[Signed] Pure Baseball: Pitch by Pitch for the Advanced Fan [SIGNED FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING] Hernandez, Keith; Bryan, Mike [As New] [Hardcover]

Description

As new condition navy blue boards, black cloth spine, and gold spine lettering contained in an as new condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes List of Other Book(s) by Keith Hernandez and Mike Bryan; Authors' Dedication; Preamble; Epilogue; Acknowledgments; Postscript: The Games by the Numbers; Index and About the Authors. Illustrated with a rear section of scorecards and statistics. Signed and inscribed by Keith Hernandez with thin blue ink pen on the half title page. ""Keith Hernandwz is a true zen master of the inner game of baseball, and this book is a wonderful guided tour through the inner sanctums of the temple."" -- Jerry Seinfeld. ""No other player played the game with more fervor, passion, and intelligence that Keith Hernandez. I loved to watch him play. The reasons whey can be found in this book."" -- Tim McCarver. ""[Hernandez's baseball intelligence is remarkable. Other Mets players say that he is always two or three pitches ahead of the enemy pitcher and catcher, and that he almost seems to know the other team's coaches' signals without looking, because he understands where they are in their heads and what they hope to do next . The man is in the game."" -- Roger ANgell, The New Yorker. ""I love watching Keith Hernandez play first base. You can almost feel him thinking out there."" -- Ira Berkow, New York Times. ""Hernandez is a sharp and blunt-spoken observer of his sport and the people who play it."" -- Frederick Klein, Wall Street Journal. 'And you thought you knew baseball. This is the book true fans -- advanced fans -- have been waiting for, a book that tells you the way it really is on the field, written by a former superstar regarded by peers, fans, and sportswriters alike as unmatched in his insight into every nuance of the national pastime. Pure Baseball is just that, an undiluted lesson in the sport. Keith Hernandez teaches you how to watch a baseball game, every last detail of it, from the action in the bullpen to the play at the plate, and to see it the way he does, the way that made him one of the most talented players ever to put on a glove or wield a bat. The book focuses on two games in June 1993: Philadelphia versus Atlanta (subsequently the two National League division champions) and an extrainning battle between Detroit and the Yankees. With all the opinionated, idiosyncratic flair for which he's remembered as a player, Hernandez narrates each game pitch by pitch, play by play. He takes us inside the thinking of the pitchers, the batters, the fielders, and the managers. He identifies and analyzes the key decisions on and off the field -- and his canny explanations are often quite different from what the casual fan (and many announcers) might assume. Using a wealth of examples and stories from his own seventeen years at first base, Hernandez probes deep into the notions behind pitch selection, batting strategies, fielder placement, and managerial moves. The result: he opens the game up...