Waited for a team that could end the longest title drought on any city in America that fields teams in all four major professional sports. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash a quarter-century of pent-up frustration. And then these '08 Phillies hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen. Unlike so many Phillies teams that were haunted by the past, this team was inspired by it, by the chance to place its own inimitable stamp on the franchise. And as the 2 million people who attended their championship parade can attest, it was Worth the Wait.

    

    But whether you want to shoot squirrels, punch holes in paper targets, or defend your home, there is only one path to achieving consistent accuracy with a handgun: mastering the fundamentals of marksmanship. Written by a former U.S. Marine Corps firearms instructor who has taught more than a thousand law enforcement, military, and security personnel, The Perfect Pistol Shot uses succinct lessons, uncommon exercises, and real-world stories to provide a fresh look at a vital topic for all gunmen. It includes: The single most important "trick" to perfecting handgun marksmanship A simple concept for learning how to shoot a gun twice as fast A series of unique "Prove It" exercises that allow you to test the concepts offered without the pressure of actual shooting An entertaining chapter on guns, gun magazines, and gun gurus that will help you make wiser choices about your training Knowing how to engage targets is valuable for the defensive shooter, but if "engaging" doesn't translate into "hitting," what's the point? You must have a solid foundation on which to build tactical skills. Your reward will be conversion from just another hapless shooter into an independent marksman.

         Ronan O'Gara has been at the heart of Munster and Irish rugby for the past fifteen years. Now, as he comes to the end of a glittering playing career, it is time for him to reflect on those many successes and occasional failures with the straight-talking attitude that has become his trademark. Never one to shy away from the truth, the result is Ronan O'Gara: Unguarded.     Packed full of anecdotes and analysis of the teammates O'Gara has been proud to share the shirt with, and of the coaches he has played under -- often in controversial circumstances -- this is the definitive record of an era when Munster rose to triumph in Europe, and Ireland to win the Grand Slam, before crashing down to earth again. It is simply the must-have rugby book of the year.

    With the insight that helped him bring the best out of personalities as different as Freddie Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Steve Harmison, the winner of a record 26 Tests as England captain shares his views on the state of cricket today and gives a frank assessment of fellow players, coaches and administrators. He concludes with praise for the achievements of the 2009 Ashes-winning England team. Entertaining, forthright and surprisingly candid, Time to Declare is essential reading for all cricket lovers -- the definitive account of the career of one of the modern game's most influential characters.

    You will learn and understand the effects total calories, types of calories and exercise exert on body fat loss and body fat inhibition. The author covers 8 important topics in 11 chapters. The topics include: *Physiology of Weight Loss *Calories *Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat *Fat Storing Foods *Hormones *Drugs *Diets *Exercise

    This biography traces his life from a classic Australian childhood in the suburbs of Brisbane to the glory of captaining the World Cup winning Wallabies.

    But ‘Mr Indestructible’ – who had become the first Australian to win the Rock of Roubaix earlier that year – got back on his bike.By 2013 Stuart O’Grady had competed in 17 Tours; secured Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals; been named Australian Cyclist of the Year, and Australian Male Road Cyclist of the Year; won the inaugural Tour Down Under; and earned an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the sport. But then came the worst time of his life, when he announced his retirement after such an impressive cycling career and revealed that he had used the performance enhancing drug EPO before the 1998 Tour de France – a Tour marred by widespread doping.In this up-front and honest autobiography Stuey reveals all. This is his story: as candid and down-to-earth as the man himself.

    The story of Jordan's departure from and return to the Chicago Bulls describes his anguish over his father's death and his attempts to succeed in major league baseball.

    Y’know, it's not within the spirit of the game.’ Steve Smith was not to know it at Cape Town on 24 March 2018, but he was addressing his last press conference as captain of the Australian cricket team. By the next day morning he would be swept from office by a tsunami of public indignation involving even the prime minister. In a unique admission, Smith confessed to condoning a policy of sandpapering the cricket ball in a Test against South Africa. He, the instigator David Warner and their agent Cameron Bancroft returned home to disgrace and to lengthy bans. The crisis plunged Australian cricket into a bout of unprecedented soul searching, with Cricket Australia yielding to demands for reviews of the cricket team and of itself to restore confidence in their ‘culture’. In Crossing the Line, Gideon Haigh conducts his own cultural review – ‘less official and far cheaper but genuinely independent’. Studying the cricket team across a decade of radical change, he finds an accident waiting to happen, and a system struggling to cope with self-created challenges, on the field and in the boardroom. And he wonders: is there even any longer a spirit of the game to be within? Crossing the Line is the first instalment in Slattery Media Group’s Sports Shorts collection, a new series of sports essays published as small-format books. Sports Shorts has been created as a home for ambitious, lively and engaging writing and journalism on sport—work of a scale and scope not suited to the confines of day-to-day journalism. Every instalment will illuminate or entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

    S. hockey team’s victory at the 1980 Olympics was a “Miracle on Ice”--a miracle largely brought about by the late Herb Brooks, the legendary coach who forged that invincible team. Famously antagonistic toward the press at Lake Placid, Brooks nonetheless turned to sportswriter John Gilbert after each game, giving his longtime friend and confidant what became the most comprehensive coverage of the ’80 team. This book is Gilbert’s memoir of Brooks. Neither strictly biography or tell-all exposé, Herb Brooks: Born to Coach is the story of an extraordinary man as it emerged in the course of a remarkable friendship.Gilbert, writing for the Minneapolis Tribune, first met Brooks during his coaching days at the University of Minnesota, whose hockey program he resurrected in the 1970’s. The two became fast friends, and here, for the first time, Gilbert relates anecdotes--his own and former players’--that illuminate Brooks’ oftentimes hard-nosed coaching methods, his dramatic successes, and his incomparable character. From Brooks’ beginnings in East St. Paul and his stint with the 1960 gold medal-winning Olympic team (from which he was famously the last player cut), Gilbert goes on to dissect the coach’s tenure with the Gophers (including three national titles) and the Lake Placid story, from the selection process and yearlong barnstorming tour to the Games themselves. Throughout this and later chapters of Brooks’ career--including coaching turns with St. Cloud State University, four NHL teams, and the 2002 U.S. Olympic squad--readers are treated to impossibly colorful quotes, rare photographs from Brooks’ playing and coaching careers, and pertinent sidebar pieces that originally appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune.

    Despite the frustrating on-field inconsistencies of this towering talent, and the messy and very public off-field personal troubles that have tracked him through the years, Herschelle remains one of South African cricket's best-loved sons. In his own, very frank, words, Herschelle Gibbs chronicles the ups and downs of his personal and professional life, and describes what it's been like to be part of the Proteas set-up for the past fourteen years, through the controversies of its various captains, coaches and administrators. "To the Point" is, of course, a spicy story of excess - women, alcohol, money...and plenty of runs - but underlying it all is a warm and generous man who wears his heart on his sleeve.

    And yet, when golf historians write about the legends of the game, with special attention paid to the above-listed "Big Three," his name is often left out of the discussion, or is at best an afterthought. In this fascinating autobiography, Casper tells his life story, shining candid insight into the man who quietly collected fifty-one PGA Tour victories, the seventh highest total in history.

     One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, Learning to Breathe Fire combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die.  The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals.  In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that  cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. From the Hardcover edition.

    Packing his collection of football programmes (1,134 of them -- football fans are sticklers for statistics), Dave is aghast to be informed that the programmes do not fall into that category. He must whittle down his treasured archive to only what will fit inside a Tupperware container the size of a Dan Brown hardback. 32 Programmes tells the story of how Dave made the selection of his most important programmes, and how the process brought back a flood of nostalgia for simpler times. As the sights, sounds and smells of those 1,134 football matches return, the choices Dave makes reflect the twists and turns that life takes. Finally, with just hours to go before the flight, the container is full to the brim. One more programme will be added to the collection - one that Dave never thought he would see and which means more to him than any other. 32 Programmes is the story of youthful football obsession, crushes on disinterested girls, rubbish jobs and trying to impress skinheads. But most of all, it is the story of a man's life and loves, of family, friends and football.