Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards guide pays homage to the world of baseball card collecting like nothing else, and does it with a balanced accuracy you can rely upon season after season. Packed with more than one million cards and 10,000 photos covering cards from 1863 through early 2008, this mammoth guide reigns, as the largest, and most comprehensive card reference in the collecting game.

Author: Don Fluckinger
Paperback:  1848 pages
Company: Krause Publications  (2008-10-07)
ISBN: 089689648X
List Price: $44.99
Amazon Price: $29.68

Whether you?re a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan?s guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime.

What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did ?The Wave? first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?

Combining the narrative voice and attitude of Michael Lewis with the compulsive brilliance of Schott?s Miscellany, Watching Baseball Smarter will increase your understanding and enjoyment of the sport?no matter what your level of expertise.

Zack Hample is an obsessed fan and a regular writer for minorleaguebaseball.com. He's collected nearly 3,000 baseballs from major league games and has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows. His first book, How to Snag Major League Baseballs, was published in 1999.

Author: Zack Hample
Paperback:  272 pages
Company: Vintage  (2007-03-27) (2007-03-27)
ISBN: 0307280322
List Price: $13.95
Amazon Price: $7.50
Used Price: $7.40

Tom Gallagher is in a tight spot. The fate of the Dillontown team rests on the outcome of one baseball game, winner take all. If Tom's team loses, they lose their field too. But how can they possibly win? Just when everything seems hopeless, a mysterious boy named Cruz de la Cruz rides into town and claims to know the secret of hitting. Not to mention the secrets of Dante Del Gato, Dillontown's greatest hitter ever. Since he walked away from the game years ago, Del Gato hasn't spoken a word to anyone. But now he might be Tom's only hope for saving his hometown. From the award-winning author of Over the Wall and Choosing Up Sides comes this imaginative tale of one boy's struggle to preserve the spirit of the game he loves.

Author: John H. Ritter
Paperback:  224 pages
Company: Puffin  (2005-03-17)
ISBN: 0142402869
List Price: $6.99
Amazon Price: $2.98
Used Price: $0.01

Continuing in the tradition of Sports Illustrated?s 50th Anniversary Book and The Football Book comes a spectacular celebration of baseball that will be treasured by fans of the National Pastime. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Football Book to surpass the sales of The Anniversary Book, a New York Times best-seller, this lavish coffee-table volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great traditions of the Summer Game. In 294 oversized pages, The Baseball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the crucial plays and classic games, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have kept baseball at the heart of American sports for more than a century.

Author: Editors of Sports Illustrated
Hardcover:  294 pages
Company: Sports Illustrated  (2006-10-17)
ISBN: 1933405236
List Price: $29.95
Amazon Price: $12.83
Used Price: $5.99

"This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills which help speed you to your full potential."---Dave Winfield

What does it mean to play heads-up baseball? A heads-up player has confidence in his ability, keeps control in pressure situations, and focuses on one pitch at a time. His mental skills enable him to play consistently at or near his best despite the adversity baseball presents each day.

"My ability to fully focus on what I had to do on a daily basis was what made me the successful player I was. Sure I had some natural ability, but that only gets you so far. I think I learned how to focus; it wasn't something that I was necessarily born with." -- Hank Aaron

"Developing and refining my mental game has played a critical role in my success in baseball. For years players have had to develop these skills on their own. This book provides practical strategies for developing the mental skills that will help speed you toward your full potential." -- Dave Winfield

Author: Tom Hanson, Ken Ravizza
Paperback:  192 pages
Company: McGraw-Hill  (1998-05-11)
ISBN: 1570280215
List Price: $14.95
Amazon Price: $7.97
Used Price: $5.95

During World War II, a young Japanese-American boy and his family are sent to an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despondent in their desolate surroundings, father and son pull the camp together to build a baseball diamond and form a league.

Author: Ken Mochizuki
Paperback:  32 pages
Company: Lee & Low Books  (1995-03)
ISBN: 1880000199
List Price: $7.95
Amazon Price: $3.68
Used Price: $3.49

Felix knows his dad was a famous baseball player in Cuba?and that his father risked everything to send Felix to America. But his mom won?t reveal anything else. When a baseball team with Cuban players comes to town, Felix wonders if they knew his dad and sneaks into their locker room to ask. That?s when the players mistake him for their new batboy. Determined to uncover the truth about his mysterious father, Felix plays along, going as far as running away from home to become the team?s batboy. His bittersweet adventure glows with the friendship of a miraculous dog, the warmth of a mother?s love, and the magic of baseball.

Author: Sue Corbett
Paperback:  160 pages
Company: Puffin  (2008-01-31)
ISBN: 0142410802
List Price: $5.99
Amazon Price: $2.40
Used Price: $2.15

Freakonomics meets Moneyball in this provocative exposé of baseball?s most fiercely debated controversies and some of its oldest, most dearly held myths

Providing far more than a mere collection of numbers, economics professor and popular blogger J.C. Bradbury, shines the light of his economic thinking on baseball, exposing the power of tradeoffs, competition, and incentives. Utilizing his own ?sabernomic? approach, Bradbury dissects baseball topics such as:
? Did steroids have nothing to do with the recent homerun records? Incredibly, Bradbury?s research reveals steroids probably had little impact.
? Which players are ridiculously overvalued? Bradbury lists all players by team with their revenue value to the team listed in dollars?including a dishonor role of those players with negative values?updated in paperback to include the 2007 season.
? Does it help to lobby for balls and strikes?

Statistics alone aren?t enough anymore. This is a refreshing, lucid, and powerful read for fans, fantasy buffs, and players?as well as coaches at all levels?who want to know what is really happening on the field.

Author: J.C. Bradbury
Hardcover:  288 pages Bargain Price
Company: Dutton Adult  (2007-03-15) (2007-03-15)
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $5.99
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In this book, authors H.A. Dorfman and Karl Kuehl present their practical and proven strategy for developing the mental skills needed to achieve peak performance at every level of the game.

Author: H A Dorfman
Paperback:  360 pages
Company: Diamond Communications  (2002-07-25)
ISBN: 1888698543
List Price: $19.95
Amazon Price: $11.25
Used Price: $9.99

Author: Matt Christopher
Paperback:  128 pages
Company: Little, Brown Young Readers  (2004-08-24)
ISBN: 031601012X
List Price: $4.99
Amazon Price: $1.88
Used Price: $0.33