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The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime |  | Authors: Jason Turbow, Michael Duca
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.10
as of 9/9/2010 09:06 CDT details
You Save: $12.90 (52%)
New (34) Used (15) from $11.49
Rating:  27 reviews
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.6 x 1
ISBN: 0375424695
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357
EAN: 9780375424694
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780375424694 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. What truly governs the Major League game is a set of unwritten rules, some of which are openly discussed (don’t steal a base with a big lead late in the game), and some of which only a minority of players are even aware of (don’t cross between the catcher and the pitcher on the way to the batter’s box). In The Baseball Codes, old-timers and all-time greats share their insights into the game’s most hallowedâand least knownâtraditions. For the learned and the casual baseball fan alike, the result is illuminating and thoroughly entertaining.
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At the heart of this book are incredible and often hilarious stories involving national heroes (like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays) and notorious headhunters (like Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale) in a century-long series of confrontations over respect, honor, and the soul of the game. With The Baseball Codes, we see for the first time the game as it’s actually played, through the eyes of the players on the field.
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With rollicking stories from the past and new perspectives on baseball’s informal rulebook, The Baseball Codes is a must for every fan.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
 For the Fans Who Really Want to Be Inside August 21, 2010
Crosley Fan (Cincinnati, Ohio)
This is the kind of book that you hope will be more than it ultimately is, but is really as good as it can be. "Baseball Codes" ends up being a laundry list of baseball's "unwritten rules". What you hope "Codes" will be is a magical portal onto a major league bench, where we can hear the profanity and smell the tobacco spit and feel the brush of a major league fastball. What you get is a collection of vignettes about each of the quasi-rules, strung together with a thin taffy of reflection, nostalgia, background apologia, commentary, admiration and genuine gee-whiz affection. And a somewhat unbalanced collection, too, as the authors have far more yarns to spin regarding beanballs and brushbacks than they do about the rest of the table of contents. Luckily, for the serious fan--the grown-up kid who would have given an arm or a leg to be one of those guys on the bench (though, on reflection, the market for one-armed or -legged ballplayers is fairly slim)--such a taffy is satisfying enough to while away a few off-days in the company of "Codes."
 Fun Book! August 5, 2010
Thomas Severs (Wichita, KS United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Baseball Codes is a wonderful book that is filled with interesting antecdotes that illustrate the unwritten codes in baseball. I enjoy baseball even more having read this book.
Having read this book and having described many parts to my seven year old son, we knew our small town team's DH was going to get hit by a pitch, and he was. My son wants to do what Norm Cash did every time he was on base and a raid delay was called. I want to go to Fenway to see where the pitcher's grip was read from the bullpen and flashed to the batter. I watch to see if any first basemen do what Willie Stargell did on pick off plays. That will shorten a runners lead. So much more to watch and do...
This is a fun, fun book. Congratulations to the authors for an easy reading of many years of research and interviews.
An inside look at the game of baseball July 31, 2010
Barry Sparks (York, PA)
The Baseball Codes is about the unwritten rules of America's pastime. Predictably, those rules are clearer to some players than others, are often open to interpretation and enforced to different extents.
Most of the unwritten rules are related to respect for the game. Former major leaguer Rex Hudler perhaps summed it up best: "Give respect to the other team, expect it in return and know how to react should it fail to be reciprocated."
The authors did an impressive job of interviewing lots of players and gathering stories about beanball wars, sign stealing, cheating, retaliation, intimidation, and brawls.
The anecdotes span from the 1920s to the present. While some of these stories are fairly well known (George Brett's pine tar incident in 1983), most are not. These are seldom the types of stories that you can glean from box scores.
This is an interesting, inside look at the game of baseball. Most baseball fans should enjoy it.
 Baseball Codes July 15, 2010
William D. Healey (Milford, Ct. USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book is very dry. It has its moments but they are few and far between. I'm still reading it and struggling to finish. I wouldn't recomend it to any true baseball fan.
Real fun to read July 9, 2010
Marc Ranger (québec, canada)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book. It's a quick and informative read, full of insights about the national game and the players engaged in it. I was surprise to find anecdotes about team dissentions (such as an important feud between Troy Percival and Mo Vaughn of the Angels).
No doubt, you'll be aware of MLB's players daily life and routine, how they interact together, what they accept and what they don't. The "Code" is at the core of it all. So important in fact that a guy like Bob Gibson stick to it, even in Old-timers games!
Real fun to read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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