Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Work of Mark Kram

Imagine Mad Men set not in the advertising world but at 1960s Sports Illustrated, a place where the finest sports staff of any generation was attended by an open bar and almost unlimited expense account. This was the world Mark Kram lived and wrote in, along with his peers including Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins and other major talents. A high school graduate with a gift for revealing the hearts of his subjects, Kram would become one of the greatest sports writers of all time, covering the famed rivalry between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Negro League baseball star Cool Papa Bell, doomed soccer legend George Best, Olympic gold medal sprinter Edwin Moses, and others.
The New York Times obituary of Kram in June, 2002 saluted his work in Sports Illustrated by calling him one of its "most lyrical writers of the 1960s and 1970s."Great Men Die Twice selects his best work with a moving introduction by his son, Mark Kram Jr., the PEN/ESPN Award-winning author ofLike Any Normal Day.

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50 Years, 50 Moments: The Most Unforgettable Plays in Super Bowl History

In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of America’s most beloved sporting event—the Super Bowl—an authoritative collection of the most pivotal plays through the decades, compiled by the legendary Jerry Rice, and illustrated with dozens of color photographs.
50 Years, 50 Moments celebrates five decades’ worth of memories, insights, and personal experiences of Super Sunday. Super Bowl MVP Jerry Rice has compiled his list of the most iconic, strategic, and record-breaking moments in football history from the Super Bowl’s inception to today—from the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I; to the amazing Miami Dolphins championship in Super Bowl VII that capped their seventeen-game undefeated season; to the heart-stopping Super Bowl XXV in which the New York Giants beat the Buffalo Bills 20-19; and Super Bowl XLIX’s amazing last-second victory by the New England Patriots over defending champion Seattle Seahawks 28-24.
A Hall of Fame wide receiver who has played alongside and against some of the greatest players in the NFL, Jerry Rice, joined by accomplished sports researcher and journalist Randy O. Williams, draws on his intimate knowledge and insight of the game to highlight remarkable moments from this greatest game in modern sports. Rice’s access to the NFL means that50 Years, 50 Moments is chock full of memories and insights directly from the athletes and coaches who were involved in these moments.
Pulling together all the catches, the interceptions, the fumbles and triumphant touchdowns that have made the Super Bowl an unforgettable experience.50 Years, 50 Moments features marquee names like Joe Montana, Vince Lombardi, Roger Staubach, Walter “Sweetness” Payton, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Lawrence Taylor, “Mean Joe” Greene, as well as Tom Brady and is a handsome must-have keepsake for football fans everywhere that is sure to be treasured for generations to come.

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A Naturalist Goes Fishing: Casting in Fragile Waters from the Gulf of Mexico to New Zealand's South Island

In the tradition of fishing classics, A Naturalist Goes Fishing combines elements of the triumph between fisher and fish, humor and wit, and a passionate concern for the natural environment.
James McClintock takes us to some of the most breathtaking waters the world has to offer while capturing the drama and serendipity in the beloved sport of fishing. We follow him and his fishing buddies and professional guides, as he fishes off the marshy barrier islands of Louisiana, teeming with life but also ravaged by recent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill. We travel to the remote waters of New Zealand's Stuart Island, where the commercial fishing industry is fast disappearing; fish for gigantic Antarctic toothfish through a drilled ice hole at McMurdo Station; and scout for spotted bass on Alabama's Cahaba River, which has the highest diversity of fresh water fish in North America. As we take this global journey, we see how sea level rise, erosion, pollution, water acidification, and overfishing each cause damage.
This strikingly beautiful narrative is a must read for anglers and nature lovers alike.

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Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon

The first major work about marathon running—including the current heated battle among the world’s elite runners to reach the two-hour barrier—and how psychology, technology, economics, and the latest science affect the potential of human performance.

Two hours, to cover 26 miles and 385 yards. It is running’s Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we can glimpse the mountaintop. The sub-two hour marathon will require an exceptional feat of speed, mental strength, and endurance. The pioneer will have to endure more, live braver, plan better, and be luckier than any who has run before. So who will it be?

In this spellbinding book, Ed Caesar takes us into the world of elite runners: the greatest marathoners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, like Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, he traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology, and psychology involved in running so fast, for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its savage, enthralling appeal—and why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit. From big-money races in the United States to remote villages in Kenya, Two Hours is a book about a beautiful sport that few people understand. It’s about talent, heroism, and refusing to accept defeat. It’s a book about running that is about much more than running…this is a human drama like no other.

