Book picks similar to
Always a Bulldog: Players, Coaches, and Fans Share Their Passion for Georgia Football by Tony Barnhart
college
favorites
grad-reads
sports
Life Is Yours to Win: Lessons Forged from the Purpose, Passion, and Magic of Baseball
Augie Garrido - 2011
He is also the winner of more National Coach of the Year awards than any other college coach. Garrido’s former teams at Cal State Fullerton and, more recently, at the University of Texas together have compiled a total of five College World Series championships under his leadership. But despite his unmatched record as a winner, Coach Garrido is not a win-at-all-costs coach. He teaches his players to focus on developing character, being good teammates, mastering all facets of the game, and playing with joy in the moment rather than focusing on the scoreboard. Augie teaches that the challenges faced in the batter’s box or on the pitcher’s mound are universal—and that the lessons learned on the diamond are applicable off the field, too. Life Is Yours to Win follows the coach’s journey of self-discovery and his evolution from being driven by fear to being motivated by passion. His unique and compelling book offers this revered leader’s philosophy on life and his thoughtful approach to helping young men understand both who they are and how they can be successful in their work, their relationships, and their communities. Every individual will find advice worth following including: •BE A PLAYER, NOT A PROSPECT—If you want to be considered a star in your field, whatever that may be, you need to be fully engaged. Augie once had his Labrador retriever demonstrate the joy of play to a team that needed a reminder of why they loved baseball as children. •STEP UP, SUPERMAN—Augie stages a costumed Superhero Scrimmage each Halloween to remind his players that their inner superhero is just waiting for the perfect moment when preparation meets opportunity, potential is fulfilled, and destiny is realized. •THE FEARLESS FIELD—To be successful in the often cruel game of baseball, players must master fear and other emotions so they are energized rather than paralyzed. Augie once rented a hearse and placed a casket on the pitcher’s mound to help a slumping Cal State Fullerton team bury their fears and put losses behind them. •BUDDHA AT BAT—Bunting and other “small ball” skills are not as glorified as home runs and big plays, but Coach Garrido’s teams are known for putting players in scoring position and winning games by following a Zen-like philosophy of claiming small victories during each at bat, in each inning that add up to winning records. Augie’s coaching methods are unconventional, but his creativity and wry humor provide masterful life lessons. His insights will help you both on and off the field by providing fresh approaches to conquering fears, living with joy and passion in each moment, establishing personal principles, and appreciating the value of both losing and winning. This is a book by a beloved college coach but it is packed with Major League insights and anecdotes featuring many of baseball’s greatest players and most inspiring spirits. Life Is Yours to Win will appeal to anyone who appreciates the wisdom of a proven winner in sports and in life.
Birth of a Dynasty: Behind the Pinstripes with the 1996 Yankees
Joel Sherman - 2006
Teeming with revelations and glorious memories, Birth of a Dynasty celebrates the unforgettable 1996 Yankees season: the season that began one of the most respected team dynasties in sports history. Veteran New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, who has spent more time with the Bronx Bombers in the past 15 years than any other writer, draws on hundreds of interviews and years of on-the-spot reporting to re-create one of the Yankees' greatest years.
Unbreakable
Jennifer Lazaris - 2016
Losing both of my parents in a tragic accident ripped that world apart. And I'd fallen hard for tomboy Emmy Sullinger, the girl who'd put me back together again. The problem is that the story doesn't end there—it's just getting started. Because Emmy, the girl I'm completely crazy about, is my best friend Sully's little sister. Sully's not only my best friend, he's also my teammate—and there are lines you just don't cross. Going after your best friend's sister is one of them. So I've kept my feelings—and my hands—to myself for the last three years. After all, making a play for her would result in the biggest penalty I could ever take. With Emmy away and attending University in New York City, being tempted by her hasn't been an issue. But when she comes home to Toronto for summer vacation looking sexy as hell—and suggests we hook up? Damn. I just know I'm going to end up in the penalty box…
Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club
Jon Spurling - 2003
But what has never been written before is the equally remarkable history of Arsenal's rebels, both on and off the pitch. Spanning almost 120 years, and set against a backdrop of turbulent social and political change, Rebels for the Cause assesses the legacy and impact of Arsenal's most controversial players, officials and matches. From hard men like '30s player Wilf Copping to the reformed wild ones of recent years such as Tony Adams, Jon Spurling highlights the infamous figures whose refusal to conform has made them terrace legends. Mavericks such as '80s star Charlie Nicholas and the 'King of Highbury' Charlie George are here, as are '70s lads Alan Hudson and Malcolm Macdonald. The book also focuses on the club's revolutionary founding fathers, David Danskin and Jack Humble, the terrifying '20s 'soccer Tsar' Sir Henry Norris and David Dein's controversial introduction of free-market economics to Highbury in the regressive '80s. Also investigated are the stories behind Arsenal's most infamous tabloid exposés. Featuring extensive interviews with 15 former players, Rebels for the Cause is an indispensable guide to the alternative history of Arsenal Football Club, shedding new light on the origins of the rivalry with Tottenham, on many of Highbury's cult heroes and on the struggle of several players to adapt to life outside the game.
