Sports

David DiBenedetto

On the Run: An Angler's Journey Down the Striper Coast

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 2004

Each autumn, one of nature's most magnificent dramas plays out when striped bass undertake a journey, from the northeastern United States to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in search of food and warmer seas. Writer and angler David DiBenedetto followed this great migration -- the fall run -- for three months in the autumn of 2001. On the Run offers vivid portrayals of the zany and obsessive characters DiBenedetto met on his travels -- including the country's most daring fisherman, an underwater videographer who chucked his corporate job in favor of filming striped bass, and the reclusive angler who claims that catching the world-record striper in 1982 sent his life into a tailspin. Along his route, DiBenedetto also delves into the natural history and biology of this great game fish, and depicts the colorful cultures of the seaside communities where the striped bass reigns supreme.

Jim Thompson

The Double-Goal Coach: Positive Coaching Tools for Honoring the Game and Developing Winners in Sports and Life

Editura: Harper Paperbacks

Anul aparitiei: 2003

Written for both parents and coaches, The Double-Goal Coach is jam-packed with specific tactics and strategies to help motivate and inspire young athletes to reach their potential. There is a nation-wide epidemic of poor sportsmanship at all levels of youth sports, by the parents, the coaches, and the athletes. The nightly news shows parents fighting with one another, coaches lying about the age of their players, and the young athletes imitating the showboating and trash-talking antics of the professional leagues. In response, districts have tried to come up with Pledges in which participants agree to certain good sportsmanship rules, however without a complete rethink of youth sports and a practical program for implementing sportsmanship such Pledges are just words. Jim Thompson, Director of the Positive Coaching Alliance, provides a new foundation for youth sports. Thompson offers coaches and parents the essential tools to combine the desire to win with the more important goal of using sports to teach life lessons and build character in young athletes. The Double-Goal Coach draws from current sport psychology and proven coaching techniques to provide coaches and parents the ...

Jeff Pearlman

The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and t

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 2005

Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy

The Hardy Boyz: Exist 2 Inspire

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 2003

Matt and Jeff Hardy have proven that a relentless drive for success can make your wildest dreams come true. While still in high school, Matt and Jeff decided to become professional wrestlers at any cost. In a business that usually prizes giants, they were told their aspirations were unreasonable and impossible. But after the tragic loss of their mother, they began to pursue their goals with unstoppable determination.The Hardy Boyz: Exist 2 Inspire tells the story of Matt and Jeff Hardy's journey to WWE superstardom. Whether taking beatings from Razor Ramon and Nikolai Volkoff during their first WWE matches or winning the WWE Tag Team Championships against the Acolytes, the Hardy Boyz have experienced all the pains and pleasures that sports-entertainment has to offer. Their fast-moving, high-flying ring style has raised the bar for anyone who aims to follow in their footsteps.From receiving a standing ovation for their 1999 No Mercy ladder match against Edge and Christian to winning singles championships, Matt and Jeff have succeeded both as a team and as individuals. Still in their mid-twenties, the Hardyz have long careers ahead of them. The Hardy Boyz is the inspirational true ...

Sean Mortimer, Rodney Mullen

The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 2005

The world-champion freestyle skateboarder and the man who brought the ollie - the trick that revolutionised the sport by taking it from the ground to the air - to street skating shares the history of skateboarding, as he tells the dramatic story of his life. At the age of 13, Rodney took the freestyle skating world by storm. He won 35 world titles in less than five years. But through it all, his father looked down on his son's love for skating and pressured him to walk away from the sport and leave behind his fans and status as the most famous skateboarder of his era. After years of stress and conflict, Rodney gave in and promised his father he'd quit for good. But by the time he finally broke free from his suffocating and abusive home life, the popularity of freestyle had waned and given way to vert and street styles. So Rodney picked up his board and started from scratch. With the help of mentor Mike Ternansky, Rodney used his freestyle background to usher in a whole new era of street skating. Today Rodney is more popular than ever. The videos in his series Rodney Versus Daewon are among the most popular skateboard videos ever produced. He won the 2002 Transworld Skateboarding ...

Jennifer Jordan

Savage Summit: The Life and Death of the First Women of K2

Editura: HarperCollins Publishers

Anul aparitiei: 2006

Though not as tall as Everest, the "Savage Mountain" is far more dangerous. Located on the border of China and Pakistan, K2 has some of the harshest climbing conditions in the world. Ninety women have scaled Everest but of the six women who reached the summit of K2, three lost their lives on the way back down the mountain and two have since died on other climbs. In Savage Summit , Jennifer Jordan shares the tragic, compelling, inspiring, and extraordinary true stories of a handful of courageous women -- mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, poets and engineers -- who defeated this formidable mountain yet ultimately perished in pursuit of their dreams.

