The Physics of Baseball (3rd Edition)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Too heavy on the math
  • You need to know a significant amount of math and physics to understand it
  • Science of baseball
  • Great learning
  • Jamaal's Advertisement of "The Physics of Baseball"
The Physics of Baseball (3rd Edition)
Robert K. Adair
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060084367
Release Date: 2002-05-07

Book Description

Blending scientific fact and sports trivia, Robert Adair examines what a baseball or player in motion does-and why. How fast can a batted ball go? What effect do stitch patterns have on wind resistance? How far does a curve ball break? Who reaches first base faster after a bunt, a right- or left-handed batter? The answers are often surprising -- and always illuminating.

This newly revised third edition considers recent developments in the science of sport such as the neurophysiology of batting, bat vibration, and the character of the "sweet spot." Faster pitchers, longer hitters, and enclosed stadiums also get a good, hard scientific look to determine their effects on the game.

Filled with anecdotes about famous players and incidents, The Physics of Baseball provides fans with fascinating insights into America's favorite pastime.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Too heavy on the math.......2007-02-18

I know this book is about the "physics" of baseball, but for the average fan/baseball enthusiast, it is a little too heavy on the theory side of explaining the mechanics of baseball. Overall an interesting read.

4 out of 5 stars You need to know a significant amount of math and physics to understand it.......2006-11-23

This book is one that the serious fan will enjoy, but only if you understand a good deal of physics. Some of the problems considered are which bat is best, considering variable length, shape, weight and the type of wood. To determine which of each is best, it is necessary to understand the physics of compressible bodies and how that will change the distance the ball will travel.
The physics of a pitched ball is also covered in detail. Understanding this requires knowledge of turbulence, and differential forces on a moving object. Knowing this, it is possible to explain how a baseball can be made to curve, how a fastball hops and how a knuckle ball knuckles. Some of the most interesting results were:

*) A batted ball should only be able to travel at most 545 feet in standard meteorological conditions.
*) The contact between a baseball and a bat lasts approximately 1/1000th of a second.
*) A 10-mile per hour headwind will turn a 400-foot drive into a 370 foot one.

Each chapter ends with a collection of technical notes that extend the topic of the chapter. This material is where the mathematics gets the heaviest.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that none of the "common knowledge" accrued by baseball players was proven false. Curve balls do curve, and sometimes quite a bit. While a fast ball does not really hop, it does sink less than it otherwise would due to wind resistance, which to human experience, makes it appear to hop. I really enjoyed this book, as a mathematician it was fun to read the formulas that make the curve ball that I could never hit possible.

4 out of 5 stars Science of baseball.......2005-10-17

It taught you the science behind pitching and hitting a baseball. However it does not make the next step which is how to apply the science of the game to actual play.
Enjoyable read because it gave scientific reasons as to why coaches teach players what they do.

4 out of 5 stars Great learning.......2004-11-30

This is a good book for baseball players so they can learn more about how the game is played in technical, and physics way.

I was a little confused with all the formulas in calculating pitches, but that's just me.

people will like this book because of how interesting it is, and how it explains the physics of america's past time.

4 out of 5 stars Jamaal's Advertisement of "The Physics of Baseball".......2004-11-28

This book technically describes the physics of baseball. It contains descriptions of techniques of how you pitch and hit the ball. The book goes into every single detail of what angle the bat could hit the ball. If you are interested in baseball and you think you know the game, you don't because this book provides information that you could not have thought of. For the serious baseball player, I recommend reading this book.
Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters: How Statistics Can Level the Playing Field
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • ...but you missed the point...
  • Interesting...but only for those that want details
  • Best of its kind
  • a stats book that looks like a baseball book
  • Pay attention when you read
Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters: How Statistics Can Level the Playing Field
Michael J. Schell
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691123438

