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Up and Running
by Andrea Cagan Jami GoldmanMore than a decade ago, while driving through Arizona, nineteen-year-old Jami and a friend took a wrong turn in their Chevy Mini-Blazer. They spent the next eleven days stranded and fighting for their lives on a logging road that the state had closed--without first being checked for travelers in distress--during a blinding snowstorm. Here, Jami shares the trauma of those endless days , the miracle of a stunning rescue, the grief over losing her legs, and the strength and courage it has taken not only to walk again but also to run like the wind. Wise, forthright, and astonishing, Up and Running recounts Jami's physical, emotional, and legal battles ( she filed a suit against the state) and shows how she used adversity as a stepping-stone to her recovery while also discovering love and joy beyond her wildest dreams.
Don't Stop
by Maureen HolohanBe strong, Angel. Be strong. I sprinted from soccer to cross-country practice, quietly reminding myself what I had to do to make it through the season. Staying in motion was the only way to keep the pain in my feet under control. If my friends or coaches found out how badly my feet hurt, they'd prevent me from playing both sports, from doing the only things that could take my mind off my other big secret: the problems my parents were having. -- Angel
Sideline Blues
by Maureen HolohanI should be an all-star. I should be player of the game! All my coach had to do was open her eyes. Then she'd see my all-star, MVP, All-American potential and I could start filling up my trophy case. Yet for reasons beyond my comprehension, I ended up riding the pine and singing the blues ninety-nine percent of the time. Then my volleyball woes took a back seat to the task of bringing the gold home to Broadway Ave. in the Brightest Stars academic competition. While my dad worked double shifts to pay the bills, I knew my mother was watching over me from heaven. I had to get in the game and I had to win. -- Wil
Left Out
by Maureen Holohan"A girl doesn't belong on the all-star team. She isn't tough enough." The coaches and parents didn't even bother to whisper. To them, I was not an all-star. I was the girl playing shortstop. I was the girl up to bat. I was the easy out. For weeks, I went to practice and stared down a coach who lobbed me the ball and stuck me on the bench. Then I went home to a father who told me I needed to play harder and study more. Nothing I did on the field or in school was ever enough. One day I stood up at the plate with what felt like three strikes already against me. It came down to one pitch, one swing...one moment to prove them all wrong. -- Rosie
Everybody's Favorite
by Maureen HolohanSweet P. The Real Deal. Big Time. Some kids told me they'd pay cold cash just to have one of my nicknames. Even the big-talking boys begged me for games of one-on-one. Audiences crowded the courts as I smiled politely, racked up my points, and took care of my basketball business. The fans always rooted for me, which was cool, but I needed a break from the hoops spotlight. I thought going to soccer camp with the ballplayers would give me a chance to live in someone else's shadow for once. But when we arrived, the coaches pegged me as the superstar the second I stepped out of the car. Soon I found myself running with a few campers who bent the rules.... Meet the Ballplayers -- a fearless five with a passion for sports, hanging with friends, and life on Broadway Avenue.
Friday Nights
by Maureen HolohanMeet the Ballplayers -- a fearless five with a passion for sports, hanging with friends, and life on Broadway Avenue.... I'm Molly. My friends say I'm like a bull in a china shop when I play soprts. But my bruised knees and elbows never hurt when we win. Penny's my name. Sometimes people call me Big Time or Sweet P because of my smooth moves...and when we lose, I take all the blame. I'm Rosie. I don't really talk much. My coach doesn't like that I'm the only girl on the baseball team. I can't wait to strike him out. Don't let my friends fool ya. I'm Wil, the best and brightest Ballplayer of this bunch. Now can somebody please tell my coach to put me in the game? I'm Angel, the oldest Ballplayer. With my foot injuries and problems between my parents, the Ballplayers help get me through the tough times. As the new summer basketball league kicks off, these five freinds team up to form the Broadway Ballplayers. But Molly and the others run into some serious competition both on and off the court. Can they bring the championship home to Broadway Avenue?
