From suburban Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to the center of metropolitan Boston, the author takes the reader through the mile-by-mile sights and sounds experienced by the runners, past and present. For this new edition, author and lifetime Bostonian Michael Connelly conducts interviews with runners of the 2013 Marathon and those preparing to run in 2014 – which will prove to be the Marathon’s most historic, celebrated, and highly attended. While still containing the wonderful trivia, history, and traditions from the original edition, this updated edition will bring a wider point of view, weaving in the shocking events surrounding the 2013 race, the aftermath, and Boston’s resilience and commitment to make the 2014 race something special.

    I couldn’t put it down.” —Billy BeaneThe astonishing untold story of the people who transformed sports, in the span of a single generation, from a job that required top athletes to work in the off-season to make ends meet into a massive global business.In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of higher salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season. Roger Staubach, for example, made only $25,000 in his first season as the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and wound up selling commercial real estate during the summer. Today, when Fortune reports that every athlete on its Top 50 list makes more than twenty million dollar per year, it’s clear that a complete reversal of power has occurred right before our eyes.Players is the first book to tell the astonishing narrative behind the creation of the modern sports business—a true revolution that moved athletes from the bottom of the financial pyramid to the top. It started in 1960, when a young Cleveland lawyer named Mark McCormack convinced a young golfer named Arnold Palmer to sign with him. McCormack simply believed that the best athletes had more commercial value than they realized—and he was right. Before long, he raised Palmer’s annual off-the-course income from $5,000 to $500,000 and forever changed the landscape of the sports world.In Players, veteran Wall Street Journal sports reporter Matthew Futterman introduces a wide-ranging cast of characters to tell the story of the athletes, agents, TV executives, and league officials who together created the dominating and multifaceted sports industry we know today. Beginning with Palmer and McCormack’s historic partnership, Players features details of the landmark moments of sports that have never been revealed before, including how legendary Wide World of Sports producer Roone Arledge realized that the way to win viewers was to blend sports and human drama; the 1973 Wimbledon boycott, when eighty-one of the top tennis players in the world protested the suspension of Nikola Pilic; and baseball pitcher Catfish Hunter’s battle to become MLB’s first free agent.Players is a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the creation and rise of the modern sports world and the people who fought to make it happen. From the professionalization of the Olympics to the outsize influence of companies like IMG, Nike, and ESPN, this fascinating book details the wild evolution of sports into the extravaganza we experience today, and the inevitable trade-offs those changes have wrought.

    Captivating characters lead double lives and keep secrets in this award-winning page-turner based on a true story.A cast of shady adults and the high school baseball coaches hate David for trying to save it. They'll do anything to wreck the league so that their elite travel teams can take over its beautiful ball field, even if it means going after David and his family.The harder David battles to save the league, the worse things get. He's in way over his head and he's also stuck in a family catch-22. If he surrenders, he might lose his son's love along with his own self-respect to say nothing of losing baseball for the sandlot kids in town. Yet if he doesn't back down, he'll lose his marriage and his son will lose any chance to play on the high school team.To make things right, underdog David Thompson needs to know when to fold and when to fight. He's being pushed and shoved to his breaking point and only one thing is for sure: If he snaps, he's not planning on taking prisoners.David is on an emotional roller coaster and he can't get off. He's fighting his own civil war as he struggles to make a difference in the town he cherishes without bringing harm to the family he loves.·An Amazon multiple category bestseller.·Gold Winner, Benjamin Franklin Award, 2015 "Best First Book: Fiction."·Silver Winner, Benjamin Franklin Award, 2015 "Best Popular Fiction."·Readers Views, "Best Regional Fiction 2014/2015: Northeast."·Finalist, "Best New Fiction," 2014 USA Best Book Awards.

    Sunday lunchtime kick-offs. Absurd ticket prices. Non-black boots. Football's menu of ills is long. Where has the joy gone? Why do we bother? Saturday, 3pm offers a glorious antidote. It is here to remind you that football can still sing to your heart.Warm, heartfelt and witty, here are fifty short essays of prose poetry dedicated to what is good in the game. These are not wallowing nostalgia; they are things that remain sweet and right: seeing a ground from the train, brackets on vidiprinters, ball hitting bar, Jimmy Armfield's voice, listening to the results in a traffic jam, football towns and autograph-hunters. This is fan culture at its finest, words to transport you somewhere else and identify with, words to hide away in a pub and luxuriate in.Saturday, 3pm is a book of love letters to football and a clarion call, helping us find the romance in the game all over again.