Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons and Other Fans : Understanding and Interpreting the Game So You Can Watch It Like a Pro

Tim McCarver, major league baseball's premier analyst, has been surprising and delighting viewers for years with his remarkable insight. Fans who once were content to merely watch baseball were stimulated into wanting to think baseball as well. McCarver brings to the booth a combination of twenty-one years of major league service and nearly twenty more in broadcasting. There is nobody better at explaining the game than McCarver, and it is a rare game in which the viewer does not learn something new and unusual. Now he is putting down on paper all he knows about the sport, producing this unique perspective on how America's pastime should be played and watched.
With his unmistakable wit and storytelling verve, McCarver succinctly explains the fundamentals and proper mechanics of baseball at the level necessary for success in the major leagues. Once the skills have been learned, the viewer can devise smart strategies, getting into the heads of the players, coaches, and managers: When should a player or manager be conservative or aggressive; what factors change as the count goes deeper; how do you set up an effective running game, and how can a defense try to sabotage it?
This book is a gold mine for all fans, from brain surgeons and rocket scientists to beginners who want to start with the basics. (Even major leaguers will be able to pick up some pointers.) With a deeper knowledge and understanding of baseball, any fan will be able to watch it like a pro.

About the Authors

Tim McCarver is major league baseball's premier analyst, having provided his trademark blend of provocative and witty commentary to the Game of the Week, the All-Star Game, and postseason play on FOX since 1996, and to New York Mets games on WWOR since 1983. Familiar to all fans who watch baseball's jewel events, he has broadcast eight All-Star Games and nine World Series since 1984. During his twenty-one years (1959-1980) as a major league catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadel-phia Phillies, Montreal Expos, and Boston Red Sox, he played in two All-Star Games and appeared in the postseason six times, including on the Cardinals' world championship teams in 1964 and 1967. He lives in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Anne. They have two daughters, Kathy and Kelly.

Danny Peary is an acclaimed sportswriter and film and television critic whose books include Cult Movies; Alternate Oscars; Cult Baseball Players; We Played the Game: 65 Players Remember Baseball's Greatest Era, 1947-1964; and Super Bowl: The Game of Their Lives. He lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York, with his wife, Suzanne. They have a daughter, Zoë.