He ended up staying the entire summer, becoming part of the players’ lives, and eventually the coach of a loose aggregation known as the Subway Stars. Telander tells of everything he saw: the on-court flash, the off-court jargon, the late-night graffiti raids, the tireless efforts of one promoter-hustler-benefactor to get these kids a chance at a college education. He lets the kids speak for themselves, revealing their grand dreams and ambitions, but he never flinches from showing us how far their dreams are from reality. The roots of today’s inner-city basketball can be traced to the world Telander presents in Heaven Is a Playground, the first book of its kind.

    We see Bradley and his fellow Knicks as they withstand the abuse of the press and the smothering adoration of their fans, along with the shameless appeals of those who want to parlay their celebrity into a fast buck. We watch in horror as Earl Monroe is beaten outside Madison Square Garden barely an hour after twenty thousand people cheered him. And we come to understand the euphoria and exhaustion, the icy concentration and intense pressure, that are felt only by those who play basketball for keeps.

    No superlatives are equal to the Boston Celtics of the 1960s. From 1959 to 1966 they won championship after championship, an eight-in-a-row streak that outshines any other in American sports. Led by coach Red Auerbach, center Bill Russell, and point guard Bob Cousy, they played a kind of basketball that seemed to come from an earlier era. Auerbach’s Celtics played clean, honest, and strong, winning time and again by working as a team in a sport that is too often dominated by superstars. This book is a season-by-season history of their dynasty, covering thirteen years of breathtaking success—a level of brilliance that may never be reached again.

    Here is the exciting story of baseball during and after World War II—when clubs still traveled by train, when night games and artificial lighting began to replace hot afternoons at the ball park, when the major leagues finally took on the talent that had been restricted to the Negro leagues, and when baseball started to become big business. In this companion volume to Baseball When the Grass Was Real, also available as a Bison Book, Donald Honig collects the reminiscences of nineteen players, including Robin Roberts, Raph Kiner, and Enos Slaughter, who lay their careers on the line and also talk about the likes of Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, and Ted Williams.

    I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original.

    A sportswriter by trade, Lardner was widely known for his superb ear for the regional peculiarities of speech and notoriously loved for his humor. A must for anyone interested in classic American fiction, Some Champions shares many of Lardner’s classic tales focused on the quirks and pathos of human beings, including their daily turmoils and small triumphs.

    Rich Benyo writes in his new Foreword to Joe Henderson#x2019;s 1976 book, Long Run Solution: #x201c;In all the excitement, one of the best running books of its generation was overshadowed, overwhelmed and overlooked.#x201d; Benyo, editor of Marathon Beyond magazine, now pick this as his #x201c;favorite book of the running revolution#x2026; There isn#x2019;t a five-year period in which I don#x2019;t pick up Long Run Solution and read it again, both to bring back the energizing effect of validating long-distance running as an adult pursuit and as an antidote to a too-pressured, too-stressed life#x2026; Today#x2019;s long-distance runner, enjoying this simple little sport and lifestyle, can learn much from this simple little book.#x201d;In his updated Introduction, Joe Henderson names Long Run Solution as his own favorite book of the two dozen he has published: #x201c;This book is my clearest statement of how I feel about running. Much of what I#x2019;ve written since is touched on here, and most of these feelings have changed little in the meantime#x2026; Naming LRS as my favorite book might sound like a knock on the 15 or so books that followed, but it really isn#x2019;t. They served purposes, just as races do after the last personal record is set. There is value #x2013; even a certain nobility #x2013; in keeping going after we#x2019;ve peaked. Which is the message of the book: Do what it takes to run long, not in miles but in years and decades.#x201d;A simple, sample statement from the original book, available again in this electronic reissue: #x201c;The challenge of running is not to aim at doing the things no one else has done, but to keep doing things anyone could do #x2013; but most never will. It#x2019;s harder sometimes to keep going back over the same ground you#x2019;ve covered a thousand times before than to go someplace you#x2019;ve never been. It#x2019;s harder to get down to the little, everyday tasks than to get up for the big, special ones.#x201d;

    More than 150 amusing and amazing stories about the real world of sports--from football to flagpole sitting.

    

    Donald Hall's forceful, yet elegant, prose brings together all the elements of Dock Ellis's story into a seamless whole.  The two of them, the pitcher and the poet, give us remarkable insight into the customs and culture of this closed clannish world.  Dock's keen vision, filtered through Hall's extraordinary voice, shows us the hardships and problems of the thinking athlete in an unthinking world.

    It features history, comprehensive analysis, and advice on playing the difficult holes for the globe's 75 most important courses. The gazetteer section covers an additional 110 courses from over 40 countries. The detailed illustrations and photos of the great players really put the reader on the green.