Amazon.com

Baseball is a game of numbers, and if you look deeply enough into them, they begin to speak in truly mysterious ways. For Schell, a professor of biostatistics, the numbers sing in an enigmatic language that lets him rank and compare hitters from different eras with a self-concocted, time-tested mathematical certainty--albeit a certainty that is as subjective as the next in an arena filled with formulas and number crunching. Less a volume to read than one to muck around in and develop a dialogue--or argument--with, Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters is heavy on the stats, charts, and theories that explain why and how averages must be adjusted over different eras to accommodate different styles of play, rule changes, and ballparks. Using the various adjustments he's come up with, Schell works to make his baseball cabala understandable; then he sends out a lineup of rankings that are as surprising as they are, in fact, logical--if you buy the logic. So who is the best hitter of all time? Well, it's not Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe Jackson, or Ted Williams. He is alive at this writing, though, and the shock is that he's still playing in 1999, patrolling right field for the San Diego Padres and rapping line drives with astonishing consistency. --Jeff Silverman

Book Description

Tony Gwynn is the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. That's the conclusion of this engaging and provocative analysis of baseball's all-time best hitters. Michael Schell challenges the traditional list of all-time hitters, which places Ty Cobb first, Gwynn 16th, and includes just 8 players whose prime came after 1960. Schell argues that the raw batting averages used as the list's basis should be adjusted to take into account that hitters played in different eras, with different rules, and in different ballparks. He makes those adjustments and produces a new list of the best 100 hitters that will spark debate among baseball fans and statisticians everywhere.

Schell combines the two qualifications essential for a book like this. He is a professional statistician--applying his skills to cancer research--and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball. He has wondered how to rank hitters since he was a boy growing up as a passionate Cincinnati Reds fan. Over the years, he has analyzed the most important factors, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool that players are drawn from, and changes in the game that raised or lowered major-league batting averages (the introduction of the designated hitter and changes in the height and location of the pitcher's mound, for example). Schell's study finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. His final ranking of players differs dramatically from the traditional list. Gwynn, for example, bumps Cobb to 2nd place, Rod Carew rises from 28th to 3rd, Babe Ruth drops from 9th to 16th, and Willie Mays comes from off the list to rank 13th. Schell's list also gives relatively more credit to modern players, containing 39 whose best days were after 1960.

Using a fun, conversational style, the book presents a feast of stories and statistics about players, ballparks, and teams--all arranged so that calculations can be skipped by general readers but consulted by statisticians eager to follow Schell's methods or introduce their students to such basic concepts as mean, histogram, standard deviation, p-value, and regression. Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters will shake up how baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars ...but you missed the point..........2006-01-09

Of course on-base and slugging percentages are much better measures of a hitter's worth, but that's not the author's point. He wants to take a particular statistic and show how it should be interpreted/reinterpreted, given the vagaries of time, location, etc. He could easily have chosen on-base, slugging, OPS, whatever, but batting average traditionally is the first one everyone looks at, as ill-informed as that may be. Implied is that the same arguments can be used for any of the other statistics. (And he does so, briefly providing the results.)

4 out of 5 stars Interesting...but only for those that want details.......2005-06-17

This is an interesting look at how to adjust for batting averages and compare players throughout baseball history. Schell uses a few methods to adjust the raw batting averages, such as adjusting for late career declines (he only uses the first 8,000 at bats), adjusting for eras, adjusting for league talent, and adjusting for home parks. Although these techniques are described in detail, I'm afraid most people won't appreciate it. The results of this book could have been written in a 5 page essay, but Schell decides to explain exactly how he went about the process. This is fine if you do care about the details, but not if you don't...so keep that in mind. I rated the book based on thinking the reader is interested in those details.

