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Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports
by Gabriel KuhnThe world of sports is often associated with commercialism, corruption, and reckless competition. Liberals have objected to sport being used for political propaganda, and leftists have decried its role in distracting the masses from the class struggle. Yet, since the beginning of organized sports, athletes, fans, and officials have tried to administer and play it in ways that strengthen, rather than hinder, progressive social change. From the workers' sports movement in the early 20th century to the civil rights struggle transforming sports in the 1960s to the current global network of grassroots sports clubs, there has been a glowing desire to include sports in the struggle for liberation and social justice. With the help of numerous full-color illustrations—from posters and leaflets to paintings and photographs—Playing as if the World Mattered makes this history tangible and introduces an understanding of sports beyond chauvinistic jingoism, corporate-media chat rooms, and multibillion-dollar business deals.
Playing Ball: Life Lessons from My Journey to the Super Bowl and Beyond
by Vernon DavisNFL football star Vernon Davis delves into his astonishing career, from winning Super Bowl 50 in 2016 with the Denver Broncos to reinventing himself as an actor and producer, and recalls the hard-won lessons—including that infamous press conference—that paved his path to success. INCLUDES AN INTRODUCTION FROM COACH MIKE SINGLETARY In October 2008, after a San Francisco loss to Seattle, Vernon Davis was put on blast by Coach Mike Singletary in a fiery speech criticizing his &“me-myself-and-I attitude.&” It proved to be the turning point in Davis&’s career, and the inspiration for him to change his mind set and his game plan, as well as his perspective on life and family. At the time, Davis was a young, talented player drafted by the San Franscisco 49ers in 2006 at number six, one of the highest drafted tight ends in NFL history. He played ten years for the 49ers, including a 2013 Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens in a 34–31 heartbreaker, where Davis recorded six catches for 104 yards. He later won a Super Bowl in 2016 with Peyton Manning and the Broncos, after nailing a crucial downfield block that sprung teammate C. L. Anderson for a key 34-yard run that helped the Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers 24–10 for the ring. Davis retired in 2019 after four final years of playing for his hometown team in Washington, DC. He&’s now deeply involved in his new passion for acting and producing. Here, he rewinds his real-life tape to reflect on his youthful beginnings, his career and competitive spirit—and the insights on teamwork, leadership, and responsibility that came in the aftermath of Coach Singletary&’s press conference that prompted Davis to transform his football career and his life for the better. Weaving personal reflections with frank, real-world advice, Playing Ball is an eye-opening story of what winning—on the field and off—is all about.
Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in the World of Men's Sports
by Betsy RossThe use of female sideline reporters is the fastest-growing new aspect of televised broadcasts of professional and college football. Names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth.<P><P> In recent years women have been sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, even coaches and team administrators. And yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this void with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting as well as in the business of sports. Ross interviews a number of the biggest names--from Kolber and Kremer to USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and Lesley Visser and many others--who offer first-hand accounts of the struggles and the triumphs of women playing what has always been a man's game.She provides a history of this unique facet of the sports world, from pioneering female newspaper sports reporters to the celebrated breakthrough into televised sports by former Miss America Phyllis George, who is interviewed in the book. Ross covers the controversial moments, from locker room confrontations between players and female reporters to the infamous sideline interview in which Joe Namath attempted to kiss Suzy Kolber during a live broadcast. Readers also learn of women who played pro sports on male teams or coached men's teams. They meet a woman who runs a professional baseball team and another who is a team doctor. Through this tale, Ross weaves her own story, recalling how she went from a small town in Indiana to the anchor's chair at the largest sports network in the world, ESPN. She explains what it's like for a woman to succeed in the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting.
Playing by the Rules: The Rules Of Golf Explained & Illustrated From A Lifetime In The Game
by Arnold PalmerIt was a moment seen by millions on television. During play at the 1999 Phoenix Open, Tiger Woods had a "loose impediment? removed to play his shot -- an everyday occurrence under golf's rules. But that impediment was not a leaf or twig, it was a 350-pound boulder that took six people to move! The gallery and television audience buzzed with disbelief. How could this be legal under the rules?Indeed it could, says golf legend Arnold Palmer, who throughout his distinguished career has taken part in a sizable share of rules controversies. Despite the fact that golf has fewer rules than such sports as baseball or football or rugby, it is a contest of honor, and all players, be they tour professionals or casual weekend hackers, respect the rules. But, as Palmer points out, sometimes the rules are a little confusing -- and from time to time, even the pros are puzzled. When exactly is a ball considered "lost? How is "slow play? defined? And when is a "drop? allowed? Palmer helps makes sense of it all with simple-to-understand language and hundreds of "infamous? pictures of some of the more controversial rulings -- affording readers a visual recall of memorable moments involving Greg Norman, Lee Janzen, Mark O'Meara, John Daly, even Palmer himself. If you're one of the millions who taketo the links every year, need a clear explanation of all the rules of the game you love, and more important, don't want to be speechless when an argument over the "coefficient of restitution? pops up, then Playing By The Rules will be an invaluable guide you'll refer to time and again.
