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The Black Belt Blueprint: An Intelligent Approach to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
by Nicolas GregoriadesWritten by Roger Gracie's first black belt and founder of the Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood, Nicolas Gregoriades, this is a comprehensive guide to the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. <p><p> It features a detailed and holistic approach to the training methods, techniques and concepts which underpin the art.
The Black Bruins: The Remarkable Lives of UCLA's Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, Tom Bradley, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett
by James W. JohnsonThe Black Bruins chronicles the inspirational lives of five African American athletes who faced racial discrimination as teammates at UCLA in the late 1930s. Best known among them was Jackie Robinson, a four‑star athlete for the Bruins who went on to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball and become a leader in the civil rights movement after his retirement. Joining him were Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Ray Bartlett, and Tom Bradley—the four played starring roles in an era when fewer than a dozen major colleges had black players on their rosters. This rejection of the “gentleman’s agreement,” which kept teams from fielding black players against all-white teams, inspired black Angelinos and the African American press to adopt the teammates as their own. Kenny Washington became the first African American player to sign with an NFL team in the post–World War II era and later became a Los Angeles police officer and actor. Woody Strode, a Bruins football and track star, broke into the NFL with Washington in 1946 as a Los Angeles Ram and went on to act in at least fifty‑seven full-length feature films. Ray Bartlett, a football, basketball, baseball, and track athlete, became the second African American to join the Pasadena Police Department, later donating his time to civic affairs and charity. Tom Bradley, a runner for the Bruins’ track team, spent twenty years fighting racial discrimination in the Los Angeles Police Department before being elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles.
The Black Jersey: A Novel
by Jorge Zepeda PattersonA fast-paced mystery where Murder on the Orient Express meets the Tour de France—someone’s killing off cyclists one by one. There are cyclists willing to die to win a single stage of the Tour, taking suicidal descents at more than 90 kilometers per hour, but now I know there are cyclists willing to kill to win. Marc Moreau, a professional cyclist with a military past, is part of a top Tour de France team led by his best friend, an American star favored to win this year’s Tour. But the competition takes a dark turn when racers begin to drop out in a series of violent accidents: a mugging that ends in an ankle being crushed, a nasty bout of food poisoning, and a crash caused by two spectators standing where they shouldn’t. The teams and their entourages retreat into paranoid lockdown even as they must continue racing each day. The mountain inclines grow steeper and the accidents turn deadlier: a suspicious suicide, an exploded trailer, a loose wheel at the edge of a cliff. Marc agrees to help the French police with their investigations from the inside and becomes convinced that the culprit is a cyclist who wants to win at any cost. But as the victim count rises, the number of potential murderers—and potential champions—dwindles.Marc begins to have the sickening realization that his own team has been most favored by the murderer’s actions, and in the final stages of the race Mark himself emerges as the only cyclist left who could possibly beat his best friend and win the Tour. Whom can Marc trust? Whom should he protect? What decision will he make if he’s asked to choose between justice, loyalty, and glory?Praise for The Black Jersey “Men, mountains, machines, speed, greed, and murder . . . Making a tour de force of the Tour de France, Jorge Zepeda Patterson does for cycling what Dick Francis did for horse racing. Warning! Strap on your helmets! This is no tale for wimps.”—Alan Bradley, author of the Flavia de Luce series “The world of competitive cycling is stressful enough without adding suspicious accidents to the mixture. But that is exactly what happens in this thrilling and intrigue-filled novel. The Black Jersey has the pace and excitement of a world-class race.”—Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series“The Black Jersey is a joy from start to hair-raising finish line, even for someone like me who prefers a good meal to any kind of competitive sport. Bravo!”—M. L. Longworth, author of the Provençal Mystery series
The Black Man in Brazilian Soccer (Latin America in Translation/en Traducción/em Tradução)
by Mario FilhoAt turns lyrical, ironic, and sympathetic, Mario Filho's chronicle of "the beautiful game" is a classic of Brazilian sports writing. Filho (1908–1966)—a famous Brazilian journalist after whom Rio's Maracana stadium is officially named—tells the Brazilian soccer story as a boundary-busting one of race relations, popular culture, and national identity. Now in English for the first time, the book highlights national debates about the inclusion of African-descended people in the body politic and situates early black footballers as key creators of Brazilian culture.When first introduced to Brazil by British expatriots at the end of the nineteenth century, the game was reserved for elites, excluding poor, working-class, and black Brazilians. Filho, drawing on lively in-depth interviews with coaches, players, and fans, points to the 1920s and 1930s as watershed decades when the gates cracked open. The poor players and players of color entered the game despite virulent discrimination. By the mid-1960s, Brazil had established itself as a global soccer powerhouse, winning two World Cups with the help of star Afro-Brazilians such as Pele and Garrincha. As a story of sport and racism in the world's most popular sport, this book could not be more relevant today.
The Black Migrant Athlete: Media, Race, and the Diaspora in Sports (Sports, Media, and Society)
by Munene Franjo MwanikiThe popularity and globalization of sport have led to an ever-increasing migration of black athletes from the global South to the United States and Western Europe. While the hegemonic ideology surrounding sport is that it brings diverse people together and ameliorates social divisions, sociologists of sport have shown this to be a gross simplification. Instead, sport and its narratives often reinforce and re-create stereotypes and social boundaries, especially regarding race and the prowess and the position of the black athlete. Because sport is a contested terrain for maintaining and challenging racial norms and boundaries, the black athlete has always impacted popular (white) perceptions of blackness in a global manner.The Black Migrant Athlete analyzes the construction of race in Western societies through a study of the black African migrant athlete. Munene Franjo Mwaniki presents ten black African migrant athletes as a conceptual starting point to interrogate the nuances of white supremacy and of the migrant and immigrant experience with a global perspective. By using celebrity athletes such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, and Catherine Ndereba as entry points into a global discourse, Mwaniki explores how these athletes are wrapped in social and cultural meanings by predominately white-owned and -dominated media organizations. Drawing from discourse analysis and cultural studies, Mwaniki examines the various power relations via media texts regarding race, gender, sexuality, class, and nationality.
The Black Powder Plainsman: A Beginner's Guide to Muzzleloading and Reenactment on the Great Plains
by Randy SmithThe Black Powder Plainsman provides a wealth of information on muzzleloading and the history of the Plainsmen. The author explores the lives and roles of women, Plainsmen relations with the Native Americans, and the current status of the hobby of muzzleloading, along with many other topics. He also shares advice on how to get involved in historical reenactments and how to preserve the values of the early Plainsmen. Hunting techniques with muzzleloading rifles are also explored.
The Black Press and Black Baseball, 1915-1955: A Devil’s Bargain (Routledge Research in Sports History #8)
by Brian CarrollThis book brings into dramatic relief the dilemma, or devil's bargain, that faced the black press in first building up black baseball, then crusading for the sport's integration and, as a result of that largely successful campaign, ultimately encouraging and even ensuring the demise of those same black leagues. Taking a thematic approach, this book focuses each of its chapters on a singular event or phenomenon from and for each decade of the period covered, a period that spans the roughly four decades of the black leagues' existence. Thus, the book drills down on a handful of representative events and phenomena to present a history of the black press and black baseball. Themes include the many ways team owners and the weekly newspapers' editors and writers worked in concert to build up the leagues, the paired fortunes of black players and black writers, the desperation to save the Negro leagues when it became clear integration threatened their survival, and finally the black press’s response to the residues of baseball's decades of segregation.
The Black Prince of Baseball: Hal Chase and the Mythology of the Game
by Donald Dewey Nicholas AcocellaAs America lurched into the twentieth century, its national pastime was afflicted with the same moral malaise that was enveloping the rest of the nation. Players regularly bet on games, games were routinely fixed, and league politics were as dirty as the base paths. Against this backdrop, Hal Chase emerged as one of the game’s greatest players and also as one of its most scandalous characters. With charisma and bravado that earned him the nickname The Prince, Chase charmed his way across America, spinning lies in the afternoon, dealing high-stakes poker at night, and gambling with beautiful women until dawn. Most notoriously of all, he undermined his stature as the era’s greatest first baseman by conniving with gamblers to fix games and draw teammates into his diamond conspiracies. But as Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella reveal in their groundbreaking biography, The Black Prince of Baseball, Chase was also a scapegoat for baseball notables with hands even dirtier than his. These included league officials who ignored facts in an attempt to pin the 1919 Black Sox scandal on him and—a previously unknown twist—the fabled John McGraw, who perjured himself on a witness stand against the first baseman. Although Chase, contrary to popular belief, was never banned from the major leagues, meticulous research by the authors implicates him in other shady enterprises as well, not least an attempt to blackmail revivalist Aimee Semple McPherson. As The Black Prince of Baseball makes clear, in his protean talents and larcenies, Hal Chase personified all the excesses of Ragtime.
The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 (Cornerstones of Freedom)
by Dan ElishDescribes the events leading up to the 1919 World Series and how eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of deliberately losing the game.
The Black Stallion Mystery (Black Stallion)
by Walter FarleySomeone's set a treacherous trap for Alec and his horse... From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Black Stallion and Satan (Black Stallion #5)
by Walter FarleyBlack Stallion and his colt race for their lives from a deadly forest fire.
The Black Stallion's Courage
by Walter FarleyWhen Hopeful Farm burns down, Alec's dreams for the future go up in smoke. How can he get the money to rebuild? To make matters worse, a strong young colt named Eclipse has taken the racing world by storm, threatening to replace the Black in the hearts of racing fans. Against all odds, Alec sets out to save the farm and prove that the Black is still the greatest race horse of all time!"Everyone loves a champion. And when the champion is a gallant horse, when his story is told by a champion writer of horse stories, every reader is a winner."--The New York TimesFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
The Black Tattoo
by Sam EnthovenJack's best friend, Charlie, is in serious trouble, possessed by an ancient demon called the Scourge who plans to use Charlie to bring about its evil ends--which, unfortunately, involve the destruction of the entire universe. Now Jack and the butt-kicking, sword-wielding Esme must contend with floating sharks, intelligent jelly, oversized centipedes, gladiator pits, and vomiting bats, all for the sake of saving Charlie from the Scourge. And, hopefully, saving the universe from total and utter annihilation.
The Black Widow's Guide to Killer Pool: Become the Player to Beat
by Jeanette Lee Adam Scott GershensonPool-playing legend Jeanette Lee--"the Black Widow," who wears only black during tournaments and devours her opponents--explains every aspect of playing to win, from holding the cue to performing combination, kiss, and trick shots. Lee shows wannabe winners of every level how to compete intelligently, lose gracefully, win frequently, stay focused, and achieve goals in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This hip, engaging guide to the game is designed to turn you into the player to beat--in basements, bar leagues, local tournaments, and beyond.
The Blackbird's Song & Other Wonders of Nature: A year-round guide to connecting with the natural world
by Miles Richardson'A wonderful "rough guide" to the planet we live on... Read it and pass it on as a gift of love from you to those around you so they can learn to feel comfortable in their own skins and ultimately, be happy.' ― Sir Tim Smit, The Eden Project An almanac, focused on reconnecting with the great outdoors for the benefit of both us and nature.Each month in The Blackbird's Song, Miles Richardson delves into the science and mythology behind our relationship with nature, exploring everything from our kinship with plants to the way in which nature influences our moods.Along the way, he offers a range of activities to help us access the benefits of the natural world.Whether it be 'joy-watching' birds, rediscovering wonder, foraging for Christmas crafts or going on an urban safari, this book contains all the tools and inspiration you need to unlock the transformative power of nature and find real meaning in your life.
The Blacksheep Prince's Bride (Royally Wed: The Stanbury Crown)
by Martha ShieldsA devoted member of Edenbourg's royal household, lady-in-waiting Rowena Wilde was determined to obtain answers regarding the king's disappearance-starting by playing nanny to the prime suspect's son. Yet the harder she tried to prove Jake Stanbury's guilt, the more she found herself defending his innocence. But when Jake proposed a marriage of convenience to retain custody of his son, could Rowena accept a temporary union when her heart begged him to give her forever?
The Blind Side (Movie Tie-in Edition)
by Michael LewisThe book behind the Academy award-winning film starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw--over one million copies sold. When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read and write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability, his blind side.
The Blind Side: Evolution Of A Game
by Michael LewisThe young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school - such as, say, how to read or write. Nor has he ever touched a football. What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean streets. Their love is the first great force that alters the world\'s perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
by Michael Lewis"Lewis has such a gift for storytelling... he writes as lucidly for sports fans as for those who read him for other reasons."--Janet Maslin, New York Times <P><P> When we first meet Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. <P><P>Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.
The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football
by Tyler DunneThe definitive guide to the real men of the gridiron: NFL tight ends.There is no profession in sports like the NFL tight end. None. You must mash 320-pound defensive ends in the run game. You must twist your torso at impossible angles to make acrobatic catches downfield in the pass game. You must have a certain element of crazy to you, too. The tight end is a blend of brain and brawn and bruises…so many bruises. BLOOD AND GUTS tracks the fascinating rise of this position one tight end at a time, from Mike Ditka and John Mackey in the '60s to Rob Gronkowski today. As much as football has changed over the years, there has always been one glorious constant: the tight end. None of this is by accident, either. There&’s a reason all of these players were magnetically drawn to the position. In BLOOD AND GUTS, Tyler Dunne interviews the greatest tight ends ever, whose stories reveal why they were uniquely qualified to serve as the blood and the guts of football—the players keeping this sport alive and well. There&’s a reason Mike Ditka epitomized true toughness in pro football through the 1960s. Ben Coates, the son of a World War II vet, put an entire childhood spent building roofs to use by smashing defenders in the open field. Tony Gonzalez matured from a kid terrified of bullies to an absolute beast terrifying defensive backs. His entire life, Jeremy Shockey has been hellbent on sticking it to anyone who doubts him. And from afar, a young &“Gronk&” idolized Shockey and took his approach to a whole new level. Here, great American tight ends share countless harrowing, never-before-told stories. One moment, a tight end (Gonzalez) nearly socks a coach in the eye. The next, a tight end (Shockey) is breaking the orbital bone of someone in a bar fight. There&’s no one in sports like them. BLOOD AND GUTS brings them to life.
The Blood of the Arab: The World's Greatest War Horse
by Albert W. Harris Maj. Henry Leonard“IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES the author deals with an exceedingly interesting subject in a most agreeable and instructive manner. His long experience with Arab horses in the East, in the West, on the ranch, in the park, and on Endurance Rides, fits him to speak with authority. I was one of the judges of the first Endurance Ride, conducted under rigid rules and active supervision, in this country, Mr. Harris rode an Arabian mare in this difficult contest, sixty miles per day, for five successive days, with two hundred pounds up, and brought her in in fine shape, to win first place. In addition to being a fine horseman and horsemaster, he is a renowned breeder of Arabian horses.“If one were in quest of accurate and complete information, historical or practical, about the Arab horse—data which would not glorify the Arab at the expense of fact, I should unhesitatingly refer him to the author. He owned the best Arab sire I have ever seen, whether in this country, Europe, or Asia.“He has a large stud farm of pure-bred Arabs. He also used his sires on mares of other breeding, or no breeding, with excellent results.“Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, I know of no one better fitted to write of the merits and accomplishments of the Arab horse, without indulging in befogging breed-enthusiasm, than the author.”
The Blueprint (Rules of Possession #1)
by S. E. HarmonKelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don’t fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don’t fall in love with your best friend. NFL standout Britton “Blue” Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. From his father, who’s only interested in Blue’s football career. From his coaches, who just want him to play without getting injured again. From the fans. From his agent. And from his mother, who has popped up on the radar after leaving his family years before. And now his relationship with Kelly is on shaky ground, and that frightens Blue more than anything. When Kelly admits he’s in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what’s really important. He doesn’t want to lose the number-one person in his life, but the cost to keep Kelly close might be more than he’s willing to pay. It’s a good thing his nickname is the Blueprint—it’s time to draft a new set of plans.
