-
Branch Rickey
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $10.31
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The idea of integrating baseball began as a dream in the mind of Branch Rickey. In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues, changing the sport and the nation forever. Rickey's is the classic American tale of a poor boy from Ohio whose deep-seated faith and dogged work ethic took him to the pinnacle of success, earning him a place in the Hall of Fame and in history. Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jimmy Breslin is a legend in his own right. In his inimitable anecdotal style, he provides a lively portrait of Rickey and his times, including such colorful characters as Dodgers' owner George V. McLaughlin (dubbed "George the Fifth" for his love of Scotch); diamond greats Leo Durocher, George Sisler, and Dizzy Dean; and Robinson himself, a man whose remarkable talent was equaled only by his resilience in the face of intolerance. Breslin brings to life the heady days when baseball emerged as the national pastime in this inspiring biography of a great American who remade a sport---and dreamed of remaking a country.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning
- 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City
- By: Jonathan Mahler
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By early 1977, New York City was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed "Son of Sam". And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in the city's history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city's mayoralty.
-
-
Excellent
- By pp on 04-22-21
By: Jonathan Mahler
-
Ted Williams
- The Biography of an American Hero
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was one of the greatest figures of his generation and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? New York Times best-selling author Leigh Montville delivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinary life.
-
-
An enjoyable listen for baseball buffs
- By Champ on 06-02-04
By: Leigh Montville
-
The Baseball 100
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 30 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski that tells the story of the sport through the remarkable lives of its 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than 200 years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?”
-
-
Just OK. Too Tangential & Distracting
- By Matthew R. on 01-21-23
By: Joe Posnanski
-
The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
-
-
Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
-
Summer of '49
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided on the last day of the season.
-
-
Excellent
- By RJA on 11-03-22
By: David Halberstam
-
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- An American Slave
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrated by: Raymond Hearn
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic of American literature, a dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave, was first published in 1845, when its author had just achieved his freedom. It is a story that shocked the world with its first-hand account of the horrors of slavery. The book was an incredible success. It sold over 30,000 copies and was an international best seller.
-
-
Appropriate Audio
- By Gigi P on 05-23-16
-
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning
- 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City
- By: Jonathan Mahler
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By early 1977, New York City was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed "Son of Sam". And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in the city's history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city's mayoralty.
-
-
Excellent
- By pp on 04-22-21
By: Jonathan Mahler
-
Ted Williams
- The Biography of an American Hero
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 21 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was one of the greatest figures of his generation and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? New York Times best-selling author Leigh Montville delivers an intimate, riveting account of this extraordinary life.
-
-
An enjoyable listen for baseball buffs
- By Champ on 06-02-04
By: Leigh Montville
-
The Baseball 100
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 30 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Longer than Moby-Dick and nearly as ambitious,The Baseball 100 is a one-of-a-kind work by award-winning sportswriter and lifelong student of the game Joe Posnanski that tells the story of the sport through the remarkable lives of its 100 greatest players. In the book’s introduction, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George F. Will marvels, “Posnanski must already have lived more than 200 years. How else could he have acquired such a stock of illuminating facts and entertaining stories about the rich history of this endlessly fascinating sport?”
-
-
Just OK. Too Tangential & Distracting
- By Matthew R. on 01-21-23
By: Joe Posnanski
-
The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
-
-
Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
-
Summer of '49
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided on the last day of the season.
-
-
Excellent
- By RJA on 11-03-22
By: David Halberstam
-
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- An American Slave
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrated by: Raymond Hearn
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic of American literature, a dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave, was first published in 1845, when its author had just achieved his freedom. It is a story that shocked the world with its first-hand account of the horrors of slavery. The book was an incredible success. It sold over 30,000 copies and was an international best seller.
