- Table View
- List View
Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?: Speaking My Mind On Race, Celebrity, Sports And American Life
by Charles Barkley Michael WilbonIn this controversial national bestseller, Charles Barkley takes on themajor issue of our time in a series of charged, in-your-face conversations with some of America's most prominent figures-featuring new commentary about New Orleans and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Who's Better Who's Best in Coaching?: Setting the Record Straight on the Top 50 NFL Coaches in History
by Steve SilvermanRanking the best coaches in NFL history is no easy task. How do we decide which coach had a bigger on-field impact? Or the best tactical skills, both defensively and offensively? Not to mention measuring the strength of what a coach does behind the scenes, how he motivates his players, or how he keeps them from cracking under the pressure. Is the "Hoodie” the greatest coach ever, or just lucky to have Tom Brady? What about Bill Parcells, Vince Lombardi, and John Madden? Where do they rank? Such are the questions that pro football writer Steve Silverman addresses in Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Coaching?. As statistician Elliott Kalb did with baseball, basketball, and golf, and Silverman himself did with football players in Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Coaching?, Silverman takes the next logical step in this new book. Taking the analytical methods he developed over his years as a senior editor at Pro Football Weekly, he applies them to an evaluation of coaches going back to the earliest days of the NFL. The result is a fascinating ranking of the best of the sideline, from legendary old-timers like Vince Lombardi to present-day blue-collar coaches like Tom Coughlin. Throughout, Silverman discusses the many considerations that must be made when comparing modern coaches with coaches of past eras, or when comparing abrasive and domineering coaches with the more relaxed and Zen-like coaches. Including biographical essays on those top fifty coaches and detailed statistics for their career records in both the playoffs and regular season, Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Coaching? is a must-have for anyone who considers football more than just a game and who is fascinated by how it’s coached.
Who's Better, Who's Best in Football?: Setting the Record Straight on the Top 65 NFL Players of the Past 65 Years
by Steve SilvermanWho are the best quarterbacks in NFL history? How about running backs? Wide receivers? How can we objectively rate the performance of individual defensive players? And how can we make reasonable judgments about players at different positions and from different eras? Who is the greatest football player of all time? Jerry Rice? Lawrence Taylor? Jim Brown? Such are the questions pondered by pro football writer Steve Silverman late at night (and during the day). As statistician Elliott Kalb did with baseball, basketball, and golf, Silverman now takes the next step with Who's Better, Who's Best in Football?. Taking the analytical methods he developed over his years as a senior editor at Pro Football Weekly, he applies them to an evaluation of players going back to the earliest days of the NFL. The result is a fascinating ranking of the best of the gridiron, from legendary old-timers like Sammy Baugh to present-day superstars like Peyton Manning. Throughout, Silverman discusses the many considerations that must be made when comparing modern players with players of past eras and players at different positions. Including biographical essays on those top 75 players and detailed statistics for their playing careers, Who's Better, Who's Best in Football? is a must have for anyone who considers football to be more than just a game.
Who's Better, Who's Best in Hockey?: Setting the Record Straight on the Top 50 Hockey Players of the Expansion Era
by Steve SilvermanWho are the best centers in NHL history? How about wingers? How can we objectively rate the performances of individual defensive players? And how can we make reasonable judgments about players at different positions? Who is the greatest hockey player of the Expansion Era? Bobby Orr? Wayne Gretzky? Gordie Howe? Such are the questions debated by hockey columnist Steve Silverman in Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Hockey? In this book, Silverman includes analytics to help evaluate NHL players who have dominated over the last fifty years. The result is a fascinating ranking of the best on the ice, including legendary players like Gordie Howe as well as present-day superstars like Sidney Crosby. Throughout, Silverman discusses the many considerations that must be made when comparing modern players with players of past decades and players at different positions. Including biographical essays on those top fifty players and vital statistics for their playing careers, Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Hockey? is a must-have for anyone who considers hockey to be more than just a sport.
