A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat—those on the flip side of an epic triumph—and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player—Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettner's famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for...

A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat-those on the flip side of an epic triumph-and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player-Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettners famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for...

This is New York Times bestselling author and Emmy-nominated broadcaster Ron Darling's 108 baseball anecdotes that connect America’s game to the men who played it.In 108 Stitches, Ron Darling offers his own take on the "six degrees of separation" game and knits together a collection of wild, wise, and wistful stories reflecting the full arc of a life in and around our national pastime.Darling has played with or reported on just about every...

It was a Thursday at Chicago's Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions—the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers—until they combined for thirteen runs in the first inning. "The craziest game ever," one player called it. "And then the second inning started."

Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Laws iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport.For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players...

From the hot writer everybody’s talking about — the author of the sensational Havana Best Friends.Elliot Steill, the product of a brief union between his Cuban mother and an American-born labourer, is an unhappy teacher in Havana when a man claiming to be a friend of Steill’s deceased father arrives in Cuba and offers him the chance to escape. The plan goes dangerously amiss, and Steill is soon on the hunt through Miami’s mean streets for the man who betrayed him. ...

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Jack McCallum (DREAM TEAM) gives an inside look at the legendary Boston Celtics during a season of change."One of the five best NBA books ever written."—Bill Simmons, ESPNIn the 1990-91 basketball season, the Boston Celtics were a team in transition, both on and off the court. Jack McCallum, also the author of the critically-acclaimed SEVEN SECONDS OR LESS, chronicled this crucial year from the back-room planning on draft day to Larry ...

THE ESSENTIAL BOOK FOR ANY SPORTS FAN, FROM ONE OF THE REIGNING KINGS OF SPORTS TALK RADIO, CHRISTOPHER “MAD DOG” RUSSOWhich was the greater achievement, Ted Williams’s .406 season or Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak?Who’d be left standing in a battle between Joe Louis and Mohammed Ali?Which NBA team was the greatest of all time—the ’66–’67 Celtics? The ’71–’72 Lakers? What about the ’95–’96 Bulls?Who would dominate the ultimate Pebble Beach showdown—Be...

The leading players and outstanding matches of two thrilling decades in tennis historyFrom Rod Laver's amateur Grand Slam in 1962 to the first US Open held at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, legendary sportswriter Herbert Warren Wind captures the grace and drama of modern tennis in this brilliant collection drawn from the pages of the New Yorker.The era's biggest names, including Margaret Court, Chris Evert, John Newcombe, Arthur As...

From gridiron to diamond, lawn to green, a legendary sportswriter captures the wins, losses, and draws of an exciting period in American sports historyThroughout his long and distinguished career, Herbert Warren Wind covered many of the most dramatic contests and iconic athletes of the twentieth century. Inspired by Paul Gallico's classic dispatches from the golden age of the 1920s and '30s, The Gilded Age of Sport collects Wind's finest pieces on the peopl...

Ken Rappoport’s Tales from the North Carolina Tar Heels Locker Room is a compilation of the best notes, quotes, and anecdotes from North Carolina lore. Meet a coach nicknamed Bloody Neck,” a player called The Blind Bomber,” and a team known as the White Phantoms.” And, of course, there is the extraordinary Michael Jordan. Tales from the North Carolina Tar Heels Locker Room captures the anecdotes and memories that have defined this team from the early twentieth century ...

100 great sports debates for each city-from who was the best coach to what was the best play of all time.The perfect gift for sports fans-the series that's sweeping the nation, and is already a hit in Boston, Chicago and New York.The best debates for rabid fansThe Best Sports Arguments gives each city or region all the best arguments of their hometown teams, with expert answers from top sports media figures. In fact, the Best Sports Arguments series is the #1 sports...