The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower
by Christopher PriceMoneyball for the New England Patriots, award-winning sportswriter Christopher Price goes into the inner workings of the legendary football franchise in The BlueprintFor years, the New England Patriots were a certifiable joke of a franchise. They were run on the cheap and were once the very example of how not to manage a team. They hired inept coaches--one of whom (Clive Rush) was nearly electrocuted when he grabbed a microphone at his introductory press conference. In 1968 their scouting director, Ed McKeever, suggested they draft a wide receiver . . . before someone in the organization realized the player had been dead for six months. They plucked ex-players out of the stands minutes before kickoff--Bob Gladieux was enjoying a beer at the game when he heard his name called over the P.A. (The Patriots had cut a player earlier that morning and found themselves short. Gladieux, who would go on to spend four years in the league as a running back, made the tackle on the opening kickoff.) And they played in a run-down stadium that was one of the worst venues in professional sports. There were brief moments of success, but on each occasion, front-office infighting would invariably cause the franchise to slide back down to the basement again.But in the first four months of 2000, everything changed. The hiring of head coach Bill Belichick and Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli and the drafting of quarterback Tom Brady turned the fortunes of the franchise around. And their nontraditional approach to acquiring personnel--remembering that it's not about collecting talent, it's about assembling a team--quickly led to three Super Bowl titles in four seasons. It's a feat that, in the salary cap era, with free agency, planned parity and balanced scheduling, is in many ways even more impressive than anything achieved by the past dynasties of Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and San Francisco.Along the way, Christopher Price has had a front-row seat for football history, chronicling the rise to power of the NFL's unlikeliest superpower. Price takes the reader inside the franchise to give him a dynamic portrait of a mighty organization at the height of its power. Readers are immersed in the locker room during the strange and tumultuous days of 2001 and 2003, when major personnel moves involving a pair of the most popular players in franchise history--Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy--threatened to rock their championship foundation to the core. Readers get an up-close look at the team that dominated the league on the way to a record-setting winning streak in 2004. And Price analyzes what went wrong when they fell short in 2005 and 2006, and how they plan to return to Super Bowl form.The Blueprint explores how the Patriots went from the dregs to a dynasty, becoming the gold standard for professional sports franchises everywhere. It will prompt sports fans (and those who study organizations) to acknowledge what many football insiders have believed for a long time: when it comes to building a successful system, the Patriots have the Blueprint.
The Blueprint: LeBron James, Cleveland's Deliverance, and the Making of the Modern NBA
by Jason LloydJune 19, 2016: the greatest moment in Cleveland sports history, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals and broke the Cleveland Curse. It was the triumph fans had been waiting fifty-two years for, and it wasn’t easy to get there—but thanks to LeBron James, an audacious plan to build a winning team, a couple of maverick GMs, and an incredible community of fans, it happened; and 2016 saw the birth of a new Cavaliers dynasty.But how did they get there? It was a roller-coaster ride from tragedy to triumph, one that Jason Lloyd, a longtime Northeast Ohio resident turned reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, got to see firsthand. He was witness to the Blueprint, as he calls it, which the Cavs put together to win their star player back from Miami and build a team that could win the ultimate championship. It incorporated several losing seasons, some highrisk draft picks, and an entirely new understanding of how to build a championship team.The best part of the plan is that it worked, culminating in the most exciting Finals series in NBA history. And, most important, the end of the Cleveland Curse. Jason Lloyd, a true insider, tells the story of how the NBA really works, and how everyone—from the front office to the stars on the court to the new generation of coaches—worked together to create an unforgettable winning team. The Blueprint is an unputdownable, must-have book for every LeBron, Cavs, and NBA fan.
The Blues
by Alan WhitickerProfiles every player to represent New South Wales in State of Origin since 1980.The Blues tells the back stories to the 300-plus New South Welshmen who have contested the legendary State of Origin series. This is more than a rugby league book. It's a book about the children of immigrants, military personnel, farmers and factory workers. It's the story of Indigenous kids and boys from the bush who were told they were not good enough. And the story of those seemingly always destined for greatness. Best-author Alan Whiticker delves into the lives and careers of every player to pull on a sky-blue jersey and face the might of the Maroons in league's elite competition. The Blues: NSW's State of Origin Heroes is the companion title to Gelding Street Press's The Maroons by Robert Burgin.