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Christy Mathewson, The Christian Gentleman: How One Man's Faith and Fastball Forever Changed Baseball

In Christy Mathewson, the Christian Gentleman: How One Man's Faith and Fastball Forever Changed Baseball, Bob Gaines delivers a close and personal look at the extraordinary life and soul of a gifted man living in a unique time. Including timeless images, this book brings to life Mathewson’s amazing career, faultless character, and unwavering faith.

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The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Women: Everything You Need to Know for Whatever, Whenever, and Wherever You Ride

Women are built differently, ride differently, train differently, burn different macronutrients as fuel, and have a different relationship with their bikes than men do. It's only natural they should need their own comprehensive cycling book.
The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Women is an instructional manual geared specifically toward women. It breaks down the sport of cycling into easily digestible sections, beginning with the history of women's cycling and progressing into equipment, lifestyle, technique, training, and fitness goals. The book also includes a women-specific section that covers cycling while menstruating, cycling while pregnant, how menopause affects training, and how specific parts of the female body are uniquely affected by cycling.
The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Women will serve as an indispensible, lifelong guide for every female cyclist.

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Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

A deeply rendered self-portrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed New Yorkerwriter
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves.
Finnegan shares stories of life in a whitesonly gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly—he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world’s greatest waves. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.
Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little understood art. Today, Finnegan’s surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar.

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Hail to the Redskins: Gibbs, Riggins, the Hogs, and the Glory Days of D.C.'s Football Dynasty

A rollicking chronicle that takes fans behind the scenes of the legendary Super Bowl-champion Washington Redskins teams of the Joe Gibbs’ era and offers a revealing portrait of the NFL during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Based on more than seventy-five original interviews, here is the inside story of the glory days of the famed Washington Redskins teams of the Joe Gibbs’ era—one of the most remarkable and unique runs in NFL history. From 1981 to 1992, Gibbs coached the franchise to three Super Bowl victories, making the team the toast of the nation’s capital, both among the political elite and the city’s majority African-American population. Veteran sportswriter Adam Lazarus charts the team’s rise from mediocrity (the franchise had never won a Super Bowl and Gibbs’s first year as head coach started with a five-game losing streak that almost cost him his job) to its stretch of four championship games in ten years. What makes the run of sustained success all the more remarkable is that, unlike Joe Montana’s 49ers or Tom Brady’s Patriots, each of Gibbs’s Super Bowl victories featured a different quarterback—a testament to the genius of the team’s head coach, who proved himself one of the most adaptable and creative minds in NFL history.
Hail to the Redskins features an epic cast of characters: hard-drinking halfback John Riggins; the dominant, blue-collar offensive linemen known as “the Hogs” who became a cultural phenomenon; quarterbacks Doug Williams, the first African-American QB to win a Super Bowl, and Joe Theismann, a model-handsome pitchman whose leg was brutally broken by Lawrence Taylor on Monday Night Football; gregarious defensive end Dexter Manley, who would be banned from the league for cocaine abuse; and others including Darrell Green, Art Monk, Mark Rypien, owner Jack Kent Cooke, and more.
Building on Lazarus’s interviews with key inside sources, including Redskin players, personalities, and journalists,Hail to the Redskins paints a colorful picture of one of the most compelling teams in football history.

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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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It's Good to Be the Gronk

New England Patriots record-breaking tight-end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski offers fans a front row seat to a football superstar’s life on and off the field.

Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski holds nine league-wide records and three Patriots franchise records. His accomplishments include thirty-eight receiving touchdowns in his first three seasons (thirteen more than any other tight end in the NFL) and the 2011 record for most touchdowns made by a tight end, with seventeen receiving and eighteen overall. With a Super Bowl victory under his belt and a nationwide reputation for a personality that’s “comedy gold” (CBS Sports), he has continued to win the hearts of fans through his fun-loving attitude.

From hamming it up at Super Bowl Media Day, to spicing up interviews with “Gronk-esque” dance moves, to cuddling with kittens in the pages ofESPN The Magazine, to christening a used party bus his ride of choice, Gronk’s good humor and playful persona make it seem like other players are “living in black and white, and Gronk is in color” (CBS Sports). But it’s not all fun and games. After multiple surgeries on his forearms, ankle, and back, Gronk tore his ACL and MCL, prematurely ending his 2013 season (but not before scoring four touchdowns and 592 receiving yards). His many injuries and subsequent recoveries made his key play in Super Bowl XLIX—which led to victory and the title of “Comeback Player of the Year”—all the sweeter. Gronk takes fans from the field to the locker room to the VIP room to the talk show green room to his parents’ kitchen table—a full tour of the world according to Gronk.