The Didi Man
Dietmar Hamann - 2012
The foreigner with a Scouse accent. The German who now plays cricket for his local village team. The overseas footballer turned anglophile who fell deeply in love with the city of Liverpool, its people and its eponymous football club.The classy midfielder had a long and distinguished playing career, but it was his seven seasons at Anfield that marked him out forever as a true Liverpool legend. His cult status was secured when he came off the bench at half-time during the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul to inspire his team to a dramatic come-back and spectacular European glory.The Didi Man is Hamann's warm, personal and highly entertaining story of his time on Merseyside at a football club which will always have a very special place in his heart.
Legacy
Tim Cahill - 2015
Born in Sydney to a Samoan mother and Londoner father, Timothy Cahill grew up in the sprawling western suburbs, where cricket and rugby league ruled. It was a long way from his father's beloved West Ham and the English game that transfixed a young Tim with his own unlikely dreams of one day playing professionally.Growing up in the 1980s, life for Tim was about family, football and more football - training, playing and watching it with his brothers. Beginning as the youngest and smallest boy on the field, Tim steadily worked his way through the local club sides with an on-field toughness and intelligence that made the unlikely a possibility.By the time he was a teenager, Tim's parents boldly applied for a bank loan to fund his travels to England. It was an act of faith repaid with a successful trial for Millwall, the storied London club. After 249 appearances and 56 goals and cult-hero status among the fans, he signed for Everton, where he would enjoy a highly successful Premiership and stellar international career - leaving the legacy of becoming one of the most admired and respected Australian sportsmen of all time.With his trademark honesty and candour, Tim reflects on what it takes to make it to the top - the sacrifices, the physical cost, the mental stamina, the uncompromising self-belief, but also the loyalty, the integrity and the generosity. An autobiography that is more than a record of the goals and the games, Tim Cahill's story is a universal reminder of the importance of making your moment count.
Stealing Emma (Nights in Madrid #2)
M.C. Roman - 2014
So when her boyfriend Roy suggests they go to grad school abroad in Spain, she's all for the adventure. New city, new life, new friends. What could possibly go wrong? Max Durant is excited to be back home in Madrid and take a much needed break from his hectic life in London. He was looking forward to a new challenge in school...until it materializes in the feistiest girl he ever met on a basketball court. There's something about her that simply makes his blood boil and he becomes instantly hooked. But then his world comes to a screeching halt when he realizes she's already taken. Despite the obvious warning signs and potential disaster, Emma and Max become close friends when they're forced together as partners in the same study group. When the lines start to blur and things begin to unravel, Emma must decide if she should hold on to her past...or take a risk in her future.
Chasing the Bear: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time
Lars Anderson - 2019
CHASING THE BEAR examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.Bear Bryant and Nick Saban never met, but they have more in common than either of them realize. Both grew up in small towns -- Bryant in Moro Bottom, Arkansas, a dot on the map, and Saban from Monongah, West Virginia, population five hundred. As a child, Saban pumped gas at his father's service station, washing and waxing cars and doing anything he could to help the business. Bryant's father suffered from multiple physical ailments, which forced Bryant to work to keep the family farm going. Both men knew the value of hard work from the time they were young boys, and both understood that there were no shortcuts to success. But both dreamed of escaping their hometowns, and both used football as the means to do so.Separated by two generations, Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are mythic figures linked by a school, a town, and a barroom debate centering on one question: Which is the greatest college coach of all time?
Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football
John U. Bacon - 2019
Bacon has received rare access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising?In the spirit of HBO’s Hardknocks, Overtime delivers a deeply reported human portrait that follows the Wolverine coaches, players, and staffers through the 2018 season, including Harbaugh, offensive stars Shea Patterson and Karan Higdon, NFL-ready defensive standouts Rashan Gary, Devin Bush Jr., and Chase Winovich, second-stringers striving to find their place on the team, and their parents’ reactions to it all. Bacon met with them every week during a season that saw the Wolverines ride a ten-game winning streak to #4 in the nation, then take a beating at the hands of arch-rival Ohio State, led by controversial coach Urban Meyer, Harbaugh’s foil. Overtime also previews the crucial 2019 campaign ahead.Above all, this is a human story. In Overtime we not only discover what these public figures are like behind the scenes, we learn what the experience means to them as they go through it – the trials, the triumphs, and the unexpected answers to a central question: Is it worth it?From the “poet laureate of Michigan football” (according to New York Times’s Joe Drape), and one of the keenest observers of college football, Overtime offers a window into a legendary program and the sport itself that only John U. Bacon could deliver.
The Wedge Book: An Owner's Manual for Your Short Game
Brandon Stooksbury - 2015
In The Wedge Book, Brandon Stooksbury cuts through the confusion and provides you a clear, straightforward plan to build your short game from the smallest bump-and-run to a 50-yard pitch shot. By using the same baseline technique and adding specific elements for certain shots, you’ll be able to take away the mystery and indecision that can ruin a golf hole so easily. Stooksbury’s advice has been proven in the highest levels of competitive golf. And now, with The Wedge Book—and a month or so of practice—you can take it to your course.
The Lazy Runner
Laura Fountain - 2012
At first unable to run 400 metres without stopping, Laura has now completed five marathons, the most recent in under four hours. Along the way, Laura learns countless lessons about running, most of them the hard way. But most importantly this self-confessed couch potato learns to love running. As well as offering inspiration and motivation to get out there and run, her book offers tips on how to make running easier and more enjoyable. Offering practical information on buying the right kit, choosing the best race and what to do on race day, it also tackles the important running questions you might be embarrassed to ask – like when will it get easier? And what happens if I need the toilet?
Taking Le Tiss
Matt Le Tissier - 2009
This book contains the fascinating, insightful and at times hilarious memoirs of one of the most gifted and enigmatic British footballers of the last 25 years, Matt Le Tissier.
Driven: The Virat Kohli Story
Vijay Lokapally - 2016
His family didn’t always have it good. His father, a criminal lawyer, succumbed to a celebral stroke when Virat was very young, depriving him of someone he calls his ‘biggest support’ both on and off the field. The son paid his tribute to Prem Kohli in a way the older man himself would have applauded: Virat Kohli returned to the field to continue an innings a few hours after he lost him. ‘He was the one who drove me to practice every day, ’ the captain of the Indian cricket team recalls with his characteristic humility and grace. Widely read sports journalist Vijay Lokapally goes on to record happier times on the journey of Virat’s rapid rise to international stardom, an account punctuated by little-known stories by his fellow players, coaches and intimates. At 28, he has already been the recipient of countless accolades — not the least of them being the Arjuna Award and the title of BCCI’s ‘International Cricketer of the Year’ for the 2011-12 and 2014-15 seasons. He was the ICC’s ‘ODI Player of the Year’ as early as in 2012. On a more commercial note, British journal SportsPro pronounced him the ‘second-most marketable athlete in the world’ just two years later. But for the Run Machine, it’s not about the money or fame or the roar of the crowds or that women of all ages vie for the wide-eyed attention of his extraordinary gaze. Few incidences have been reported of his open hearted altruism, his numerous charities for under-privileged children and his sheer pluck when the odds are against him. But what has not escaped the public eye is how this wizard of the willow and wicket wears his heavy mantle with such insouciant ease.
Darren Lockyer - Autobiography
Darren Lockyer - 2011
Of those 34 years, 17 have been spent putting his body through hell in perhaps the toughest football competition on the planet. Lockyer has, quite literally, spent half his lifetime in the NRL. By season's end Lockyer is set to hold the all–time appearance record for club, state, and country. The remarkable longevity of Lockyer's excellence has earned him the respect of fellow athletes around the world and the adoration of fans everywhere. But while undoubtedly one of the most recognizable athletes in Australia, Lockyer has largely maintained his privacy, rarely, if ever, allowing fans a look at the man behind the man. In this book Lockyer, for the first time, opens up on the people, places, incidents, and events which have shaped the life and career of an Australian sporting icon. From his days growing up and working at the family–owned truck stop on the outskirts of a tiny Queensland town, to his arrival at the Broncos as a teenage sensation, and subsequent ascension toward rugby league immortality, Lockyer will shed new light on some of the biggest names and stories of the past two decades. Contributions from Lockyer's family and friends, as well as legendary figures give this book a unique edge, each providing a rare insight into their view on Lockyer the player, the leader, and the man.