The other problem with the book is simply the topic. In this day and age, we understand that batting averages isn't the best measure of a hitter's contributions. Slugging percentage and on-base percentage are far more important. Schell does add a chapter on OBP near the end of the book. I suspect Schell understands this too as I see he has written a second book on Baseball's All-Time Sluggers. In Baseball's All-Time Best Hitters, he ranks Tony Gwynn as the best hitter of all-time. He defines hitter as one that gets hits. But the best hitter is not the best batter nor the best baseball player, so to me, this is almost a moot debate. Still, I appreciated the detail of how a statistician goes about looking at this issue. If you appreciate that kind of stuff, get this book. If not, avoid it.

5 out of 5 stars Best of its kind.......2005-01-26

This is the most painstakingly objective attempt I have ever seen to level the playing field when comparing players across eras. The criticisms that have been levelled against it are unjustified. First, the complaint is made that only batting averages are being considered, not on base percentage or hitting for power (slugging average). In the first place, that's not entirely true- he also runs an analaysis of on base percentages, and devotes a separate chapter to this - leaving me to wonder if the one critic who blasted the author for not considering on base percentages has even read the book. Secondly, the book is about batting averages, so of course the main focus is on -batting averages. Thirdly, another book will be forthcoming from the author on slugging averages.

The other criticism - that the book is "for nerds only" - is just an indication of who the target audience is. Not every book is written for everybody. If you like baseball and are a stats junkie and like to argue about this player being better than that player, then this book is for you. If you don't like baseball and aren't a stats junkie and don't like such arguments - then the book is NOT for you. For what it is - comparing batting averages and on base percentages of different players from different eras - it is the best of its kind.

5 out of 5 stars a stats book that looks like a baseball book.......2002-05-22

Most baseball fans like statistics, so it should not be a disappointment to them to find out that this is an elementary statistics book where the statistical methods are taught to explain how to adjust batting averages in order to compare players in terms of their batting averages. The average baseball fan would be interested in comparisons of Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn, Ted Williams and others who are acknowledged as the best hitters for average in the game. Schell considers factors that make direct comparisons unfair and he provides methods to adjust for these factors based on the vast amount of statistical data available to him that has been gathered throughout the history of major league baseball.

Key effects include the home ball park, stage of career and interventions such as the lowering of the pitcher's mound after 1968. To adjust for players whose abilities decline substantially in the latter years of their career Schell uses only the first 8000 at bats to gauge the players hitting ability. This helps players like Mickey Mantle whose performance declined appreciably at the end of his career due in part to injuries.

Schell provides a lot of interesting statistics and comparisons. Ty Cobb had the highest lifetime batting average but after all the adjustments finishes second to Tony Gwynn, a result that will surely create controversy.

Nevertheless Schell's approach makes sense and his results are not too surprising. As he notes his adjustments move many of the modern players whose numerical averages are lower than the players from the late 1800s and early 1900s, ahead on the list.

Schell relates how he showed up to meet and congratulate Gwynn on the date of his 8000th at bat when he clinched first place based on the Schell adjustment system.

Mike Schell is a sports enthusiast and a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina. In 2002 he was one of the invited speakers at the Sport Statistics Section Session of the Joint Statistical Meetings.

4 out of 5 stars Pay attention when you read.......2000-08-29

If other reviewers of the book noticed, in the introduction to the book, Schell writes that batting average is not the best way to rate a baseball player-Schell clearly states that the book measures the best HITTERS, not the best BATTERS-in which case he would have used many other batting stats("Statistics that combine various hitting events...are searching for the best batters. The search in this book is for the best hitters, that is, the players with the best chance to get a hit in a given at bat."). Unless you know about statistics the book is confusing, but you don't have to read all the technical notes. His conclusions, and his methods are very interesting and definitly worth reading, (although you may not agree with the methods he uses). Again, you may not fall in love with the book, but it's worth reading.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball: The Science and Folklore of Baseball
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Using science to understand baseball
Keep Your Eye on the Ball: The Science and Folklore of Baseball
Robert G. Watts , and A. Terry Bahill
Manufacturer: W.H. Freeman & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0716722488