Who's Coming Out to Play: Disruption and Disorientation in Queer Community Sports
by Claire CarterQueer community sports leagues, by their sheer numbers, are changing the energy and space of school gyms and community recreational spaces. Some leagues are well-established – having been in existence for over twenty-five years – whereas others are relatively new, but their collective presence tells stories about the shifting dynamics of queer communities in Canada.Who's Coming Out to Play considers the potential of queer community sports to disrupt notions of the embodiment of gender and community, while maintaining an awareness of numerous factors that limit this potential. Exploring queer teams and leagues of varying sizes and from various locations, this book focuses on leagues that have previously identified as women's or lesbian and are now becoming trans and genderqueer inclusive. Queer community leagues are based in a commitment to community building, prioritizing fun, socializing, and inclusivity over competing or winning. As a result of these commitments, these spaces and the people who come to play in them reflect new ways of being in and with bodies, different ways of embodying gender, and new or different forms of engagement – notably distinct "rules of play" – within sporting arenas.Who's Coming Out to Play paints a vivid picture of the lived experiences of queer bodies in queer sporting spaces, exploring both the possibilities and the continued problems they face.
Who's on Worst?
by Filip BondyA hilarious celebration of the worst in baseball history: The boneheads, cheats, jerks and losers who make the grand old game so fun Libraries and Internet sites are filled to groaning with debates about who the best ballplayers of all time were--but how many times can you argue about Mantle vs. Mays? Since baseball is a game of failure, it's much more fun to dive into the fray and explore baseball's worst: who was the lousiest pitcher of all-time? the biggest goat? the most despicable owner? the greatest cheater? Filip Bondy wields formidable research, advanced sabermetrics and his considerable wit to provide this indispensable guide to the less glorious side of our national pastime. Each chapter is filled with rich and colorful stories of the players unfortunate enough to be chosen in each category and is followed by a handy top-ten list, such as Most Overpaid Yankees. From a delightful survey of batters who fell below the dreaded "Mendoza Line" to a rundown of managers who had long careers distinguished by relentless losing to a roster of players who took steroids but still stunk, Who's on Worst? is a thoroughly entertaining portrait of the personalities who deserve their place in baseball history as much as the immortals.
Who's Who of Pro Basketball: A Guide to the Games Greatest Players (Who's Who of Pro Sports)
by Tyler OmothIntroduces readers to the most dynamic pro basketball stars of today and yesterday, including notable statistics and records.
Who's Your Caddy? Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf
by Rick ReillyFor "caddy" read confessor, punch-bag, psychotherapist, life-coach, general dogsbody, friend. It's all in a day's work for the men who carry the bag. And if you want to get behind the Pringle sweaters and PR there's no better place to be. Who knows a golfer best? Who's with them every minute of every round, hears their every word, witnesses their despair and triumph? Who knows if, when and how they cheat? The caddy, of course. So when, Rick Reilly, America's most celebrated sportswriter decided he wanted to write a book about golf he put down his pen, picked up the phone, and hired himself out to the great, near great and the reprobates of golf. The results were amazing - John Daly, Tom Lehman, Donald Trump, Deepak Chopra, a blind player, David Duval, a couple of high- rolling hustlers in Vegas and even Jack Nicklaus himself, put their doubts behind them and hand over the bag. In the resulting account Reilly chronicles his experiences in the same inimitable style that makes his back-page column for Sports Illustrated a must-read for more than twenty million people every week. Combining a wicked wit with an expert's eye Who 's Your Caddy? gives us an insight into what makes the game of golf so great. So if you can't get to the course, your short game is in tatters and Big Bertha can no longer deliver on her promises, give yourself a break and sit down and read what it's like for the rest of the world's population of golfers. In Who's Your Caddy? you'll find out - you're not alone. .
Whose Game?: Gender and Power in Fantasy Sports (Sporting #32)
by Rebecca Joyce Kissane Sarah WinslowFantasy sports have the opportunity to provide a sporting community in which gendered physical presence plays no role—a space where men and women can compete and interact on a level playing field. Whose Game? shows, however, that while many turn to this space to socialize with friends or participate in a uniquely active and competitive fandom, men who play also depend on fantasy sports to perform a boyhood vision of masculinity otherwise inaccessible to them. Authors Rebecca Kissane and Sarah Winslow draw on a rich array of survey, interview, and observational data to examine how gender, race, and class frame the experiences of everyday fantasy sports players. This pioneering book examines gendered structures and processes, such as jock statsculinity—a nerdish form of masculine one-upmanship—and how women are often rendered as outsiders. Ultimately, Whose Game? demonstrates that fantasy sports are more than just an inconsequential leisure activity. This online world bleeds into participants’ social lives in gendered ways—forging and strengthening relationships but also taking participants’ time and attention to generate negative emotions, stress, discord, and unproductivity.
