Switch Hitters

Switch-Hitter is the story of an ambidextrous female tennis player who plays the game with two forehands but quits after the untimely death of her father, a baseball switch-hitter who was her only coach. Enticed back into the game, she joins forces with an older Bahamian tennis coach who ends up moving in with her family. It is a feel-good American story about the obstacles encountered on the way to the top of the sport. In spite of issues including teenage pregnancy, racism, and geopolitical turmoil, will Sheila, our switch-hitter, fulfil her dream of being the first ambidextrous tennis player to win a major championship?

Baseball "by The Book."

Most baseball fans realize that left handed hitters have certain advantages over right handers - a shorter running distance to first base, facing mostly right handed pitching, etc. What most fans don't realize however, are the incredible advantages uncovered by Ted Frank that not even the so called experts have discovered. This fasinating book shows why some of the Greats of the game were not so great, and why even in today's age of specialization there are left handed hitters who clearly shouldn't be starting over their right handed counterparts. In his detailed statistical analysis, Ted shares "The Big Secret" never before revealed: and discusses the clear advantages left handed hitters enjoy on what really isn't a level playing field. Baseball the unfair sport is a must read for all true fans of the game.

Written by three esteemed baseball statisticians, "The Book" continues where the legendary Bill James?'s "Baseball Abstracts" and Palmer and Thorn?'s "The Hidden Game of Baseball" left off more than twenty years ago. Continuing in the grand tradition of sabermetrics, the authors provide a revolutionary way to think about baseball with principles that can be applied at every level, from high school to the major leagues.Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin cover topics such as batting and pitching matchups, platooning, the benefits and risks of intentional walks and sacrifices, the legitimacy of alleged ?clutch? hitters, and many of baseball?'s other theories on hitting, fielding, pitching, and even baserunning. They analyze when a strategy is a good idea and when it?'s a bad idea, and how to more closely watch the ?inside? game of baseball.Whenever you hear an announcer talk about the ?unwritten rule? or say that so-and-so is going ?by the book? in bringing in a situational substitute, "The Book" reviews the facts and determines what the real case is. If you want to know what the folks in baseball should be doing, find out in "The Book,"

Can hot gay porn flow from the pens of lesbian writers? Can a gay man write convincingly of female sexuality? Can art remake same-sex desire? Switch Hitters answers an emphatic "yes!" to all these questions, celebrating a truly queer approach to sexuality, where hot sex is more important than gender labels.

Smart, aggressive baserunning will change a game, a series, and even a season. It sets the philosophy and mind-set of the coaches, trainers, and players. It becomes instinctual and contagious. It translates to pressure and, most important, wins. Baserunning is the most complete and authoritative guide on this critical yet often-overlooked offensive skill. You’ll go inside today’s game to learn the techniques and strategies for ruling the basepaths. Discover the secrets to leading off, detecting pick-off attempts, improving first-step speed, avoiding tags, and determining the best counts and situations for success in stealing bases. But the art of baserunning is more than just speed and swiping bags—it is effortlessly and efficiently rounding the bases, taking the extra base, tagging up, reading defensive positioning, scouting strengths and weakness, forcing errors, and ultimately scoring runs. Only Baserunning covers it all. With major league advice, skill assessment, the best player and team drills, expert instruction, detailed photo sequences, and proven exercises and routines for speed, agility, and quickness, Baserunning is a must-have for every coach, player, and student of the game.

Local sports heroes make great stories. Reedy Conner always aspired to be like Chuck Lohr. Chuck was the best softball player that ever roamed East Park. He made the impossible look ordinary. ChuckA[a¬a[s softball career was cut short by a freak injury while sliding in to home plate. Through a series of breaks and connections he became the coach of ReedyA[a¬a[s young Franklin Playground team. The field they played on uniquely favored left handers. Reedy got a hit almost every at bat because of this. His team started out with him as the only leftie. One teammate and his father saw an opportunity here. They decided to learn how to A[a¬Aswitch hit.A[a¬A They convinced the whole team and it worked to perfection! In only their second season, they were playing for the Connellsville Playground Championship. Join along with them in their adventure. Get to know the characters. Laugh and cry as their lives unfold before you.

"Picking up where Michael Lewis left off in Moneyball, he addresses the central questions of risk, reward, and value---on the field and off---and reveals what it takes to win." ---John Thorn, editor of Total Baseball Die-hard fanatics will enjoy this comprehensive collection of groundbreaking baseball strategies, analyses, statistics, and studies This unique approach to understanding the "tried and true" methodologies of the game of baseball examines conventional elements like the steal, hit and run, and line-up construction. The Book on The Book offers an exciting critique of baseball by placing an actual dollar value on player performance and rating managers based on their on-field moves to determine who are the smartest tacticians. No corner of the ballpark is left unturned as author Bill Felber explores the various methods of team-building, on-field values of players, the role and influence of the general manager in team success, and the importance of park effects. In the vein of the late Leonard Koppett and Bill James, Felber uses mathematical and statistical principles to evaluate the wisdom of standard baseball strategies. Illustrations and a refreshingly engaging style make The Book on The Book the new textbook of baseball analysis. "Full-blown fanatics will probably read the book straight through, but casual fans will find plenty of reward simply browsing through selected chapters, such as 'The Decline and Fall of the Starting Pitcher, ' 'Highly Paid Irrelevance, ' and 'Rating the General Managers.' " ---BookPage "Well thought out and soundly based, this book could be used as a text for most current teams, who should be trying to keep up with those few enlightened ones that are using logic rather than guesswork and hope." ---Pete Palmer, coeditor of The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia and coauthor of The Hidden Game of Baseball "Baseball's 'Book'---the ever-expanding cloud of common wisdom about how the game should be played---has resisted challenge in part because it is unwritten. Ever since baseball began, experts have not been reading from the same page, let alone the same book. But now Bill Felber comes along to poke holes in the clouds and let some sunshine in." ---John Thorn, editor of Total Baseball

Baseball takes a lot of strength and stamina, but muscle power is only part of the equation when it comes to being a good player. What exactly goes on inside that helps some athletes play better than the rest? In this fascinating book, readers take a look at the muscular power, the brainpower, and the training behind some of the best baseball players in history. From how players get in the zone to how athletes read their opponent and assess their weaknesses, the main content of this book helps readers get inside the heads of their favorite players in this iconic American sport.

Students who often complain when faced with challenging word problems will be engaged as they acquire essential problem solving skills that are applicable beyond the math classroom. The authors of Crossing the River with Dogs: Problem Solving for College Students: - Use the popular approach of explaining strategies through dialogs from fictitious students - Present all the classic and numerous non-traditional problem solving strategies (from drawing diagrams to matrix logic, and finite differences) - Provide a text suitable for students in quantitative reasoning, developmental mathematics, mathematics education, and all courses in between - Challenge students with interesting, yet concise problem sets that include classic problems at the end of each chapter With Crossing the River with Dogs, students will enjoy reading their text and will take with them skills they will use for a lifetime.