-
-
Appropriate Audio
- By Gigi P on 05-23-16
-
Leadership
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Beau Bridges, David Morse, Jay O. Sanders, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the man make the times or do the times make the man? In Leadership, Goodwin draws upon four of the presidents she has studied most closely - Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights) - to show how they first recognized leadership qualities within themselves, and were recognized by others as leaders.
-
-
What makes a president great?
- By tru britty on 09-25-18
-
Deliver Me from Nowhere
- The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska
- By: Warren Zanes
- Narrated by: Warren Zanes
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen might not be who he is today. The natural follow-up to Springsteen’s hugely successful album The River should have been the hit-packed Born in the U.S.A. But instead, in 1982, he came out with an album consisting of a series of dark songs he had recorded by himself, for himself. But more than forty years later, Nebraska is arguably Springsteen’s most important record—the lasting clue to understanding not just his career as an artist and the vision behind it, but also the man himself.
-
-
Much more than a “Making of” story…
- By W. Smith on 05-31-23
By: Warren Zanes
-
Unscripted
- The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global’s entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
-
-
I could t wait for it to end
- By Abbie L. Smith on 03-01-23
By: James B. Stewart, and others
-
Cobb
- By: Al Stump
- Narrated by: Ian Esmo
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a boy in the 1890s he went looking for thrills in a rural Georgia that still burned with humiliation from the Civil War. As an old man in the 1960s he dared death, picked fights, refused to take his medicine, and drove off all his friends and admirers. He went to his deathbed alone, clutching a loaded pistol and a bag containing millions of dollars worth of cash and securities. During the years in between, he became, according to Al Stump, "the most shrewd, inventive, lurid, detested, mysterious, and superb of all baseball players." He was Ty Cobb. In Cobb, Stump tells how he was given a fascinating window into the Georgia Peach's life and times when the dying Cobb hired him in 1960 to ghostwrite his autobiography.
-
-
What a man -- what a book!
- By John on 08-19-03
By: Al Stump
-
Luckiest Man
- The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse, baseball's strongest and most determined superstar, struck down in his prime by a disease that now bears his name. But who was Lou Gehrig, really? Lou Gehrig is regarded as the greatest first baseman in baseball history. Shy and socially awkward, Gehrig was a misfit on a Yankee team that included drinkers and hell-raisers, most notably Babe Ruth.
-
-
Wow! What an amazing story!
- By M on 08-13-14
By: Jonathan Eig
-
The Big Bam
- The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Babe Ruth was more than baseball's original superstar. For 85 years, he has remained the sport's reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century...more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? In The Big Bam, Leigh Montville brings his trademark touch to this groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the Babe.
-
-
The Big Bam
- By Alan on 06-13-06
By: Leigh Montville
-
42 Faith
- The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story
- By: Ed Henry
- Narrated by: Ed Henry
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson's family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie's humanity that few have taken the time to see.
-
-
42Faith
- By Phillip L. on 04-11-17
By: Ed Henry
-
Opening Day
- The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
-
-
Great book, not so great reading
- By Joe Baseball on 08-30-07
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Joe DiMaggio
- The Hero's Life
- By: Richard Ben Cramer
- Narrated by: Richard Ben Cramer
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking biography, Richard Ben Cramer presents a stunning, often shocking portrait of the hero nobody knew. It is a story that sweeps through the 20th century, bringing light to America's national game, movie stars, mobsters, as well as the birth - and the price - of national celebrity.
-
-
Joe DiMaggio
- By Patrick on 08-22-03
-
Great Baseball Writing
- By: Editors of Sports Illustrated
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 27 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Sports Illustrated was launched in 1954, baseball was, indisputable, the national pastime, its stars America's epic heroes, its rivalries the era's mythology. As baseballs fortunes rose and fell over the next 50 years - and then rose again to new heights, drawing more than 65 million fans to ballparks in 2004 - the game never failed to produce great drama and inspired storytelling.
-
-
mispronunciations lowered my overall rating
- By John J. Elert on 04-16-18
-
Satchel
- The Life and Times of an American Legend
- By: Larry Tye
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than 200 Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent.