Book Description

"Keep your eye on the ball!" may be good advice--but it is impossible to do. The batter can track the ball until it is about five feet in front of the plate, but then he falls behind because the ball is moving too fast. In Keep Your Eye on the Ball, Robert G. Watts and A. Terry Bahill--engineers by vocation, baseball fans by avocation--have devised a series of experiments that put some of baseball's most cherished myths to the test. By applying physics, psychology, physiology, and other scientific principles to baseball, the authors have resolved, once and for all, some of the controversial issues that have intrigued fans for decades, including: * Do curveballs really curve? Do fastballs rise? * How do knuckleballs and spitballs work? * What exactly happens when the ball hits the bat? * Does corking the bat really help a hitter? * Are aluminum bats more dangerous than wooden bats? * Can certain physiological factors help predict success for a hitter? * Why are more home runs being hit than ever before? * Are today's players better than yesterday's? Completely revised and updated to include recent statistics, new research, and additional historical commentary, Keep Your Eye on the Ball is a highly informative and entertaining guide to the science of baseball that all fans of the game--regardless of scientific background--will enjoy.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Using science to understand baseball.......2000-11-21

When asked if he was an athlete, a recently retired professional baseball player replied, "No ma'am, I'm a ballplayer." However, as this book clearly shows, if the question was, "Are you a practicing applied physicist?," the answer would have to be yes. While fascinating to read, this work points out how little science has contributed to the understanding of the game. And given that baseball is a billion dollar industry, this is surprising.
The most interesting and astounding point made throughout the book is that to play baseball you must reason very quickly with estimates. For example, it is impossible for the human eye to track the path of a pitch thrown in excess of 90 miles per hour. To track a ball moving at 100 miles per hour as it crosses home plate, the body must respond at a rate in excess of 1000 degrees per second. And yet, studies are consistent in showing that the human limit is on the order of 90 degrees per second. It turns out that batters loose track of the ball as it nears them and extrapolate the data to actually hit it. Students lost sight of the ball when it was 9 feet away from them and professionals when it was 5.5 feet away. The absolute limit is on the order of 5 feet.
The explanation of why a pitch will curve and what makes a knuckleball dance are truly works of art. And the physics of the best choice of bat in case you actually hit it should be required reading for all those who think they know baseball, players included. All are done using equations and example numbers rather than text. It is gratifying to find authors who ignore the adage about sales declining in direct proportion to the number of equations.
Science and mathematics teaching is often(justly) criticized for lacking practicality. Well, what could be more practical than teaching someone to hit a baseball? This is one of those books where learning is fun. It could be used as a textbook for any course that deals with the physics of motion and force. And if class gets boring, you can always go out and hit a few.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.
El Autobus Magico Juega a LA Pelota/The magic school bus plays ball: UN Libro Sobre Fuerzas (Autobus Magico)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    El Autobus Magico Juega a LA Pelota/The magic school bus plays ball: UN Libro Sobre Fuerzas (Autobus Magico)
    Nancy E. Krulik , and Joanna Cole
    Manufacturer: Scholastic
    ProductGroup: Book
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    ASIN: 0590761285
    Baseball-istics: The Basic Physics of Baseball
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Baseball-istics: The Basic Physics of Baseball
      Robert Froman
      Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

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      ASIN: B0006BQIVI
      Home Run Has-Been (Kinetic City Super Crew Series)
      Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
      • Truly funny, well-written and educational.
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      Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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      ASIN: 0070070660

      Book Description

      The Kinetic City Rockets could be on their way to the World Series, thanks to home run hero Boomer Baxter. But now Boomer's gone bust! His right field blasts have morphed into pathetic pop-ups. Some say he's being paid to lose, but Baxter swears he's giving it his all. Now the Crew has to put the Boom back in Boomer before the Rockets crash land.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars Truly funny, well-written and educational........1998-12-19