Playing by the Rules: All the Rules of the Game, Complete with Memorable Rulings From Golf's Rich History
by Arnold Palmer Steve EubanksIt was a moment seen by millions on television. During play at the 1999 Phoenix Open, Tiger Woods had a "loose impediment? removed to play his shot -- an everyday occurrence under golf's rules. But that impediment was not a leaf or twig, it was a 350-pound boulder that took six people to move! The gallery and television audience buzzed with disbelief. How could this be legal under the rules?Indeed it could, says golf legend Arnold Palmer, who throughout his distinguished career has taken part in a sizable share of rules controversies. Despite the fact that golf has fewer rules than such sports as baseball or football or rugby, it is a contest of honor, and all players, be they tour professionals or casual weekend hackers, respect the rules. But, as Palmer points out, sometimes the rules are a little confusing -- and from time to time, even the pros are puzzled.When exactly is a ball considered "lost?? How is "slow play? defined? And when is a "drop? allowed? Palmer helps makes sense of it all with simple-to-understand language and hundreds of "infamous? pictures of some of the more controversial rulings -- affording readers a visual recall of memorable moments involving Greg Norman, Lee Janzen, Mark O'Meara, John Daly, even Palmer himself.If you're one of the millions who taketo the links every year, need a clear explanation of all the rules of the game you love, and more important, don't want to be speechless when an argument over the "coefficient of restitution? pops up, then Playing By The Rules will be an invaluable guide you'll refer to time and again.
Playing Days
by Benjamin Markovits"Excellent." --The Times (London)Growing up in Texas, Ben experienced basketball as a mostly solitary pursuit, one he gave up after riding the bench in high school. But as his college classmates prepare for the real world, Ben is seized by an idea. All he needs is a video camera, an empty court, and his mother's German citizenship.Improbably, he lands a roster spot on a lower division pro team in Landshut, forty-five minutes outside Munich. It's Ben's first taste of competition in years, not to mention his first job. And like most jobs, it's defined by repetition, boredom, and gossip. There's Charlie, the trash-talking mercenary from Chicago; the coach, Herr Henkel, a recently retired player anxious to justify his paycheck; and Karl (based on the author's real life encounters with Dirk Nowitzki), a gangly teenage prodigy flashing the raw talent that will make him an NBA star. As a group of men learn how to navigate one another, Ben falls in love with the young mother of a teammate's child, and begins an affair that will change his life."Markovits draws [himself] with exceptional delicacy. . . . This is the territory of the rites-of-passage novel, but it is territory that the author navigates with subtlety and poignancy."--The Guardian (London)
Playing Dirty
by Taryn Leigh TaylorA game they both want to win Lainey Harper has never been a puck bunny. She wants nothing to do with hockey or hockey players-not after what she's been through. So why can't she resist Cooper Mead? Portland's newest hockey star, Cooper, is all muscle and charisma. And he's Lainey's worst nightmare. Hooking up with him would bring back memories that Lainey needs to keep buried. And risk the hard-earned anonymity she's sacrificed everything to protect. When Lainey finally gives in to Cooper's sexy charm, the chemistry's intense-but so is the media exposure. And now Lainey's got even more to lose than her secret-she's got Cooper.
Playing The Field: Why Sports Teams Move and Cities Fight to Keep Them
by Charles C. Euchner“Details how owners . . . have shamelessly played cities against one another to get sweetheart deals for their stadiums.” —Sports IllustratedCan a sports franchise “blackmail” a city into getting what it wants—a new stadium, say, or favorable leasing terms—by threatening to relocate? In 1982, the owners of the Chicago White Sox pledged to keep the team in Chicago if the city approved a $5-million tax-exempt bond to finance construction of luxury suites at Comiskey Park. The city council approved it. A few years later, when Comiskey Park was in need of renovation, the owners threatened to move the team to Florida unless a new stadium was built. A site was chosen near the old stadium, property condemned, residents evicted, and a new stadium built. “We had to make threats,” the owners said. “If we didn't have the threat of moving, we wouldn’t have gotten the deal.”Sports is not a dominant industry in any city, this book points out, yet it receives the kind of attention one might expect to be lavished on major producers and employers. In Playing the Field, Charles Euchner examines the relationships between Los Angeles and the Raiders, Baltimore and the Colts and the Orioles, and Chicago and the White Sox, arguing that, in the absence of public standards for equitable arbitration between cities and teams, the sports industry has the ability to steer negotiations in a way that leaves cities vulnerable. He reveals what lies behind this leverage—and what that says about the urban political process.
