Take Me Out to the Ballgame

May 08, 2012

With the upcoming Major League Baseball All-Star Game coming to town this summer, who isn’t excited for a little baseball? While the league’s most potent pitchers, fantastic fielders, and heroic hitters are visiting Kansas City, check out this lineup of awesome Library resources to celebrate America's pastime!

What happens when Ken Burns, documentarian extraordinaire, teams up with PBS in 1994? We get a spectacular "9 inning" documentary on everything baseball; check out Kansas City Monarch’s own Buck O’Neil in Baseball. At 19 hours long, this is not for the faint of heart!

"If you build it they will come"…to the Library? If you haven’t checked out one of baseball’s most revered classics, RUN, do not walk, to the Library to see Kevin Costner in the tearjerker, Field of Dreams. Plowing up a cornfield, building a baseball field for "ghost" baseball players of the past, and a climatic father-son game of catch—what’s not to love?

Think baseball is only for men? Celebrate the "girls" of summer with this tale of the first female professional baseball league, A League of Their Own. An all-star cast of Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell will show you why "there’s no crying in baseball!"

Dubbed the "1-70 Series," the 1985 World Series pitted the hometown Kansas City Royals against cross-state rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. Take a trip down memory lane as you read about hometown hero George Brett, back-flippin’ Ozzie Smith, and seven thrilling nights of the fall classic, Crowning the Kansas City Royals: Remembering the 1985 World Series Champs by Jeffrey Spivak.

Hit one out of the park with these choices or select your own items, and don’t forget to "root, root, root for the home team" this summer!

~Katie S.
Parkville Branch