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The Dynasty
By Jeff Benedict. 2020
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Now a 10-part docuseries on Apple TV+ From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor…
of Tiger Woods comes the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots—the greatest sports dynasty of the 21st century.It&’s easy to forget that the New England Patriots were once the laughingstock of the NFL, a nearly bankrupt team that had never won a championship and was on the brink of moving to St. Louis. Everything changed in 1994, when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and soon brought on board head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Since then, the Patriots have become a juggernaut, making ten trips to the Super Bowl, winning six of them, and emerging as one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. How was the Patriots dynasty built? And how did it last for two decades? In The Dynasty, acclaimed journalist Jeff Benedict provides richly reported answers in a sweeping account based on exclusive interviews with more than two hundred insiders—including team executives, coaches, players, players&’ wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more—as well as never-before-seen recordings, documents, and electronic communications. Through his exhaustive research, Benedict uncovers surprising new details about the inner workings of a team notorious for its secrecy. He puts us in the room as Robert Kraft outmaneuvers a legion of lawyers and investors to buy the team. We listen in on the phone call when the greatest trade ever made—Bill Belichick for a first-round draft choice—is negotiated. And we look over the shoulder of forty-year-old Tom Brady as a surgeon operates on his throwing hand on the eve of the AFC Championship Game in 2018. But the portrait that emerges in The Dynasty is more rewarding than new details alone. By tracing the team&’s epic run through the perspectives of Kraft, Belichick, and Brady—each of whom was interviewed for the book—the author provides a wealth of new insight into the complex human beings most responsible for the Patriots&’ success. The result is an intimate portrait that captures the human drama of the dynasty&’s three key characters while also revealing the secrets behind their success. &“The Dynasty is…[a] masterpiece…It&’s a relationship book, it&’s a football book, it&’s a business book…you&’ll just eat up these stories&” (Colin Cowherd).Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods
By Bob Harig. 2024
Bob Harig's latest deep-dive into Tiger Woods' thrilling career, as seen through his iconic 2019 Masters comeback and win. In…
April of 1997, the world of golf was forever changed. At the age of 21, a young Tiger Woods won the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, the Masters, by a record of 12 strokes. Woods became the youngest golfer ever to win the Masters and the first African or Asian-American player to win a major. History had been made - and would continue to be made over the next 15 years.Woods transformed the game, turning golf geeks into keen observers, casual golf fans into ardent followers and even indifferent sports fans into curiosity mavens. He will undoubtedly be known for the raw numbers: 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, and according to Forbes, a billionaire who amassed more than $110-million in official PGA Tour earnings. Woods has proven to be a complicated figure through his decades in the spotlight. Plagued by marital scandal, a DUI arrest, and severe back injuries that resulted in what even he believed would be a career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods’ career finally seemed to be coming to an end. That all changed through 2018 and into 2019 as Woods returned slowly from the surgery. In 2019, on the same course where he won for the first time in 1997, Tiger Woods made history once again, winning the Masters one final time. The 2019 Masters brought together all the qualities that ultimately make up someone who has been an enduring figure for 30 years.In this captivating and emotional portrait of one of the most famous figures in sports, Bob Harig brings readers the true story of the grit and perseverance of Tiger Woods in the final years of his career. Drive will show that Woods’ true legacy is one of resolve and redemption.James Taylor: Cut Short (Authentic Guitar-tab Editions Ser.)
