In this memoir, the Dean of Twin Cities sports journalism looks back on his memorable career and the stories he has covered.Sid Hartman has been at the center of Minnesota sports for more than sixty years, getting the inside scoop from players, coaches, owners, and his many "close personal friends." This fascinating tell-all reveals Sid's life and career, from his days as a newspaper boy in Minneapolis and his first scoops as a cub reporter with the Minneapolis ...

A treasury of Twin Cities baseball history packed with photos from the archives.Major League Baseball came to the Minnesota prairie in the spring of 1961, and ever since, the Minnesota Twins have held a cherished place in the hearts of sports fans throughout the region. With Hall of Famers like Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, and Kirby Puckett and beloved characters from Billy Martin to Kent Hrbek to Joe Mauer, the history of the Twins encompasses highs and lows, heroe...

Minneapolis Star Tribune senior columnist Patrick Reusse is a legendary fixture in Minnesota sports. Like his late colleague Sid Hartman, he is known by his legion of fans (and those who find him curmudgeonly) by one name: Reusse!Starting as a sportswriter in 1965 and still going strong in 2021, Reusse has covered every major sporting event imaginable and met scores of unforgettable characters during his long career in newspapers, radio, and television. Reusse's unique writing styl...

If not for the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, Minnesota might never have known one of its most popular baseball players, Twins three-time batting champion and eight-time All-Star Tony Oliva. In April 1961, the twenty-two-year-old Cuban prospect failed to impress the Twins in a tryout, but the sudden rupture in U.S.–Cuba relations made a return visa all but impossible. The story of how Oliva’s unexpected stay led to a second chance and success with the Twins—as well as decades of personal an...

Paul Hornung was football's "Golden Boy" -- handsome, talented, and fabulously successful. He had a great career at Notre Dame, where he won the Heisman Trophy (the only player ever to win it on a team with a losing record). He was the #1 draft pick in the NFL and went to the Green Bay Packers, a terrible team soon transformed by a new head coach, Vince Lombardi. Hornung's Packer teams would become a dynasty, and ten of his teammates (as well as Lombardi) would eventually ...

Edd Roush was once ejected from a game for falling asleep in the outfield. Dan Friend played left field while dressed in a bathrobe. Outfielder Len Koenecke was killed attempting historys first skyjacking. Pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich swapped not only their wives but also their children, station wagons, and pets.Baseball history is brimming with the weird, the bizarre, and the hard to believe. Baseball's Most Wanted™chronicles 700 of the most outlandish player...

Bruce Boudreau is living a hockey Cinderella story. After more than three decades in the minor leagues as a player and coach, he was promoted to head coach of the Washington Capitals in 2007. Boudreau revived the Caps, written off as dead, to a division championship and received the Jack Adams award as the National Hockey LeagueÆs Coach of the Year in June 2008.His story is an entertaining odyssey of triumph, disappointment, and perseverance, stretching from Toronto to Washington....

Friday Night Lights meets The Bad News Bears in “a brisk, warmhearted reminder of how professional sports can occasionally reach stunning unprofessional depths” (Publishers Weekly): the first two seasons with the worst team in NFL history, the hapless, hilarious, and hopelessly winless 1976–1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Long before their first Super Bowl victory in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did something no NFL team had ever done before ...

A Far-From-Average Sports Book for the Average JoeGo beyond the 24/7 online highlights and celebrate the hilarious humor and heartwarming heroics of the sports world in this all-star collection of trivia, quotes, and anecdotes. For example...Did You Know?The Chicago Bears were originally known as the Staleys before being moved from Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur Staleys, as the team was known, was the pride of the city that holds th...

Four years of labor-intensive research produced Ted's 8th book. This 300+ page tome pays homage to Philadelphia's oft-maligned, but always loved – Phillies. In 1915 the Phils won their first NL pennant (and they didn't win many more). This book commemorates the 100th anniversary of that magnificent fete. In here you'll find stuff you never suspected about guys who never knew even wore a Phillies uniform – but also plenty of info about the beloved stars of the past – Ashburn, Ennis, Roberts...

A behind-the-scenes tour of the ups and downs of an NFL season focuses on the Baltimore Ravens and reveals the lesser-known aspects of the professional league, from the dangerous conditions under which athletes are expected to train to the unrelenting pressures faced by coaches and players.In the NFL there is only one certainty: that every day, someone will have to be the Next Man Up. Football is an unrelentingly punishing sport, played and practiced at undiminishe...

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...