Book picks similar to
Nolan Ryan The Ryan Express by Ken Rappoport
biographies
nonfiction-historical-fiction
sports
A Season in Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands
Lorne Rubenstein - 2001
A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, "It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch." If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill. Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He found a people shaped by the harshness of the land and the difficulty of drawing a living from it, and still haunted by a historic wrong inflicted on their ancestors nearly two centuries before. Rubenstein met many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two. And as he explored the empty, rugged landscape, he came to understand the ways in which the thorny, quarrelsome qualities of the game of golf reflect the values, character, and history of the people who brought it into the world. A Season in Dornoch is both the story of one man's immersion in the game of golf and an exploration of the world from which it emerged. Part travelogue, part portraiture, part good old-fashioned tale of matches played and friendships made, it takes us on an unforgettable journey to a marvelous, moody, mystical place.
Ryan Giggs: My Life, My Story
Ryan Giggs - 2011
Here, he recalls the glorious memories of his record-breaking career at Manchester United, as well as highlights from his international career with Wales. Giggsy's words bring 20 seasons of pictures to life, as the most decorated player in English football history relives 11 Premier League wins, four FA Cup successes, three League Cup winner's medals, and two Champions League victories, and remembers the people who have helped to make him a true sporting great.
Laker Girl
Jeanie Buss - 2010
Yet despite all the championship banners the team has put on the walls of Staples Center, and despite all the books the Lakers have put on the shelves of fans - featuring everybody from Jerry West to Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Phil Jackson to Chick Hearn - there has never been a book on the Lakers from the Buss family. Until now. Until Laker Girl.
Fighter
Andy Lee - 2018
Leaving home for the dust and faded glamour of Detroit, over the next ten years, under the guidance of the legendary Emamuel Steward, he set about honing his craft, winning fight after fight and slowly climbing the professional ranks.Then, in 2012, his star ascendant, Lee suffered two devastating blows in quick succession: defeat in his first World Championship bout and the sudden loss of Steward, his guide and confidant. Bereft, his career in jeopardy, the path to redemption would test every hard-won lesson of the previous decade …Fighter is a lyrical and philosophical memoir about resilience, bravery and the wisdom to be found at the limits of human experience.
I'm Sorry, I Love You: A History of Professional Wrestling
Jim Smallman - 2018
Andy Murray, Champion: The Full Extraordinary Story
Mark Hodgkinson - 2012
After four previous defeats in Grand Slam finals, Murray had finally achieved what no British man had managed since the 1930s. But the story of how he got there was just as compelling as the final itself, with as many twists and turns along the way. Writer Mark Hodgkinson has been covering that story since the start - he was actually the first person to interview Murray for a national newspaper back in 2004, and has worked closely with Judy Murray in the past. In Andy Murray: Champion, Hodgkinson explains how Murray first emerged as a tennis player of true quality, and how his rivalry with his brother Jamie spurred him on. He looks at the close relationship Murray has with his mother, and the various coaches who haved worked with him to assess their influence on his game. In a hugely competitive era of tennis, with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all counted to be among the greatest tennis players of all time, Murray has earned the right to be ranked alongside them all - and this book explains how and why he has done so, becoming a true national sporting icon in the process.
Wide Open: A Life in Supercross
Jeremy McGrath - 2004
Supercross started out as a redneck '70s sideshow, but thanks largely to Jeremy McGrath it has become a massive extreme sport. Over the last three years, AMA Supercross attendance has mushroomed from 700,000 spectators a year to 1.5 million. This book will satisfy even the most hardcore fans, as it not only gives you the life and times of Jeremy McGrath, but acts as the calling card to the entire sport by including unique sections on how to become a Supercross racer, the workout regimes, fixing common bike problems, and more.
Run Yourself Skinny: Lose Weight Fast Without Dieting!
Michael Thomas - 2012
Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead
Jim Valvano - 1991
2 cassettes.
The Grim Reaper: The Life and Career of a Reluctant Warrior
Stu Grimson - 2019
They all grew up dreaming of skating in the big league as stars. Then one day, a coach tells them the only way to make it is to drop the gloves. And every guy says the same thing: I'll do whatever it takes to play in the NHL.Not Stu Grimson, though. When he was offered a contract to patrol the ice for the Calgary Flames, he said no thanks, and went to university instead. And that's the way Grimson has approached his career and his life: on his own terms. He stared down the toughest players on the planet for seventeen years, while working on his first university degree. He retired on his own terms, and went on to practice law, including a stint as in-house counsel for the NHLPA.This has put him in a unique position when it comes to commenting on the game. He's seen it from the trenches, and he's seen it from the courtroom. This puts him in the eye of the storm surrounding fighting and concussions. And he handles that the way he does everything: on his own terms. When Don Cherry called him out on televison, it was the seemingly indominable Cherry who backed down. Hockey fans will be fascinated by his data-driven defence of fighting.But in the end, this is not a book about fighting and locker-room stories. It's the story of a young man who ultimately took on the toughest role in pro sports and came out the other side. Where many others have not.
Yeah Buddy!: My Incredible Story!
Ronnie Coleman - 2019
Olympia title eight times, and for lifting every heavyweight in existence (including an 800-pound squat for two easy reps), Ronnie Coleman came from humble beginnings. Born in rural Louisiana to a single mother, Ronnie rose from poverty to achieve his lifelong goal of becoming the best bodybuilder in history. In the process, he learned about life, victory, triumph, defeat, hard work, determination, discipline, glory, and adversity. In this book, Ronnie tells us the story of his life, from his perspective, all the way from childhood to the present. He covers, in great detail, all aspects of his journey, from his eight Olympias and his quest to become a muscleman, to the difficult years working at a fast-food restaurant, to his love life, to the birth of his daughters, to the relationship with his mother, the rise of his supplement brand, to his back problems, and everything in between. With insights from bodybuilding legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney, Jay Cutler, Phil Heath, Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, and many others, Ronnie holds nothing back and truly exposes his life in a way he was never done before.
Novak Djokovic: The sporting statesman and the rise of Serbia
Chris Bowers - 2014
Not an easy job, given the lingering resonance of Serbia's role in the 1990s Yugoslav wars in the world’s news bulletins. To this day, the words "Serbia" and "atrocities" are linked in the minds of many. This study of both Djokovic and Serbia paints two powerful portraits. It traces the story of the boy from modest surroundings, telling how he met the woman who not only taught him tennis but how to deal with life as a high-profile icon, charts his battle with illness and his relationship with a volatile father, and how his on-court accomplishments have made his country proud. But it also tells the story of Serbia, pulling no punches about its role in the 1990s wars but offering a sensitive interpretation of the hopes and aspirations of a people with a troubled past. This book weaves together these sporting and geo political strands to present a sensitive portrait of a man and his people, and how determination married with sensitivity can create a sporting statesman.
Things I've Learned from Watching the Browns
Terry Pluto - 2010
In his latest tome, he bares his chest about why C-Town's football faithful can't give up on their hometown favorites. (P.S. Not to rub it in, but over the last seven seasons, the Brownies record has been 38-74. Now that's true fan love.)
The Sure Thing: The Greatest Coup in Horse Racing History
Nick Townsend - 2013
But one man has been proving them wrong for four decades. In the summer of 1975 Barney Curley, a fearless and renowned gambler, masterminded one of the most spectacular gambles of all time with a racehorse called Yellow Sam. It cost the bookmakers millions of pounds. They said that it could never happen again. But in May 2010, thirty-five years after his first coup, Curley staged the ultimate multimillion pound-winning sequel.The Sure Thing tells the complete story of how he managed to organise the biggest gamble in racing history – and how he then followed up with yet another audacious scheme in January 2014.
What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?: A Remembrance
Richard Ben Cramer - 2002
Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed biographer of Joe DiMaggio, decodes this oversized icon who dominated the game and finds not just a great player, but also a great man. In 1986, Richard Ben Cramer spent months on a profile of Ted Williams, and the result was the Esquire article that has been acclaimed ever since as one of the finest pieces of sports reporting ever written. Given special acknowledgment in The Best American Sportswriting of the Century and adapted for a coffee-table book called Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid, the original piece is now available in this special edition, with new material about Williams' later years. While his decades after Fenway Park were out of the spotlight -- the way Ted preferred it -- they were arguably his richest, as he loved and inspired his family, his fans, the players, and the game itself. This is a remembrance for the ages.