It's Only a Game
by David Fisher Terry BradshawThis is the absolutely guaranteed 100% mostly true story of Terry Bradshaw: the man who gained sports immortality as the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls -- and the man who later became America's most popular sports broadcaster. IT'S ONLY A GAME "I had a real job once," begins a memoir as honest, unexpected, and downright hysterical as Bradshaw himself. From his humble beginnings in Shreveport, Louisiana, to his success as the centerpiece of the highest-rated football studio show in television history, Terry has always understood the importance of hard work. A veritable jack-of-all-trades, he has probably held more jobs than any other football Hall of Famer ever: pipeline worker, youth minister, professional singer, actor, television and radio talk show host, and now one of the nation's most popular speakers. But let's not forget one of the reasons why so many people know and love Terry Bradshaw: he won four Super Bowls! In It's Only A Game, Terry brings the reader right into the huddle and describes the game from the bottom of a two-ton pile to the top of the sports world. You'll sit right on the fifty-yard line and watch as Terry earns the title world's greatest benchwarmer. And you'll also hear about the single greatest play in pro football -- the Immaculate Reception -- as he never saw it. It's Only A Game is much more than a collection of Terry Bradshaw's favorite and funniest stories, it is the personal account of a great man's search for life before and after football...as only Terry could tell it.
It's Only a Game
by David Fisher Terry BradshawThis is the absolutely guaranteed 100% mostly true story of Terry Bradshaw: the man who gained sports immortality as the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls -- and the man who later became America's most popular sports broadcaster. IT'S ONLY A GAME "I had a real job once," begins a memoir as honest, unexpected, and downright hysterical as Bradshaw himself. From his humble beginnings in Shreveport, Louisiana, to his success as the centerpiece of the highest-rated football studio show in television history, Terry has always understood the importance of hard work. A veritable jack-of-all-trades, he has probably held more jobs than any other football Hall of Famer ever: pipeline worker, youth minister, professional singer, actor, television and radio talk show host, and now one of the nation's most popular speakers. But let's not forget one of the reasons why so many people know and love Terry Bradshaw: he won four Super Bowls! In It's Only A Game, Terry brings the reader right into the huddle and describes the game from the bottom of a two-ton pile to the top of the sports world. You'll sit right on the fifty-yard line and watch as Terry earns the title world's greatest benchwarmer. And you'll also hear about the single greatest play in pro football -- the Immaculate Reception -- as he never saw it. It's Only A Game is much more than a collection of Terry Bradshaw's favorite and funniest stories, it is the personal account of a great man's search for life before and after football...as only Terry could tell it.
Up and Running: The Jami Goldman Story
by Jami Goldman Andrea CaganMeet tall, beautiful Jami Goldman: world-class athlete, Adidas spokesperson, motivational speaker -- and double amputee. More than a decade ago, a wrong turn on a back road during a blizzard resulted in a terrifying fight for her life. Now for the first time, Jami recounts her gripping story of being trapped in the snow for eleven endless days, the grievous loss of her legs, and the fortitude it has taken to not only walk again but run like the wind -- all the way to freedom. On December 23, 1987, nineteen-year-old Jami Goldman and her friend Lisa Barzano headed home from a ski trip in Purgatory, Colorado, never imagining they would end up in a freezing hell on a back road that the state of Arizona had closed without checking for travelers in distress. The girls' car battery died during that first long night, stranding them in below-zero temperatures. With only a cinnamon roll and a six-pack of frozen Diet Pepsi, the next ten days became an exercise in survival, testing their faith and courage even after they were rescued -- when Jami's legs and feet were deemed beyond saving. Wise, forthright, and astonishing, Up and Running follows Jami's global journey from loss to recovery. Her story, which often reads like a compelling mystery, features her supportive family and friends, a devastating court case, her passionate relationship with the man she married, and finally, her triumph over inconceivably fearful obstacles. In the end, Up and Running shows us all how to use adversity as a stepping-stone -- leading us to heights we previously considered out of reach and beyond our wildest dreams.
