Best Selling Books by Harvey Frommer

Written by acclaimed sports author and oral historian Harvey Frommer and with an introduction by pro football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, When It Was Just a Game tells the fascinating story of the ground-breaking AFL–NFL World Championship Football game played on January 15, 1967: Packers vs. Chiefs. Filled with new insights, containing commentary from the recently discovered unpublished memoir of Kansas City Chiefs coach Hank Stram, and featuring oral history from many who were at the game—media, players, coaches, fans—the book presents back story and front story in the words of those who lived it and saw it go on to become the Super Bowl, the greatest sports attraction the world has ever known. Archival photographs and drawings help bring the event to life.

In the heady days after World War II, the nation was ready for excitement and heroes, and a city—New York—was eager for entertainment. Baseball provided the heroes, and the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers—with their rivalries, their successes, their stars—provided the show. New York City Baseball recaptures the extraordinary decade of 1947–1957, when the three New York teams were the uncrowned kings of the city. In those ten years, Casey Stengel’s Bronx Bombers went to the World Series seven times; “Joltin’” Joe DiMaggio stepped gracefully aside to make room for a young slugger named Mickey Mantle; Bobby Thomson hit “the shot heard ’round the world”; and the Brooklyn Dodgers achieved the impossible by beating the Yankees in the 1955 World Series. Over the decade, the teams averaged an astounding 90 wins against 63 losses a season, making it, according to The New York Times, “a helluva ten years.” Including a new introduction to the 2013 edition and rare interviews with Monte Irvin, Rachel Robinson (Jackie''s widow), Mel Allen, Duke Snider, Eddie Lopat, Phil Rizzuto, and many more, this book is a must-have for those who want to experience baseball’s golden age.

Throughout the 2008 season, each game played at the world’s most beloved stadium brought “The House That Ruth Built” closer to shutting its gates forever. Players envisioned running off the field one last time. Vendors anticipated selling their last bags of peanuts. Fans readied themselves to raise their voices in one final cheer. In Remembering Yankee Stadium, Harvey Frommer—one of the country’s leading baseball authorities—takes us on a journey through the stadium’s storied 85-year old history, from 1927’s unstoppable Murderers’ Row, to Joe DiMaggio’s unfathomable hitting streak, to Maris and Mantle’s thrilling race for the home-run record, to the hirings—and the firings—of Billy Martin, to Derek Jeter’s rise to greatness. The moments and the magic that filled this great stadium are brought alive again through dozens of interviews, a gripping narrative, and a priceless collection of photographs and memorabilia. As the new stadium steps into the forefront, the old ballpark across the street recedes into memory, taking with it the glory and grandeur, the history and heroics, the magic and the mystique of its nearly nine decade-long life. This book captures that time and is at once an album, a keepsake, and a record of its fabulous run.

In this delightful history of the sport, Frommer captures the flavor, smell, and craziness of the early days of baseball. Starting with its invention in 1842 by the descendant of a British sea captain (and not Abner Doubleday), Frommer traces the development of the sport from the first games on a vacant lot at 27th and Madison in New York to the turn of the century, when the National League was emerging as the preeminent forum for truly professional baseball.

Brings together the childhood memories of a hundred men and women, young and old, who reflect on family life, interaction with the gentile world, and the meaning of peace

In this deliciously revealing oral history of Broadway from World War II through the early 1980s, more than one hundred theater veterans—including Carol Channing, Hal Prince, Donna McKechnie, Hal Holbrook, Andrea McArdle, and Al Hirschfeld—deliver the behind-the-scenes story of the hits, the stars, the feuds, and the fiascoes. Along the way there are evocations of the great comedians and dramatic actors who had that indefinable magic that made them stand out above the rest. With verve, love, and passion, this book gives us the story of more than half a century of great theater—from the inside out.

Another peek at baseball''s good old days—or, in this case, bad old days—by veteran sports-historian Harvey Frommer. Frommer paints Shoeless Joe as a baseball natural ("Joe Jackson hit the ball harder than any man ever to play baseball"—Ty Cobb), an illiterate hick (his table utensils consisted of knife and fingers), and an innocent man snared by the greatest scandal in baseball history.

