Throwback

A Big-League Catcher Tells How the Game Is Really Played

Jason Kendall & Lee Judge

- 4.5 • 23 Ratings

- $11.99

- $11.99

Throwback offers an informative and irreverent look at the inner mechanics, strategies, secret signals, and customs of major league baseball.

Ever Wonder What's Being Said at Home Plate?
How a Team Silently Communicates?
What Goes on in the Clubhouse Behind Closed Doors?

America's pastime has always left fans and amateur players alike yearning for the answers to questions about how pros play the game.

Jason Kendall is a former All-Star catcher who has seen just about everything during his years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals. A player's player, a guy with true grit--a throwback to another time with a unique view on the game that so many love.

Jason Kendall and sportswriter Lee Judge team up to bring you the fan, player, coach, or curious statistician an insider's view of the game from a player's perspective. This is a book about pre-game rituals, what to look for when a pitcher warms up between innings, the signs a catcher uses to communicate with the pitcher, and so much more.

Some of baseball wisdom you will find inside:

* What to look for during batting practice.
* The right way to hit a batter.
* Who's a tough guy and who's just posing.
* How to spot a dirty slide.
* Why you don't look at the umpire while you're arguing.

Based on Kendall's 15 years of professional MLB experience, Throwback is an informative, hilarious, and illuminating look into the world of professional baseball-and in a way that no one has ever seen before.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 20, 2014

Three-time MLB All-Star catcher Kendall, with sports journalist Judge, gives a succinct master class on the art of catching in the big leagues, complete with the inside scoop of calling a game, hand signals, being on the same page with pitchers in their strategies, reading the strengths and weaknesses of opposing batters, and throwing out would-be base stealers. This joint project has its origins with the Christmas gift Judge received from his wife in 1990 a trip to the Kansas City Royals baseball fantasy camp, leading to a two-decade quest to understand the mysteries of pro ball and the career of Kendall, a bald "bad ass" whose 2,000-game career catching with five teams ended after a severe shoulder injury in 2012. Plain speaking and opinionated, Kendall touts catching as "the most difficult, most intriguing position on the field," due to the game-within-the-game against the batters, saying it took five or six years to figure it how to keep them guessing. Along with bad calls, foul balls, borderline pitches, and pickoffs, he covers the trade secrets of being in sync with the infield, covering the plate, playing the wall, and catching the ball in bright sunlight. More inside info is provided in his crisp analysis of other positions, the manager, and various clubhouse antics. A book that never fails to be very informative, useful, and engaging, especially for baseball fans.

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