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The A Swing: The Alternative Approach to Great Golf

"David Leadbetter's first book in a decade helps golfers around the world finally reach their potential. The "A" stands for "alternative," as in a new and different way to swing the club that makes it so much easier to consistently hit good golf shots. David has taken his 30-plus years of teaching experience, working with players of all abilities including the best who have ever played the game, and developed a more efficient and effective way to hit good shots with minimal practice. In essence, it's a shortcut to good golf. The genius behind the A Swing is that golfers will consistently play well after only a short series of seven-minute practice sessions. The A Swing doesn't require textbook precision in order to see improvement--just a basic understanding of the technique will synchronize the swing and have golfers repeatedly hitting solid shots. The A Swing also easily fixes many of the game's most common faults--including the dreaded slice. It's especially beneficial to those who have little time toplay or practice, the aging golfer, and anyone who has struggled to realize their full potential. Until now, the standard paradigm for teaching the golf swing really hasn't changed. But the A Swing was developed on scientific principles and has been biomechanically tested to ensure it's a viable and easier alternative. Already adopted by pros and amateurs alike--the results have been transformative"--

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Your Short Game Solution: Mastering the Finesse Game from 120 Yards and In

In his long-awaited first book, Sieckmann opens up his vault of secrets for all golfers. After breaking down the basics, he presents a session-by-session training and practice guide—the same one he creates for his tour clients—to help the reader develop and sustain correct habits, avoid common flaws, and master essential skills. Next, Sieckmann explains how to optimize a player’s wedge swing for every scenario. An easy-to-learn and easy-to-use system, Your Short Game Solution will be the go-to guide anywhere golf is played.

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8 Weeks to Sealfit: A Navy Seal's Guide to Unconventional Training for Physical and Mental Toughness

Develop all of the qualities that make a Navy SEAL!
SEALFIT was developed by retired Navy SEAL Commander Mark Divine for the unique and specialized needs of professionals seeking to reach their fullest potential. Mark Divine's straightforward 8 WEEKS to SEALFIT program will give in-depth philosophy and training on how to develop the character traits that go into making a Navy SEAL: discipline, drive, determination, self-mastery, honor, integrity, courage and leadership. TheNew York Times bestselling 8 WEEKS to SEALFIT features the ground-breaking training regimens that improve the SEALFIT athlete's overall endurance, increase his or her work capacity, provide the knowledge to functionally train without equipment and the ability to thrive in a teamwork setting.
Through teamwork, mental and physical preparation, and proper nutrition, the SEALFIT athlete can cultivate the "Kokoro" (warrior) spirit, so they are unbeatable in life. Join the thousands of other SEALFIT athletes who have improved their well-being through these tried and true methods presented by Commander Mark Divine.
With 8 Weeks to SEALFIT you will:
- Develop all of the character traits of a Navy SEAL;
- Forge an unbeatable mind;
- Get the best functional workout available with the least amount of equipment;
- Adopt a level-headed approach to nutrition;
- Gain exceptional overall functional strength and stamina;
- Improve work capacity and durability.

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The Colonel and Hug: The Partnership That Transformed the New York Yankees

From the team’s inception in 1903, the New York Yankees were a floundering group that played as second-class citizens to the New York Giants. With four winning seasons to date, the team was purchased in 1915 by Jacob Ruppert and his partner, Cap “Til” Huston. Three years later, when Ruppert hired Miller Huggins as manager, the unlikely partnership of the two figures began, one that set into motion the Yankees’ run as the dominant baseball franchise of the 1920s and the rest of the twentieth century, capturing six American League pennants with Huggins at the helm and four more during Ruppert’s lifetime.

 

The Yankees’ success was driven by Ruppert’s executive style and enduring financial commitment, combined with Huggins’s philosophy of continual improvement and personnel development. While Ruppert and Huggins had more than a little help from one of baseball’s greats, Babe Ruth, their close relationship has been overlooked in the Yankees’ rise to dominance. Though both were small of stature, the two men nonetheless became giants of the game with unassailable mutual trust and loyalty.The Colonel and Hug tells the story of how these two men transformed the Yankees. It also tells the larger story about baseball primarily in the tumultuous period from 1918 to 1929—with the end of the Deadball Era and the rise of the Lively Ball Era, a gambling scandal, and the collapse of baseball’s governing structure—and the significant role the Yankees played in it all. While the hitting of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig won many games for New York, Ruppert and Huggins institutionalized winning for the Yankees.

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Men in Green

Was golf better back in the day?

In Men in Green, Michael Bamberger, who fell for the game as a teenager in its wild Sansabelt-and-persimmon 1970s heyday, goes on a quest to find out. The result is a candid, nostalgic, intimate portrait of golf’s greatest generation—then and now—that readers will cherish.

One night in a Chicago restaurant, drunk on chocolate and with the siren song of the road in his head, Bamberger draws up a list of golf heroes. Nine are living legends, like Arnold and Jack. Nine are secret legends, like Dolphus “Golf Ball” Hull, a windblown tour caddie from Jackson, Mississippi. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug.

Accompanied by a sidekick and friend, a former tour player who is a secret legend himself, Bamberger seeks to locate and get to know these luminaries. All the while, he is hopeful they will answer a certain difficult question:When and where were you happiest?

In their travels, these detectives from the Golf Division uncover life and death, sickness and health, unusual marriages and unlikely friendships, trophies lost and won, comic tales from lives lived on the road, lost loves and second chances, and a cheating scandal that reveals volumes about an icon in their midst. They take us from Arnold Palmer’s private warehouse in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to the twelfth green at Augusta National to a trailer park in Northern California, where an aging tour beauty lives alone with her memories of high times and bright lights. Men in Green time-travels to forgotten places in a lost world.

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The Grind: Inside Baseball's Endless Season

What’s it like to live through sports’ longest season, the 162-game Major League Baseball schedule? THE GRIND captures the frustration, impermanence, and glory felt by the players, the staff, and their families from the start of spring training to the final game of the year; classy baseball writing in the Roger Angell or Tom Boswell tradition. 

“There is no sport with an everydayness, a drum-drum-drum beat like baseball,” says Barry Svrluga. Players even have a name for this relentless, unmatchable rhythm: The Grind. Svrluga, a star baseball writer for the Washington Post, wrote a series about the personal toll that baseball takes, with each installment highlighting one cog in the baseball machine.

There’s The Wife, The Scout, The Starter, and plenty more characters on the field and behind the scenes of baseball. Svrluga's mini-portraits lay bare the constant toil of not just the star players, but a lineup of the supporting cast. This series is THE GRIND, a raw, intimate look at the wear-and-tear nature of baseball. It’s a sport like no other, emphasizes Svrluga, and each chapter demonstrates the unique mental, emotional, and physical costs of America’s pastime. Built upon material that appeared in the Washington Post, THE GRIND expands on these profiles and includes installments not previously published by the Post.

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Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar, and Geek Underground

Beginning his career on a lark as a freelance contributor to SCRABBLE News, John D. Williams fell down a rabbit hole inhabited by gamers, geeks, and the grammar police. For twenty-five years, as the executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, Williams served as the official spokesperson for the game, and as the middleman between legions of fanatical word-game fans and the official brand. Now Word Nerd takes readers inside the byzantine, dog-eat-dog world of top tournament players, creating a piquant (seven-letter word, 68 points!) work that is part pop-cultural history, part anthropological study. Indeed, what Christopher Guest did for the world of dog shows in his film Best in Show, Williams does for the world of competitive word games in this funny and perfectly observed memoir.As readers will discover, Word Nerd explores anagrams, palindromes, the highest-scoring SCRABBLE plays of all time, the birth of the World SCRABBLE Championship, as well as many of the more colorful figures that inhabit this subculture. Die-hard word fans will find invaluable tips on how top players see their boards and racks to come up with the best play, how they prepare, and the psychology of tournament competition. Those uninitiated in the mysteries of SCRABBLE mania will find a delightful, madcap memoir about all the fun people have with language and how words shape our lives and culture in unexpected ways.Whether reminiscing about past national champions, detailing the controversy over efforts to purge the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary of all offensive words, opining on the number of vowelless words that are allowable (cmw for a Welsh deep-walled basin or nth for the ultimate degree), noting how long it takes a word to get into a dictionary, or explaining why there remain more male than female champions, Williams crafts a loving tribute to words and the games people play with them. Word Nerd will fascinate both amateurs and seasoned experts alike.