By James Taylor. 1992
A superstar athlete&’s inspiring autobiography—from his cricket-loving youth to the diagnosis of a career-ending heart condition and its aftermath. James…
Taylor was born in Burrough on the Hill, Leicestershire, in 1990. A sporting phenomenon from an early age, he chose to forge a life in cricket, establishing himself as one of the country&’s leading batsmen and an England regular. And then tragedy struck. In April 2016, a serious heart condition left Taylor fighting for his life in the changing room. Told he faced possible death if he played cricket, or exercised, ever again, James&’s bright and brilliant career was over at the age of 26. In Cut Short, Taylor reveals his route to the top. On the way, he describes how he encountered prejudice against his size and takes us through the highs and lows of his international career, including a century against the Australians and a closeup view of the unsavory nature of David Warner. With the world at his feet, Taylor reveals just what it was like to have sporting ambition snatched away right at the point of international breakthrough. He relives in breathless detail the horrific events of the day he thought he was going to die and his desolation at watching a fine sporting career torn from his grasp. At the same time he faced a battle to rebuild his life and his future, he was getting used to a body which, on several occasions, left him fearing for his existence. That James has emerged from these dark days with courage, good humor, and renewed ambition is testament to a remarkable personality.The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent
By Richard Florida. 2009
Research–driven and clearly written, bestselling economist Richard Florida addresses the growing alarm about the exodus of high–value jobs from the…
USA. Today's most valued workers are what economist Richard Florida calls the Creative Class. In his bestselling The Rise of the Creative Class, Florida identified these variously skilled individuals as the source of economic revitalisation in US cities. In that book, he shows that investment in technology and a civic culture of tolerance (most often marked by the presence of a large gay community) are the key ingredients to attracting and maintaining a local creative class. In The Flight of the Creative Class, Florida expands his research to cover the global competition to attract the Creative Class. The USA once led the world in terms of creative capital. Since 2002, factors like the Bush administration's emphasis on smokestack industries, heightened security concerns after 9/11 and the growing cultural divide between conservatives and liberals have put the US at a large disadvantage. With numerous small countries, such as Ireland, New Zealand and Finland, now tapping into the enormous economic value of this class – and doing all in their power to attract these workers and build a robust economy driven by creative capital – how much further behind will USA fall?Thomas Oliphant's Praying for Gil Hodges is a brilliant work capturing the majesty of baseball, the issue of race in…
America, and the love that one young boy, his parents, and the borough of Brooklyn had for their team. On a steamy hot Sunday, the Reverend Herbert Redmond was celebrating Mass at a church in Brooklyn, when he startled his congregation thus: "It's far too hot for a sermon. Keep the Commandments and say a prayer for Gil Hodges."Praying for Gil Hodges is built around a detailed reconstruction of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, which has always been on the short list of great moments in baseball history. On a sunny, breezy October afternoon, something happened in New York City that had never happened before and never would again: the Brooklyn Dodgers won the world championship of baseball. For one hour and forty-four minutes, behind a gutsy, twenty-three-year-old kid left-hander from the iron-mining region of upstate New York named Johnny Podres, everything that had gone wrong before went gloriously right for a change. Until that afternoon, leaving out the war years, the Dodgers and their legions of fans had endured ten seasons during which they lost the World Series to the New York Yankees five times and lost the National League pennant on the final day of the season three times--facts of history that give the famous cry of "Wait Till Next Year!" its defiant meaning. Pitch by pitch and inning by inning, Thomas Oliphant re-creates a relentless melodrama that shows this final game in its true glory. As we move through the game, he builds a remarkable history of the hapless "Bums," exploring the Dodgers' status as a national team, based on their fabled history of near-triumphs and disasters that made them classic underdogs. He weaves into this brilliant recounting a winning memoir of his own family's story and their time together on that fateful day that the final game was played.This victory thrilled the national African-American community, still mired in the evils of segregation, who had erupted in joy at the arrival of Jackie Robinson eight years earlier and rooted unabashedly for this integrated team at a time when the country was thoroughly segregated.And it also thrilled a nine-year-old boy on the East Side of Manhattan in a loving, struggling family for whom the Dodgers were a rare source of the joys and symbols that bring families together through tough times.Beating Goliath: My Story of Football and Faith