Playing for Change
by Russell FieldFor more than forty years, scholars of the history and sociology of sport and recreation have studied how, no matter the time or place, sport is always more than just a game. In Playing for Change, leading scholars in the field of sports studies consider that legacy and forge ahead into the discipline's future. Through essays grouped around the themes of international and North American sport, including the Vancouver and Sochi Olympic Games; access to physical activity in Canadian communities; and the role of activism and the public intellectual in the delivery of sport, the contributors offer a comprehensive examination of the institutional structures of sport, physical activity, and recreation. This book provides wide-ranging examples of cutting-edge research in a vibrant and growing field.
Playing for Keeps (Chestnut Hill #4)
by Lauren BrookeSpunky, vivacious Lani Hernandez is excited to be back at school with her friends and horses after winter break. Then Lani receives a letter from home: Her parents are concerned about her grades and want her to transfer to another school where the extracurriculars won't be as distracting. Upset but determined, Lani sets out to change her parents' minds. When she sprains her wrist riding, she's able to devote more time to studying -- until she gets involved in planning a charity event. If the event is a success, will Lani be able to convince her parents that Chestnut Hill is the place for her?
Playing for Keeps
by Jennifer DuganFrom the author of Some Girls Do comes another heartfelt YA sapphic romance—starring a baseball pitcher and a student umpire who are definitely not supposed to fall for one another.&“Sapphic sports romance perfection. Swoony and romantic, but unafraid to tackle grief, family expectations, and fighting for your dreams, this is a home run of a book.&” —Rachael Lippincott, coauthor of the #1 New York Times Bestsellers Five Feet Apart and She Gets the GirlJune is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she's a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.Ivy isn't just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead. The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.As June's shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls' secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?
Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball
by Warren GoldsteinIn the late 1850s, organized baseball was a club-based fraternal sport thriving in the cultures of respectable artisans, clerks and shopkeepers, and middle-class sportsmen. Two decades later it had become an entertainment business run by owners and managers, depending on gate receipts and the increasingly disciplined labor of skilled player-employees. Playing for Keeps is an insightful, in-depth account of the game that became America's premier spectator sport for nearly a century.Reconstructing the culture and experience of early baseball through a careful reading of the sporting press, baseball guides, and the correspondence of the player-manager Harry Wright, Warren Goldstein discovers the origins of many modern controversies during the game's earliest decades.The 20th Anniversary Edition of Goldstein's classic includes information about the changes that have occurred in the history of the sport since the 1980s and an account of his experience as a scholarly consultant during the production of Ken Burns's Baseball.
Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made
by David HalberstamThe Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist looks at the life and times of the Chicago Bulls superstar— &“The best Jordan book so far&” (The Washington Post). One of sport&’s biggest superstars, Michael Jordan is more than an internationally renowned athlete. As illuminated through David Halberstam&’s trademark balance of impeccable research and fascinating storytelling, Jordan symbolizes the apex of the National Basketball Association&’s coming of age. Long before multimillion-dollar signings and lucrative endorsements, NBA players worked in relative obscurity, with most games woefully unattended and rarely broadcast on television. Then came Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Jordan&’s two great predecessors, and the game&’s status changed. The new era capitalized on Jordan&’s talent, will power, and unrivaled competiveness. In Playing for Keeps, Halberstam is at his investigative best, delving into Jordan&’s expansive world of teammates and coaches. The result is a gripping story of the athlete and media powerhouse who changed a game forever. This ebook features an extended biography of David Halberstam.
Playing for Pizza: A Novel
by John Grisham#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • After providing what is arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL, third-string quarterback Rick Dockery becomes a national laughingstock. Cut by the Cleveland Browns, and shunned by every other team, Rick insists that his agent find a team that does need him. Against enormous odds, Rick lands a job—as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers ... of Parma, Italy. The Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player—any former NFL player—at their helm. And now they&’ve got Rick, who knows nothing about Parma (not even where it is) and doesn&’t speak a word of Italian. To say that Italy—the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano—holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.Don&’t miss John Grisham&’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
Playing for Pride (Laurie Bird Preston)
by Timothy TocherWith the girls' softball season about to start, fifth-grader Laurie Bird Preston can't decide what to do. Her friends are trying out for the team, but Laurie knows she's no softball player--basketball is her sport. She helped lead her middle school's girls' basketball team to a state championship just a few weeks earlier. What fun will she have playing a sport she's no good at and might not even like? But with patience, practice--and help from her friends and an eccentric old woman with a mysterious past--Laurie might just learn that she doesn't have to be the best player to be part of the team.
Playing for Uncle Sam: The Brits' Story of the North American Soccer League
by David TossellA coach transported to the field in a hearse as he played dead. An English manager taken at gunpoint to an Argentinian jail after trying to sign that country's World Cup captain. The hero of 1966 who talked his team out of going on strike on the eve of a title decider. All are part of the British professionals' story of life in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s and early '80s, when star turn and unsung journeyman alike had the chance to play alongside Pelé, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Eusebio in the greatest galaxy of world stars ever assembled in one league. Playing for Uncle Sam recalls the British players and coaches who were part of an organisation that changed the face of football with its shoot-outs, offside rule and wacky marketing methods.It began with Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers spending a bizarre summer posing as the Cleveland Stokers and Los Angeles Wolves in 1967. The late '70s saw the NASL, run by a former Welsh international, reach its peak, drawing crowds of 70,000 and featuring names like Banks, Moore, Hurst and Ball. Rodney Marsh pitched his tent in America by declaring famously that English football had become a grey game, while George Best used the NASL as an escape from the fishbowl of his life in Britain. Typically, the pair delighted and exasperated teammates and coaches in equal measure. Through approximately 60 interviews with members of the British contingent who accepted the offer of the Yankee dollar, Playing for Uncle Sam recalls one of the most fascinating episodes in football history: the remarkable rise and chaotic collapse of the NASL.
Playing from the Rough: A Personal Journey through America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses
by Jimmie JamesThe story of one man&’s quest to become the first person to play each of America&’s 100 greatest golf courses in a single year, an odyssey that brings him face to face with the gulf between his impoverished childhood in the Jim Crow South and the successful executive he became.When he set out to play each of Golf Digest&’s America&’s 100 greatest golf courses in one year, Jimmie James knew he was attempting the impossible. But then again, he&’d spent his entire life defying the odds. James was born invisible. His birth certificate, long since filed away in some clerk&’s office in East Texas, recorded facts about him that were deemed most relevant in the late 1950s: &“colored&” and &“illegitimate.&” His great-great-grandmother was enslaved, and his early life was confined by the privation and segregation of the late Jim Crow-era South. Four decades later—having put himself through an HBCU and determinedly risen through the executive ranks at ExxonMobil—he embarked on his journey to play the 100 greatest golf courses in the United States. In a single year. From the first tee at Augusta National, the distance between the world he grew up in and the world of extreme privilege to which he&’d now managed to gain access was impossible to ignore. Playing from the Rough is a remarkable memoir of race, class, family, and the power of perseverance, as James braids his love of golf with reflections on the path that took him from childhood poverty to the most exclusive and opulent golf courses in America.
Playing Games: An introduction to the philosophy of sport through dialogue
by Randolph FeezellWhat is sport? Why does sport matter? How can we use philosophy to understand what sport means today? This engaging and highly original introduction to the philosophy of sport uses dialogue – a form of philosophical investigation – to address the fundamental questions in sport studies and to explore key contemporary issues such as fair play, gender, drug use, cheating, entertainment and identity. Providing a clear, informative and accessible introduction to the philosophy of sport, every chapter includes current sporting examples as well as review questions and guides to further reading. The dialogue form enables students to engage in debate and raise questions, while encouraging them to think from the perspectives of athlete, coach, spectator and philosopher. The issues raised present real and complex ethical dilemmas that relate to a variety of sports from around the world such as soccer, athletics, baseball, basketball, hockey and tennis. No other book brings this rich subject to life through the use of dialogue, making this an indispensable companion to any course on the philosophy or ethics of sport.