Marion Jones
by Bill GutmanRace for the record! At the Sydney Games, Marion Jones strove to become the first person ever to win five gold medals in track and field at a single Olympics, making headlines for simply believeing she could do it. Driven to succeed at a very early age, Marion won multiple titiles at the Junior National Championships and set a junior record in the 200 meters. A multisport athlete, she helped lead the University of North Carolina women's basketball team to a national championship during her freshman year and also competed in track and field, until an injury forced her to reevaluate her priorities. Refocused on her track career, Marion quickly became the woman to beat, racking up an impressive thirty-five wims of the thiry-six events she entred in 1998. And after another injury sidelined her hopes of winning four gold medal at the 1999 World Championships, marion fought back in the 2000 season and is once again dominating the field. Get the full story of this amazing runner's race for the record, from her childhood dreams of gold medals to her tough choice between two sports and her determined drive to become the fastest woman in the world.
How to Learn Golf
by Harry Hurt IIITalk to any and all golfers, be they Tour professionals or once-a-month country clubbers, and you'll hear that they want to improve their game in some way. But up until now, most expert books on golf instruction have focused only on the approach advocated by a particular teaching pro or famous player; the authors usually talk about "the golf swing" or "the putting stroke" as if there is only one way to do it -- their way. With How to Learn Golf, the first comprehensive guide to contemporary golf instruction, Harry Hurt III will help you become a better golfer by identifying what type of player you really are, and which of the several leading methods are right for you and your golfing goals. Based on Hurt's sessions with all of America's top ten instructors, this book helps you choose between the two main types of golf instruction available -- error correction, which offers a quick fix for a specific swing flaw, and swing development, where the focus is on building the swing from top to bottom. Hurt provides illuminating detail on the most effective approaches to improving each aspect of your golf game: putting, the full swing, the short game, and the all-important mental game. Hurt also includes a biographical listing of the best golf instructors nationwide and where their expertise lies, so you can determine who may be best suited to your needs. And if you've never sought an instructor before or you've had problems communicating with yours, there are two handy worksheets: eighteen questions you should ask your teaching pro and eighteen questions your pro should ask you. From beginners and high handicappers to scratch players and Tiger Woods wannabes, golfers of all skill levels looking to take the next step to improving their games need only look to How to Learn Golf.
Getting Open
by Tom Graham Rachel Graham CodyBill Garrett was the Jackie Robinson of college basketball. In 1947, the same year Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball, Garrett integrated big-time college basketball. By joining the basketball program at Indiana University, he broke the gentleman's agreement that had barred black players from the Big Ten, college basketball's most important conference. While enduring taunts from opponents and pervasive segregation at home and on the road, Garrett became the best player Indiana had ever had, an all-American, and, in 1951, the third African American drafted in the NBA. In basketball, as Indiana went so went the country. Within a year of his graduation from IU, there were six African American basketball players on Big Ten teams. Soon tens, then hundreds, and finally thousands walked through the door Garrett opened to create modern college and professional basketball. Unlike Robinson, however, Garrett is unknown today. Getting Open is more than "just" a basketball book. In the years immediately following World War II, sports were at the heart of America's common culture. And in the fledgling civil rights efforts of African Americans across the country, which would coalesce two decades later into the Movement, the playing field was where progress occurred publicly and symbolically. Indiana was an unlikely place for a civil rights breakthrough. It was stone-cold isolationist, widely segregated, and hostile to change. But in the late 1940s, Indiana had a leader of the largest black YMCA in the world, who viewed sports as a wedge for broader integration; a visionary university president, who believed his institution belonged to all citizens of the state; a passion for high school and college basketball; and a teenager who was, as nearly as any civil rights pioneer has ever been, the perfect person for his time and role. This is the story of how they came together to move the country toward getting open. Father-daughter authors Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody spent seven years reconstructing a full portrait of how these elements came together; interviewing Garrett's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, and digging through archives and dusty closets to tell this compelling, long-forgotten story.
Playing a Round with the Little Pro: A Life in the Game
by Eddie Merrins Mike PurkeyIn the world of professional golf, everyone knows "the Little Pro" -- Eddie Merrins, the head professional at the Bel-Air Country Club. A living bridge between the Golden Age of the sport and the greatest champions of today, his experiences and friendships reach back to Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, and Ben Hogan, and all the way forward to Tiger Woods, Amy Alcott, and Vijay Singh. Both on and off the course, he's an embodiment of the highest principles of the game. In dozens of short, personal anecdotes told with his trademark wit and modesty, Merrins invites readers to share the decades he spent in the very good company of famous Hollywood stars, celebrated athletes and coaches, and countless lovers of the game seeking his advice and encouragement. In these pages, Merrins generously offers for the first time all his insights on the mental, physical, technical, and even spiritual aspects of the sport. Ranging from swing fundamentals to setting goals to shotmaking, this advice is relevant to players at every level of experience. Playing a Round with the Little Pro celebrates a wonderful life lived in and for the great sport of golf, and it is destined, like its author, to be a classic of the game.