-
-
Good story about a baseball icon.
- By Brad on 05-03-14
By: Larry Tye
-
The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
-
-
The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
-
-
Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
-
The Big Bam
- The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Babe Ruth was more than baseball's original superstar. For 85 years, he has remained the sport's reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century...more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? In The Big Bam, Leigh Montville brings his trademark touch to this groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the Babe.
-
-
The Big Bam
- By Alan on 06-13-06
By: Leigh Montville
-
Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
-
-
Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
-
42 Faith
- The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story
- By: Ed Henry
- Narrated by: Ed Henry
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson's family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie's humanity that few have taken the time to see.
-
-
42Faith
- By Phillip L. on 04-11-17
By: Ed Henry
-
Opening Day
- The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
-
-
Great book, not so great reading
- By Joe Baseball on 08-30-07
By: Jonathan Eig
-
The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
-
-
The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
-
The Boys of Summer
- The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What's Happened to Everybody Since
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a story by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is the story about what happened to the team when their glory days were behind them.
-
-
Classic book!
- By Christopher Arthur on 11-19-17
By: Roger Kahn
-
The Big Bam
- The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Babe Ruth was more than baseball's original superstar. For 85 years, he has remained the sport's reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century...more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? In The Big Bam, Leigh Montville brings his trademark touch to this groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the Babe.
-
-
The Big Bam
- By Alan on 06-13-06
By: Leigh Montville
-
Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
-
-
Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
-
42 Faith
- The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story
- By: Ed Henry
- Narrated by: Ed Henry
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson's family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie's humanity that few have taken the time to see.
-
-
42Faith
- By Phillip L. on 04-11-17
By: Ed Henry
-
Opening Day
- The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
-
-
Great book, not so great reading
- By Joe Baseball on 08-30-07
By: Jonathan Eig
-
The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
-
-
The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
-
Babe
- The Legend Comes to Life
- By: Robert W. Creamer
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was the biggest man baseball has ever produced. Babe Ruth transcended the sport that brought him fame, money, and adulation, moving beyond the limits of baselines and outfield fences into the mainstream of American life. In this extraordinary biography, Creamer uncovers the complex and captivating man behind the legend.
-
-
The definitive biography of Babe Ruth
- By DKT on 05-30-16
-
Terror in the City of Champions
- Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit
- By: Tom Stanton
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.
-
-
Interesting stories but oversold
- By Theron Schultz on 09-15-18
By: Tom Stanton
-
Bums
- An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
- By: Peter Golenbock
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans.
-
-
A MUST for the true Dodgers or Giants fan!!
- By Karen on 02-25-07
By: Peter Golenbock
-
Ty Cobb
- A Terrible Beauty
- By: Charles Leerhsen
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. But the numbers don't tell half of Cobb's tale. The Georgia Peach was by far the most thrilling player of the era: "Ty Cobb could cause more excitement with a base on balls than Babe Ruth could with a grand slam," one columnist wrote.
-
-
Two Cobb Books, One Review of a Maligned Legacy
- By Jonathan Love on 05-17-16
By: Charles Leerhsen
-
Bottom of the 33rd
- Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Dan Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. The first pitch was thrown after dusk on Holy Saturday, and for the next eight hours the night seemed to suspend its participants between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys....
-
-
I love baseball
- By Sher from Provo on 04-08-13
By: Dan Barry
-
One Shot at Forever
- A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season
- By: Chris Ballard
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to "Jesus Christ Superstar", the Ironmen would play a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.
-
-
Outstanding.