Playing Hard Ball: County Cricket and Big League Baseball
by E. T. SmithPLAYING HARD BALL is a unique sports book, a cultural comparison of two national games - cricket, English in origin and American baseball - written from the viewpoint of a top-class practitioner of both codes. Ed Smith - the young Cambridge University and Kent batsman - has spent the winters since 1998 in Spring Training with the New York Mets baseball team. It has enabled Ed to contrast and compare arguably the two most iconic of sports from the inside. In fact, baseball had a thriving following in Britain until the Great War: Derby County's former stadium was called the Baseball Ground; Tottenham Hotspur was at first a baseball club. Apart from learning two very different techniques, Ed learned that the sports' ultimate heroes, the Babe and the Don - Babe Ruth and Don Bradman - might as well have come from different planets, whilst baseball's pristine Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is a far cry from the ramshackle cricket museum at Lord's. Ed Smith's PLAYING HARD BALL draws on these intriguing comparisons to paint a two-sided portrait of sports most illustrous 'hitting games'.
Playing Hard Ball: County Cricket and Big League Baseball
by E.T. SmithPLAYING HARD BALL is a unique sports book, a cultural comparison of two national games - cricket, English in origin and American baseball - written from the viewpoint of a top-class practitioner of both codes. Ed Smith - the young Cambridge University and Kent batsman - has spent the winters since 1998 in Spring Training with the New York Mets baseball team. It has enabled Ed to contrast and compare arguably the two most iconic of sports from the inside. In fact, baseball had a thriving following in Britain until the Great War: Derby County's former stadium was called the Baseball Ground; Tottenham Hotspur was at first a baseball club. Apart from learning two very different techniques, Ed learned that the sports' ultimate heroes, the Babe and the Don - Babe Ruth and Don Bradman - might as well have come from different planets, whilst baseball's pristine Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is a far cry from the ramshackle cricket museum at Lord's. Ed Smith's PLAYING HARD BALL draws on these intriguing comparisons to paint a two-sided portrait of sports most illustrous 'hitting games'.
Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope
by Mitch Albom John U. Bacon John SaundersFor the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters and ABC's college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation's most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Saunders discusses his troubled childhood, the traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2011, and the severe depression that nearly cost him his life. As Saunders writes, Playing Hurt is not an autobiography of a sports celebrity but a memoir of a man facing his own mental illness, and emerging better off for the effort. I will take you into the heart of my struggle with depression, including insights into some of its causes, its consequences, and its treatments.I invite you behind the facade of my apparently "perfect" life as a sportscaster, with a wonderful wife and two healthy, happy adult daughters. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am truly grateful. But none of these things can protect me or anyone else from the disease of depression and its potentially lethal effects.Mine is a rare story: that of a black man in the sports industry openly grappling with depression. I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly, including the lengths I've gone to to conceal my private life from the public.So why write a book? Because I want to end the pain and heartache that comes from leading a double life. I also want to reach out to the millions of people, especially men, who think they're alone and can't ask for help. John Saunders died suddenly on August 10 ,2016, from an enlarged heart, diabetes, and other complications. This book is his ultimate act of generosity to help those who suffer from mental illness, and those who love them.
Playing Hurt: An Aces Hockey Novel (Aces Hockey #7)
by Kelly JamiesonHe’s playing hurt. She’s laying low. And they’re both flirting with disaster. “Kelly Jamieson is my go-to author for hockey romance.”—Jami Davenport Chase: The last thing I’d ever want to do is let my team down. After overcoming my bad-boy reputation, I was dominating on the ice. But things aren’t going so well this season, and even my parents think I’m partying again. Now I’m really worried about my career. The only bright spot in my life is the Twitter flirtation I’ve struck up with pop princess Jordyn Banks. Turns out she’s a huge hockey fan—and she’s willing to wager a date on her favorite team. . . . Jordyn: Even though I’m an L.A. fan now, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Aces, since I grew up in Chicago. Then I lose a bet to Chase Hartman, and suddenly I’m up close and personal with a pro athlete who’s anything but soft. Not only is Chase the hottest guy I’ve ever met, he’s secretly super sweet. As if I had time for a relationship . . . yeah, right. But when I suddenly have nothing but time on my hands, he’s the only one who understands. Now, with both of our careers at stake, Chase is tempting me to put my heart on the line too. Kelly Jamieson’s USA Today bestselling Aces Hockey series can be read together or separately: MAJOR MISCONDUCT OFF LIMITS ICING TOP SHELF BACK CHECK SLAP SHOT PLAYING HURT“Playing Hurt is charming, adorable, funny, and sexy—I couldn’t put it down!”—USA Today bestselling author Serena Bell“I loved the characters and honestly did not want to let go of them at the end of this book. I found this to be a perfect fit for the series and a great hockey based-romance.”—Kitty’s Book Spot! Don’t miss any of Kelly’s alluring reads: The Bayard Hockey series: SHUT OUT | CROSS CHECK The Last Shot series: BODY SHOT | HOT SHOT | LONG SHOT The standalone novel: DANCING IN THE RAIN This ebook includes an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
