Splitters, spitters, sinkers, sliders. It’s time to play ball.  Baseball. And for Tyler Kepner, the New York Times’ national baseball writer, it’s all about the pitch. Ten of ’em. He got 18 of the 25 pitchers with the most strikeouts in the history of the sport to spill their priceless secrets–players like Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez. Twenty-two Hall of Famers—guys like Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw—reveal how they learned their best throws and applied them on the field. This gripping perspective starts back in the 1870s when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach.  It winds up in the present day, with multiple relievers throwing hundred-mile-per-hour fastballs. This is baseball at its best, so get ready to take a deep dive into the stories, stats, folklore and nostalgia behind America’s favorite pastime.

 

Eight Cousins Books, our co-host, will have copies of this book at the talk.
The book will also be available in the store at 189 Main Street in Falmouth.