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The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games

Having grown from 390 athletes from fourteen countries to nine thousand athletes from seventy-eight countries, the Maccabiah Games (or the “Jewish Olympics,” as it has come to be known) continue to gain popularity. The Maccabiah Games, which take place in Israel, first began in 1932, and the latest games took place in July of 2013, with the debut of participants from Cuba, Albania, and Nicaragua. Sports range from table tennis to ice hockey, basketball, chess, and much more. Past participants have included former NBA coach Larry Brown, Olympic swimmers Mark Spitz and Jason Lezak, and Olympic gymnast Mitch Gaylord, among others.

The Jewish Olympics details the history of the Maccabiah Games, including how they began, how they have grown in popularity, how they have impacted the Jewish community worldwide, and much more. In addition, it highlights the countless special achievements of the athletes over the course of the nineteen games. The Jewish Olympics is a detailed and fascinating history that will interest any sports fan, as well as individuals interested in cultural events.

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Sisterhood in Sports: How Female Athletes Collaborate and Compete

Sisterhood in Sports reveals what drives the female athlete: communication, camaraderie, competition, collaboration, and community. Steidinger illustrates through the stories and words of some of the most successful female athletes that the relationships they create, and the sense of sisterhood that can be cultivated even among rivals, helps to keep them driven, engaged, and connected to their game and their lives beyond the sport.

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Every fly-fishing problem has a solution. This collection of advice from veteran instructor Landon Mayer helps you analyze your past mistakes and learn how to adapt to a wide range of fishing conditions.

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Swim Speed Strokes for Swimmers and Triathletes: Master Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle for Your Fastest Swimming

In her best-selling book Swim Speed Secrets, 4-time Olympian and gold medalist Sheila Taormina revealed the freestyle swimming technique secret used by the world’s fastest swimmers. Now in Swim Speed Strokes, Taormina shows how swimmers can swim their fastest in all four competitive swimming strokes; backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and freestyle.

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Walking the Gallipoli Peninsula: Making the Most of Your Visit to the Battlefields

Tony Wright stuffed a copy of his great-uncle George's Gallipoli diary into his backpack and set out from Sydney to discover how and why thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders make the trek to the Gallipoli Peninsula every year. Walking on the Gallipoli Peninsula is the moving, inspiring and very practical resulta roadmap to the heart of the Gallipoli experience. Anyone who has ever dreamed of traveling to Turkey and walking the battlefields so seared in the Australian and New Zealand consciousness will find this a useful guide to making the most of their visit. It is likely that before you have reached the last chapter you will feel like packing your own bag, because this is a travel adventure so entertaining and informative that it wills the reader to follow the author's every footstep.

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101 Baseball Places to Visit Before You Strike Out

A collection of travel essays offers ardent baseball fans a definitive guide to must-see locales among the thousands of baseball shrines, attractions, gravesites, and more, including such landmarks as the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, the Field of Dreams movie set, the Jackie Robinson Center, and Shoeless Joe Jackson Memorial Park.

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Ben Hogan: The Myths Everyone Knows, the Man No One Knew

Ben Hogan’s accomplishments on the golf course are the stuff of legends, but his life off it was exceedingly private. In this biography, author Tim Scott demonstrates why such public perception was not representative of Hogan’s personality, offering a firsthand glimpse into the famous golfer’s humor and sensitivity. Hogan wasn’t perfect, and many of his fine qualities were never made public until now, as Tim Scott shares his personal experience with Hogan as well as Hogan’s friends, family, and acquaintances. Along the way, a clearer picture emerges of Hogan as a man, a golfer, a friend, and a husband.

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Mr. America: The Tragic History of a Bodybuilding Icon

For most of the twentieth century, the “Mr. America” image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr. America Contest became the world’s premier bodybuilding event over the next thirty years. Rooted in ancient Greek virtues of health, fitness, beauty, and athleticism, it showcased some of the finest specimens of American masculinity. Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including twenty-five Mr. Americas) and incorporating copious printed and manuscript sources, John D. Fair has created the definitive study of this iconic phenomenon. Revealing the ways in which the contest provided a model of functional and fit manhood, Mr. America captures the event’s path to idealism and its slow descent into obscurity. As the 1960s marked a turbulent transition in American society—from the civil rights movement to the rise of feminism and increasing acceptance of homosexuality—Mr. America changed as well. Exploring the influence of other bodily displays, such as the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia contests and the Miss America Pageant, Fair focuses on commercialism, size obsession, and drugs that corrupted the competition’s original intent. Accessible and engaging, Mr. America is a compelling portrayal of the glory days of American muscle.

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Down and Dirty: The Essential Training Guide for Obstacle Races and Mud Runs

Obstacle course races and mud runs such as Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, Warrior Dash, Rugged Maniac, and Muddy Buddy are all waiting for you to get Down and Dirty.

Author Matt B. Davis offers an overview of the most popular races before tackling the most important concerns for any racer: preparation and training. Each obstacle-focused chapter will feature a leading obstacle race athlete who will offer expert advice on how to get prepared for your next race—whether it’s your first or you’re a recent devotee who wants to try them all. Because each race is different, this book will supply training advice for a variety of obstacles and races.

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The Complete Book of Fishing Knots, Leaders, and Lines

Master every fishing knot you’ll ever need.
When you’re fishing, there’s nothing more frustrating than letting a poorly tied knot cost you the catch of the day. Knot expert Lindsey Philpott has written a guide to save anglers everywhere that anguish.The Complete Book of Fishing Knots, Leaders, and Lines contains directions for fifty kinds of knots, ranging from easier knots for beginners to specialized knots for more experienced fishermen. Each knot is explained with step-by-step instructions and color photographs, all done using a thick monofilament to make them as easy to see as possible. Here are just a few of the various types of knots you’ll learn:

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Trout Fishing in the Catskills

Ed Van Put begins this important book with the history of native brook trout and offers little-known details about their sizes, range, and demise from over-fishing, the growth of streamside industries, and the introduction of competitive species. Sweeping in its scope, Trout Fishing in the Catskills tells a thorough tale of the often tumultuous history of fishing in the Catskills. With a scope of over a century, Van Put tells of the Catskill’s frontier fishing beginnings and tracks the rise, fall, and eventual revival of the fisheries.

Throughout, this is a history of people and methods as well as rivers, and there are profiles of Theodore Gordon, Art Flick, Harry and Elsie Darbee, Sparse Grey Hackle, and more. No serious trout fisherman, in any part of the country, will want to miss this pioneering portrait of a seminal region in American angling history.

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Baseball Explained

After trying unsuccessfully to explain baseball to his English cousins in a few emails, Phillip Mahony searched for a book that would explain the rules and history of baseball in a clear and concise manner. Having no luck locating such a book, he wrote one himself. He begins by describing basic ideas like the appearance of the field, the format of the game, and the lineup, that can be considered preliminaries to understanding the game. He then goes into greater detail, covering the objectives for the offensive and defensive teams and different strategies. Having explained the actual game he then goes on to explore the different statistics used in baseball and the way that teams use these statistics to advise strategy. He concludes with an overview of the history of Major League Baseball. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

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A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball's American League

In 1947, as the integration of Major League Baseball began, the once-daring American League had grown reactionary, unwilling to confront postwar challenges--population shifts, labor issues and, above all, racial integration. The league had matured in the Jim Crow era, when northern cities responded to the Great Migration by restricting black access to housing, transportation, accommodations and entertainment, while blacks created their own institutions, including baseball's Negro Leagues. As the political climate changed and some major league teams realized the necessity of integration, the American League proved painfully reluctant. With the exception of the Cleveland Indians, integration was slow and often ineffective. This book examines the integration of baseball--widely viewed as a triumph--through the experiences of the American League and finds only a limited shift in racial values. The teams accepted few black players and made no effort to alter management structures, and organized baseball remained an institution governed by tradition-bound owners.

