Bill ONeill - The Great Book of Baseball: Interesting Facts and Sports Stories

Whether you're a young man that thinks the Chicago Cubs win the World Series all the time, or someone more seasoned that remembers routinely scheduled double-headers, there's plenty of food at the table in this book. It's is an eclectic collection that's part Ripley's' Believe It or Not, and part Guinness Book of World Records, combined with some candid humor and fun trivia. For some it's an educational experience, and for others it'll bring back memories. Some of those memories will be good or bad, depending on who you were rooting for at the time!

If you want to go past the headlines or beyond the common perceptions, and have some fun doing it, then this baseball book was written for you!

Doubleday is credited with having invented baseball back in 1839, although some dispute that. However, baseball's Hall of Fame is built in Cooperstown, NY, where supposedly the first game was played. Much of the game is played the same way today, or 178 years later. And of course there are some components of the game that have long since been archived. Baseball went from a little boys games to the "national pastime". It went from something that was a mere hobby to something that is watched live by millions. Ask yourself where baseball would be today without inventions such as the radio, television, and of course the internet.

Technology and money have changed the game perhaps more than any other external force, and let me share a true story to with you. Ten years ago the Miami Marlins were playing the Mets in New York. It was a chilly day in late September. Miami had long since been eliminated from playoff contention. As the players were on the bus from the hotel to the park, many of them took to their Twitter accounts to express how cold it was, how they'd rather be anywhere but stuck in New York traffic, and some were making golf reservations in Miami upon their return home.

It was evident they didn't want to play a baseball game! I said to a friend that if I were a gambling man I'd bet the mortgage on the Mets, who promptly won the game 13-0. Now, that kind of "talk" has gone on for years, but with Twitter it became instant information.

We're closer to our favorite players than ever, we know more about their personal lives than we care to know, and often times we can see things on television as it happens that players cannot!

It wasn't always like that, so we'll look at some people who made the game, some people who changed the game, and some classic moments that some of you will know exactly where you were when they happened. It's a deep-dive into baseball history, trivia, and interesting/fun facts for everyone. Some of the guys did enough to make the book more than once. We hope you enjoy reading as much as we did writing!