By Art Briles, Don Yaeger. 2014
Beating Goliath is a memoir about overcoming loss and keeping faith by the innovative former head coach of the top…
ranked Baylor Bears college football team.Growing up in Rule, Texas, Art Briles learned at a young age the importance of hard work and faith from his parents. Soon that faith would be tested. On their way to see him play in a college football game, Briles' parents and aunt died in a car crash. This event shaped Briles into the man he is today. His father, Dennis, left him with a series of lessons. He taught his son that the world doesn't just hand you things, you have to earn them. And he taught him the influence that faith could have in his life.Briles put these lessons to work as a football coach, where he established his reputation for turning struggling teams into winners, from high school to the staff at Texas Tech to head coach at the University of Houston. Hired to coach Baylor in 2007, he was faced with a familiar task. Within three years, Briles led the Bears to their first bowl game in 15 years.Today, he instills those same lessons into his young players, helping them find a reason to excel. There are plenty of excuses for failure but Briles surrounds himself with people who are fearless when it comes to chasing success. That is one of the many lessons he imparts to his readers, with chapters that include:* God and the Teaching of Dennis Briles* Finding Your Passion* You Can Change Attitude, Not Talent* Passing in the Land of Earl Campbell* Everybody is a CaptainFilled with dramatic football stories and lessons learned, this book will inspire and entertain.Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind
By Tim Groseclose. 2011
A leading political science professor provides scientific proof of media bias in this sure-to-be-controversial bookDr. Tim Groseclose, a professor of…
political science and economics at UCLA, has spent years constructing precise, quantitative measures of the slant of media outlets. He does this by measuring the political content of news, as a way to measure the PQ, or "political quotient" of voters and politicians. Among his conclusions are: (i) all mainstream media outlets have a liberal bias; and (ii) while some supposedly conservative outlets—such the Washington Times or Fox News' Special Report—do lean right, their conservative bias is less than the liberal bias of most mainstream outlets. Groseclose contends that the general leftward bias of the media has shifted the PQ of the average American by about 20 points, on a scale of 100, the difference between the current political views of the average American, and the political views of the average resident of Orange County, California or Salt Lake County, Utah. With Left Turn readers can easily calculate their own PQ—to decide for themselves if the bias exists. This timely, much-needed study brings fact to this often overheated debate.Clubhouse Confidential: A Yankee Bat Boy's Insider Tale of Wild Nights, Gambling, and Good Times with Modern Baseball's Greatest Team
By Luis Castillo, William Cane. 2011
Clubhouse Confidential is the explosive, inside story of Yankees players and managers by a bat boy who saw it allYou…
are invited to come behind the closed doors of the Yankees' clubhouse for the ride of your life in this intimate memoir about the team's glorious years and the superstars who made it all possible.For the first time ever, Luis "Squeegee" Castillo, bat boy and clubbie for the Yankees from 1998 to 2005, talks about working with Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Joe Girardi, Bernie Williams, Roger Clemens, Joe Torre, and many other modern-day Yankee greats. Luis saw and heard what really happened in the privacy of the clubhouse, at parties, and in hotel rooms, bar fights, and secret meetings from Miami to St. Louis, from Detroit to Arizona, and from Toronto to New York. He even vacationed with some players and got to know them like family, discovering their pitching and hitting secrets, joining them in all-nighters, and learning their often hilarious methods of meeting girls and having fun on the road.Like a fly on the wall, Luis takes you backstage to show you how A-Rod's bragging when he hits home runs annoys teammates. Discover how manager Joe Torre checks racing results during games. Hear what happens inside the sanctity of the clubhouse after Roger Clemens beans Mets catcher Mike Piazza and then-a few months later during the 2000 World Series-throws a bat at him. Find out how Mariano Rivera eats junk food during games, why Posada routinely fights with El Duque, what Jeter is really saying to players on other teams as he rounds the bases, and so much more. Everyone knows what happened on the field. Now pull up a chair and enjoy the secret stories that only Luis can tell about what really happened behind the scenes-and why.The true story of Marshall ‚ÄúMajor‚Äù Taylor, who overcame racial prejudice to become one of the most dominant cyclists in…
