In the summer of 1957, the Indiana towns of French Lick and West Baden decided to merge two high schools that had been fierce rivals for decades. It was a decision that did not go over well in those divided communities. W. Timothy Wright weaves the gripping story here, chronicling the events that followed the fateful consolidation of two schools and two basketball teams. But an extraordinary first season slowly revealed the team’s fierce determination to win, and the players became a micro...

The 50th Anniversary edition of "the book that changed baseball" (NPR), chosen by Time magazine as one of the "100 Greatest Non-Fiction" books.When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, and a "social leper" for having violated the "sanctity of the clubhouse." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn't true. Ballplayers, most of w...

This #1 bestselling baseball classic of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is "a celebration of a vanished heroic age" ( The New York Times Book Review ).The summer of 1949: It was baseball's Golden Age and the year Joe DiMaggio's New York Yankees were locked in a soon-to-be classic battle with Ted Williams's Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant. As postwar America looked for a unifying moment, the greatest players in b...

Batter up--here comes the most memorable collection of anecdotes about the national pastime ever assembled. Tales from the Dugout brings together never-before-told stories from baseball personalities such as Roger Maris, Ken Griffey Jr., Pete Rose, Phil Rizzuto, and Gaylord Perry in this illustrated, one-of-a-kind compendium.

“Easily the best baseball book ever produced by anyone.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer“This was the best baseball book published in 1966, it is the best baseball book of its kind now, and, if it is reissued in 10 years, it will be the best baseball book.” — PeopleFrom Lawrence Ritter, co-author of The Image of Their Greatness and The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, comes one of the bestsellin...

Jimmy Breslin’s nostalgic, rollicking look back at the worst baseball team in historyFive years after the Dodgers and Giants fled New York for California, the city’s National League fans were offered salvation in the shape of the New York Mets: an expansion team who, in the spring of 1962, attempted to play something resembling the sport of baseball.Helmed by the sagacious Casey Stengel and staffed by the league’s detritus, the new Mets played 162 games and...

On a cold February day in 1979, when most of the Northeast was snowed in by a blizzard, NASCAR entered the American consciousness with a dramatic telecast of the Daytona 500. It was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live on national television and featured the heroes and legends of the sport racing on a hallowed track. With one of the wildest finishes in sports history -- a finish that was just the start of the drama -- everything changed for what is now America's second most popular...

Heart Over Height tells the motivational story of how three-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson combined an unstoppable will with dogged determination to achieve his goals, and how those traits can apply to anyone facing their own seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In this New York Times bestselling memoir, NFL legend Ray Lewis—Baltimore Ravens linebacker and one of the greatest defensive players in football history—shares an unflinching account of his troubled childhood, his rise to athletic greatness, the storm that threatened to ruin his NFL career, and the devastating injury that nearly cost him a final moment of glory.Ray Lewis is undeniably one of the biggest names in football—not only for his ...

"A funny, revealing, Ball Four–like romp through mid-seventies baseball" from the longtime sports columnist and author of The Last Real Season ( Booklist).You think your team is bad? In this "disastrously hilarious" work on one of the most tortured franchises in baseball, one reporter discovers that nine innings can feel like an eternity ( USA Today).In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Te...

"A beautifully written paean to the 1946 baseball season, when normalcy returned to the national pastime." —Mike Vaccaro, New York PostIn 1945 Major League Baseball had become a ghost of itself. Parks were half empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and mediocre replacements roamed the fields, as hundreds of players, including the game's biggest stars, were serving abroad, devoted to unconditional Allied victory in World War II....

Joe DiMaggio was, at every turn, one man we could look at who made us feel good.In the hard-knuckled thirties, he was the immigrant boy who made it big—and spurred the New York Yankees to a new era of dynasty. He was Broadway Joe, the icon of elegance, the man who wooed and won Marilyn Monroe—the most beautiful girl America could dream up.Joe DiMaggio was a mirror of our best self. And he was also the loneliest hero we ever had.In this groundbreaking biography, Puli...