
Skipper
Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will
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
3 months free
Buy for $28.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bob Souer
-
By:
-
Scott Miller
About this listen
From the award-winning baseball writer and coauthor of Ninety Percent Mental, an unprecedented look at the job of Major League Baseball managers—showing how they shape the game, and how the ever-changing game shapes them.
Skipper takes on an ambitious Moneyball-esque premise: a deep dive into the ongoing struggle for control that often takes place behind the scenes between Major League Baseball managers and the ownership groups, and now, their data analysts. In a culture still attempting to come to terms with the Digital Age, there’s a bigger story behind the evolution of authority of managing inside the major leagues.
Packed with baseball history, interviews with dozens of MLB's current stars and veterans, and an exclusive, inside look at the day-to-day life of manager LA Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, Skipper is a fascinating look into the highs, the lows, and the inner workings of the changing world of professional baseball.
©2025 Scott Miller (P)2025 Hachette GoListeners also enjoyed...
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
-
-
Tremendous Premise
- By James E. Pfeffer on 06-02-25
By: David Krell
-
Hurdle-isms
- Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball
- By: Clint Hurdle
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Hurdle-isms, renowned Major League Baseball player, hitting coach, manager, and current Special Assistant to the General Manager for the Colorado Rockies, Clint Hurdle, delivers a collection of his most inspirational stories. You'll find a ton of funny, insightful, and otherwise notable anecdotes from one of Major League Baseball's most successful personalities.
-
-
Narrator is HORRIBLE
- By Melissa on 05-16-25
By: Clint Hurdle
-
The Gunfighters
- How Texas Made the West Wild
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The “Wild West” gunfighter is such a stock figure in our popular culture that some dismiss it all as a corny myth, more a product of dime novels and B movies than a genuinely important American history. In fact, as Bryan Burrough shows us in his dazzling and fast-paced new book, there’s much more below the surface. For three decades at the end of the 1800s, a big swath of the American West was a crucible of change, with the highest murder rate per capita in American history. The reasons behind this boil down to one word: Texas.
-
-
Hits the target
- By S. S. Felzenberg on 06-09-25
By: Bryan Burrough
-
The Last Manager
- How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
- By: John W. Miller
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing.
-
-
THE EARL OF BALTIMORE... ALWAYS A TREAT!
- By USA VETERAN on 03-21-25
By: John W. Miller
-
Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
-
-
Some good nuggets but a little repetitive
- By Andrew on 06-15-25
-
The Book of Joe
- Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life
- By: Joe Maddon, Tom Verducci
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one sees baseball like Joe Maddon. He sees it through his trademark glasses and irrepressible wit. Raised in the “shot and beer” town of Hazleton, PA, and forged by 15 years in the minors, Maddon over 19 seasons in Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Anaheim has become one of the most successful, most colorful, and most quoted managers in Major League Baseball. He is a workplace culture expert, having engineered two of the most stunning turnarounds in the past quarter century.
-
-
Typical Joe
- By BG on 01-21-25
By: Joe Maddon, and others
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
-
-
Tremendous Premise
- By James E. Pfeffer on 06-02-25
By: David Krell
-
Hurdle-isms
- Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball
- By: Clint Hurdle
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Hurdle-isms, renowned Major League Baseball player, hitting coach, manager, and current Special Assistant to the General Manager for the Colorado Rockies, Clint Hurdle, delivers a collection of his most inspirational stories. You'll find a ton of funny, insightful, and otherwise notable anecdotes from one of Major League Baseball's most successful personalities.
-
-
Narrator is HORRIBLE
- By Melissa on 05-16-25
By: Clint Hurdle
-
The Gunfighters
- How Texas Made the West Wild
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The “Wild West” gunfighter is such a stock figure in our popular culture that some dismiss it all as a corny myth, more a product of dime novels and B movies than a genuinely important American history. In fact, as Bryan Burrough shows us in his dazzling and fast-paced new book, there’s much more below the surface. For three decades at the end of the 1800s, a big swath of the American West was a crucible of change, with the highest murder rate per capita in American history. The reasons behind this boil down to one word: Texas.
