on that day as the day the...

"How do you pick baseball's GOATs? Is Sandy Koufax the greatest pitcher to take the mound? Is Ted Williams the greatest pure hitter the game has seen? It comes down to stats, history, and hunches. Read more about some of the legends of baseball and see if you agree that they're the greatest of all time"--

A sexy sports superstar discovers his body isn't the only thing that needs healing in this newest Stardust, Texas novel from New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde. With major league good looks and talent, Dallas Gunslingers relief pitcher Axel Richmond was living the good life. Even if the roar of the crowd could never distract him from the loss of his young son. But now with an injured shoulder and his career on the line, Axel is stuck recuperating...

After a meltdown during a major league game, pitcher Caleb Hart is sent back home, and, with the help of the beautiful mayor's assistant, must improve his town's team's image while trying to keep his family together and his ex-con father out of trouble.

"When a Hollywood film crew arrives on Martha's Vineyard with a mechanical shark and a youth film contest boasting a huge cash prize, disgraced pitcher Gayle Blue Streak Briar sees a chance to turn a bad season into the best summer ever. After recruiting aspiring cinematographer Elijah Jones and moody director Maddie Grey, Gayle and her crew set out to uncover the truth of the island's own phantom shark and win the prize money. But these unlikely...

"The definitive biography of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, based on exclusive interviews with Kershaw and more than two hundred others, examining the genesis of his brilliance, his epic quest to win the World Series, and his singular place within the evolving baseball landscape... More than any baseball player of his generation, Clayton Kershaw has embodied the burden of athletic greatness, the prizes and perils that await those who strive for it all....