history. Part of Belt’s Revival series and with an introduction by Zito Madu. The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World, which Taylor self-published in 1928, gives a riveting first-person account of his rise to the highest echelons of professional cycling. Born in Indianapolis, he eventually became the first African American cycling world champion, going on to set seven world records in the sport. Readers will learn about Taylor’s exploits as an athlete, including his early taste of success in a grueling six-day race, his unparalleled dominance as a sprinter, and some of his most bitter defeats. But the man who achieved international fame as the “Black Cyclone” also details the extreme prejudice he faced both on and off the track. It’s a story about one of the greatest athletes in American history but also a moving testament to Taylor’s resilience and determination in the face of overt racism and seemingly impossible odds. As he tells us himself, “I am writing my memoirs . . . in the spirit calculated to solicit simple justice, equal rights, and a square deal for the posterity of my down-trodden but brave people, not only in athletic games and sports, but in every honorable game of human endeavor.”Shaq Talks Back
By Shaquille O'Neal. 2001
Funny, insightful, opinionated, and unexpectedly moving, Shaq Talks Back presents the true voice of one of the NBA's greatest players,…
as he looks back on life during his first championship with the Los Angles Lakers.It's rare to discover a candid sports autobiography--even rare when the author is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. But in Shaq Talks Back, Shaquille O'Neal for the first time talks frankly about his childhood, his life, his rivalries, and his career, culminating in a dramatic, behind-the-scenes account of the Los Angeles Lakers' drive to the NBA Championship.At seven feet one inch tall and 330 pounds, Shaq has always faced outsized expectations, even as a child when he towered over other kids. Shaq Talks Back is the story of how potential became reality--how someone expected to be a champion finally learned to become one. Beginning with his memory of crying on the court after the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers, Shaq takes us back to his younger days in Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, then to Georgia and finally to Germany, where he began to harness some of his height and strength.From there, he recounts the remarkable progress of his basketball career, changing from a big but inexperienced teenager to a dominant college and professional player. Shaq talks about:* Playing at Louisiana State University for the unpredictable coach Dale Brown* Signing the biggest rookie contract ever with the Orlando Magic-- and going to the NBA Finals for the first time* What happened next: dissention, disappointment, and his decision to leave for Los Angeles* The dysfunctional Lakers who were never able to win the big games* Dealing with egos as he finds the right chemistry with Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, and new additions to the team* Rivalries with Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and others* The trouble with free throws...* Inside the Lakers' comeback from the brink against Portland and the drive to the 2000 NBA championshipThis is the Life: Days and Nights in the GAA
By Ciarán Murphy. 2023
A provocative look at how grassroots GAA interacts with life in Ireland, from the wittiest Gaelic games pundit at work…
today The GAA is Ireland's largest civil society organisation, woven into the fabric of families and communities - and yet most books about Gaelic games focus on the greatest players and inter-county teams. This is the Life is a book about the 99%: a witty and provocative look at grassroots GAA from the most intelligent and interesting Gaelic games pundit at work today.Ciarán Murphy - of Second Captains and the Irish Times - has an unmatched feel for the timeless elements of this world and a finger on the pulse of change. He looks at the plight of rural clubs that are losing their players to the cities - and he does so not only as a journalist but as a footballer who made the same move himself. He writes about working as an assistant in the clothing shop owned by the family of Jarlath Fallon - both Ciarán's sporting hero and the local postman. And he looks a things we usually prefer not to talk about, like the role of social class in the GAA.This is the Life is a book about the places the GAA comes from, the places it can take a person, and theings that make a local club worth fighting for.In Bottom of the Ninth, Michael Shapiro brings to life a watershed moment in baseball history, when the sport was…