-
-
Hits the target
- By S. S. Felzenberg on 06-09-25
By: Bryan Burrough
-
The Last Manager
- How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball
- By: John W. Miller
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before the Moneyball Era, the Earl of Baltimore reigned over baseball. History’s feistiest and most colorful manager, Earl Weaver transformed the sport by collecting and analyzing data in visionary ways, ultimately winning more games than anybody else during his time running the Orioles from 1968 to 1982. When Weaver was hired by the Orioles, managers were still seen as coaches and inspirational leaders, more teachers of the game than strategists. Weaver invented new ways of building baseball teams, prioritizing on-base average, elite defense, and strike throwing.
-
-
THE EARL OF BALTIMORE... ALWAYS A TREAT!
- By USA VETERAN on 03-21-25
By: John W. Miller
-
Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
-
-
Some good nuggets but a little repetitive
- By Andrew on 06-15-25
-
The Book of Joe
- Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life
- By: Joe Maddon, Tom Verducci
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one sees baseball like Joe Maddon. He sees it through his trademark glasses and irrepressible wit. Raised in the “shot and beer” town of Hazleton, PA, and forged by 15 years in the minors, Maddon over 19 seasons in Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Anaheim has become one of the most successful, most colorful, and most quoted managers in Major League Baseball. He is a workplace culture expert, having engineered two of the most stunning turnarounds in the past quarter century.
-
-
Typical Joe
- By BG on 01-21-25
By: Joe Maddon, and others
-
The Hero Code
- Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived
- By: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Narrated by: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed number-one New York Times best-selling author of Make Your Bed - a short, inspirational book about the qualities of true everyday heroes.
-
-
Even better than Make Your Bed
- By Anonymous User on 04-17-21
-
The Fate of the Generals
- MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines
- By: Jonathan Horn
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.
-
-
Wonderful book
- By Scott Brimer on 06-09-25
By: Jonathan Horn
-
The Art of Winning
- Lessons from My Life in Football
- By: Bill Belichick
- Narrated by: Bill Belichick
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one embodies winning more than Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach of all time. Over the past fifty years, Belichick has been a man of notoriously few words, believing that a coach should keep a low profile. After he left the Patriots in 2024, he briefly became a coach without a team. He spent that year writing down the principles he learned from his father, Navy football, and from his forty-nine-year coaching career. Belichick’s philosophy goes far beyond football.
-
-
Great insight into a life of success
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-25
By: Bill Belichick
-
Barbarians at the Gate
- The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- By: Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A number-one New York Times best seller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date 20 years after the famed deal.
-
-
Good book but too dense
- By Andrew M. on 08-01-21
By: Bryan Burrough, and others
-
Ninety Percent Mental
- By: Bob Tewksbury, Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Bob Tewksbury
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury shows listeners a side of the game only he can provide, given his singular background as both a longtime MLB pitcher and a mental skills coach for two of the sport's most fabled franchises, the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants. Fans watching the game on television or even at the stadium don't have access to the mind games a pitcher must play in order to get through an at-bat, an inning, a game.
-
-
Unique and fascinating perspective
- By elizabeth on 04-11-18
By: Bob Tewksbury, and others
-
Why We Love Baseball
- A History in 50 Moments
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Joe Posnanski, Ellen Adair
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters.
-
-
Narration
- By Peter on 01-10-24
By: Joe Posnanski
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
-
-
Tremendous Premise
- By James E. Pfeffer on 06-02-25
By: David Krell
-
The Raider
- The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Raider, Cundill Prize-winning historian Stephen R. Platt gives us the first authoritative account of Carlson’s larger-than-life exploits: the real story, based on years of research including newly discovered diaries and correspondence in English and Chinese, with deep insight into the conflicted idealism about the Chinese Communists that would prove Carlson’s undoing in the McCarthy era. Tracing the rise and fall of an unlikely American war hero, The Raider is a story of exploration, of cultural (mis)understanding, and of one man’s awakening to the sheer breadth of the world.
-
-
Outstanding book about a unknown hero
- By Scott Brownell on 05-20-25
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
Make Me Commissioner
- I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
- By: Jane Leavy
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lifelong baseball devotee, legendary sportswriter, and New York Times bestselling biographer Jane Leavy takes listeners on an epic journey through the game that baseball has become—our once “national pastime,” now striving to catch up with the times—and proposes ideas that will invigorate fans and enhance the game’s cultural impact: a comic, deeply reported, historic, and heartfelt manifesto.