Blending exclusive rare interviews with Rachel Robinson (Jackie’s widow), Mack Robinson (Jackie’s brother), Hall of Famers Monte Irvin, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Ralph Kiner, and others, celebrated author Harvey Frommer evokes the lives of general manager Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson by describing how they worked together to shatter baseball''s color line. Rickey and Robinson is a dual biography tracing the convergence of the lives of two of baseball''s most influential individuals in a marker moment in sports and cultural history.

The rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox involves not just the teams, but the cities, owners, ballparks, fans, and the media. Its roots reach back to before even Babe Ruth and Harry Frazee, yet it is as contemporary as the next Red Sox–Yankees game. This book tells the story of the rivalry from the first game these epic teams played against each other in 1901 through the 2013 season in what former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called “the best rivalry in any sport.”

During the more than one hundred years that baseball has been our national pastime, all types of individuals have been managers of teams. They have run the gamut from political appointees to tyrants, schemers, incompetents and geniuses. Legendary baseball stars have been managers such as Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, Mel Ott, George Sisler, and Honus Wagner. And Mediocre players, including Branch Rickey, Earl Weaver, Walter Alston have become managers. Antics galore have accentuated managerial behavior: the pratfalls of Charley Grimm in the third-base coaching box; the umbrella-carrying Frankie Frisch arguing with the umpires that a game should be called; the cap twisting, body-gyrating movements of Earl Weaver, puffing cigarettes in the dugout and attempting to use body language to will his players to perform better. Idiosyncrasies and special styles have characterized managers through the years. An entire collection of one-liners has developed over the years to characterize the managing profession. For trivia buffs, there’s an entire world of statistical records about managers.

After 86 years of waiting, former players of the Boston Red Sox were able to share in the crowning of the new world champions when the team finally broke the curse by winning the 2004 World Series. Frommer found these faded stars and forms a collection of profiles and stories.

Combining the content of two of Frommer''s previous books, Sports Roots and Sports Lingo, this book not only explains how nicknames, namesakes, trophies, competitions, and expressions in the world of sports came to be, but also serves as a useful dictionary of the language of sports-both technical and slang.

This sensitive commentary on Jackie Robinson''s life describes his childhood in Pasadena, through his years as a sports hero, to his later involvement in politics and the Civil Rights movement. Harvey Frommer has drawn upon interviews with Robinson''s family, friends, and fellow ball players to tell the story of a courageous man who triumphed over bigotry and personal tragedy to take his place in the hearts of millions of Americans.

The authors of "It Happened in Brooklyn" take readers on a journey back to New York''s golden age with this tribute filled with hundreds of photos, personal interviews, and more.

This handsome and definitive volume celebrates a legendary century of Yankee history with photos, stats, interviews, quotes, lists, tributes and trivia.

Advance Praise for Five O''Clock Lightning "Come along with Harvey Frommer on a jaunty stroll through baseball eighty years ago. The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that wonderful concentration of talent." --George F. Will "Harvey Frommer brings the perceptive eye of a historian to what was arguably the most feared batting order of all time. Add to that his contagious enthusiasm for classic baseball and you have a most enjoyable book." --Roger Kahn "An engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. Ride the trains, chew the tobacco, and have fun." --Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth "How great were the ''27 Yankees? So great that even now, eighty years later, they still have the power to astonish and entertain. Reading Five O''Clock Lightning, I felt almost as if I were on the road with the Babe, Lou, and Miller Huggins. Harvey Frommer has a great eye for detail and a wonderful ability to bring his characters to life. The book is a delight." --Jonathan Eig, author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson''s First Season "Harvey Frommer hits a home run in this sweet look back at a time when baseball was the only game and the Yankees seemed to be the only team." --Dan Shaughnessy, author of Senior Year "Baseball''s greatest team as recounted by baseball''s greatest author, Harvey Frommer. A surefire classic!" --Seth Swirsky, author of Baseball Letters and Something to Write Home About

Defines alphabetically arranged names, terms, and phrases associated with a variety of sports.

"The perfect gift for the diehard fan in your life or an enviable treasure for yourself, The Ultimate Yankee Book is the most current and comprehensive resource of trivia, people and stories from the teams creation in 1901 to today. Harvey Frommer is a renowned baseball historian and the author of The New York Yankee Encyclopedia. In many ways, this book is an expansion and renovation of that book, adding new stories such as the Steinbrenner owners and famed recent legends such as Derek Jeter and A-Rod. But it goes beyond the first book. Far more than just stories, the book is packed with enough statistics, bests-and-worsts, oddities and assorted data to satisfy serious trivia junkies. One of the best new features is the Yankee March of Time, including essential trivia from every year, and the daring and daunting Ultimate Yankee Quiz. Test your own knowledge or that of friends and family at your next gathering or World Series party with 150 questions and detailed answers in this fun, informative quiz. Fans of the Yankees are proud to call their team the greatest of all time not only have they boasted the most World Series championships and the most players in the Hall of Fame, they re also the most hotly discussed team in the news media, social media and in books."--Publisher''s description.

The life story of the only league pitcher to have hurled five no-hitters in his career.

Just in time for the one-hundredth anniversary of Miami Beach, It Happened in Miami, the Magic City: An Oral History features nearly seventy fabulous voices including more than fifteen mini-memorists, telling stories, offering perceptions on subject matter as far back as memory allows up to the exciting headlines of today. Sun and fun, yes, but the story is much more than that. We are there through the dramatic days of World War II, the segregated south that Miami was, Meyer Lansky and cops and robbers, the Cocaine Cowboys, the post–war glamour of the flashy hotels and famed architect Morris Lapidius, the Fountainbleau and Eden Roc, the Jewish presence and contributions, the swinging Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. We are witness to Muhammad Ali and the iconic Fifth Street Gym, the preserving of art deco, the days of the Mariel and Pedro Pan and the Cuban impact. We are brought inside modern day Miami—an international city, a place of culture and dreamers, a city of tomorrow.

Experience the mosaic of mid-century Manhattan in this exuberant oral history that begins in the post–World War II years when the city came into its own, and ends in the mid-1970s when it nearly went bust. This is the story of a time when great ocean liners were docked in the Hudson River ports, Checker cabs hurtled across a two-way Fifth Avenue, and the Third Avenue el cast long shadows onto the street below. There are recollections of Friday night boxing matches at the old Madison Square Garden, of peddling tunes in the heart of Tin Pan Alley at the Brill Building, of a Harlem that had a nightclub on every corner, and a SoHo that was saved from a wrecker’s ball by a “bunch of mothers.” Eleven daily newspapers covered the city beat back then, Automats and five-and-dimes were in each neighborhood, and the New York Philharmonic performed free summer concerts at Lewisohn Stadium on the City College campus. Zabar’s was a small dairy store; Balducci’s was an open-air fruit and vegetable stand. New York was becoming the center of haute cuisine and haute couture; the New York School of abstract expressionists had taken the lead from Paris in avant-garde art. This transformative time when New York City became the capital of the world is captured here in myriad memories that create an often humorous, sometimes poignant, occasionally bitter—but always loving—testament to the magical mystique of Manhattan. Includes interviews with Jimmy Breslin, Bill Gallo, Monte Irvin, Robert Merrill, Herman Badillo, Elaine Kaufman, Jerry Della Femina, Pauline Trigère, Sirio Maccioni, Jane Jacobs, Saul Zabar, Margaret Whiting, and many more.

Provides a decade-by-decade account of the history of Fenway Park, with first-person narratives and historical photographs.

America''s premier female basketball player offers her thoughts on the sport and provides complete instructions on offensive and defensive skills, tactics, and strategies for women''s basketball

American sports fans are provided with an overview of soccer''s history, international influence, origins in the United States, zany personalities, and odd moments

Describes the origins of Little League, explains the reasons for its success, and shares the memories of former players

An NFL veteran shares his memories of life as a football player, and discusses his many colleagues and issues such as women in the locker room, strikes, and steroid use

An overview of the basics of judo and karate, this book for the beginner presents fundamental movements, discusses histories, legends, rankings, and etiquette, and concludes with a glossary of terms