Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin

(Hardback)

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A photographic tribute to how ballplayers get their start with memories from Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki, Vladimir Guerrero, and more. With an Introduction by Cal Ripken, Jr. and an Afterword by Johnny Bench

In Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin, photographer Jean Fruth features more than 250 of the best images from all levels of the amateur game in various US cities, as well as several hotbeds of baseball around the world.

Each chapter opens with a portrait of a baseball legend and a first-person essay recounting his early memories of playing the game. Some of the stars highlighted in this full-color book include Whitey Ford, Vladimir Guerrero, Hank Aaron, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, and Ichiro Suzuki.

The pages that follow in each chapter document the game from sandlots to big-time ballparks, and at every level of organized baseball, giving readers a window into how these legends' careers began. With an introduction by Cal Ripken, Jr., a foreword by Steve Wulf, and an afterword by Johnny Bench, this book makes the perfect gift for baseball fans of all teams.

Author Bio

Jean Fruth fell in love with baseball while coaching her son Simons Little League teams in Healdsburg, California, and documenting his games for posterity. Since then, she has spent the better part of a decade covering the Major League hotbed of the Bay Area, the Giants, and the As, before turning her attention to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. Over the course of three years, she contributed her work to the Hall of Fame archive in Cooperstown. Fruth resides in San Francisco.