Mike Cramer's first love was baseball cards. Before high school he had a mail-order trading card business. At age 30 he founded Pacific Trading Cards with money he made fishing crab in the Bering Sea. From 1980 to 2004, Pacific created more than 200 successful trading card products. In 2021, a Pacific Tom Brady rookie card sold for $117,000. Pacific's cards remain some of the hobby's most sought-after and other companies still emulate their innovations. Cramer's memoir offers a behind-the-...

A back-up goalie's hilarious behind-the-mask look at life in the NHLJamie McLennan spent twenty years playing professional hockey. Sort of. As the backup for such legendary goalies as Grant Fuhr, Ron Hextall, Roberto Luongo, and Miikka Kiprusoff, he saw everything--except much playing time. In The Best Seat in the House, McLennan looks back on his unique career, from breaking into the NHL, to working with the legends, to life on the road and in the league, offering readers...

Think fast with A.J. and Andrea from My Weird School!Did you know that the only sport that’s been played on the moon is golf? Did you know that an NFL quarterback once threw a touchdown pass to himself?!Learn more weird-but-true sports facts with A.J. and Andrea from Dan Gutman’s bestselling My Weird School series. This all-new series of nonfiction books features hundreds of hysterical facts, plus lots of photos and illustrations.Wh...

Winner of International Automotive Media Gold Award 2010 For all his fame as one of Hollywood's great actors, a world-class humanitarian, and the proprietor of a natural food empire, the late Paul Newman had another intriguing facet that was less known and perhaps closer to his heart than all the rest of his well-chronicled life. He was an avid, successful and well respected car racer and team owner. This book tells that story--from Newman's racing career, begun in earnest at an age when m...

"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 Tex...

A fascinating portrait of the National Football League, the Super Bowl, and all the position players who come together to create the biggest cultural phenomenon in American sports.Think the Super Bowl is only about two teams of titans clashing on the field? Think again. The Super Bowl is about fans, hundreds of millions of fans. It’s about money, more money than the GDP of twenty-five sovereign nations. It’s about precision, the timing of everything from the notorious commercials t...

Legendary Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez tells all in this gripping sports memoir and New York Times bestseller.Keith Hernandez revolutionized the role of first baseman. During his illustrious career with the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets, he was a perennial fan favorite, earning eleven consecutive Gold Gloves, a National League co-MVP Award, and a batting title. But it was his unique blend of intelligence, humor, and talen...

In this unique gallery book, historical shots of people, cars, events, tracks, shops, and other NASCAR landmarks are paired with comparable modern shots to present a fascinating review of America's top motorsport. See what Darlington looked like when it was built in 1950 compared to what it looks like now. Get a real sense of how pit stops have changed between 1949 and today. Compare a Ford stock car from 1962 with one from 2009. Nowhere else can NASCAR fans so graphically trace the evolut...

In The ESPN Mighty Book of Sports Knowledge, Steve Wulf, acclaimed author and founding editor of ESPN The Magazine, delivers an arena’s worth of sporting wisdom, trivia, best-of lists, curiosities, legendary feats, and sacred objects–from the magic of Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech to the lore of hockey’s Stanley Cup to the art of the perfectly thrown Wiffle Ball pitch. Written to remind us all why we love the games, this indispensable reference features contributio...

"In Indianapolis . . . racing is religion. The Speedway is our temple. That's the best way I can explain my worship for Indianapolis." --Mario Andretti, racing legendOfficially licensed in cooperation with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway: 100 Years of Racing tells the compelling story of the most renowned racing venue in the world, capturing moments, big and small, that mark the Speedway's first century and spotlight the people who mad...

A gloriously funny, nostalgic memoir of a popular ESPN reporter who, in the summer of 1994, was a fresh-out-of-college intern for a minor league baseball team. Madness and charm ensue as Ryan McGee spends the season steeped in sweat, fertilizer, nacho cheese sauce, and pure, unadulterated joy in North Carolina with the Asheville Tourists."A sweet and funny book that reminds us it’s not just the game itself that draws us. It’s also the people." —Tom Verducci...

From dealing with the cantankerous and cheapskate owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs to hosting radio hotline shows to anchoring a revolutionary late-night program, Sportsline, Mark Hebscher finally tells the unheard stories from his 45 years in the bizarre business of sports broadcasting.How would you react if hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky sweated all over your dress pants during a live TV interview? What if heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks threaten...