Whose Game Is It, Anyway?: A Guide to Helping Your Child Get the Most from Sports, Organized by Age and Stage
by Amy Baltzell Richard D. Ginsburg Stephen DurantIn an era when parents and kids are overwhelmed by a sports-crazed, win-at-all-costs culture, here is a comprehensive guide that helps parents ensure a positive sports experience for their children. In Whose Game Is It, Anyway? two of the country’s leading youth sports psychologists team up with a former Olympic athlete and expert on performance enhancement to share what they have gleaned in more than forty years of combined experience.The result is a book unique in its message, format, and scope.Through moving case studies and thoughtful analyses, Ginsburg, Durant, and Baltzell advocate a preventive approach through a simple three-step program: know yourself, know your child, know the environment.They look at children in age groups, identifying the physical, psychological, and emotional issues unique to each group and clarifying what parents can expect from and desire for their kids at every stage.They also explore myriad relevant topics, including parental pressure, losing teams, steroid use, the overscheduled child, and much more.Illuminating, impassioned, and inspiring, Whose Game Is It, Anyway?is required reading for anyone raising—or educating—a child who participates in sports.
Whose Puck Is It, Anyway?
by Ed ArnoldEvery winter, in hockey arenas across North America, as soon as the kids step onto the ice, the abuse begins. Coaches yell at the players, parents yell at the coaches, and everyone yells at the referees. After nearly a decade of coaching youngsters, Ed Arnold decided he wanted kids to learn the fundamentals of hockey but he also wanted them to have fun. He got support in this enterprise from two former NHL players, goalie Greg Millen and forward Steve Larmer. Concerned that the children's game was being taken far too seriously by both parents and coaches, they also believed that the kids were losing the opportunity to reinvent the game for themselves.So it came about that in the winter of 2000, when the parents of the would-be Minor Novice Peterborough Petes showed up with their kids for tryouts, they were handed a letter outlining the coaches' new philosophy. There would be no yelling at players, coaches, or referees. Players would play all positions. They would not be forced to follow a "systems" approach to hockey, but would be left to figure out what to do in a given situation for themselves. And all members of the team would be given equal ice time.Not every parent liked it, but the kids sure had a good time. Readers of this inspiring book will have a wonderful time, too, as they follow the adventures of the team. Coach Larmer wears a Stanley Cup ring but he meant exactly what he said when he told a reporter that his year with the kids was the most fun he ever had in hockey.From the Hardcover edition.
Whose Side Are You On?
by Teddy JamiesonFrom the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. Life was tough for these working-class lads, but they could shine on the football field or find refuge at the town boxing club. For other kids, like the young Teddy Jamieson, a knockabout in the back-lanes was as good as it got, but at least they had their heroes. Watching McGuigan on telly, Teddy could feel proud to be Northern Irish. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved. This extraordinary journey through sport and the Troubles has it all: from Olympic gold-medals to Gaelic football; from death threats to reconciliations. Then there is Teddy's own story, as we learn how the age-old playground question 'Whose side are you on?' doesn't always have an easy answer.
Why Baseball Matters (Why X Matters Series)
by Susan JacobyA best-selling author and passionate baseball fan takes a tough-minded look at America’s most traditional game in our twenty-first-century culture of digital distraction Baseball, first dubbed the “national pastime” in print in 1856, is the country’s most tradition-bound sport. Despite remaining popular and profitable into the twenty-first century, the game is losing young fans, among African Americans and women as well as white men. Furthermore, baseball’s greatest charm—a clockless suspension of time—is also its greatest liability in a culture of digital distraction. These paradoxes are explored by the historian and passionate baseball fan Susan Jacoby in a book that is both a love letter to the game and a tough-minded analysis of the current challenges to its special position—in reality and myth—in American culture. The concise but wide-ranging analysis moves from the Civil War—when many soldiers played ball in northern and southern prisoner-of-war camps—to interviews with top baseball officials and young men who prefer playing online “fantasy baseball” to attending real games. Revisiting her youthful days of watching televised baseball in her grandfather’s bar, the author links her love of the game with the informal education she received in everything from baseball’s history of racial segregation to pitch location. Jacoby argues forcefully that the major challenge to baseball today is a shortened attention span at odds with a long game in which great hitters fail two out of three times. Without sanitizing this basic problem, Why Baseball Matters remind us that the game has retained its grip on our hearts precisely because it has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to reinvent itself in times of immense social change.
