Fearless Swimming for Triathletes: Improve Your Open Water Skills (Ironman)

Are you afraid of mass swim starts, being pummeled by surf, eaten by sharks and swimming blindly off-course? Most triathletes learned to swim in a pool in nicely marked lanes, but they have to race in murky rivers, lakes and oceans with hundreds of adrenaline-filled athletes whose only thought is getting to the buoy first. For many the physiological and emotional reactions to racing in vast open water brings on disorientation, seasickness and anxiety that can make the triathlon swim the worst part of the day. This guide addresses more than a dozen fear factors including panic, cold water, bad memories, muscle cramps and water in the nose, and offers specific strategies to overcome each one. You will be given tools to help you calm your body and mind and the skills that will improve your competence in every kind of swim venue. Learn to deal with wind, currents, big surf, and even polluted water.
Fearless Swimming also discusses medical risks of triathlon swimming and suggests ways an athlete can be confidently prepared for the rigors of this even.
With this book and some practice any athlete can move confidently from pool to lake to river to sea and can become a fearless swimmer.
Former ocean lifeguard and triathlete coach, Ingrid Loos Miller, will take you step-by-step from pool to any water destination by teaching the skills you need to feel more confident in the open water.

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Branch Rickey

A bestselling author remembers the man who integrated baseball.
The idea of integrating baseball began as a dream in the mind of Branch Rickey. In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues, changing the sport and the nation forever. Rickey's is the classic American tale of a poor boy from Ohio whose deep-seated faith and dogged work ethic took him to the pinnacle of success, earning him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame and in history.
Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jimmy Breslin is a legend in his own right. In his inimitable anecdotal style, he provides a lively portrait of Rickey and his times, including such colorful characters as Dodgers' owner George V. McLaughlin ("dubbed George the Fifth" for his love of Scotch); diamond greats Leo Durocher, George Sisler, and Dizzy Dean; and Robinson himself, a man whose remarkable talent was equaled only by his resilience in the face of intolerance. Breslin brings to life the heady days when baseball emerged as the national pastime in this inspiring biography of a great American who remade a sport-and dreamed of remaking a country.
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Gaming the Game: The Story of the NBA Betting Scandal and the Gambler Who Made It Happen

In June 2007, the FBI informed the NBA that one of its referees, Tim Donaghy, was the subject of a probe into illegal gambling. Within months, the public knew the broad outlines of a scheme involving Donaghy betting on games he officiated with a co-conspirator, longtime Donaghy acquaintance and professional gambler Jimmy Baba Battista. They were joined in the scandal by a mutual childhood friend, Tommy Martino. By November 2008, each man had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the conspiracy, and was in federal prison. The story was over. Or so it seemed to be. Researched with dozens of interviews, court documents, betting records, referee statistics, and unique access to witness statements and confidential law enforcement files, GAMING THE GAME looks inside the FBI's investigation and beyond to provide the definitive account of the scandal. Jimmy Battista's remarkable decades-long bookmaking and betting career is examined, including and especially his role as architect of the widely publicized scandal. Battista, who - unlike his co-conspirators - never spoke with federal authorities, reveals for the first time the intricate details of the scheme, most of which only he knows.


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At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing

American writers have been fascinated by the ring, both the primal contest inside the ropes and the crazy carnival world outside them. From neighborhood gyms and smoke-filled arenas to star-studded casinos and exotic locales, they have chronicled unforgettable stories about determination and dissipation, about great champions and punch-drunk has-beens, about colorful entourages and outrageous promoters, and, inevitably along the way, about race, class, and violence in America. Like baseball, boxing has a vivid culture and language all its own, one that has proven irresistible to career journalists and literary writers alike.
The Library of America presents a gritty and glittering anthology of a century of the very best writing and reportage about the fights. Here are Jack London on the immortal Jack Johnson; H. L. Mencken and Irvin S. Cobb on Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier, dubbed "The Fight of the Century"; Richard Wright on Joe Louis's historic victory over Max Schmeling; A. J. Liebling's brilliantly comic portrait of a manager who really identifies with his fighter; Jimmy Cannon on the inimitable Archie Moore; James Baldwin and Gay Talese on the haunted Floyd Patterson; George Plimpton on Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X; Norman Mailer on the "Rumble in the Jungle"; Mark Kram on the "Thrilla in Manila"; Pete Hamill on legendary trainer and manager Cus D'Amato; Mark Kriegel on Oscar de la Hoya; and David Remnick and Joyce Carol Oates on Mike Tyson. National Book Award-winning novelist Colum McCann ("Let the Great World Spin") weighs in with a foreword.

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