Regular marked price: $12.00Discount Price: $9.60
Cost Savings: $2.40 (20%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.3572
EAN num: 9780802777195
ISBN number: 0802777198
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: April 01, 2005
Publishing house: Walker & Company
Sale Popularity Level: 21295
Studio: Walker & Company
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Baseball is set apart from other sports by many things, but few are more distinctive than the intricate systems of coded language that govern action on the field and give baseball its unique appeal. During a nine-inning game, more than 1,000 silent instructions are given-from catcher to pitcher, coach to batter, fielder to fielder, umpire to umpire-and without this speechless communication the game would simply not be the same. Baseball historian Paul Dickson examines for the very first time the rich legacy of baseball's hidden language, offering fans everywhere a smorgasbord of history and anecdote.
Baseball's tradition of signing grew out of the signal flags used by ships and soldiers' hand signals during battle. They were very first used in games during the Civil War, and then professionally by the Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1869. Seven years later, the Hartford Dark Blues appear to be the very first team to steal signs, introducing a larcenous obsession that, as Dickson delightfully chronicles, has given the game some of its most historic-and outlandish-moments.
Whether detailing the origins of the hit-and-run, the true story behind the home run that gave 'Home Run' Baker his nickname, Bob Feller's sign-stealing telescope, Casey Stengel's improbable method of signaling his bullpen, the impact of sign stealing on the Giants' miraculous comeback in 1951, or the pitches Andy Pettitte tipped off that altered the momentum of the 2001 World Series, Dickson's research is as thorough as his stories are entertaining. A roster of baseball's greatest names and games, past and present, echoes throughout, making The Hidden Language of Baseball a unique window on the history of our national pastime.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
During any given nine-inning baseball game over a thousand silent instructions are given between players and from umpires to coaches. You've seen the hand signals - now understand their meaning in the very first examination of their history, evolution and methods. Baseball games are surveyed past and present to gain a fine chronology of player signals.
Rated by buyers -
A short but thorough history of baseball as seen through the development of signs, sign stealing and tip-off reading. Includes some delightful photographs, numerous anotations, a lengthy bibliography and index. Paul Dickson's approach to baseball makes me wonder if the recent homerun records aren't more a case for renewed talent in sign stealing / tip-off reading than for new technology for bats or performance inhancing drugs.
Rated by buyers -
Forget the simple theory that Bobby Thomson benefitted from a stolen sign when he hit the historic homer off Ralph Branca in 1951. Dickson gives us the real story--a much more colorful and fascinating peek at baseball's most memorable moment. That's just one of many new and interesting facts and anecdotes in this first-of-its kind book. I've written baseball books myself and I tip my hat to this one.
Rated by buyers -
Paul Dickson has done it again! Here's a book that all baseball fans will love, even those modest folk who know everything there is to know about the game. "The Hidden Language of Baseball" is the book to read -- after you make it a most valuable gift to your kids, who have often asked you (as if you knew) what those goofy and not-so goofy signs mean, who dreamed them up and how come the other team doesn't steal them, which, of course, they try their darndest to do. Paul Dickson takes the reader through baseball sign language from its very earliest recorded years to the wild and wooly "Golden Age" of flagrantly outrageous stealing and to today's signing in full view of the ever-improving intrusiveness of high-tech TV lenses. The book is full of wonderful anecdotes - a Dizzy Dean classic will have you roaring with delight. Like "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary", this book is a must for baseball fans of all ages.
Find other books like this one:
