A portrait of the National Baseball Hall of Fame notes its role in breaking down racial barriers and the ways in which it has been shaped by historical events, discussing such topics as the story of the founding Clark family and the proposed wing honoring Latino players.

"Cy Young was one of the hardest-throwing pitchers of all time. He recorded three no-hitters-including a perfect game-and accumulated more than 2,800 strikeouts on his way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Scott H. Longert uses Young's life story to introduce middle-grade readers to the game, explaining balls, strikes, and outs in an easy-to-understand way. Longert narrates each season and each milestone game with an enthusiastic play-by-play...

It's the early 1960s and fifth-grader Scott Smalls has just moved into town with his folks. Kids call him a dork - he can't even throw a baseball. But that changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field.

Binky refuses to join his teammates in pre-game warm-ups, until he injures himself while running the bases in a game.

A brief biography of baseball catcher and hitter Joe Mauer.

"Charles Albert Bender invented the slider. He was a World Series-winning pitcher and the first Minnesotan inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He grew up poor on a farm where he worked in the fields. He lived far away from his home and family while attending an Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania."--Provided by publisher.

Jalen DeLuca can analyze and predict almost exactly what a pitcher is going to pitch, but without the statistics he has on the pro players, Jalen finds success to be extremely challenging, especially with all the extra drama of his mom coming back into his life.

"Twins Stacy and Gina Cavallaro are on rival little league teams, and when Gina accidentally unleashes a curse that wakes the dead, Stacy's misfit team gets coached by a baseball-playing zombie!"--Publisher's description.