- By Cartman18 on 08-02-13
By: Chris Ballard
-
Pull Up a Chair
- The Vin Scully Story
- By: Curt Smith
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
-
-
Almost perfect
- By steve finkelstein on 02-06-21
By: Curt Smith
-
The Chicago Cubs
- Story of a Curse
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the Chicago Cubs have always been more than a team: they've been the protagonists of a King Arthur epic, in search of the Holy Grail that is winning the World Series. A chronicle of the last few miraculous seasons as experienced through the prism of Cubs history, The Chicago Cubs tracks the famous curse, which was placed on the team in 1945 by the infamous owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, who was ejected from Wrigley Field when he tried to bring his goat into the grandstand for the fifth game of the World Series.
-
-
just listen and it all happens again
- By Z. Kuhn on 10-28-17
By: Rich Cohen
-
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey
- How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life’s savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important - and funniest - figures in the game’s history.
-
-
Well written and extensive research but just not interesting
- By Samuel C on 07-30-20
By: Edward Achorn
-
Tigerland
- 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing
- By: Wil Haygood
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, did something no team from one school had ever done before: They won the state basketball and baseball championships in the same year. They defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state and along the way brought blacks and whites together, eased a painful racial divide throughout the state, and overcame extraordinary obstacles on their road to success.
-
-
Flashback to the Late 1960s
- By Toni Bowes on 09-05-19
By: Wil Haygood
-
Playing Through the Whistle
- Steel, Football, and an American Town
- By: S. L. Price
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania is famous for two things: the Jones and Laughlin Steel mill, an industrial behemoth that helped win World War II; and football, with a high school team that has produced numerous NFL stars, including Mike Ditka and Darrelle Revis. But the mill, once the fourth largest producer in America, closed for good in 2000. What happens to a town when a dream dies? Does it just disappear?
-
-
This is not a football book
- By radchick on 04-19-17
By: S. L. Price
-
Their Life's Work
- The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers
- By: Gary M. Pomerantz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and three decades later their names echo in popular memory: "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, and John Stallworth.
-
-
Great Book
- By cap on 07-18-18
What listeners say about Branch Rickey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thomas E. Lyons
- 08-05-20
It's a "biography"
This was not a biography of Branch Rickey. This was a telling of stories that Branch Rickey was integral in developing through the lens of an author who knew the relevant characters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan O'Toole
- 07-20-20
What a great book!
"Baseball was a sport for hillbillies with great eyesight" page 6, and it keeps going on and on like this. Great truths, fantastic research, and all you'd expect from the last real reporter in America. I listened to it while exercising, then had to read over what I covered when I was done, as seeing the words makes a difference. I only wish Breslin read it, but Dick Hill does a pretty good version of him. A+
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Anonymous User
- 04-01-11
the mahatma / mr. rickey
perfect marriage of story and storyteller
gruff /egotistical / perceptive / decisive
could be said of both rickey and breslin
no attempt at a spineless review of facts
a deep focus on the telling details and meaning
the economy of storytelling only enhances the tale
4-15-47 the absolute greatest day in the history of baseball
white pompous evangelical farm boy/lawyer from ohio
black willful angry sharecropper's son from california/georgia
it took the stage of NYC to bring them together
the other owners voted 15-1 to stop rickey/robinson
only breslin's city could overcome them and make history
america at its' best / sport at its' best / new york at its' best
breslin rightly connects the dots to other watershed moments
best example of an audiobook i've heard in the last 5 years
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martha Healy
- 12-22-13
A little baseball a little civil rights history.
I admit I went to read this after watching the movie 42 about Jackie Robinson. Also as an old (meaning I'm old) New York Giant baseball fan who lived and breathed the rivalry with the Brooklyn Dodgers I was interested. Also remember Jimmy Breslin's sports columns, how could I go wrong. I saw the movie and wondered how much about Branch Rickey was true, how much license had been taken. I was told Rickey was so much MORE than the movie portrayed and having read the book that was true. So you can read it as a baseball fan, as a student of the civil rights movement or just some interesting picture of life and hopefully how much it has changed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JMKIII58
- 03-22-17
5 STARS! A MUST READ!
A wonderful telling of the life of Branch Rickey. An innovator in so many ways on and off the field of baseball..
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful