Email Novel Suspects Logo
Hachette provides comprehensive global distribution services in the following territories:
United States flag Switch to United States region United Kingdom flag Switch to United Kingdom region Australia flag Switch to Australia region India flag Switch to India region

Hachette Book Group menu

  • Home
  • Publishers
  • Customers
  • Sustainability
  • Retailer Portal
  • Location
  • Our Culture
  • Our Careers
Go to Hachette Book Group home

Hachette Book Group menu

  • Home
  • Publishers
  • Customers
  • Sustainability
  • Retailer Portal
  • Location
  • Our Culture
  • Our Careers

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

What Baseball Means to Me

A Celebration of Our National Pastime

What Baseball Means to Me Open the full-size image

Loading

Contributors

By Curt Smith

By The National Baseball Hall of Fame

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Feb 28, 2009
Page Count
288 pages
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13
9780446556989

Price

$16.99

Price

$21.99 CAD

Format

ebook (Digital original)

Format:

ebook (Digital original) $16.99 $21.99 CAD

Buy from Other Retailers:

  • Amazon
  • Apple Books
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Google Play
  • Ebooks.com
  • Kobo

Funny, moving, and each one a diamond in the rough of the American consciousness, the essays in this book are the ultimate baseball conversation that pays homage to the perfect sport, in this perfect companion for all our personal baseball journeys.

For some people baseball means a memory-of a certain dusty ball field on a certain summer day, or the first time they walked into a major league park and saw the perfect emerald playing field. For some, baseball means one heartbreaking or heroic moment. And for others, it means a father, a friend, or an old flame who shared a game for a day or for a lifetime. To create this marvelous book, more than 150 writers, athletes, celebrities, politicians, presidents, and pundits were asked what baseball means to them. The answers came back with richness, wonder, insight, and poetry. A fascinating portrait of baseball’s beautiful nuances, What Baseball means to me marks the greatest collection of original essays ever written about the game. Accompanied by more than 200 classic baseball photographs, the voices in this book bring alive the game in all its venues-in the past and present, in wartime and hard times, in Cuba, in Wrigley Field or Yankee Stadium.

We meet players in a different light: including Paul Molitor returning a baseball to a trusting boy named Dan Jansen, Derek Jeter as depicted by his dad, the Toledo Mud Hens as seen through the eyes of Christine Brennan, and Pedro Martinez talking about baseball as a way of life in his native Dominican Republic. Most of all, we meet ordinary Americans, like the kids Rudy Giuliani grew up with in Brooklyn, or the man in Philadelphia who transforms himself for every home game from mild-mannered Tom Burgoyne to the Phillie Phanatic.

Genre:

  • Nonfiction
  • Sports & Recreation
  • Baseball
  • Essays & Writings

You May Also Like

Make Me Commissioner
Make Me Commissioner $32.50 $42.00 CAD
New York Times Story of the Yankees
New York Times Story of the Yankees $25.99 $32.99 CAD
The Great Book of Philadelphia Sports Lists (Completely Revised and Updated Edition)
The Great Book of Philadelphia Sports Lists (Completely Revised and Updated Edition) $15.99 $21.99 CAD
I’m Keith Hernandez
I’m Keith Hernandez $19.99 $25.99 CAD
The Game
The Game $17.99 $23.49 CAD

Newsletter Signup

Get recommended reads, deals, and more from Hachette

By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Curt Smith

About the Author

Curt Smith is widely regarded as America’s foremost sports broadcasting historian. His previous books include What Baseball Means to Me; Voices of the Game; and Storied Stadiums, which is available from Carroll & Graf. He wrote two State of the Union addresses as a speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush and is now a senior lecturer in English at the University of Rochester.

Learn more about this author

The National Baseball Hall of Fame

About the Author

Learn more about this author

▲
HBG Distribution logo
  • FAQ
  • Vendors
  • Cookie Policy
  • Report Piracy
  • Fraud Alert
  • CPSIA
  • GPSR
© 2025 Hachette Book Group | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Do Not Sell My Personal Information