Why Fantasy Football Matters (and Our Lives Do Not)
by Erik Barmack Max HandelmanTalking Trash, Trading Studs, and Drafting Sleepers -- an Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Obsession. <P><P>U.S. businesses lose $200 million in productivity each football season because employees are managing their fantasy squads instead of working. <P><P>In Why Fantasy Football Matters (And Our Lives Do Not), two grizzled veterans revel in the addiction that is fantasy football. From pre-draft hijinks to post-draft trash talk, from tumultuous trades to the perils of free agency, it celebrates the eccentric personalities, absurd rituals, and hilarious superstitions of one of the most fanatical fantasy leagues on earth. <P><P> With humor, insight, and a dash of advice, Why Fantasy Football Matters celebrates the thirty-two million Americans who prefer managing their fantasy squads to relaxing with loved ones. And it gives girlfriends, coworkers, and sports purists all the proof they need to accept that this is an obsession that really matters.
Why Football Matters
by Mark EdmundsonAcclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men <P><P>Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. <P><P>When Mark Edmundson's son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player.What does it mean to be a football player? <P><P>At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he'd be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life.But is football-instilled toughness always a good thing? Do the character, courage, and loyalty football instills have a dark side? Football, Edmundson found, can be full of bounties. But it can also lead you into brutality and thoughtlessness. So how do you get what's best from the game and leave the worst behind? <P><P>Why Football Matters is moving, funny, vivid, and filled with the authentic anxiety and exhilaration of youth. Edmundson doesn't regret playing football for a minute, and cherishes the experience. His triumph is to be able to see it in full, as something to celebrate, but also something to handle with care. For anyone who has ever played on a football team, is the parent of a player, or simply is reflective about its outsized influence on America, Why Football Matters is both a mirror and a lamp.
Why Golf?
by Bob CullenIn the grand tradition of such classics as Golf in the Kingdom and Final Rounds comes a brilliant consideration of golf's inimitable and ever-growing popularity. In 1908, Arnold Haultain wrote a delightful book with a deceptively simple title: The Mystery of Golf. It explores the love affair golfers have with their sport and has been a favorite ever since among connoisseurs and students of the game. Now, more than ninety years later, in a thematic continuation of Haultain's enduring treatise, Bob Cullen has crafted a literate and thoughtful book that chronicles his own quest to uncover the secrets to the spell that golf has cast on millions. Why golf? Beginning with that essential question, Cullen's fascinating explorations lead readers to a range of exotic and unexpected places of mind, spirit, and geography. Cleverly establishing entirely credible links between seemingly unrelated items -- from the breathtaking prowess of Tiger Woods to the Iranian government's near banning of golf to how a baby's smile is related to our love of golf -- Cullen weaves a rich and amusing tapestry, discussing suck unexpected subjects as Platonic philosophy and the nature of faith. As whimsical and picaresque as it is earnest and intensely personal, Why Golf? does for America's favorite weekend pastime what Peter Mayle did for the south of France and what George Will did for baseball.
Why I Fight: The Belt Is Just an Accessory
by B.J. Penn Dave WeintraubClaiming that “the belt is just an accessory,” Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn explains Why I Fight in this honest, intimate, and fascinating memoir. Written with David Weintraub, Why I Fight is an unforgettable portrait of one of the top and most recognizable mixed martial artists in the UFC and an up-close look at one of the most exciting and fastest growing sports in the world. UFC and Jiu-Jitsu aficionados—and fans of Iceman, A Fighter’s Heart, and Bruce Lee’s classic The Tao of Jeet Kun Do—will want to explore Why I Fight.