under siege in the late 1950s "A fascinating look at an almost forgotten era . . . One of the best baseball books of recent seasons." -Cleveland Plain DealerShapiro reveals how the legendary executive Branch Rickey saw the game's salvation in two radical ideas: the creation of a third major league—the Continental League—and the pooling of television revenues for the benefit of all. And Shapiro captures the audacity of Casey Stengel, the manager of the Yankees, who believed that he could remake how baseball was played.The story of their ingenious schemes—and of the powerful men who tried to thwart them—is interwoven with the on-field drama of pennant races and clutch performances, culminating in the stunning climax of the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, when one swing of the bat heralds baseball's eclipse as America's number-one sport.All You Need Is Love: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circle
By Peter Brown, Steven Gaines. 2024
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn oral history of The Beatles from never-before-seen interviews.All You Need Is Love is a groundbreaking…
oral history of the one of the most enduring musical acts of all time. The material is comprised of intimate interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, their families, friends and business associates that were conducted by Beatles intimate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines in 1980-1981 during the preparation of their international bestseller, The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list in 1983 and remains the biggest selling biography worldwide about the Beatles Only a small portion of the contents of these transcribed interviews have ever been revealed. The interviews are unique and candid. The information, stories, and experiences, and the authority of the people who relate to them, have historic value. No collection like this can ever be assembled again. In addition to interviews with Paul, Yoko, Ringo and George, Brown and Gaines also include interviews from ex-wives Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Harrison Clapton, and Maureen Starkey, as well as the major social and business figures of the Beatles’ inner circle. Among other sought-after information the interviews contribute definitively as to why the Beatles broke up.Runaway: Notes on the Myths that Made Me
By Erin Keane. 2022
From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon , comes a touching memoir about the search for truths in the…
stories families tell. In 1970, Erin Keane's mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old.Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game
By Craig Calcaterra. 2022
A fundamental reevaluation of how to be a sports fan by an acclaimed baseball writer. Sports fandom isn't what it…
used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act agaiPudge: The Biography of Carlton Fisk
By Doug Wilson. 2015
Pudge marks the first biography of the Hall of Fame catcher, whose famous home run in the 1975 World Series…
has been called one of the greatest moment in the history of televised sport.Carlton Fisk retired having played in more games and hit more home runs than any other catcher before him. A baseball superstar in the 1970s and 80s, Fisk was known not just for his dedication to the sport and tremendous plays but for the respect with which he treated the game.A homegrown icon, Fisk rapidly became the face of one of the most storied teams in baseball, the Boston Red Sox of the 1970s. As a rookie making only $12,000 a year, he became the first player to unanimously win the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1972, upping both his pay grade and national recognition. Fisk's game-winning home run in Game Six of the hotly-contested 1975 World Series forever immortalized him in one of the sport's most exciting televised moments. Fisk played through an epic period of player-owner relations, including the dawn of free agency, strikes, and collusions. After leaving Boston under controversy in 1981, he joined the Chicago White Sox, where he played for 12 more major league seasons, solidifying his position as one of the best catchers of all time.Doug Wilson, finalist for both the Casey Award and Seymour Medal for his previous baseball biographies, uses his own extensive research and interviews with childhood friends and major league teammates to examine the life and career of a leader who followed a strict code and played with fierce determination.Sapp Attack: My Story
By Warren Sapp, David Fisher. 2012
In his no-holds-barred memoir, Sapp Attack!, Warren Sapp, one of the NFL's most hilarious and candid personalities, reveals a side…
of football most fans have never before seen.Big Man. Big Talent. Big Star. Big Mouth. Big Heart. Big Personality. Big Smile. Big Headlines. Warren Sapp, one of pro football's most dominating defensive players both on and off the field, has a reputation for being bold, brash, knowledgeable, and outspoken. During his All-American career at the University of Miami, 13 seasons as an NFL star, four years on the NFL Network and one very big season on Dancing with the Stars, Sapp has never held back. Now he brings that same fearless attitude to his memoir, a book that will create controversy and headlines; in other words, pure Warren Sapp.Sapp has won every award possible for a defensive player, but it wasn't just his extraordinarily athletic ability that made him a star; it was also his ability to understand the subtleties of the game. He writes about working his way up from the high school gridiron to one of the top college football programs in the country, to the NFL, and reveals how the system actually works—the behind-the-scenes plays that fans rarely get to see. He'll discuss what it was like to face some of the greatest players in NFL history, including Hall of Famers Steve Young and Jerry Rice, both of whom he put out of the game, and Bret Favre, whom he sacked eleven times during his career. In this revealing, hilarious, and must-read book, Sapp offers readers a look inside the life of one of football's biggest stars and shares his often controversial opinions about the state of pro football today and its future.Bart Starr: America's Quarterback and the Rise of the National Football League