The Way of the Shark
by Greg Norman Donald T. Phillips"Sharks never sleep. You must be willing to do the hard work it takes to stay on top." With his trademark charm and eloquence, Greg Norman reveals the secrets behind his myriad achievements, tracing his journey from Queensland, Australia, to the World Golf Hall of Fame to chairman and CEO of a global business. Since the days in 1975 when he made thirtyeight dollars a week working as a trainee, Norman has won ninety-one professional tournaments around the world, including two British Opens and twenty U.S. PGA Tour titles, and he held the No. 1 World Ranking for an astonishing 331 weeks. Norman has brought the same competitive fire to the boardroom, building a business that reflects the diversity of his interests and the power of his brand. Norman has done something very few professional athletes have ever managed -- he has transcended the sport that made him famous. As head of Great White Shark Enterprises, Norman presides over a multimillion-dollar empire that ranges from golf course design to real estate to apparel to wine. An astute businessman with unmatched desire and drive, he has an unerring instinct for knowing what will work and what won't. He has combined a hands-on approach with an overall strategic vision to produce an internationally recognized and respected brand. In these pages, Norman illustrates the principles that are at the core of his successes and offers readers concrete advice for applying their own talents to successfully play both the "front nine" and the "back nine" of life. Practical, engaging, and incisive, The Way of the Shark shares the lessons Greg Norman has learned both on the course and off, demonstrating how anyone, at any stage of his or her career, can be a champion.
The Way of the Shark
by Donald T. Phillips Greg Norman"Sharks never sleep. You must be willing to do the hard work it takes to stay on top." With his trademark charm and eloquence, Greg Norman reveals the secrets behind his myriad achievements, tracing his journey from Queensland, Australia, to the World Golf Hall of Fame to chairman and CEO of a global business. Since the days in 1975 when he made thirtyeight dollars a week working as a trainee, Norman has won ninety-one professional tournaments around the world, including two British Opens and twenty U.S. PGA Tour titles, and he held the No. 1 World Ranking for an astonishing 331 weeks. Norman has brought the same competitive fire to the boardroom, building a business that reflects the diversity of his interests and the power of his brand. Norman has done something very few professional athletes have ever managed -- he has transcended the sport that made him famous. As head of Great White Shark Enterprises, Norman presides over a multimillion-dollar empire that ranges from golf course design to real estate to apparel to wine. An astute businessman with unmatched desire and drive, he has an unerring instinct for knowing what will work and what won't. He has combined a hands-on approach with an overall strategic vision to produce an internationally recognized and respected brand. In these pages, Norman illustrates the principles that are at the core of his successes and offers readers concrete advice for applying their own talents to successfully play both the "front nine" and the "back nine" of life. Practical, engaging, and incisive, The Way of the Shark shares the lessons Greg Norman has learned both on the course and off, demonstrating how anyone, at any stage of his or her career, can be a champion.
The Way of the Shark
by Donald T. Phillips Greg Norman"Sharks never sleep. You must be willing to do the hard work it takes to stay on top." With his trademark charm and eloquence, Greg Norman reveals the secrets behind his myriad achievements, tracing his journey from Queensland, Australia, to the World Golf Hall of Fame to chairman and CEO of a global business. Since the days in 1975 when he made thirtyeight dollars a week working as a trainee, Norman has won ninety-one professional tournaments around the world, including two British Opens and twenty U.S. PGA Tour titles, and he held the No. 1 World Ranking for an astonishing 331 weeks. Norman has brought the same competitive fire to the boardroom, building a business that reflects the diversity of his interests and the power of his brand. Norman has done something very few professional athletes have ever managed -- he has transcended the sport that made him famous. As head of Great White Shark Enterprises, Norman presides over a multimillion-dollar empire that ranges from golf course design to real estate to apparel to wine. An astute businessman with unmatched desire and drive, he has an unerring instinct for knowing what will work and what won't. He has combined a hands-on approach with an overall strategic vision to produce an internationally recognized and respected brand. In these pages, Norman illustrates the principles that are at the core of his successes and offers readers concrete advice for applying their own talents to successfully play both the "front nine" and the "back nine" of life. Practical, engaging, and incisive, The Way of the Shark shares the lessons Greg Norman has learned both on the course and off, demonstrating how anyone, at any stage of his or her career, can be a champion.
