Most of the information in this book comes from more than 300 interviews conducted in person and by phone and email between January 2015 and March 2018. I also purchased and read dozens of books, including the following:
Abbott, Jim, and Tim Brown. Imperfect. New York: Ballantine, 2013.
Adair, Robert K., PhD. The Physics of Baseball. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Angell, Roger. Late Innings. New York: Ballantine, 1984.
———. Season Ticket. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Barney, Rex, with Norman L. Macht. Rex Barney’s Thank Youuuu. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1993.
Bouton, Jim. Ball Four: The Final Pitch. Champaign, Ill.: Sports Publishing, 2000.
Cairns, Bob. Pen Men. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Craig, Roger, with Vern Plagenhoef. Inside Pitch. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1984.
Darling, Ron. The Complete Game. New York: Vintage, 2010.
Dickson, Paul. Baseball’s Greatest Quotations. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Feller, Bob, with Bill Gilbert. Now Pitching Bob Feller. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.
Ford, Whitey, with Phil Pepe. Slick. New York: William Morrow, 1987.
Freedman, Lew. Knuckleball. New York: Sports Publishing, 2015.
Gibson, Bob, and Reggie Jackson, with Lonnie Wheeler. Sixty Feet, Six Inches. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
Gibson, Bob, and Lonnie Wheeler. Pitch by Pitch. New York: Flatiron Books, 2015.
Grant, Jim “Mudcat,” with Tom Sabellico and Pat O’Brien. The Black Aces. Farmingdale, N.Y.: The Black Aces, 2006.
Gutman, Dan. It Ain’t Cheatin’ If You Don’t Get Caught. New York: Penguin, 1990.
Hart, Stan. Scouting Reports. New York: Macmillan, 1995.
Hernandez, Keith, and Mike Bryan. Pure Baseball. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
Hershiser, Orel, and Jerry B. Jenkins. Out of the Blue. Brentwood, Tenn.: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1989.
Hollander, Zander. The Complete Handbook of Baseball 1976. New York: Signet, 1976.
———. The Complete Handbook of Baseball 1987. New York: Signet, 1987.
James, Bill, and Rob Neyer. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers. New York: Fireside, 2004.
Kahn, Roger. The Head Game. New York: Harcourt, 2000.
Knight, Molly. The Best Team Money Can Buy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Kurkjian, Tim. Is This a Great Game or What? New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
Leavy, Jane. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Marichal, Juan, with Lew Freedman. Juan Marichal. Minneapolis: MVP Books, 2011.
Martinez, Pedro, and Michael Silverman. Pedro. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.
Mathewson, Christy. Pitching in a Pinch. New York: Penguin, 2013.
McCaffrey, Eugene V., and Roger A. McCaffrey. Players’ Choice. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1987.
McGraw, Tug, with Don Yeager. Ya Gotta Believe! New York: Penguin, 2004.
Monteleone, John J., ed. Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book. New York: Macmillan, 1995.
Morris, Peter. A Game of Inches. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006.
Moyer, Jamie, with Larry Platt. Just Tell Me I Can’t. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2013.
Niekro, Phil, and Tom Bird. Knuckle Balls. New York: Freundlich Books, 1986.
Niese, Joe. Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2013.
Palmer, Jim, and Alan Maimon. Nine Innings to Success. Chicago: Triumph, 2016.
Passan, Jeff. The Arm. New York: HarperCollins, 2016.
Pearlman, Jeff. The Bad Guys Won! New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Peary, Danny. We Played the Game. New York: Hyperion, 1994.
Perry, Gaylord, with Bob Sudyk. Me and the Spitter. New York: Signet, 1974.
Quigley, Martin. The Crooked Pitch. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books, 1984.
Reuss, Jerry. Bring in the Right-Hander! Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
Richard, J. R., and Lew Freedman. J.R. Richard: Still Throwing Heat. Chicago: Triumph, 2015.
Ritter, Lawrence S. The Glory of Their Times. New York: William Morrow, 1984.
Ryan, Nolan, and Harvey Frommer. Throwing Heat. New York: Avon, 1990.
Seaver, Tom, with Lee Lowenfish. The Art of Pitching. New York: Hearst Books, 1984.
Shaw, Bob. Pitching. Chicago: Contemporary, 1972.
Smith, Red. To Absent Friends. New York: Atheneum, 1982.
Sowell, Mike. The Pitch That Killed. New York: Collier, 1989.
Stark, Jayson. Wild Pitches. Chicago: Triumph, 2014.
Terry, Ralph, with John Wooley. Right Down the Middle. Tulsa, Okla.: Mullerhaus Legacy, 2016.
Thorn, John, and John B. Holway. The Pitcher. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
Vincent, Fay. We Would Have Played for Nothing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Wendel, Tim. High Heat. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2010.
Westcott, Rich. Masters of the Diamond. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1994.
———. Splendor on the Diamond. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2000.
Will, George F. Met at Work. New York: Macmillan, 1990.
Williams, Ted, with John Underwood. My Turn at Bat. New York: Fireside, 1988.
Wright, Craig R., and Tom House. The Diamond Appraised. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.