In the finest tradition of baseball journalism, David Halberstam captures the drama and joy of the 1949 pennant race, which pitted the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox. Personalities include Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, and Jerry Coleman. Halberstam evokes a different time, when baseball was broadcast on the radio and games were played in daylight.

In more than a century of baseball history, there is only one player who has won the most championship rings -- Yogi Berra. He has ten of them, in fact. One for each and every finger.

In Ten Rings, Yogi, for the first time, tells the stories behind each of those remarkable championship seasons, spanning 1947 through 1962, baseball's golden years. It was a time when players played for the love of the game, working as maître d's and salesmen and pipe-fitters in the off season to put food on the table, a time when dynasties were born and baseball became the national pastime. And what a pastime it was.

With Yogi Berra at their heart, Casey Stengel's Yankees took on their heralded archrivals: the Cleveland Indians, the New York Giants, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and, of course, the Boston Red Sox. And with those teams were Yogi's constellation of contemporaries, a who's who of the Hall of Fame: Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Phil Rizzuto, and many, many others.Each season brought its own drama. In 1947, Yogi the rookie struggled behind the plate, and his unlikely physique -- knock-kneed and barrel-shaped -- made him the target of a cruel media that wondered whether he even looked like a Yankee and nicknamed him “The Ape.” But the name calling didn't faze Yogi. After all, he said, he didn't have to hit with his face. And he had the last laugh. In 1949, Bill Dickey came out of retirement to, as Yogi said, “learn me his experiences” and mold him into the Hall of Fame catcher he would become. Then came a string of five consecutive Yankees World Series championships, which no other team in history has ever matched. The year 1951 was Joe DiMaggio's final season . . . and Mickey Mantle's first. In 1956 there was Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series. And it's all brought to life by the man who witnessed it.

Ten Rings is a one-of-a-kind story told by a one-of-a-kind guy, the beloved Yogi Berra.

Based on hundreds of interviews with family, friends, and players, this biography of the legendary pitcher for the Brooklyn and (later) Los Angeles Dodgers recalls the unique style and achievement of this Hall of Famer. Koufax played from 1955 through 1966, and set many records, including pitching a perfect game. Through it all, he was determined to be just an ordinary person, but one who lived and played on his own terms.

Total Baseball is a complete baseball library in a single book, a nearly inexhaustible resource of baseball stats and stories. This official encyclopedia of Major League Baseball has been fully updated through the 1996 season and expanded with many new features. New to this edition is an enhanced Annual Record, in which each league season is presented not only in the classic year-at-a-glance statistical capsule, but also with exhaustive team rosters and a chronicle of the year's notable events. With this fifth edition you'll also get a free CD-ROM with specially prepared Total Baseball graphical content and a gateway to baseball on the World Wide Web. With the enclosed Windows 95 disk and either Netscape or Internet Explorer, you'll be one click away from Total Baseball's site. The disk will also include a demo version of Aaron vs. Ruth, a historic baseball fantasy game from Mindscape that incorporates features of Total Baseball.