By Keith Dunnavant. 2011
The definitive, authorized biography of Bart Starr, quarterback for the University of Alabama and for the Green Bay Packers during…
the 1960s. A must-read for fans of the Crimson Tide, the Packers, and football greats.No one can touch Bart Starr's record setting 5 NFL Championships including 3 straight. America's Quarterback tells the story of the man who helped create the legend of Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. Set against the changing landscape of the last half of the 20th century, this biography traces Starr's life from childhood in Alabama to stardom in Green Bay and beyond. Not a simple sports story, Keith Dunnavant traces the story of one man reaching for the American dream while professional football emerged from the shadows to capture the nation's imagination. It's a story of the tension between a coach and a player as different as fire and ice, and how they came to trust and revere each other. It's a story of triumph tempered by tragedy, and the world-class athlete who quietly, persistently, achieved a level of greatness unsurpassed by any quarterback since.A remarkable blend of personal memory and historical narrative, Bart Starr: America's Quarterback and the Rise of the National Football League is a tribute to an American hero and the perfect companion to the classic When Pride Still Mattered.Jim Dent's Monster of the Midway is the story of football's fiercest competitor, the legendary Bronko Nagurski. From his discovery…
in the middle of a Minnesota field to his 1943 comeback season at Wrigley, from the University of Minnesota to the Hall of Fame, Bronko Nagurksi's life is a story of grit, hard work, passion, and, above all, an unstoppable drive to win.Monster of the Midway recounts Nagurski's unparalleled triumphs during the 1930s and '40s, when the Chicago Bears were the kings of professional football. From 1930, the Bronk's first year, through 1943, his last, the Bears won five NFL titles and played in four other NFL Championship Games. Focusing on Nagurski's 1943 comeback season, and how he miraculously led the Bears to their fourth NFL championship against the backdrop of World War II era Chicago, Jim Dent uncovers the riveting drama of Nagurski's playing days. His efforts were the stuff of legend, and his success in 1943 accomplished in spite of a battered frame, worn-out knees, multiple cracked ribs, and a broken bone in his lower back. While chronicling the drama of the '43 championship chase, Dent also tells of both the Bears' colorful early years and Bronko's improbable rise to fame from the backwoods of northern Minnesota. Woven into the narrative are the sights and smells and sounds of one of the most romantic, flavorful eras of the twentieth century. And laced through it all are stories of legend: Bronko rubbing shoulders with colorful characters like George Halas, Red Grange, Sid Luckman, and Sammy Baugh; Bronko running into (and breaking) the brick wall at Wrigley Field; Bronko winning All-American spots for two positions; Bronko knocking scores of opponents unconscious; and Bronko reaching the heights of football glory and, with rare grace, turning his back on the game after winning his last championship.Rich in unforgettable stories and scenes, this is Jim Dent's account of Bronko Nagurski-arguably the greatest football player who ever lived-and his teammates, the roughest, toughest, rowdiest group of players ever to don leather helmets, and the original Monsters of the Midway.Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters
By William Tsutsui. 1971
This year, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the screen, the original, uncut version of Godzilla…
was released in American theaters to the delight of Sci-Fi and B-Movie fans everywhere. Ever since Godzilla (or, Gojira, as he is known in Japan) crawled out of his radioactive birthplace to cut a swath of destruction through Tokyo, he has claimed a place alongside King Kong and others in the movie monster pantheon. He is the third most recognizable Japanese celebrity in the United States, and his fan base continues to grow as children today prove his enduring appeal. Now, Bill Tsutsui, a life-long fan and historian, takes a light-hearted look at the big, green, radioactive lizard, revealing how he was born and how he became a megastar. With humorous anecdotes, Godzilla on My Mind explores his lasting cultural impact on the world. This book is sure to be welcomed by pop culture enthusiasts, fans, and historians alike.