The Scandals of 1926, Babe Ruth, and the Unlikely Savior Who Rescued a T
Baseball at the Abyss is the story of one of baseball's darkest days and how innovative, behind-the-scenes work of the first-ever player agent pushed the game's greatest player to a history making season, one which rescued a tarnished game.
The 50 Greatest Players in Braves History examines the careers of the 50 men who made the greatest impact on one of Major League Baseball's oldest and most iconic franchises. Quotes from opposing players and former teammates are provided along the way, as are summaries of each player's greatest season, most memorable performances, and most notable ......
Baseball and America in the Groundbreaking Year of 1966
This book offers a unique look at a pivotal year in American history, tracing the significant events of 1966 by using the baseball season as its narrative arc, but also examining the Space Race, television, film, politics, music, and more.
The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter
The Black Athlete Revolt is the first book to take a historical and contemporary look at how Black athletes have used their influence to move beyond protests and create substantial change for Black Americans. Spanning from the civil rights movement to today, this book reveals the ever-evolving and important role of Black athlete activism.
The Untold History of Females Who Changed Sports and the World
A Women's History of Sport and Society is an unapologetically new historical review that walks readers through the timeline of women and their fight for equality through the lens of sports, featuring some of the most exciting individuals never profiled in American history classes.
This book tells the incredible stories of a special group of athletes, unheralded men and women of color who broke barriers for those that followed, including Pumpsie Green, the first Black player for the Red Sox; Alice Coachman, the first Black woman to win Olympic gold; Sammy Lee, the great Asian American diver who won Olympic gold, and more.
African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games
This book chronicles the struggles and triumphs of African American athletes in the Modern Olympic Games, from 1896 through the 2020 Tokyo Games. It explores the lives and careers of both legendary and little-known Black Olympians as they sought to honor themselves, their race, and their nation on the world stage.
"This is one of the very best baseball books in years." Booklist, Starred Review * Most baseball players will never reach the major leagues-and for those that do, there are a select few that play in just one major league game. This book features the stories of 11 of those players and their struggles to reach the major leagues.
Hockey's Hidden Gods is the incredible true story of the U.S. Paralympic sled hockey team that overcame personal hardships to win gold. The moving stories of the individual players, told through original interviews with the author, bring to life this uplifting and little-known piece of sports history.
This book covers the entirety of franchise history, from their birth and struggles as the Highlanders to the bludgeoning bats of Murderer's Row and the first Yankees dynasty to the juggernauts of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, to the anomalous mediocrity that followed, to the championships and circus of the Steinbrenner, Jackson and Billy ......
This collection of timeless baseball stories can be read again and again for its poignancy, humor, and celebration of the national pastime, whether it be John Roseboro forgiving Juan Marichal for clubbing him in the head with a bat, Elston Howard integrating the Yankees, or baseball played on snowshoes in a remote Wisconsin town.
This book is the first complete history of swimming that looks at multiple aspects of the sport, including the top swimmers, major moments, controversies, developments, innovations, and more. Leading up to the 2020/2021 Olympic Games, it is the most up-to-date resource on competitive swimming.
Players, Managers, Sportswriters, and Celebrity Fans Talk about Their Lo
This inspirational keepsake for lovers of the game of baseball will contain quotes, quips, memories, and milestones from 100 years of baseball in America. Organized in sections on the great players, the dynasties, incredible individual performances, and even the experience of going to the ballpark, it will celebrate the sport from many voices and ......
How Larry Bird and the 1984 Boston Celtics Conquered the NBA and Changed
A historic look at the fabled 1983-84 Boston Celtics and an unforgettable season. Ronald Reagan declares the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. The Apple Macintosh personal computer makes its debut. Michael Jackson's Thriller album dominates the pop charts. And Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics capture the NBA championship over Magic Johnson, Kareem ......
The remarkable autobiography of Lou Vairo, the "Godfather of Hockey," who helped to propel the game to unprecedented heights in the United States. Lou Vairo's impact on hockey in the US is unparalleled. He's been involved in the sport for over six decades, instilling an innovative style and mindset at all levels of the game. His life is an epic ......
The captivating biography of Abe Saperstein, creator of the Harlem Globetrotters The original Harlem Globetrotters weren't from Harlem, and they didn't start out as globetrotters. The talented all-Black team, started by Jewish immigrant Abe Saperstein, was from Chicago's South Side and toured the Midwest in Saperstein's model-T. But with ......
Timeless and Compelling Tales of Our National Game
As abundant and layered as the National Pastime itself, Baseball Stories takes the reader on a rich journey that circles the bases of the game's history and literature--its Giants, its dramas, its tragedies, and its laughs--as it rolls through the typewriters of some of the game's mightiest scribes, from Walt Whitman and Mark Twain to Grantland ......
