"I Was a latecomer to baseball, " explains humorist and famed "underground architect" Malcolm Wells. "When I heard the ridiculous baseball jargon of the broadcasters, I knew I had to do this book. I mean, how in the world are you supposed to translate something like this: 'He has excellent breaking stuff, ' or 'He paints the outside corner with a white rope'? If you're as puzzled as I was, step inside and see if these cartoons will help."

Throw a frozen rope! Hit a dinger! Catch a stinger! Discover the meaning of these big-league terms and more in Baseball Talk. Created with Sports Illustrated Kids, this nonfiction book presents wacky lingo and puzzling phrases from America's favorite pastime. Explore the origin of these words and phrases--from homers to beanballs--and discover how collegiate and big-league players use them on the baseball diamond. With action-packed photos and rapid-fire text, baseball fans will be cheering for more!

Photographs of professional players in action as well as step-by-step guides to drills for performing specific positions combine to provide advice and instruction designed to help improve how the game is played.

How to Talk Baseball hits a home run with fans who enjoy playing, watching, and talking our national game. The fascinating profiles of baseball's most famous stars will delight all aficionados, and the hilarious terms defined here will add pepper to anyone's game-watching.Beginning with a superlative line-up of people who have enriched America's favorite pastime, the first part of the book draws lively portraits of baseball's superstars and super characters, including Pete Rose, Dizzy Dean, Dennis Eckersley, Red Barber, Red Smith, Yogi Berra (It ain't over till it's over), and Casey Stengel. Find out who was the first to say Can he hit, hit with power, run, throw and field?, now the five dimensions of measuring a baseball player; How sweet it is; and Can't anybody here play this game? How to Talk Baseball's illustrated lexicon tells the origin and meaning of baseball's unique language--seventh-inning stretches, southpaws, spitballs, ohfers, hit-and-runs, foot in the bucket, beanballs, circus catches, Baltimore chops--terms indigenous to baseball, brought together in a comprehensive glossary. You'll learn whether a player is a bad-ball hitter, a bench jockey, a bonus baby or a clubhouse lawyer, and how to tell the difference. Even a novice fan can sound like a network sportscaster, describing how ducks on the pond are waiting for their MVP to dial 8 to a shutout. How to Talk Baseball is a fun read and will help readers warm up their vocal cords and get ready to talk their best game.

Since radio's debut in the 1920s and television's in the ’30s, the baseball announcer has become entertainer, observer, and extended member of the family. In A Talk in the Park: Nine Decades of Baseball Tales from the Broadcast Booth, many of the pastime's most popular and famous announcers--the Voices--tell their favorite stories in their own distinctive words. It is riveting oral history. Herein is the largest total of active and retired broadcasters featured in any sports book: 116. Its radio and TV tales include every major-league team and such networks as ESPN, Fox, TBS, and the new MLB channel, and capture the Voices commenting on ballparks, managers, the characters of the game, umpires, special teams, interleague play, improvements to the game--and on one another, including the beloved Ernie Harwell, who died in 2010 and to whom the book is dedicated. Here are Bob Wolff airing the longest-ever wild pitch Howie Rose using the 1969 Mets to pass a high school exam, and Charley Steiner telling why George Steinbrenner "hired" Jason Giambi. Denny Matthews recalls George Scott’s faux uniform number 6-4-3. Ken Harrelson defends his one-handed catch: "With bad hands like mine, one hand was better than two." Eduardo Ortega announces for his mother, who is deaf. Pat Hughes remembers when Harry Caray called a game with a tea bag dangling from his ear. Voices hail Lou Piniella: dressed, undressed, volatile, and lovable. Columnist Christine Brennan says of author Curt Smith: "No one knows baseball broadcasters as well as he does." In particular, A Talk in the Park addresses trends of the past two decades--the rise of Hispanic and other minority announcers, interleague play, ex-jocks' warp-speed climb, whiz-bang technology, 24/7 coverage, and the evolution of broadcasting, from radio to network television to cable. Told by baseball's leading broadcast historian, endorsed by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame, and starring announcers who reach millions, A Talk in the Park brilliantly relates what baseball was, is, and is likely to become.

Baseball is a great sport full of weird words. Trying to play a game with friends might be hard if you don’t know what anyone is saying! Readers will get a look in the dugout, and even learn why they call it a dugout in the first place. With color photos and other graphics explaining different terms and concepts like a double switch or ground rules, readers are sure to learn everything they need to talk—and play—like a pro.