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He was not much of a player and not much more of a manager, but by the time Branch Rickey (1881–1965) finished with baseball, he had revolutionized the sport—not just once but three times. In this definitive biography of Rickey—the man sportswriters dubbed “The Brain,” “The Mahatma,” and, on occasion, “El Cheapo”—Lee Lowenfish tells the full and colorful story of a life that forever changed the face of America’s game. As the mastermind behind the Saint Louis Cardinals from 1917 to 1942, Rickey created the farm system, which allowed small-market clubs to compete with the rich and powerful. Under his direction in the 1940s, the Brooklyn Dodgers became truly the first “America’s team.” By signing Jackie Robinson and other black players, he single-handedly thrust baseball into the forefront of the civil rights movement. Lowenfish evokes the peculiarly American complex of God, family, and baseball that informed Rickey’s actions and his accomplishments. His book offers an intriguing, richly detailed portrait of a man whose life is itself a crucial chapter in the history of American business, sport, and society.

Are you tough enough?More and more crossword fans want to test their skills against the fiercest puzzles the Times has to offer. * 150 challenging New York Times crosswords* Fresh vocabulary and wordplay* Edited by Will Shortz

Fierce and wild and deadly: that's what these animals are, predators with claws, sharp teeth, and sometimes poison. Children might not want to meet them in real life, but they'll love seeing these creatures emerge on the page, in dot-to-dots. More than 20 ferocious examples range from flying vampire bats to orca whales, from african lions and grizzly bears to tarantulas and piranhas.

Although it may seem barren, Antarctica is a vital — and increasingly threatened — part of the Earth's ecosystem. The Ferocious Summer is writer Meredith Hooper's firsthand account of the effects of climate change on this frozen continent. For one summer, Hooper lived and worked with scientists observing the summer population of Adélie penguins nesting at Palmer Station, the smallest of America's three Antarctic research bases. For Hooper, Palmer's penguins offered a way to understand the complex business of the Earth's changing climate. The Antarctic Peninsula was warming fast. Why? What were scientists doing to understand it? The daily lives of Palmer's few thousand Adélie penguins were becoming key evidence, and pieces of the climate change jigsaw began falling into place. Based on daily diaries, acute personal observations, and interviews with Antarctica's international community of researchers, this book is a fascinating and alarming report from the frontlines of global warming.