Search Results for: life as sport

A memoir by the NBA Hall of Fame player, active from 1977-1993 and widely regarded as one of the all-time great New York Knicks.

NBA Hall of Famer Bernard King is one of the most dynamic scorers in basketball history. King was notoriously private as a player, and rarely spoke to the press-not about his career and never about his personal life. And even beyond his prolific scoring, King will forever be remembered for the gruesome knee injury he suffered in 1985. Doctors who told him he’d never play again were shocked when he not only became the first player to return to the NBA from a torn ACL, but returned at an All Star level. In Game Face, King finally opens up about his life on and off the court. In his book, King’s basketball I.Q. is on full display as he breaks down defenses using his own unique system for taking shots from predetermined spots on the floor. King talks about matching up against some of the all-time NBA greats, from Michael Jordan, Julius Erving and Charles Barkley to Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing and many others. He also tackles issues of race and family off the court, as well as breaking a personal cycle of negativity and self-destructiveness with the help of his family. Engaging, shocking, revelatory, yet always positive and upbeat, Bernard King’s memoir appeals to multiple generations of basketball fans.

For the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN’s The Sports Reporters and ABC’s college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.

During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation’s most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Saunders discusses his troubled childhood, the traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2011, and the severe depression that nearly cost him his life. As Saunders writes,

Playing Hurt is not an autobiography of a sports celebrity but a memoir of a man facing his own mental illness, and emerging better off for the effort. I will take you into the heart of my struggle with depression, including insights into some of its causes, its consequences, and its treatments.

I invite you behind the facade of my apparently “perfect” life as a sportscaster, with a wonderful wife and two healthy, happy adult daughters. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am truly grateful. But none of these things can protect me or anyone else from the disease of depression and its potentially lethal effects.

Mine is a rare story: that of a black man in the sports industry openly grappling with depression. I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly, including the lengths I’ve gone to to conceal my private life from the public.

So why write a book? Because I want to end the pain and heartache that comes from leading a double life. I also want to reach out to the millions of people, especially men, who think they’re alone and can’t ask for help.

John Saunders died suddenly on August 10, 2016, from an enlarged heart, diabetes, and other complications. This book is his ultimate act of generosity to help those who suffer from mental illness, and those who love them.

Named Sports Illustrated’s best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them.

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa — the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn’t known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.

With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires — and sometimes shatters — the teenagers who wear the Panthers’ uniforms.

The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

Every summer, in ten small towns across Cape Cod, young college baseball players showcase their talents in hopes of making it to the “show.” A vicious filter, the league has produced one out of every six major league players, from Nomar Garciaparra and Todd Helton to Jeff Bagwell and Barry Zito.In this brilliantly crafted narrative, Jim Collins chronicles a season in the life of the Chatham A’s, perhaps the most celebrated team in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Set against a seemingly bucolic backdrop–a well-heeled resort town on the bend of the outer Cape — the story charts the changing fortunes of a handful of players, all of whom battle slumps and self-doubt in an effort to impress major league scouts and make the playoffs. Several players go home with career-threatening injuries; one blue-chip prospect fulfills great expectations while another is dubbed “the biggest disappointment on the Cape.” A pitcher hides an arm injury while negotiating a minor league contract; another leaves early to tend to his dying father. And nearly all look to the following year’s major league draft as a barometer of their worth. Far more than a baseball book, The Last Best League is an engrossing story about dreams fulfilled and dreams destroyed, about Cape Cod and the rites of summer, about coming of age in America.

I’m Jeremy Wade, biologist and fishing detective. For twenty-five years, I’ve explored our planet’s remotest rivers and lakes, hunting for monster-sized fish. It’s become something of an obsession for me. . . .

Called “the greatest angling explorer of his generation” (Independent on Sunday), Jeremy Wade, host of Animal Planet’s wildly popular TV series River Monsters, takes viewers where no wildlife program has gone before, revealing the creatures that lurk in the murky depths of our planet’s inland waterways. Now, Wade goes truly beneath the surface, disclosing full details of how he tracks down and catches each species while also recounting the off-camera highlights of his extraordinary life. From his arrest as a suspected spy in Southeast Asia to a plane crash in the Amazon, every page of River Monsters is packed with adventure. Each chapter unfolds an enthralling detective story, where fishermen’s tales of underwater man-eaters and aquatic killers are subjected to scientific scrutiny. Follow Wade step-by-step as, armed with just a fishing line, he closes in on his prey and separates fact from fiction. From the heart of the Congo, where he wrestles with supernatural goliath tigerfish, to the depths of the Amazon, where the most feared creature is one that could fit in your palm, the results are fish of staggering proportions and terrifying demeanor. Wade also reveals monsters from upcoming episodes, including deadly electric eels, a giant described as a cross between a shark and a chainsaw, and a snake-like beast that truly is the stuff of legend.

In the tradition of the most gripping adventure writing, River Monsters shows that there’s more to this world than what’s visible on the surface. As Wade says, with a fishing line anything is possible–sometimes it can even reveal the future, or at least one possible version of it. In similar fashion, Wade’s writings are much more than exhilarating stories: they reveal a vision of the world more awe-inspiring than any individual myth made flesh. Ultimately, River Monsters explores the real mysteries that still exist, capturing the story of one man’s obsession — and his relentless pursuit of the truth.

William Nack is widely acknowledged as one of the finest sports writers of the past half-century. He has won the prestigious Eclipse Award, given annually for the best magazine piece on horseracing, an unprecedented six times. Laura Hillenbrand, best-selling author of Seabiscuit, recently called his acclaimed biography Secretariat the “gold standard” of horse books. But Nack’s “turf” goes far beyond the racetrack. In this, his first collection, Nack’s finest horse racing journalism is coupled with his legendary, one-of-a-kind profiles of athletes from Sonny Liston to Formula One driver Alex Zanardi, Rocky Marciano to Rick Pitino, and Keith Hernandez to Willie Shoemaker. And that is not all. From his compelling history of Yankee Stadium, to his inspiring account of Bob Kalsu, the only professional American athlete to die in Vietnam, to his poignant portrait of Cincinnati Reds catcher Willard Hershberger, who, at fifteen, discovered his father dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later committed suicide himself, Nack serves up riveting stories of people and places. He also uncovers some of the dirtiest secrets in sports from the shady world of hit men and greedy owners who hire them to kill their horses for insurance payoffs to weightlifting muscle men, who, while stoked up on steroids, have gone on murderous rampages. Whether writing about famous athletes-human and equine-or weighing in on some of the most controversial events and personalities in sports, William Nack has few equals.

Imagine a world without IMAX or Gore-tex, before North Face, a world without mobile phones or high-altitude Internet links, super-light hiking boots and polyamide fleece. Imagine a time when the Alps were as remote as the Himalayas and the Himalayas as remote as the moon. Traversing a century of climbing that began with the Victorian enthusiasts and ended with the conquest of the great Himalayan peaks, Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan take us back to that (not-so-distant) world to tell the stories of the extraordinary men who were the first to climb the world’s best-known mountains — the Matterhorn, McKinley, Everest, and K2. Their quests provide welcome historical context and very modern thrills for readers of adventure narratives. Accompanied by unique archival materials, detailed maps, and photographs, Mountain Men invites us to follow in the footsteps of these fearless explorers, and tells us the stories with all their romance and stupidity, bravado and suffering, courage and miscalculation, intact. Meet the Mountain Men: Albert Smith was an impresario who climbed Mont Blanc with the help of 16 guides, 18 porters, and 90 bottles of spirits; his Piccadilly shows turned mountaineering from a folly into a sport. Edward Whymper, perhaps the greatest of the Victorian climbers, was the first to summit the Matterhorn, but not an hour later he lost four members of his party in a horrible accident that would shadow him for the rest of his life. The Duke of Abruzzi, heir to the Italian throne, reached the intimidating slopes of K2 in 1909 but concluded that no one could climb it in his lifetime — he was right. Mount McKinley was claimed by not one but several climbers, including America’s great explorer — and, it turned out, fraudster — Dr. Frederick Cook, who had his porters take pictures of him on a look-alike crevasse many miles away from the actual mountain. The eccentric Maurice Wilson, convinced that he enjoyed God’s protection, decided to climb Everest alone — just as soon as he taught himself to fly and got himself smuggled into Nepal. He got further than anyone could have dreamed, but his body was discovered frozen a hundred feet from a food cache left by an earlier party.

Condemned and yet feared by emperors, almost certain to be slaughtered and yet adored by the masses, the gladiator was the superstar of his day. His existence was invariably short and violent, improved only faintly by the prospect of honor, wealth, and public attention. Yet men gave up their freedom to become gladiators, noblewomen gave up their positions to elope with them, and Emperors risked death to fight them. This thrilling popular history of ancient Rome’s gladiators charts the evolution of the games; introduces us to the legendary fighters, trainers, and emperors who participated in the violent sport; and re-creates in gripping detail a day at the bloody games. Alan Baker reveals the techniques of the training school, then sets us ringside to witness the torturous battles between bulls, lions, jaguars, and battle-hardened human beings. With each breathtaking scene, the complex culture of world that created and adored these bloody games between man and beast comes into clear focus. A work of history that reads like fiction, The Gladiator brings to life Spartacus, Commodus, Caligula, and all of the other memorable players of the nearly thousand-year-long gladiatorial era.

Here, at last, is Charles Pierce’s best writing on sports, collected for the first time in one volume. All of these pieces, first published in GQ, the National, and Esquire, showcase Pierce’s trademark humor. Some are spot-on profiles of famous sports personalities such as Tiger Woods, Magic Johnson, and Peyton Manning, while others are portraits of lesser-known figures such as Nebraska basketball coach Danny Nee, a former Vietnam vet who openly opposed the Gulf War, Cool Papa Bell, a ballplayer from the Negro Leagues who is ripped off by memorabilia hounds, and Mike Donald, an obscure golfer on the PGA tour who played the best golf in his life only to lose a tournament by one stroke. Pierce also takes us on unforgettable journeys into the wide world of sports, from a snake-charming pole-vaulter to life on the Hooters Golf Tour, from the fashion accessories of the modern ballplayer to how a small community — Warroad, Minnesota — bonds over ice hockey. Sports Guy will delight Pierce’s devoted readers and is certain to win him many, many more.

“Heller goes for the knockout. His book is both a biography and a history of contemporary boxing, a fascinating tale of greed, violence, sex, and dollars.”– San Francisco Chronicle

Mike Tyson is boxing’s most beloved bad boy. With a history of street-gang violence, juvenile prison, sexual scandal, marital strife, courtroom battles, and imprisonment for rape, he has become one of the most publicized athletes in history. At age 23 he was already considered among the greatest prizefighters of all time, and, his career is far from over.

Relying on in-depth research and interviews with those who have known Tyson at every stage of his life, Bad Intentions portrays the shy child who became a vicious street thug, discovered boxing in juvenile prison, and was brought to the attention of the legendary Cus D’Amato to be shaped to be one thing only–heavyweight champion of the world. Here is Tyson’s fight-by-fight path to that goal, the millions of dollars made and fought over, the sex and violence of his personal life, and his eventual defeats both in the ring and in court. Bad Intentions is an essential read for all who would understand the ins and outs of the most controversial sport in America.