      Like all the titles in the Kinetic City series, this book sneaks some real science into a fun story line. This particular book, "Home Run Has-Been," is especially timely, because the Super Crew kids try to help a Mark McGuire-type slugger break out of a slump. Buy this book for any kid who reads Animorphs or other books at that level, and don't tell them it's good for them!
      The Oldest Rookie: The Incredible True Story of the Thirty-five-year-old Physics Teacher Who Broke into the Major Leagues
      Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
      • Movie does not reflect book, vice versa
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      • America's Pastime
      • The Oldest Rookie
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      Jim Morris , and Joel Engel
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      ASIN: 1586210548

      Book Description

      After an injury-plagued stint in the minor leagues in his twenties, Jim Morris hung up his cleats and his dreams to start a new life as a father, high school physics teacher, and baseball coach. Jims athletes knew that his dream was still alivehe threw the ball so hard they could barely hit itand made a bet with him: if they won the league championship, he would have to try out for a major league ball club. They didand he did, and during that tryout threw the ball faster than he ever had, faster than anyone there, nearly faster than anyone playing in the Bigs. He was immediately drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and three months later made his major league debut, striking out All-Star Royce Clayton. This book can easily take its place on the shelf with some of the great inspirational sporting stories like Field of Dreams and Final Rounds. Morris story has been covered in Time, People, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, on CBS, NBC, ESPN, and many other venues.

      Customer Reviews:

      2 out of 5 stars Movie does not reflect book, vice versa.......2007-03-13

      If you are looking for the book to be the Disney version of the Move, "The Rookie", do not get this book. The book was OK, but did not portray the same feeling of "faded dreams get second chance" Disney feel that the movie did.

      3 out of 5 stars Everybody loves a feel-good story, but read deeper..........2006-03-04

      Of course everyone wants a feel-good story. But the messy details that really illuminate a life get left out. It's always best for your image creation to tell your own story (with trained storytellers and) and sound like a great guy with endearing weaknesses and heady but safe admissions to decorate a long-odds story of dreams. I found the previous review of Robert Wilson, someone who actually knew Morris, to be most helpful (assuming the claim is true, which sounds credible).

      The objective of publishers is to make money, same as moviemakers. And in the movie, they turn Morris' dad from a guy totally uninterested in baseball and squashing his son's dreams; when in reality the dad was himself a major league prospect and pounded the dream and practice of baseball into his son from an early age. Oh well, just the exact opposite of the truth, that's all. What objection will Morris have to falsehood while he's cashing his book checks, movie-rights checks, and the speaking fees of $10,000-$15,000 a pop he still gets?
      You can rationalize all you want about inspiring people, but the truth has to be there. The truth of the objective facts, and the subjective aspect of what kind of a guy Morris really is (or was). Maybe Morris is a great guy now. I hope so. But money makes you do things you really shouldn't do. Further, it sounds like Morris thinks he was always a great guy, when in his first 25 years he probably had a lot of growing up to do. (I would know, because that's exactly how I am.)
      Last point: Teaching physics and coaching high school baseball over a career contributes way, way more to kids than making it to the majors. You can inspire dozens of kids, every day, the hard way. Fame and money are terribly fleeting dreams, after all. He gave up the majors due to injury, but now says it was to be with his family. Really? To become a national speaker? When in baseball you have nearly half the year off? Fascinating logic. For the love of Pete, where are truth and credibility going? $$$$$$$$$$$ Keep grubbing for it.

      5 out of 5 stars Very Good Book.......2004-10-06

      This story is about a man named Jim Morris and his autobiography on how he always wanted to become a baseball player. There are tons of parts in the story that I liked like when when Lorri (Jim's wife) get a dog named Brandy who was abandoned with her pups by her owner. They took her in and made her well. But soon she becomes ill and dies. I'm now up to the point where Jim is struggling to keep a job and feed two (and on the way three) children. Lorri and him have a fight for a little bit and he leaves the house but soon after he is done thinking they get back together. After his arm starts to hurt him he gets a surgery done but can never pitch again. He quits baseball and concentrates on his family. My friend told me what happens in the end but who ever is reading this I want you to find out for yourself. Also it also really inspires you that you can be a professional baseball player and live out your childhood dreams. Thank you Jim Morris for writing your story.