Will Blythe

To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Caroli

Editura: HarperCollins Publishers

Anul aparitiei: 2007

An obsessively personal history of the blood feud between North Carolina's and Duke's basketball teams and what that rivalry says about class and culture in the SouthThe basketball rivalry between Duke and North Carolina is the fiercest and longest-running blood feud in college athletics, and perhaps in all of sports. To legions of otherwise reasonable adults, it is a conflict that surpasses athletics; it is rich against poor, locals against outsiders, even good against evil. In North Carolina, where both schools reside, it is a way of aligning oneself with larger philosophic ideals--of choosing teams in life--a tradition of partisanship that reveals the pleasures and even the necessities of hatred.As the season unfolds, Blythe, the former longtime literary editor of Esquire and a lifelong Tarheels fan, will immerse himself in the lives of the two teams, eavesdropping on practice sessions, hanging with players, observing the arcane rituals of fans, and struggling to establish some basic human kinship with Duke's players and proponents. With access to the coaches, the stars, and the bit players, it is both a chronicle of personal obsession and a record of social history. ...

Brandi Chastain

It's Not about the Bra: Play Hard, Play Fair, and Put the Fun Back Into Competitive Sports

Editura: Harper Paperbacks

Anul aparitiei: 2005

Youth sports aren't just about fun and games anymore. What should be a pleasurable experience is often marred by poor sportsmanship, trash talking, win-at-all-cost attitudes, and, in the worst cases, violence. But World Cup soccer champion and Olympic gold medalist Brandi Chastain has a solution. In It's Not About the Bra , Chastain draws on lessons learned in her phenomenal career and in her experience as a parent to illuminate "the beautiful game" and provide creative answers to the challenges that face young athletes and their parents. Chastain emphasizes the importance of developing leadership skills, finding (and becoming) role models, and giving back to one's team and community. She offers a blueprint for kids and parents alike on how to play fair, win (and lose) with grace, and, above all, have a good time doing it.

Micheal Clark

Optimum Performance Training: Basketball: Play Like a Pro with the Ultimate Custom Workout Used by NBA Players and Teams

Editura: ReganBooks

Anul aparitiei: 2006

An easy-to-use fitness assessment guide and personalized workout to dramatically increase anyone's basketball skills. Micheal Clark virtually wrote the book that personal trainers all over the country use to gain their certification in the field. As creator of the Optimum Performance Training system, he took personal training to a whole new level by introducing a program that could be fully customized for any sport. In this book, Clark will enable readers through his "self-assessment and design fitness system" to effectively pinpoint the weaknesses in their basketball skills and tailor a workout program that will improve on all the flaws in their game. By taking advantage of skill-specific tests, readers will be able to focus their workout time on the area they most need and will see quick results. This user-friendly guide begins with a simple five-step assessment to help you realize what your game lacks. Whether you want explosiveness off the first step like Lebron James, the iron-man endurance of Steve Nash, the coordination and flexibility of Kevin Garnett, the vertical leap of Vince Carter, or the muscle strength of Amare Stoudemire, you'll pinpoint your deficiencies and ...

Joe Posnanski

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America

Editura: Harper Paperbacks

Anul aparitiei: 2008

From the author of Baseball 100"A fascinating account of a man who outlasted the ignorance of a nation and persevered to become a beloved figure...One of the best baseball books in years, filled with depth style and clarity." --Cleveland Plain DealerAn award-winning sports columnist and a baseball legend tour the country to recapture the joys and wonders of two of America's greatest pastimesWhen legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked sports columnist Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, that simple question eventually led the pair on a cross-country quest to recapture the love that first drew them to the game. Baseball & Jazz recounts their emotional quest to find the heart of America's beloved sport that still beats despite the scandal-ridden, steroid-shooting, money hungry athletes who currently seem to define the sport. At its heart is the story of 94-year-old Buck O'Neil--a man that truly played for the love of the game. After an impressive career in the Negro Baseball Leagues in which he earned two hitting titles and one championship, O'Neil made baseball history by becoming the first African-American coach in major league baseball. Posnanski writes about ...

Joyce Carol Oates

On Boxing

Editura: HarperCollins Publishers

Anul aparitiei: 2006

A reissue of bestselling, award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates' classic collection of essays on boxing.

Roger Kahn

The Boys of Summer

Editura: Harper Perennial

Anul aparitiei: 2006

"A moving elegy . . . [to] the best team the majors ever saw . . . the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s." -- New York Times The classic narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and what's happened to everybody since. This is a book about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a book by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for The Herald Tribune . This is a book about what happened to Jackie, Carl Erskine, Pee Wee Reese, and the others when their glory days were behind them. In short, it is a book about America, about fathers and sons, prejudice and courage, triumph and disaster, and told with warmth, humor, wit, candor, and love.

David Halberstam

Summer of '49

Editura: Harper Perennial

Anul aparitiei: 2006

"Dazzling...A celebration of a vanished heroic age and a 'simpler America' " --New York Times Book Review David Halberstam's classic chronicle of baseball's most magnificent season, as seen through the battle royal between Joe DiMaggio's Yankees and Ted Williams's Red Sox for the hearts of a nation.The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions--one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season. With incredible skill, passion and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to that miraculous summer--and to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat. ...

John Jacobs

50 Years of Golfing Wisdom

Editura: HarperCollins Publishers

Anul aparitiei: 2006

The pick of Jacobs' collective wisdom has been brought together in one seminal volume. Simple, easy-to-understand, effective advice on maximizing potential and playing the best golf possible, this guide shows why Jacobs is one of the ultimate golfing gurus.

Dave Pelz

Putt Like the Pros: Dave Pelz's Scientific Guide to Improving Your Stroke, Reading Greens and

Editura: HarperResource

Anul aparitiei: 1991

Putting has often been described as an art, but the author of this book, by trade a physicist, has analyzed it as never before, using scientific principles. Pelz has come up with a system to perfect your putting stroke -- or at least to come as close to perfect as humanly possible.

Peter Nichols

A Voyage for Madmen

Editura: Harper Perennial

Anul aparitiei: 2002

"An extraordinary story of bravery and insanity on the high seas. . . . One of the most gripping sea stories I have ever read." -- Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm In the tradition of Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm , comes a breathtaking oceanic adventure about an obsessive desire to test the limits of human endurance. In 1968 nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held and never before completed: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. Gorgeously written and meticulously researched by author Peter Nichols, this extraordinary book chronicles the contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms, and of those riveting moments when a decision means the difference between life and death.

Ben Joravsky

Hoop Dreams: True Story of Hardship and Triumph, the

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 1996

For nearly five years Arthur Agee's and William Gates' remarkable lives were chronicled by a team of filmmakers. Roughly 250 hours of film were devoted to their journeys from the playgrounds to high school competition to college recruitment and -- whittled down to three hours -- it became the award-winning film Hoop Dreams. Now journalist Ben Joravsky vividly brings to light all the richness and subtlety of their stories, and the impact their aspirations had on themselves, their families and their relationships. It is an intimate look, complete with an up-to-date epilogue on the latest developments in their lives.

David Hays

My Old Man and the Sea

Editura: Harper Perennial

Anul aparitiei: 1996

More than a tale of adventure, this touching account of a father and son's rite of passage assesses their complex and evolving relationship. Alone with nothing but the mammoth waves of the Southern Ocean, the unceasing wind, a compass, a sextant, and a pet cat, David and Daniel Hays voyage down the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, past the Galapagos Islands, beyond Easter Island, and around their desintation--Cape Horn. Father and son alternately narrate, their voices weaving together an engrossing story of travel, exploration, and difficult, dangerous sailing. 16 maps. Line drawings.

Allen Fox, Fox

Think to Win: Strategic Dimension of Tennis, the

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 1993

A Davis Cup winner and Pepperdine coach has written the first book on the strategy and mental dimension of the game since the bestselling The Inner Game of Tennis.

NASCAR

Official NASCAR Trivia: The Ultimate Challenge for NASCAR Fans

Editura: It Books

Anul aparitiei: 1998

NASCAR, the No. 1 spectator sport in America, brings you this exciting jam-packed trivia book that takes you around the country to each of the 20 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race tracks. From Daytona International Speedway, to the California Speedway, Pocono Raceway to the Atlanta Motor Speedway, you can test your skill and knowledge of NASCAR facts and lore. Modeled after the NASCAR Winston Cup Season, NASCAR Trivia lets you rack up points as you answer hundreds of questions on everything including: drivers cars track lengths individual race events and highlights dates and so much more! Tally your score at each track and see if you too have the stuff of a NASCAR champion. Drivers, start your engines....