Why I Love Baseball
by Larry King Michael Viner Julie McCarronLarry King was a true-blue baseball fanatic. A lifelong love affair began the night he attended a Dodgers game at Ebbets Field as a kid in 1940s Brooklyn. That was a simpler era in America's history, a time when tickets to a game cost fifty cents and parish priests prayed for Gil Hodges to break out of a slump. In this heartfelt valentine to America's favorite pastime, King recalls the many pleasures the game brought him for more than sixty years. During his broadcasting career, King had the opportunity to meet and interview many of the legends of his youth. Jackie Robinson, Casey Stengel, Ted Williams, Leo Durocher, Stan Musial...they're all here—plus many, many more. From the golden days when Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Duke Snider were all playing center field for New York teams at the same time, to the Subway Series in 2000 and the stirring first ballgame in New York after 9/11, this unique history is full of wonderful anecdotes. Friends and fellow baseball fanatics Bob Costas, Charlie Bragg, and Herb Cohen also contributed essays on their love for the game, and King discusses his favorite books, movies, and songs about the sport. This ode to baseball is a must for all fans and will be treasured by lovers of the game everywhere.
The Why Is Everything: A Story of Football, Rivalry, and Revolution
by Michael SilverFrom an award-winning journalist, the inside story of the brilliant, hypercompetitive young coaches who threw out decades of received wisdom to fundamentally remake America’s most popular sport. When Kyle Shanahan became the NFL’s youngest offensive coordinator in 2008, he had one prevailing rule: Tell me the why. If a colleague couldn’t justify his position by providing the unassailable reasoning behind it, he was told to get the hell out of Shanahan’s office. Shanahan and the members of his coaching tree—including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur—came up in a sport where innovation was the exception, not the rule. There had been brilliant football minds before, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh to Bill Belichick. But for the most part, coaches learned a particular system and stuck to it no matter what—no matter the players on their team, no matter what the opponent might do. This group of young coaches would change all that. The Why Is Everything is the story of old dogmas falling before astonishingly creative new strategies and game plans. Drawing on unmatched access across the league, longtime NFL reporter Mike Silver takes us into the key moments in this still-unfolding revolution, from the education of Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father and a two-time Super Bowl champion, in the 1980s; to the Washington Redskins’ football laboratory in the early 2010s, where the coaches first worked together, shocking the league with their cutting-edge scheme for rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III; to McVay’s Super Bowl victory in 2022 and Kyle Shanahan’s Super Bowl agony in 2019 and 2024. Less than a decade after their emergence, these men are the stars of their profession and have helped propel the NFL to new heights of viewership and drama. With The Why Is Everything, Silver reveals how it all happened, and in the process gives us a timeless account of friendship, rivalry, and the never-ending pursuit of perfection.
Why Is The Foul Pole Fair?: Answers to 101 of the Most Perplexing Baseball Questions
by Vince StatenChicken soup for the baseball lover's soul -- the inimitable Vince Staten takes you out to the ol' ballgame and answers all the baseball questions your dad hoped you wouldn't ask.
Why is Q Always Followed by U?: Word-Perfect Answers to the Most-Asked Questions About Language
by Michael QuinionLong-time word-detective and bestselling author of Port Out, Starboard Home, Michael Quinion brings us the answers to nearly two hundred of the most intriguing questions he's been asked about language over the years. Sent to him by enquiring readers from all around the globe, Michael's answers about the meanings and histories behind the quirky phrases, slang and language that we all use are set to delight, amuse and enlighten even the most hardened word-obsessive.Did you know that 'Blighty' comes from an ancient Arabic word? Or that Liberace cried his way to the bank so many times people think he came up with the phrase? That 'cloud nine' started out as 'cloud seven' in the speakeasies of '30s America? And that the first person to have their thunder stolen was a dismal playwright from Drury Lane? Michael Quinion's Why is Q Always Followed By U? is full of surprising discoveries, entertaining quotations and memorable information. There are plenty of colourful stories out there, but Michael Quinion will help you discover the truth that lies behind the cock-and-bull stories and make sure you're always linguistically on the ball.