By: Jane Leavy
-
Play Harder
- The Triumph of Black Baseball in America
- By: Gerald Early, National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Narrated by: Dave Winfield, JD Jackson, Reynaldo Piniella, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No sport has been more associated with America’s sense of itself, with its identity, than baseball. No sport has been so inextricably bound with America’s traditions—with its notions of democracy and fair play—than baseball. And no professional sport in America has been as dramatically connected to social change as Major League Baseball when it became racially integrated the moment Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
-
-
History!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 05-08-25
By: Gerald Early, and others
-
Losing Big
- America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling
- By: Jonathan D. Cohen
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Losing Big, historian Jonathan D. Cohen lays out the astonishing emergence of online sports gambling, from sportsbook executives drafting legislation to an addicted gambler confessing their $300,000 losses. Sports gambling is here to stay, and the stakes could not be higher. Losing Big explains how this brewing crisis came to be, and how it can be addressed before new generations get hooked.
-
-
Easy, short, informative
- By Ezra on 04-02-25
-
Baddest Man
- The Making of Mike Tyson
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Mark Kriegel
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On an evening that defined the "greed is good" 1980s, Donald Trump hosted a raft of celebrities and high rollers in a carnival town on the Jersey Shore to bask in the glow created by a twenty-one-year-old heavyweight champion. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks that night and in ninety-one frenzied seconds earned more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers' and Boston Celtics' players combined.
-
-
She was who I thought she was
- By Michael D. Taylor on 06-19-25
By: Mark Kriegel
-
1978
- Baseball and America in the Disco Era
- By: David Krell
- Narrated by: David Krell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From spring training to the World Series, 1978 gave baseball fans one of the sport's greatest seasons, full of legendary moments like the battle between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the American League East pennant, Gaylord Perry's three thousandth strikeout, Tom Seaver's only career no-hitter, Willie McCovey's five hundredth home run, and Pete Rose's marathon forty-four-game hitting streak.
-
-
Tremendous Premise
- By James E. Pfeffer on 06-02-25
By: David Krell
-
The Raider
- The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Raider, Cundill Prize-winning historian Stephen R. Platt gives us the first authoritative account of Carlson’s larger-than-life exploits: the real story, based on years of research including newly discovered diaries and correspondence in English and Chinese, with deep insight into the conflicted idealism about the Chinese Communists that would prove Carlson’s undoing in the McCarthy era. Tracing the rise and fall of an unlikely American war hero, The Raider is a story of exploration, of cultural (mis)understanding, and of one man’s awakening to the sheer breadth of the world.
-
-
Outstanding book about a unknown hero
- By Scott Brownell on 05-20-25
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
Make Me Commissioner
- I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
- By: Jane Leavy
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lifelong baseball devotee, legendary sportswriter, and New York Times bestselling biographer Jane Leavy takes listeners on an epic journey through the game that baseball has become—our once “national pastime,” now striving to catch up with the times—and proposes ideas that will invigorate fans and enhance the game’s cultural impact: a comic, deeply reported, historic, and heartfelt manifesto.
By: Jane Leavy
-
Play Harder
- The Triumph of Black Baseball in America
- By: Gerald Early, National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Narrated by: Dave Winfield, JD Jackson, Reynaldo Piniella, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No sport has been more associated with America’s sense of itself, with its identity, than baseball. No sport has been so inextricably bound with America’s traditions—with its notions of democracy and fair play—than baseball. And no professional sport in America has been as dramatically connected to social change as Major League Baseball when it became racially integrated the moment Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
-
-
History!
- By Robert A. Raymond on 05-08-25
By: Gerald Early, and others
-
Losing Big
- America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling
- By: Jonathan D. Cohen
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Losing Big, historian Jonathan D. Cohen lays out the astonishing emergence of online sports gambling, from sportsbook executives drafting legislation to an addicted gambler confessing their $300,000 losses. Sports gambling is here to stay, and the stakes could not be higher. Losing Big explains how this brewing crisis came to be, and how it can be addressed before new generations get hooked.
-
-
Easy, short, informative
- By Ezra on 04-02-25
-
Baddest Man
- The Making of Mike Tyson
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Mark Kriegel
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On an evening that defined the "greed is good" 1980s, Donald Trump hosted a raft of celebrities and high rollers in a carnival town on the Jersey Shore to bask in the glow created by a twenty-one-year-old heavyweight champion. Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks that night and in ninety-one frenzied seconds earned more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers' and Boston Celtics' players combined.
-
-
She was who I thought she was
- By Michael D. Taylor on 06-19-25
By: Mark Kriegel
Baseball writing at its best
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Grand Slam for Baseball Lovers
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.