The Shared Origins of Football, Rugby, and Soccer

What are the origins of all the modern day contact sports, from grid iron football to Aussie Rules, rugby, and soccer? In this book, Christopher Rowley reveals how ball games arose and took shape into what we know today as football, soccer, rugby, and others.

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The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball's Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy

An award-winning veteran sportswriter who personally covered the Pine Tar Game looks back and explores one of the wackiest events in baseball history.

On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar—the sticky substance used for a better grip—on Royals third baseman George Brett’s bat. Brett wildly charged out of the dugout and chaos ensued. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria.

The Pine Tar Game chronicles this watershed moment, marking a pivot in the sport, when benign cheating tactics, like spitballs, Superball bats, and a couple extra inches of tar on an ash bat, gave way to era of soaring salaries, labor struggles, and rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs. Filip Bondy paints a portrait of the Yankees and Royals of that era, featuring two diametrically opposed owners, in George Steinbrenner and Ewing Kauffman; a host of bad actors and phenomenal athletes; and lots of yelling. Players and club officials like Brett, Goose Gossage, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, David Cone, and John Schuerholz offer fresh commentary on the events along with their take on a rivalry that culminated in one of the most iconic baseball tantrums of all time. Rush Limbaugh, employed by the Royals at the time as a promotions director, offers his own insider’s perspective. Through this one fateful game, the ensuing protest, and ultimate fallout,The Pine Tar Game examines a more innocent time in professional sports, as well as the shifting tide that gave us today’s modern iteration of baseball.

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The Ultimate Guide to Knife Throwing: Master the Sport of Knife and Tomahawk Throwing

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to throw knives or tomahawks, look no further thanThe Ultimate Guide to Knife Throwing. This comprehensive guide is perfect for everyone from novices who have never picked up a knife to seasoned knife and tomahawk throwers looking to compete in their first tournament.

Bobby Branton has been a foremost expert in the field of knife throwing and handcrafting custom throwing knives for over thirty years and shares his expertise here with easy step-by-step directions. Branton shows readers two methods of throwing knives that are most popular with knife throwers today. He will also share his extensive knife-making experience by showing readers how to make a quality throwing knife on a budget.

In addition to improving technical skills, this guide will also give readers a brief history of the sport—covering everyone from the pioneers of the sport to today’s modern impalement artists. This book will give you the tools needed to learn everything from the basics of knife and tomahawk throwing to how to start your own knife and tomahawk throwing club. Readers will learn how to construct targets, learn the basic stance, basic knife and tomahawk grips, and the mechanics of throwing knives and tomahawks. Branton’s guide gives an in-depth look at this fast-growing sport, with a strong emphasis placed on safety.

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The Keeper: A Life of Saving Goals and Achieving Them

In The Keeper, the man who electrified the world with his amazing performance in Brazil does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal on the field, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette’s syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.
The Keeper recalls his childhood, being raised by a single mother who instilled in him a love of sports and a devout Christian faith that helped him cope when he was diagnosed with Tourette’s in the fifth grade. He looks back over his fifteen-year professional career—from becoming the youngest player to win MLS Goalkeeper of the Year to his storied move to the English Premier League with Manchester United and his current team, Liverpool’s Everton, to becoming an overnight star after his record-making performance with the United States Men’s National Team. He also talks about the things closest to his heart—the importance of family and the Christian beliefs that guide him.

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