      4 out of 5 stars America's Pastime.......2004-06-01

      "Everything gets hard before it gets easy." A well known cliché Jim Morris knows all too well. The Rookie, a true story written by Jim Morris, travels the journey of Jim's dream and how he accomplished it. Morris learned to walk at seven months old, passing up five months or normal development, he had natural talent, and was arguably the best baseball player on any team he played on, whether little league or softball. Morris was even a star football kicker, launching the ball over eighty yards with one swift boot. He knew his baseball skills would take him far, maybe even the major leagues, but there was one little problem that hovered over his stardom; his arm. He had Tommy John Surgery on his throwing arm, setting him back a year, then he had more trouble which was a three inch bone spur in his shoulder, the surgery was said to put the cap on his career. Yet Jim Morris wasn't ready to end his career just then.

      Every novel has its good points and its poor points, that is what makes it popular. It is hard to find a negative point when the novel is based on a subject that one may feel so passionate about, yet some of the facts presented here in the book make one wonder how they were retrieved. When Jim Morris walked for the first time, he claimed that his parents didn't even see him because they were driving across the country and neither of his parents were paying attention. More than likely this information was conjured up, which in turn makes the story more interesting, but should be omitted. Even though it may have been false information, the majority of non-fiction books tend to have some created information in them. A technique many writers include in their "bag of tricks."


      Jim Morris dedicated his life to baseball. He played the game basically his whole life, and loved every minute of it. The emotions Morris encounters are of the harshest; from learning he will never play baseball again, to marital problems at home. He shares these sensitive feelings with the reader, letting the reader inside his mind and head, thus making the story feel more personal. When an author expresses personal experiences wit the reader, sometimes the reader can relate with the emotions and problems, and when a reader has gone through them as well, the book gets that much better. Jim Morris is a passionate man who has a love for America's past time, and never will let that love go. Jim Morris loves baseball.

      5 out of 5 stars The Oldest Rookie.......2004-02-25

      The Oldest Rookie

      Joel Engel and Jim Morris really did a wonderful job when they wrote the book The Oldest Rookie. The story was so good in fact that it inspired a movie called The Rookie. Although I thoroughly enjoyed both of them I would have to say that the book was better. There are a number of superior qualities about the book. You know it must be really good to because I almost always like the movie more then the book. The Oldest Rookie is easily one of the 5 best books I've read.
      In the book, you really get inside Jim Morris's head. You can see how he goes from a kid who did nothing except play baseball, to a minor leaguer who had to retire because of arm troubles, to a patient high school teacher, to a major leaguer. In the movie you see him as a kid playing baseball, however in the book he talks about how when he was younger the only toys he would play with were balls and how he was only in kindergarten when the fifth graders let them play in his baseball games because he was so good. Morris explains how the only think he cared about was baseball and he knew he wanted to be a pro ball player all his life. In the movie you are left to either assume that or to not know it at all. One of the most effective parts of the book was when Morris is describing when he went to play in his first major league game. He talks about how the hard journey had been worth it and you can almost feel his happiness as a smile spreads across your face and you turn the page. In the movie there was no way they could capture this moment perfectly. They just had him stand outside of the stadium for a few moments. In the book, you really get to see how Morris's brain works. He explains how he was a perfectionist and that it really hurt his life. They don't even touch this subject in the movie, even though it had drastic effects on his life. Feeling what Jimmy Morris feels really enhances the story.
      The characters in the book are also superior to the characters in the movie. They include pretty much every person who ever had an effect on Jimmy's life, while in the movie they pretty much just focus on him. The other characters really add a lot to the story. For example they didn't even mention that Jimmy had a grandfather, while in the book Jimmy says that his Grandpa was perhaps the biggest influence in his life. It was his grandpa who taught him to work hard and to not feel bad for himself when things didn't go his way. Also, they completely changed his parents. In the movie they make them seem like a normal couple, while in the book Morris explains how they didn't even like each other. They only married each other because Jimmy's mom got pregnant and they eventually got divorced. The movie really messed up on the characters.
      The biggest part where the book has the advantage over the movie is in the story. There were gapping holes in the movie. In the movie they started at page 1 and went to about page 12 and then they went to about page 200, and the book was less then 300 pages long. They skipped the meat of the story, which is when he is in the minors for the first time. If you watched the movie you'd have no idea he had ever really played in the minors before. They left out how he had started playing pro after his first year of junior college and then went on to the grueling minor league system where he would ride in small buses for countless hours and then stay in cheap motels. Then when he finally did pitch he did horrible and right when he started doing good his arm started to hurt. In the movie they mentioned he had received arm surgery but they did not explain how important to him it had been. In the movie they made it seem as if he had gotten arm surgery and then retired when he had really came only to need arm surgery again the next season. He even got one more after that one before he retired. Then his family went through harsh financial times before the movie finally picked up the story again. The movie plot is very flawed.
      The movie tried to do what they do to most inspiring stories, and that is make it feel more like a fairy tail then something that could really happen. They failed to show a lot of the hard work he put in to get where he did. You should really pick up the book The Oldest Rookie , it's a great story and it a speed read!
      The Physics of Baseball
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        The Physics of Baseball
        Robert K. Adair
        Manufacturer: Harper & Row
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback
        ASIN: B000OF0N12
        Going in circles: how does spin affect the motion of a ball?(hands-on): An article from: SuperScience
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Going in circles: how does spin affect the motion of a ball?(hands-on): An article from: SuperScience
          Gale Reference Team
          Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Digital

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          ASIN: B000Q9O5TM
          Release Date: 2007-05-04

          Book Description

          This digital document is an article from SuperScience, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2007. The length of the article is 605 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

          Citation Details
          Title: Going in circles: how does spin affect the motion of a ball?(hands-on)
          Author: Gale Reference Team
          Publication: SuperScience (Magazine/Journal)
          Date: May 1, 2007
          Publisher: Thomson Gale
          Volume: 18 Issue: 8 Page: 15(2)

          Distributed by Thomson Gale
          MOMENTUM: An entry from Thomson Gale's 
<i>Science of Everyday Things</i>
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            MOMENTUM: An entry from Thomson Gale's Science of Everyday Things

            Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Digital

            Billiards & PoolBilliards & Pool | Individual Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
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            ASIN: B000M59UEK

            Book Description

            The four-volume “Science of Everyday Things” set illustrates the importance of scientific and mathematical principles through their use in everyday life. Each volume focuses on a specific scientific discipline — biology, chemistry, earth sciences and physics — offering an in-depth understanding of each discipline and its theories, creating a sense of real-life relevance for students and those not scientifically-inclined, and including interesting facts and details relating to each principle. The fascinating entries offer explanations of concepts using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, and present theories in their everyday applications. Some examples of the entries covered include how osmosis is used in dehydrating fruit; Charles' law and the chemical reaction that sets off an airbag; and how algorithms are used to figure out the NCAA playoff tournaments.

            Books:

            1. The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
            2. The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (International Series of Monographs on Physics)
            3. Three-Dimensional Geometry and Topology
            4. Turbulence Models and Their Application: Efficient Numerical Methods with Computer Programs
            5. Turbulent Flows
            6. Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving
            7. Uncertainty and Information: Foundations of Generalized Information Theory
            8. Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can't Predict the Future
            9. Water and Wastewater Calculations Manual
            10. White Noise Distribution Theory (Probability and Stochastics Series)

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