Why Knot?: How To Tie More Than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving, And Secure Knots!
by Philippe Petit“Mr. Petit is the perfect teacher” in this fascinating, educational volume on knot-tying—an art and science that has held civilization together (The Wall Street Journal). Philippe Petit is known for his astounding feat of daring when, on August 7, 1974, he stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City. But beyond his balance, courage, and showmanship, there was one thing Petit had to be absolutely certain of—his knots. Without the confidence that his knots would hold, he never would have left the ground. In fact, while most of us don’t think about them beyond tying our shoelaces, the humble knot is crucial in countless contexts, from sailing to sports to industrial safety to art, agriculture, and more. In this truly unique book, Petit offers a guide to tying over sixty of his essential knots, with practical sketches illustrating his methods and clear tying instructions. Filled with photos in which special knots were used during spectacular high-wire walks, quirky knot trivia, personal anecdotes, helpful tips, magic tricks, and special tying challenges, Why Knot? will entertain and educate readers of all ages. “In reading Philippe’s book we are cogently reminded that without the ability to secure a rope, or tether a goat, or make fast the sheets of a galley, much of the civilization that we take for granted would disappear as easily as a slipknot in the hands of a Vegas conjuror.” —Sting, musician and activist “His descriptions are clear, he deploys humor frequently and he makes his points with anecdotes that are colorful and memorable. Explaining the purpose and creation of knots and thanks to those flawless drawings Mr. Petit earns perfect marks.” —The Wall Street Journal
Why Michael Couldn't Hit: And Other Tales of the Neurology of Sports
by Harold L. KlawansThe author who told us why Toscanini fumbled and why Newton raved takes us on a tour of the great brains of great athletes in --baseball players and basketball players, track stars and golfers--to show how both accomplishment and tragedy may be the result of some unusual neurons.In Why Michael Couldn't Hit, Dr. Harold L. Klawans joins his two lifelong passions for neurological discovery and sports. And his arguments about the way the two are linked will give every sports fan a new outlook on what happens on the track, the baseball diamond, or in the arena. A deft and fascinating exploration, the book reveals that the twists and turns of athletes' brains have at least as much to do with their stardom as the strength and coordination of their muscles. It's an entirely original perspective on a topic that has always captured the American imagination: the breathtaking sight of athletic grace, force, and skill.
Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot: The Life and Times of a Sportscaster Dad
by Mike GreenbergMeet Mike Greenberg, the popular host of ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning, the highest-rated drive-time sports talk show on the dial. To his three-million-plus listeners, Greeny is the guy who's equally as comfortable dissecting zone defenses as he is discussing cashmere sweaters. He's been to Super Bowls and World Series, All-Star Games and Final Fours. He's interviewed Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, and Wayne Gretzky. He gets paid to enthuse about sports, which means he's the envy of most men in America. This is the hilarious, sometimes touching, and endlessly entertaining debut of one of America's fastest-rising sportscasters, a wry and revealing look at one man's good-hearted but mistake-prone attempt to grow up before his children do. Marriage, fatherhood, manhood, fame, athletes, crazed aunts with gambling problems, the true significance of sports, the worst possible thing to say in a room full of pregnant women-no topic is beyond his reach. But don't take our word on it, read what Greeny has to say about: * Dating: "People who reminisce fondly about dating are blocking out all the disasters and focusing only on the few great nights. If that is all you choose to remember, fine. But be aware that no experience is without good moments. I'm sure during the sacking of Rome there were a few decent nights; maybe they put on a play." * Life on the road: "Wife + television = no sleep." "No wife + no television = no sleep." "Wife + no television = sleep." "No wife + television = porn." * Keeping things in perspective: "Never assume you know more than the guy in the camouflage tux." * And, of course, marriage: "All of us are married to women who think we're idiots." Whether he's talking trash on the radio or talking dirty diapers over a fancy dinner, Greeny's determined to reconcile two halves of a whole. So if your enthusiasm has ever been curbed, or you're feeling remote without the remote, or you're just wondering what exactly goes on in a guy's brain, Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot will be a source of comfort and unadulterated laughter.
Why Running Matters: Lessons in Life, Pain and Exhilaration – From 5K to the Marathon
by Ian MortimerYou might run for fitness. You might run for speed. But ultimately, running is about much more than the physical act itself. It is about the challenges we face in life, and how we measure up to them. It is about companionship, endurance, ambition, hope, conviction, determination, self-respect and inspiration. It is about how we choose to live our lives, and what it means to share our values with other people.In this year-long memoir, which might be described as a historian’s take on Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the celebrated historian Ian Mortimer considers the meaning of running as he approaches his fiftieth birthday. From injuries and frustrated ambitions to exhilaration and empathy, it is a personal and yet universal account of what running means to people, and how it helps everyone focus on what really matters.