As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels In The Land Of Umpires
by Bruce WeberMillions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong. "As They See 'Em" is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is conducted in a manner that is clean, crisp, and true. Bruce Weber, a New York Times reporter, not only interviewed dozens of professional umpires but entered their world, trained to become an umpire, and then spent a season working games from Little League to big league spring training.
Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top
by Seth MnookinWhen the Boston Red Sox won the World Series on October 27, 2004, they made history. Their stunning comeback against the New York Yankees and their four-game annihilation of the St. Louis Cardinals capped one of the most thrilling postseason runs ever. The World Series victory-Boston's first in 86 years-came less than three years after John Henry and Tom Werner bought the team from the Yawkey Trust and forever changed the way the Red Sox operated on and off the field. Seth Mnookin was given access never before granted to a reporter in the history of organized sports. He had a key to Fenway Park and a desk in the team's front office. He spent weekends talking business with John Henry and afternoons in the clubhouse with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. He learned never-before-told details of the team's Thanksgiving Day wooing of Curt Schilling, the jealousy Nomar Garciaparra felt toward better-paid teammates, and the anxiety that impelled Pedro Martinez to insist that the Red Sox guarantee his future. He was there when general manager Theo Epstein's frustration over the organization's ceaseless drive for more media coverage and new revenue streams collided with his fracturing relationship with CEO Larry Lucchino. The resulting narrative -- juicy, gripping, and overflowing with thrilling detail -- reveals how a savvy sports organization tries to stay on top while under the relentless scrutiny of the country's most voracious sportswriters and baseball's most demanding fans. Drawn from hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews and a year with the team, Feeding the Monster shows as no book ever has before what it means to buy, sell, run, and be part of a major league sports team in America.
MVP
by James BoiceSuperstar Gilbert Marcus rapes and kills a young woman in a hotel room during the off-season. That's the prologue. MVP is Marcus's life story from conception to his act of incredible violence. Raised an only child -- the son of a difficult and demanding father -- Gilbert Marcus, a basketball player with extraordinary skill, is expected to be the greatest. His life is one of both excessive privilege and immutable obligation. He becomes a monster. James Boice is a startling and exciting new voice in fiction, and MVP is his ambitious and fascinating debut.
Sound and Fury
by Dave KindredMuhammad Ali and Howard Cosell were must-see TV long before that phrase became ubiquitous. Individually interesting, together they were mesmerizing. They were profoundly different -- young and old, black and white, a Muslim and a Jew, Ali barely literate and Cosell an editor of his university's law review. Yet they had in common forces that made them unforgettable: Both were, above all, performers who covered up their deep personal insecurities by demanding -- loudly and often -- public acclaim. Theirs was an extraordinary alliance that produced drama, comedy, controversy, and a mutual respect that helped shape both men's lives. Dave Kindred -- uniquely equipped to tell the Ali-Cosell story after a decades-long intimate working relationship with both men -- re-creates their unlikely connection in ways never before attempted. From their first meeting in 1962 through Ali's controversial conversion to Islam and refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army (the right for him to do both was publicly defended by Cosell), Kindred explores both the heroics that created the men's upward trajectories and the demons that brought them to sadness in their later lives. Kindred draws on his experiences with Ali and Cosell, fresh reporting, and interviews with scores of key personalities -- including the families of both. In the process, Kindred breaks new ground in our understanding of these two unique men. The book presents Ali not as a mythological character but as a man in whole, and it shows Cosell not in caricature but in faithful scale. With vivid scenes, poignant dialogue, and new interpretations of historical events, this is a biography that is novelistically engrossing -- a richly evocative portrait of the friendship that shaped two giants and changed sports and television forever.
Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball
by Molly O'NeillMolly O'Neill's father believed that baseball was his family's destiny. He wanted to spawn enough sons for an infield, so he married the tallest woman in Columbus, Ohio. Molly came out first, but eventually her father's plan prevailed. Five boys followed in rapid succession and the youngest, Paul O'Neill, did, in fact, grow up to be the star right fielder for the New York Yankees. In Mostly True, celebrated food critic and writer O'Neill tells the story of her quintessentially American family and the places where they come together -- around the table and on the ball field. Molly's great-grandfather played on one of the earliest traveling teams in organized baseball, her grandfather played barnstorming ball, and her father pitched in the minor leagues, but after being sidelined with an injury in the war, he set his sights on the next generation. While her brothers raged and struggled to become their own men, Molly, appointed "Deputy Mom" at an age when most girls were playing with dolls, learned early how to be the model Midwestern homemaker and began casting about wildly for other possible destinies. As her mother cleaned fanatically and produced elaborate, healthy meals, Molly spoiled her brothers with skyscraper cakes, scribbled reams of poetry, and staged theatrical productions in the backyard. By the late 1960s, the Woodstock Nation had challenged some of the O'Neill values, but nothing altered their conviction that only remarkable achievement could save them. Mostly True is the uncommon chronicle of a regular family pursuing the American dream and of one girl's quest to find her place in a world built for boys. Molly O'Neill -- an independent, extraordinarily talented, and fiercely funny woman -- showed that home runs can be hit in many fields. Her memoir is glorious.
Bob Knight
by Steve Delsohn Mark HeislerBrilliant, intimidating, charming, or profane, Coach Bob Knight is an enduring contradiction who has long fascinated and repelled basketball fans, for whom he has provided as much to dislike as to respect. Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography is the first comprehensive biography of Knight, one of the most successful and controversial coaches in the history of American sports. Detailing the entire scope of Knight's playing and coaching career through extensive interviews -- including many with people who have never gone on record about him before -- authors Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler give a candid yet balanced account of the man who will likely end up as the all-time winningest coach in college basketball. In 1965, at age twenty-four, Bobby Knight became the head basketball coach at Army and began a career that would soon take him to Indiana University, where for the next twenty-nine years he would become the game's most famous and notorious coach. While there, he won three national championships (1976, '81, '87) and once compiled a perfect 32-0 record with an amazing 63-1 record over two seasons. Knight was NCAA Coach of the Year three times (1975, '76, '89) and coached U.S. teams to gold medals in both the Olympics and the Pan-Am Games. Yet he is equally, if not more, famous for some of his misbehaviors -- pulling his team off the court against the Soviets, making insensitive comments about rape to Connie Chung, putting a tampon in a player's locker to let him know that Knight thought he was a wimp -- and other alleged misbehaviors: kicking his own son Patrick during a game, stuffing an LSU fan into a trash can, assaulting a policeman in Puerto Rico -- and the list goes on. One of Knight's closest friends once said of him, "Bob Knight is an asshole. But he knows it and he tries like hell to make up for it." Unfortunately, over the years there has been more and more to make up for. The story of Bob Knight has moved on to Texas Tech, where he continues his quest to become the winningest college basketball coach of all time. He already is the most fascinating. Love him or loathe him, Knight keeps winning and forces you to watch him and have an opinion. Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography is an extraordinary look at a legendary coach with a monumental temper and an appetite for confrontation.
Foul Lines: A Pro Basketball Novel
by L. Jon Wertheim Jack MccallumFrom two senior Sports Illustrated writers comes an explosive, fast-paced satire that will do for today's NBA what North Dallas Forty did for the NFL a generation ago. Just months from his Yale graduation, street-smart whiz kid Jamal Kelly leaves school to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the front office of the Los Angeles Lasers. Once on the West Coast, Jamal gets a quick introduction to a subculture awash in big egos and fast cars, as well as an introduction to the charms of the team's new hard-charging beat writer, Jilly Forrester. In the spirit of Primary Colors and The Devil Wears Prada, Foul Lines peels back the curtain on the trappings of big-time professional basketball. No other sport encapsulates so many cultural hot-button topics, and Foul Lines at once exposes and lampoons this parallel universe.