Playing in Time: Essays, Profiles, and Other True Stories
by Carlo RotellaFrom jazz fantasy camp to running a movie studio; from a fight between an old guy and a fat guy to a fear of clowns--Carlo Rotella's Playing in Time delivers good stories full of vivid characters, all told with the unique voice and humor that have garnered Rotella many devoted readers in the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe, and Washington Post Magazine, among others. The two dozen essays in Playing in Time, some of which have never before been published, revolve around the themes and obsessions that have characterized Rotella's writing from the start: boxing, music, writers, and cities. What holds them together is Rotella's unique focus on people, craft, and what floats outside the mainstream. "Playing in time" refers to how people make beauty and meaning while working within the constraints and limits forced on them by life, and in his writing Rotella transforms the craft and beauty he so admires in others into an art of his own. Rotella is best known for his writings on boxing, and his essays here do not disappoint. It's a topic that he turns to for its colorful characters, compelling settings, and formidable life lessons both in and out of the ring. He gives us tales of an older boxer who keeps unretiring and a welterweight who is "about as rich and famous as a 147-pound fighter can get these days," and a hilarious rumination on why Muhammad Ali's phrase "I am the greatest" began appearing (in the mouth of Epeus) in translations of The Iliad around 1987. His essays on blues, crime and science fiction writers, and urban spaces are equally and deftly engaging, combining an artist's eye for detail with a scholar's sense of research, whether taking us to visit detective writer George Pelecanos or to dance with the proprietress of the Baby Doll Polka Club next to Midway Airport in Chicago. Rotella's essays are always smart, frequently funny, and consistently surprising. This collection will be welcomed by his many fans and will bring his inimitable style and approach to an even wider audience.
Playing It Close
by Kat LathamBook two of the London LegendsWhere do you go to escape everything when you're one of the most famous rugby players in the world? For Liam Callaghan, that place is a remote lodge on Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Perfect, except he doesn't exactly want to be alone with his thoughts. Enter Tess Chambers, the ultimate distraction.Still reeling from a professional disaster that's made her all but unemployable, Tess understands the desire to move through life as somebody else. So when instantly recognizable Liam uses a fake name, she runs with it and creates a temporary new identity of her own.Their time spent together in paradise is idyllic but brief-after one passionate night, Liam wakes up to find Tess gone. Returning to London, he's shocked to learn she's taken a job with his team's new sponsor. As the Legends' captain, he'll have to not only figure out how to work with the one woman who ever left him wanting more, but also convince her that their feelings in the present mean more than any lies they've told in the past.90,000 words
Playing It My Way: My Autobiography
by Sachin Tendulkar'I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar.' -Shane WarneThis is cricket icon, Sachin Tendulkar's life story in his own words - his journey from a small boy with dreams to becoming a cricket god. His amazing story has now been turned into a major film, A Billion Dreams, in which he stars. The greatest run-scorer in the history of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 after an astonishing 24 years at the top. The most celebrated Indian cricketer of all time, he received the Bharat Ratna Award - India's highest civilian honour - on the day of his retirement. Now Sachin Tendulkar tells his own remarkable story - from his first Test cap at the age of 16 to his 100th international century and the emotional final farewell that brought his country to a standstill. When a boisterous Mumbai youngster's excess energies were channelled into cricket, the result was record-breaking schoolboy batting exploits that launched the career of a cricketing phenomenon. Before long Sachin Tendulkar was the cornerstone of India's batting line-up, his every move watched by a cricket-mad nation's devoted followers. Never has a cricketer been burdened with so many expectations; never has a cricketer performed at such a high level for so long and with such style - scoring more runs and making more centuries than any other player, in both Tests and one-day games. And perhaps only one cricketer could have brought together a shocked nation by defiantly scoring a Test century shortly after terrorist attacks rocked Mumbai. His many achievements with India include winning the World Cup and topping the world Test rankings. Yet he has also known his fair share of frustration and failure - from injuries and early World Cup exits to stinging criticism from the press, especially during his unhappy tenure as captain. Despite his celebrity status, Sachin Tendulkar has always remained a very private man, devoted to his family and his country. Now, for the first time, he provides a fascinating insight into his personal life and gives a frank and revealing account of a sporting life like no other.