Josh Pahigian – författare

The most entertaining and comprehensive guide to every baseball fan's dream road trip-including every new ballpark since the 2004 edition-revised and completely updated!

Spring training is a time of renewal for baseball, when teams and fans descend on Florida and Arizona to begin the ever hopeful new season. The pace is a little slower, the fans are closer to the action, and the players are more accessible: the sport returns to its idyllic roots. When the first edition of this book was released, 18 of the MLB teams trained in Florida and 12 in Arizona. As 2013 arrives each league consists of 15 teams; together they utilize 14 parks in Florida and 10 in Arizona.This heavily illustrated work dedicates a chapter to each park, including modern Cactus League marvels like Camelback Ranch and Salt River Fields, and Grapefruit League bastions like Joker Marchant Stadium and McKechnie Field. Florida's Fenway Park replica, which opened in 2012, is included. In addition to profiling the five parks that have opened since the first edition, the author has updated the other chapters. Each provides a description of the park, and a recounting of its history, followed by a summary of the home team or teams' spring history. Next is a review of the park's seating, concessions and fan traditions. Each chapter concludes with information about nearby baseball landmarks and attractions.

A brand new edition of the finalist for the 2008 Casey Award, presented annually to the best baseball book, 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out profiles America’s greatest baseball museums, shrines, sports bars, pop culture landmarks and ballpark sites. From sandlots and skyboxes to TV rooms and sports bars, America’s love for baseball has inspired countless memories, discussions, and tributes. Josh Pahigian takes us across America to explore the places where the game’s history, culture, and lore come to life. Whether we travel by car or sit in the comfort of our favorite armchair, the book guides us to 101 amazing baseball places—including Ted Williams’ boyhood home, the Field of Dreams movie site, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Chicago bar where the Cubs’ “Curse of the Billy Goat” was born, Babe Ruth’s grave, and scores of other captivating landmarks and curios. Replacing the now-extinct sites from the previous edition, updating entries for attractions that have moved, re-assigning coveted chapters to more inspiring baseball venues that have since opened, and including stunning color photos for nearly all of them, Josh Pahigian has created the perfect gift for any baseball fan.

A visually stunning road trip through pro baseball’s wacky, wondrous, and revered ballpark attractionsExploding scoreboards, treetop seats, and neon skylines are just three of the more than 100 ballpark design features, field eccentricities, historic displays, traditions, concession items, and even super-fans and mascots profiled in this armchair baseball journey. Combining engaging storytelling with fun sidebars and beautiful color photos, author Josh Pahigian captures the essence of each ballpark treasure—from the retractable lighthouse at the Portland Sea Dogs’ Hadlock Field to the Sausage Race at the Brewers’ Miller Park to Fenway Park’s Green Monster and even to the delicious biscuits served by the aptly named Montgomery Biscuits. From the Rookie Leagues to the Majors, there are more than 250 professional baseball parks in the United States where fans partake in special game-day rituals, eat unique foods, laugh along with the zany mascot, marvel at the park’s special features, and revel in a communal experience that removes them for a few hours from life’s daily grind. The Amazing Baseball Adventure brings to life the very best of these cherished ballpark features, the ones that motivate fans to return again and again to baseball cathedrals large and small.

Why I Hate the Yankees offers a humorous take on the most beloved--and at the same time, most reviled--franchise in American professional sports. The book attempts to answer the question: Do we hate the Yankees merely because they always win, or is there more to it than just that? The authors deconstruct the origins of the so-called Yankee mystique, offer countless examples of Yankee arrogance, and critique the Yankees' easy-way-out business model whereby they merely outspend other teams for talent. The authors leave no one exempt from blame, parodying the Yankees' fans, players, and overbearing owner, and questioning the motives of the national media and Major League Baseball. The tongue-in-cheek narrative is interspersed with revealing quotes from Yankee players, fans, media members, and other writers. A must-read for any hater--or lover--of the Yankees.

The Seventh Inning Stretch, by noted baseball expert Josh Pahigian addresses all of the most interesting baseball arguments, however frivolous, that fans have been engaging in for decades, and even a few they may have never stopped to consider before.