The Only Game in Town
by Fay VincentIn this delightful book that every baseball fan will cherish, ten outstanding ballplayers remember the heyday of the game in the 1930s and 1940s. It was the era of Gehrig and DiMaggio; of Foxx, Greenberg, and Williams; of Grove and Feller. Elden Auker, Tommy Henrich, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bob Feller recall some great rivalries: Auker pitched to Ruth and Gehrig, then faced Dizzy Dean in an unforgettable World Series; Henrich was a clutch player for the Yankees who alertly turned a passed-ball third strike into a World Series victory; Dom DiMaggio was a superb center fielder who batted .298 lifetime and nearly ended his brother Joe's hitting streak; Pesky, a Red Sox mainstay, was blamed for Enos Slaughter's dash home that was the most memorable play of the 1946 Red Sox-Cardinals World Series; and Feller was a teenager when he faced -- among others -- Foxx, Greenberg, and Joe DiMaggio. But this was also the era of great Negro Leagues stars who never had the opportunity to play in the major leagues. Buck O'Neil remembers the outstanding players of his day who never got their chance or whose turn came too late -- Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, and Satchel Paige among them. Two great events happened in the 1940s, and one of them would change the game forever. World War II took some of these great players off the diamond and put them into a different kind of uniform. Warren Spahn pitched his first game in 1942 and didn't pitch again until the war ended, getting his first victory in 1946 (nonetheless he won more games than any other left-hander in history). As he recalls here, he served his country memorably in the war. Then in 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, followed only a few months later by Larry Doby, the first African-American in the American League, who vividly describes what it felt like to be the only black ballplayer in the clubhouse -- and the league. The game began to change after integration, and home run king Ralph Kiner remembers how some clubs were quick to sign African-American players and thrive. Meanwhile, some Negro Leagues stars, such as Monte Irvin, itched for the opportunity to face the major leaguers and prove that, like Robinson and Doby, they could compete with the best. All of these ballplayers recall their favorite memories: the games that mattered most, the players they all admired, the childhood experiences that shaped their lives, and the deep affection for the game that has always remained with them. Illustrated throughout, The Only Game in Town is a fascinating trip through two decades when baseball changed profoundly. Like The Glory of Their Times, it is a book that will find a permanent place on every fan's bookshelf.
Breaking Trail
by Arlene BlumArlene Blum is a legendary trailblazer by any measure. Defying the climbing establishment of the 1970s, she led the first teams of women on successful ascents of Mt. McKinley and Annapurna, and was the first American woman to attempt Mt. Everest. In her long, adventurous career, she has played a leading role in more than twenty expeditions and forged a place for women in the perilous arena of high-altitude mountaineering. Breaking Trail is the story of Blum's journey from her overprotected youth in Chicago to the tops of some of the highest peaks on Earth. Chronicling a life of extraordinary personal and professional achievement, Blum's intimate and inspiring memoir explores how her childhood fueled her need to climb -- and how, in turn, her climbing liberated her from her childhood. Each chapter in Breaking Trail begins with a poignant vignette from Blum's early life. Using these as starting points, she traces her evolution as a climber, from a hilariously incompetent beginner to an aspiring mountaineer to a successful, confident, and world-renowned expedition leader. Along the way, she takes us to some of the most extreme and exquisite places on the planet, sharing the exhilaration, toil, and danger of climbing high. Blum also relates the story of her scientific career, which, like her mountaineering, challenged gender stereotypes and was filled with singular accomplishments, including the banning of two cancer-causing chemicals and the initiation of an important area of biophysical research. Writing with remarkable candor and introspection, Blum recounts her triumphs and tragedies, and provides a probing look at what drove her to endure extreme physical discomfort -- and even to risk her life -- attempting high, remote summits around the world. In her story, she shares intimate insights into how and why climbers persevere under the harshest circumstances, cope with the deaths of their comrades, and balance their desire for adventure with their personal lives. Complemented with breathtaking personal photos and detailed maps, Breaking Trail is a deeply moving account of how one woman overcame adversity to become one of the world's most famous climbers, and a testament to the power of taking risks and pursuing dreams.