The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the ......
The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the ......
Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport explores the historical role of sport in the prescription for mental and physical health through the epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological disorder that afflicted American society throughout the latter nineteenth century. Gerald R. Gems argues that the practice of sport and sport ......
The tales of early ESPN people who gambled their careers while critics carped that "all-sports television will never work" are full of guile, luck, fear, fun, and unbridled optimism. As ESPN's founding executive producer, Peter Fox was privy to some spectacular professional efforts by a cadre of Connecticut locals who made the dream real. The ......
A fascinating history of the Super Bowl and its massive impact on the sports world and beyond.
The Super Bowl has changed what was just another wintry Sunday into America’s unofficial holiday. It’s the biggest entertainment event of the year. It’s the most important advertising event of the year. It is the biggest ......
What - you may ask is the point of an English perspective on French sport? In David Owen's own words, "you might just as well seek out a sea otter's take on kabuki". Nevertheless, having lived upwards of ten per cent of his life in France, and a lot more than that immersed in French grammar, current affairs and culture, he offers exactly that in ......
The Olympic Games are unique. Nothing in world society, culture and sport matches the magnificent spectacle every four years of more than 10,500 sportsmen and woman pursuing the dream of gold medal glory. The original Olympics, more than 2,000 years ago, were confined to ancient Greece. Today's stars compete in front of a worldwide audience ......
The Olympic Games are unique. Nothing in world society, culture and sport matches the magnificent spectacle every four years of more than 10,500 athletes pursuing the dream of gold medal glory. The original Olympics, more than 2,000 years ago, were confined to ancient Greece. Today's stars compete in front of a worldwide audience measured in ......
How Tom Matte's Memorable 1965 Season Highlighted a Remarkable NFL Caree
An intimate look at the career of Baltimore Colts' running back Tom Matte and his infamous stint as an emergency quarterback. In 1965, Colts' running back Tom Matte became the first emergency quarterback in NFL history when both the legendary Johnny Unitas and his backup were hurt in consecutive weeks late in the season. Wearing a wristband to ......
The San Francisco 49ers have one of the best records in NFL history, with 20 division championships, seven conference titles, and five Super Bowl championships. On a team with outstanding talent each year, who among its past and present players could be ranked as the 50 greatest? Who would occupy the coveted #1 spot? Jerry Rice? Ronnie Lott? Joe ......
A fascinating look at the rise of the SEC from a regional league to today's dominant college football conference. The story of the Southeastern Conference has humble origins. Born in a Knoxville hotel in 1932 after splitting away from another league, the SEC was built by southern gridiron pioneers who believed football could bring prominence and ......
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport's early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle ......
Sport often mirrored the racial climate of the time, but it also informed and encouraged equality on and off the field. In Boston, the Black athletic body historically represented a challenge to the city's liberal image. Boston's Black Athletes: Identity, Performance, and Activism interprets Boston's contested racial history through the diverse ......
Sports and Black Struggles for Justice Since the Late Nineteenth Century
A captivating exploration of Black American civil rights activism through the lens of sport. In Frontline Bodies, Nicolas Martin-Breteau argues that sports are not--and have never been--purely about entertainment for Black Americans. Instead, beginning in the 1890s during Reconstruction, Black Americans proactively used athletics as a tactic to ......
A timely exploration of modern women's boxing, from its first inclusion in the 2012 Olympics to today, featuring such trailblazers as Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields, and more. On April 30th, 2022, the first boxing super-fight of the era, headlined by two women and fought at Madison Square Garden, lived up to its hype and then ......
Indianapolis Auto Racing and the Making of Modern America
How a speedway became a legendary sports site and sparked America's car culture The 1909 opening of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway marked a foundational moment in the history of automotive racing. Events at the famed track and others like it also helped launch America's love affair with cars and an embrace of road systems that transformed cities ......
Postwar Baseball, the Spokane Indians, and a Tragic Bus Crash That Chang
The story of one of the most significant and overlooked seasons in professional baseball, told through the travails of the Spokane Indians. On June 24, 1946, a bus carrying the Spokane Indians minor league baseball team crashed to the bottom of a deep ravine in Washington state, killing nine players. To this day, it remains the deadliest ......
Cycling emerged as a sport in the late 1870s, and from the beginning, Black Americans rode alongside and raced against white competitors. Robert J. Turpin sheds light on the contributions of Black cyclists from the sport's early days through the cementing of Jim Crow laws during the Progressive Era. As Turpin shows, Black cyclists used the bicycle ......
Any true baseball fan has heard the famous World Series stories about Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Bill Mazeroski's Series-ending home run in 1960, and Bill Buckner's blunder to end Game 6 of the 1986 Series. Many fans, however, may not be aware of other less well-known but equally engaging stories about the Fall Classic. ......