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Before the Curse: The Chicago Cubs' Glory Years, 1870-1945
by Carson Cunningham Randy RobertsBefore the Curse: The Chicago Cubs' Glory Years, 1870-1945 brings to life the early history of the much beloved and often heartbreaking Chicago Cubs. Originally called the Chicago White Stockings, the team immediately established itself as a powerhouse, winning the newly formed National Base Ball League's inaugural pennant in 1876, repeating the feat in 1880 and 1881, and commanding the league in the decades to come. The legendary days of the Cubs are recaptured here in more than two dozen vintage newspaper accounts and historical essays on the teams and the fans who loved them. The great games, pennant races, and series are all here, including the 1906 World Series between the Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Of course, Before the Curse remembers the hall-of-fame players--Grover Cleveland Alexander, Gabby Hartnett, Roger Hornsby, Dizzy Dean--who delighted Cubs fans with their play on the field and their antics elsewhere. Through stimulating introductions to each article, Randy Roberts and Carson Cunningham demonstrate how changes in ownership affected the success of the team, who the teams' major players were both on and off the field, and how regular fans, owners, players, journalists, and Chicagoans of the past talked and wrote about baseball.
Before the Ever After
by Jacqueline WoodsonNational Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed. <p><p> For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone's hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he's as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ's house is anything but charming. His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ's mom explains it's because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can understand that--but it doesn't make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality, he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family traditions and recollections of the glory days, all the while wondering what their past amounts to if his father can't remember it. And most importantly, can those happy feelings ever be reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?
Before the Ivy: The Cubs' Golden Age in Pre-Wrigley Chicago
by Laurent PernotAll Cub fans know from heartbreak and curse-toting goats. Fewer know that, prior to moving to the north side in 1916, the team fielded powerhouse nines that regularly claimed the pennant. Before the Ivy offers a grandstand seat to a golden age: * BEHOLD the 1871 team as it plays for the title in nine different borrowed uniforms after losing everything in the Great Chicago Fire * ATTEND West Side Grounds at Polk and Wolcott with its barbershop quartet * MARVEL as superstar Cap Anson hits .399, makes extra cash running a ballpark ice rink, and strikes out as an elected official * WONDER at experiments with square bats and corked balls, the scandal of Sunday games and pre-game booze-ups, the brazen spitters and park dimensions changed to foil Ty Cobb * THRILL to the poetic double-play combo of Tinker, Evers, and Chance even as they throw tantrums at umpires and punches at each other Rich with Hall of Fame personalities and oddball stories, Before the Ivy opens a door to Chicago's own field of dreams and serves as every Cub fan's guide to a time when thoughts of "next year" filled rival teams with dread.
Before the Lights Go Out: A Season Inside a Game on the Brink
by Sean Fitz-GeraldA love letter to a sport that's losing itself, from one of Canada's best sports writers.Canadian hockey is approaching a state of crisis. It's become more expensive, more exclusive, and effectively off-limits to huge swaths of the potential sports-loving population. Youth registration numbers are stagnant; efforts to appeal to new Canadians are often grim at best; the game, increasingly, does not resemble the country of which it's for so long been an integral part. These signs worried Sean Fitz-Gerald. As a lifelong hockey fan and father of a young mixed-race son falling headlong in love with the game, he wanted to get to the roots of these issues. His entry point: a season with the Peterborough Petes, a storied OHL team far from its former glory in a once-emblematic Canadian city that is finding itself on the wrong side of the country's changing demographics. Fitz-Gerald profiles the players, coaches and front office staff, a mix of world-class talents with NHL aspirations and Peterborough natives happy with more modest dreams. Through their experiences, their widely varied motivations and expectations, we get a rich, colourful understanding of who ends up playing hockey in Canada and why. Fitz-Gerald interweaves the action of the season with portraits of public figures who've shaped and been shaped by the game: authors who captured its spirit, politicians who exploited it, and broadcasters who try to embody and sell it. He finds his way into community meetings full of angry season ticket holders, as well as into sterile boardrooms full of the sport's institutional brain trust, unable to break away from the inertia of tradition and hopelessly at war with itself. Before the Lights Go Out is a moving, funny, yet unsettling picture of a sport at a crossroads. Fitz-Gerald's warm but rigorous journalistic approach reads, in the end, like a letter to a troubled friend: it's not too late to save hockey in this country, but who has the will to do it?
Before the Machine
by Greg Rhodes Mark J. SchmetzerThe Big Red Machine dominated major league baseball in the 1970s, but the Cincinnati franchise began its climb to that pinnacle in 1961, when an unlikely collection of cast-offs and wannabes stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant. Led by revered manager Fred Hutchinson, the team featured rising stars like Frank Robinson, Jim O'Toole, and Vada Pinson, fading stars like Gus Bell and Wally Post, and a few castoffs who suddenly came into their own, like Gene Freese and 20-game-winner Joey Jay.In time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their pennant-winning season, the amazing story of the "Ragamuffin Reds" is told from start to finish in Before the Machine. Written by long-time Reds Report editor Mark J. Schmetzer and featuring dozens of photos by award-winning photographer Jerry Klumpe of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, this book surely will be a winner with every fan in Reds country and coincides with an anniversary exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.Through interviews and research, Before the Machine captures the excitement of a pennant race for a team that had suffered losing seasons in 14 of the past 16 years. Schmetzer also beautifully evokes the time and place-a muggy Midwestern summer during which, as the new song of the season boasts, "the whole town's batty for that team in Cincinnati." Led by regional talk-show star Ruth Lyons (the Midwest's "Oprah") fans rallied around the Reds as never before.The year didn't begin well for the team. Budding superstar Frank Robinson was arrested right before spring training for carrying a concealed weapon, and long-time owner Powel Crosley Jr., died suddenly just days before the start of the season. Few experts-or fans-gave the Reds much of a chance at first place anyway. With powerhouse teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Milwaukee, the National League pennant was unlikely to fly over Cincinnati's Crosley Field.But manager Hutchinson somehow galvanized his motley crew and led them to victory after victory. Joey Jay, who had languished with the Braves, mowed down hitters while his rotation mates O'Toole and knuckleballer Bob Purkey did the same. The team also featured a dynamic duo in the bullpen in Bill Henry and Jim Brosnan, whose book about the season, Pennant Race, became a national bestseller the following year. As the rest of the league kept waiting for the Reds to fade, Hutch's boys kept winning-and finally grabbed the pennant.Though they couldn't continue their magic in the World Series against the Yankees, the previously moribund Reds franchise did continue to their success throughout the decade, winning 98 games in 1962 and falling just short of another pennant in 1964. They established a recipe for success that would lead, a few years later, to the emergence of the Big Red Machine.
Before They're Gone
by Michael LanzaA longtime backpacker, climber, and skier, Michael Lanza knows our national parks like the back of his hand. As a father, he hopes to share these special places with his two young children. But he has seen firsthand the changes wrought by the warming climate and understands what lies ahead: Alaska’s tidewater glaciers are rapidly retreating, and the abundant sea life in their shadow departs with them. Encroaching tides threaten beloved wilderness coasts like Washington’s Olympic and Florida’s Everglades. Less snowfall and hotter summers will diminish Yosemite’s world-famous waterfalls. And it is predicted that Glacier National Park’s 7,000-year-old glaciers will be gone in a decade. To Lanza, it feels like the house he grew up in is being looted. Painfully aware of the ecological-and spiritual-calamity that global warming will bring to our nation’s parks, Lanza sets out to show his children these wonders before they have changed forever. He takes his nine-year-old son, Nate, and seven-year-old daughter, Alex, on an ambitious journey to see as many climate-threatened wild places as he can fit into a year: backpacking in the Grand Canyon, Glacier, the North Cascades, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, and along the wild Olympic coast; sea kayaking in Alaska’s Glacier Bay; hiking to Yosemite’s waterfalls; rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park; cross-country skiing in Yellowsto≠ and canoeing in the Everglades. Through these poignant and humorous adventures, Lanza shares the beauty of each place and shows how his children connect with nature when given “unscripted” time. Ultimately, he writes, this is more their story than his, for whatever comes of our changing world, they are the ones who will live in it.
Before Wrigley Became Wrigley: The Inside Story of the First Years of the Cubs? Home Field
by Sean DeveneyChicago's Wrigley Field opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park, the new North Side stadium erected for use by the Federal League's Chicago team, which would eventually be called the Whales. It was built in just 50 days, with an rectangular shape in the style of New York's Polo Grounds, designed to fit the odd dimensions of the lot-which formerly housed a seminary school-that Whales owner "Lucky" Charley Weeghman had purchased with a 99-year lease at a little over $300,000. In all, it took $250,000 and a plenty of scrambling to build the park.That seminal event is at the heart of Before Wrigley: The Inside Story of the First Years of the Cubs' Home Field . The book will explore the early years of Wrigley Field, when it bore a different name and housed a different team. Sean Deveney has mined documents and resources from baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, as well as the Chicago History Museum, to supplement the reports in newspapers and magazines of the day, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at origins and birth pangs of the park.At the center of the Before Wrigley drama is a cast of typically colorful Chicago characters, particularly Weeghman, the young and flamboyant restaurant man who started out in the city as an $8-a-week waiter, eventually became a millionaire baseball magnate, and then lost everything. There's tightwad owner Charles Murphy, who oversaw the Cubs' early 20th century dynasty (yes, there was a Cubs dynasty), only to run off his famed infield of Tinkers, Evers and Chance, and be run out of the game himself. There are crooked baseball officials like Ban Johnson and Garry Herrmann, crooked politicians like mayor "Big Bill" Thompson, rogue ballplayers out to make a quick buck or two and, of course, the generally fair and hard-working citizens of Chicago.Using careful and detailed research, incorporated into the bizarre and gripping narrative of the city, the game and the team in the mid-1910s, Before Wrigley gives Cubs' fans a rollicking account of their beloved ballpark's little-explored early days.
Before You
by Kathryn FreemanHigh-class auto racing and reckless romance make for a fiery mix when a driver out to win meets a woman who doesn’t like to lose . . . Melanie Hunt’s job as publicist for the Delta Formula One race team means she’s used to rubbing shoulders with hot shots and big money in glamorous locales like Monte Carlo. But she’s also learned that keeping a cool professional distance is the best way to avoid an amorous hit-and-run. New Delta team driver Aiden Foster lives his life like he drives his cars—fast and hard. But no matter how successful he is, he always falls short of his legendary father’s racing legacy. He knows that if he could just stay focused, he could finally take the World Championship. But as the racing season begins, both Melanie and Aiden find themselves drawn to each other despite themselves—even though they both know that it’s a fine line that separates love and victory from crashing and burning . . .
The Beginners (The Gymnasts #1)
by Elizabeth A. LevyFour girls join a new gymnastics club. The coach said they'd be in a real meet right away, even though they were only beginners. Now they have to learn how to be a team.
The Beginner's Guide to Hunting Deer for Food
by Jackson LandersHunting deer is the most inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to acquire organic, grass-fed meat. In this thorough primer, perfect for those who’ve never hunted before, Jackson Landers explains how to supplement your food supply with venison taken near your home. From choosing the correct rifle and ammunition to field dressing, butchering, and proper safety measures, Landers takes you through every step of the process and encourages a gentle, practical approach to the psychology and politics of hunting.
The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms: Everything You Need to Know, from Foraging to Cultivating
by Britt Bunyard Tavis LynchThe Beginner&’s Guide to Mushrooms is your ultimate guide to mycology. Whether you&’ve never picked a mushroom before in your life or you&’ve been cultivating mushrooms at home for ages, the expert advice in this comprehensive mushroom manual will transform your practice. Never before have mushrooms generated so much interest, for their health benefits and medicinal properties, as well as a new understanding of their crucial role in a healthy environment and ability to regenerate damaged ones. If you are a newcomer, mycology, or the study of mushrooms and other fungi, can seem daunting. While other field guides are geared toward experts with advanced knowledge or regional in scope and aimed at only a few easy-to-recognize mushrooms, The Beginner&’s Guide to Mushrooms by veteran mycologists Britt A. Bunyard and Tavis Lynch is a complete reference and guidebook to get you started identifying, cultivating, cooking, and preserving mushrooms. The Beginner&’s Guide to Mushrooms opens with important basics about wild mushrooming and how to use the book. Information about what fungi are and their role in the environment and around the home is provided in brief and very understandable terms. Basic wild mushroom anatomy is discussed along with how to identify mushrooms and various characteristics to look for—of great importance if you are interested in learning how to recognize edible wild species…as well as dangerous look-alikes. The guide then covers: All the major groups of wild mushrooms, pointing out habitat, region, and notable characteristics—large photographs with easy-to-view characteristics facilitate correct identification. Mushroom cultivation—with easy-to-follow illustrated instructions, learn how to grow mushrooms at home, including how to collect wild specimens and domesticate them. Culinary uses and how to preserve wild mushrooms to be enjoyed in the kitchen all year round. Begin your wonderful exploration of wild mushrooms with this accessible yet thorough beginner's guide.
Beginner's Guide to Safely Foraging for Wild Mushrooms: Identifying and Collecting Mushrooms Sustainably with Confidence
by Karen StephensonThe essential mushroom foraging book for beginners Considering taking up mushroom hunting? You are going to want some essential information before you start identifying fungi! Find everything you need in this foraging book for beginners, including expert tips on equipment, foraging techniques, sustainable harvesting, and what to do with your bounty. The easy-to-follow format and clear visuals make this the ideal mushroom field guide to bring along as you start hunting! Mushrooms 101—A mini-mycology lesson for beginners builds your confidence, explaining basics like types of mushrooms, mushroom anatomy, and key "Fungi Facts." Mushroom Identification—Learn how to identify thirty of the most common wild mushrooms in North America, plus five highly toxic mushrooms every forager needs to watch out for. Mushroom chart by season and region— Know which species to look for and when, whether you are foraging mushrooms in the Northeast, Northwest, or anywhere in the country. The Beginner's Guide to Safely Foraging for Wild Mushrooms will have you mushrooming with confidence!
Beginner's Guide to Weight Lifting: Simple Exercises and Workouts to Get Strong
by Kyle HuntFrom square one to living strong—a beginner's guide to weight lifting. You don't have to hire a personal trainer to learn how to lift weights the smart, safe way. The Beginner's Guide to Weight Lifting is the perfect companion for men and women who are starting from scratch and want to begin working out at the gym or at home. From air squats to barbell bench presses, you'll explore beginner-friendly exercises with clear illustrations so you can perfect your form, get stronger while building muscle, and improve your cardiovascular health. The Beginner's Guide to Weight Lifting can help you get the most out of your workout routine by sharing how to set up your home gym, safety tips, nutrition, and more. It doesn't matter who you are, your age, or physical ability, it's never too late to start weight lifting. This ultimate beginner's guide to weight lifting includes: Get started—Learn weight lifting fundamentals like how to choose the right weight, defining gym jargon, and using proper gym etiquette. Get training—Build muscle and stamina with 35 beginner-based exercises and a complete 4-week weight lifting routine that includes specific exercises, sets, and reps that can be modified for your skill level. Get results (and compliments)—You'll feel fitter and healthier, and you may even notice a firm muscle or two—plus you get well-timed encouragement when you need it. Lift weights without the heavy lifting—all you need is the Beginner's Guide to Weight Lifting.
Beginner's Racquetball
by Jack KramerThis book is written for all those people who want to play racquetball for recreation and for sport and do it successfully. Includes information on different grips and strategies.
Beginning English Exercises
by Cherry HillDevelop your English riding technique and bond with your horse as you work your way through this collection of fun and rewarding exercises. Veteran trainer Cherry Hill shows you everything you need to know to master the subtle nuances of balance, transitions, and establishing energetic forward movement. Designed for easy in-the-saddle reference, this compact guide provides clear instructions and arena maps that include detailed patterns for every exercise. Take your horsemanship to a new level!
Beginning Qigong: Chinese Secrets for Health and Longevity
by Stephen ComeeLearn traditional Chinese Qigong with this illustrated guide.The urgent pace of modern life has led to a quest for ways to relieve stress. One of the best methods for doing so is Qigong-an ancient Chinese system of breathing techniques and exercises that strengthen the mind, body, and spirit as they balance and augment Qi, or "life force."This thorough volume presents many different forms of Qigong in detail and through fully illustrated exercises. Included are an explanation of the principles of Qigong, warming-up exercises, breathing exercises, and a guide to massaging the inner organs. The authors have also provided a table that describes the various exercises, listing their physical benefits and classifying them according to level of difficulty, so that readers can practice their own routines.
Beginning Qigong
by Stephen ComeeThe urgent pace of modern life has led to a quest for ways to relieve stress. One of the best methods for doing so is Qigong--an ancient Chinese system of breathing techniques and exercises that strengthen the mind, body, and spirit as they balance and augment Qi, or "life force."This small, thorough volume presents many different forms of Qigong in detail and through fully illustrated exercises. Included are an explanation of the principles of Qigong, warming-up exercises, breathing exercises, and a guide to massaging the inner organs. The authors have also provided a table that describes the various exercises, listing their physical benefits and classifying them according to level of difficulty, so that readers can practice their own routines.
The Beginning Runner's Handbook
by Sportmedbc Ian Macneill Doug ClementsThis easy-to-use, practical guide helps runners safely build strength and endurance, get motivated and set realistic goals, choose the proper footwear and clothing, eat right, and avoid injury. Completely updated, this fourth edition contains a wealth of new material. A revised RunWalk program gives runners a choice between running 10K or covering the distance by running and walking. A whole new chapter on preparing for charity runs reflects the popularity of getting fit while giving back to the community. There are expanded and enhanced sections with cross-training options such as trail running and bootcamp sessions; information on running through pregnancy; facts about barefoot running, minimalist shoes and shorter strides lengths, plus links to online sources of information and running communities. Combining advice from the experts, training tips and testimonials from runners of all ages, The Beginning Runner's Handbook is a step-by-step road map for achieving running success.
The Beginning Runner's Handbook
by The Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia Ian MacneillMore than 20.5 million Americans run recreationally, according to the latest U.S. statistics-an astonishing figure that underscores just how popular running is as a method of improving fitness. This tightly written, absolutely basic guide exclusively for the beginning runner offers a proven and tested program perfectly suited to those seeking long-term fitness.At the core of the book is "the program"-the specific 13-week walk/run plan designed to turn people into runners, without injury. Everyone-walkers, first-time joggers, even those who want to advance another step-will find a training program to suit their interests, needs and current level of fitness.For this new edition, much has been added, including all-new material on running faster and farther; fartlek, interval and tempo training; how to maintain fitness while vacationing, and a post-13-weeks maintenance program. Another new chapter focuses on building toward half and full marathons. As well, there's a new chapter on running and the family, including running during pregnancy and after the baby arrives, jogging strollers, children who want to run and running with the family dog. Other new sections examine coming back from injuries, as well as the latest on nutrition and running, such as low-carb diets and running.
Beginning T'ai Chi
by Tri Thong DangMore than a martial art, T'ai Chi is a holistic method of self-healing, a form of moving meditation and a philosophical way of life. T'ai Chi offers its physical, psychological and spiritual benefits to millions worldwide. In this handy guide, Master Tri Thong Dang, an instructor for over three decades, describes the simplified form: a set of movements specifically designed for beginners.Concise descriptions highlight the spiritual essence of T'ai Chi and display its graceful simplicity. With over 160 clear, easy-to-understand illustrations, this excellent volume is the perfect introduction to the world of T'ai Chi.
Beginning Western Exercises
by Cherry HillWith this pocket-sized guide in hand, you'll find it easy to develop your Western riding skills. Cherry Hill's exercises will help you achieve rider balance, find a steady rhythm, establish energetic forward movement, maintain left to right balance, learn the gaits, learn transitions, and begin bending work.
Behavior and Group Management in Outdoor Adventure Education: Theory, research and practice
by Alan Ewert Curt DavidsonOutdoor adventure activities are becoming an increasingly popular part of physical education programs. The physical risks of these activities are often foremost in the minds of both instructors and participants, yet it is managing group behavior which can prove to be the most difficult. This is the first book for students and practitioners to address this essential aspect of outdoor adventure education (OAE). Outlining key evidence-based training practices, this book explains how to interact with groups ranging from adolescents to military veterans within a variety of outdoor adventure education contexts. It provides practical advice on how to promote positive behavior, while also offering guidance on how to mitigate negative behavior and manage a variety of challenging behavioral issues. With ten chapters full of real world examples from rock climbing to wilderness trekking, it provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the complexities of behavioral group management (BGM) in theory and practice. This book is vital reading for students training to be outdoor physical education instructors and for practitioners looking to enhance their group management skills.
Behavior Management in Physical Education: A Practical Guide
by Andrew E. Alstot Crystal D. AlstotBehavior Management in Physical Education provides evidence-based, practical guidance on behavior management in the physical education classroom. Readers will learn how to identify and define problem behavior, discover the reasons behind misbehavior, create thriving classrooms via the incorporation of positive and proactive classroom management strategies, implement procedures to address problem behavior, and collect appropriate data to ensure interventions are having a meaningful impact. The book includes discussion on the use of technology in the physical education classroom to aid the behavior management process, and features case studies in every chapter to highlight key concepts and practical tools to help teachers create a safe and enriching learning environment. This reader-friendly text will inspire aspiring and seasoned physical educators to try new techniques to strengthen their behavior management repertoire. It is an important read for preservice and in-service physical education teachers, as well as other physical activity practitioners, and a useful resource for students of physical education teaching methods and behavior management courses.
Behavioral Sport Psychology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Performance Enhancement
by James K. Luiselli Derek D. ReedSport psychology is a topic of growing interest. Many professionals read journals such as The International Journal of Sports, Journal of Sport Behavior, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and The Sport Psychologist. In August 2008, Monitor on Psychology, the monthly publication of the American Psychological Association (APA), featured a special issue on sport psychology. Indeed, Division 47 of APA is devoted to "the scientific, educational, and clinical foundations of exercise and sport psychology." The North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) and the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) convene conferences each year to present scientific findings and new developments in a rapidly expanding field. The AAASP and other organizations also qualify professionals as certified sport and exercise psychology consultants. Finally, a visit to any bookstore will reveal the lay public's fascination with sports, as revealed in numerous self-help books and guides to perfecting athletic performance. Behavioral psychologists have studied sport psychology for more than three decades (Martin, Thompson, & Regehr, 2004). Applied behavior analysis (ABA), in particular, has been an instrumental approach to behavioral coaching in many sports, including baseball (Osborne, Rudrud, & Zezoney, 1990), basketball (Pates, Cummings, & Maynard, 2002), figure skating (Ming & Martin, 1996), football (Ward & Carnes, 2002), golf (Pates, Oliver, & Maynard, 2001), ice hockey (Rogerson & Hrycaiko, 2002), soccer (Brobst & Ward, 2002), swimming (Hume & Crossman, 1992), and tennis (Allison & Ayllon, 1980). ABA stresses the application of learning theory principles, objective measurement of athletic skills, controlled outcome evaluation, and socially significant behavior-change. Cognitive behavior therapy, or CBT, also has been a dominant approach to psychological intervention in sports (Meyers, Whelan, & Murphy, 1996; Weinberg & Comar, 1994). CBT addresses athletic performance through cognitive-change methods combined with behavioral practice and environmental modifications. The purpose of the book described in this proposal is to compile the most recent experimental and applied research in behavioral sport psychology. Several journal articles have reviewed critical dimensions of behavioral sport psychology (Martin et al., 2004; Martin, Vause, & Schwartzman, 2005) but no book has covered the topic with an emphasis on ABA and CBT methodology and practice. Accordingly, Behavioral Sport Psychology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Performance Enhancement is a first of its kind volume.
Behind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs and Football
by Gary Lineker Danny Baker***Includes a new foreword by Gary Lineker about football in lockdown***Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards'Lineker is nearly as good a presenter as I was a footballer' DIEGO MARADONA'Hilarious, almost as funny as me' ALAN SHEARER'This is Lineker unleashed. As a non-football nut I didn't expect to enjoy it, but between laddish anecdotes are passages of sudden tenderness. . . Lineker opens up, dislodging memories and reflections, not just about football but his whole life.' THE TIMES_______________________________________________________________'Football is a simple game. 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans always win.'This book is inspired by the stories Danny and I have shared with each other about what life in football is really like: in the dressing room, in the commentary box, on the pitch and - with the appropriate pixellation - in the showers afterwards.What's it really like to play with Messi? I wouldn't know, but I have starred alongside him in an advert for Walkers crisps. And, well, his performance was world-class.And what is a life in football really like? You won't learn much from the dull-as-dishwater post-match interviews - it's a world of secrets, superstitions, laughs and personalities, and let me tell you, half of it you won't believe.I've looked back at my playing days, from England to Leicester, Everton to Barcelona, Tottenham to, er, Nagoya Grampus Eight, and shared the chaotic behind-the-scenes secrets of Match of the Day - and Danny has chipped in with stories from a lifetime following the game as a fan.From Italia '90 to Leicester's Premier League fairytale, from yellow cards to World Cup trophies (I've never been awarded either), from Gascoigne to Maradona, you'll find it all here - everything you always wanted to know about football, but didn't realise that you did.Inspired by the No.1 podcast Behind Closed Doors