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The Handmade Skateboard: Design & Build a Custom Longboard, Cruiser, or Street Deck from Scratch

 
The Handmade Skateboard is the definitive book on building custom skate decks of all shapes and sizes, from the high-performance street deck to the classic longboard to a vintage pinstripe cruisers that will turn heads everywhere you go. When you make your own skateboard from scratch you have the opportunity to create something that is perfectly tailored to you: a deck that matches your height, your weight, your center of balance, your skill level and your intended use. More importantly, making your own skate deck allows you to design a perfect deck to fit your personal style, making a statement about who you are. There's nothing wrong with choosing off-the-shelf and mass produced, but who doesn't prefer to stand out. Be different. Be one of a kind. That's what you get with a custom handmade skateboard. Whether you are an accomplished woodworker or an absolute beginner, The Handmade Skateboard guides you step-by-step through building five skateboard designs; from a simple Hack Board built in a few spare hours to a high-performance street deck pressed from seven layers of high-quality Maple veneers. A design guide covers everything you need to know about sizing and shaping your deck and choosing the right trucks and hardware. And detailed photos, illustrations and clear written instruction throughout provide all the information and motivation you need to make your own skateboard from scratch.

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Capital Region Motorcycling

The early 20th century was a time of greatness and prosperity for New York's Capital Region. Economically powerful cities like Albany and Schenectady were home to emergent companies that employed a growing population. This influx gave way to an abundance of stores and retail establishments that catered to newly settled residents. With the local economy experiencing unprecedented growth, people had discretionary income to be used for leisure activities, such as going to Proctor's Theater or enjoying the sport of motorcycling. Capital Region Motorcycling reveals the many activities that were enjoyed by those who wished to participate or watch. Photographs of road tours, polo matches, hill climbs, field meets, scrambles, and short-track and ice racing are featured alongside stories of the Electric City Riders and Spitzies Roamers motorcycle clubs.

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Top Trails Glacier National Park: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

Written by local author Jean Arthur, Top Trails: Glacier National Park leads visitors to secluded trails and unique settings while providing details of current and past human activity, wildlife movement, and geologic changes that altered the landscape and created America’s tenth national park. The unique approach of Top Trails: Glacier National Park reveals the best trails that wind alongside sensitive meadows and climb above crystalline lakes and leads hikers to backcountry respites unique to Glacier. The guide also traces outlaws, poachers, and mining ventures that occurred inside the current park boundary.

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Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's Footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn

"Nick Hunt has written a glorious book, rich with insight and wit, about walking his way both across and into contemporary Europe. . . . So many memorable encounters with people and places! A book about gifts, modernity, endurance and landscape, it represents a fine addition to the literature of the leg."Robert Macfarlane, award-winning travel writer, author ofThe Wild Places and The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot
"This moving and profoundly honest book sometimes brings a sense of unlimited freedom, sometimes joy, sometimes an extraordinary, dream-like dislocation: always accompanied by a dazzling sharpness of hearing and vision. I see now how that youthful walk informed so much of Paddy's style. Before setting out Hunt was going to write to Paddy. The letter was never written, and by the time he set off, Paddy was dead. How touched and fascinated he would have been to read this book."Artemis Cooper, biographer of Patrick Leigh Fermor and co-editor of The Broken Road
In 1933, the eighteen-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor set out in a pair of hobnailed boots to chance and charm his way across Europe, "like a tramp, a pilgrim, or a wandering scholar." The books he later wrote about this walk,A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and the posthumousThe Broken Road are a half-remembered, half-reimagined journey through cultures now extinct, landscapes irrevocably altered by the traumas of the twentieth century.
Aged eighteen, Nick Hunt read A Time of Gifts and dreamed of following in Fermor's footsteps. In 2011 he began his own "great trudge"on foot all the way to Istanbul. He walked across eight countries, following two major rivers and crossing three mountain ranges. With only Fermor's books to guide him, he trekked some 2,500 miles through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.
His aim? To have an old-fashioned adventure. To slow down and linger in a world where we pass by so much, so fast. To discover for himself what remained of hospitality, kindness to strangers, freedom, wildness, adventure, the mysterious, the unknown, the deeper currents of myth and story that still flow beneath Europe's surface.

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The Whistleblower: Rooting for the Ref in the High-Stakes World of College Basketball

During a season on the road with college basketball referees, Bob Katz watched the games they officiated, listened in on their candid conversations in locker rooms and hotel lobbies, and explored the challenges they must regularly confront. In this portrait of one consummate professional at the top of his game, Katz pulls off an unbelievable feat: In The Whistleblower, we come to actually root for the ref.
Ed Hightower, raised in poverty in the segregated rural South, went on to become superintendent of schools in Edwardsville, Illinois. But it is his side-career as an elite NCAA referee (4 NCAA Championship games, 12 Final Fours) that has earned him renown--which in the eyes of angry coaches and hostile fans is a far cry from affection. Alone among thousands in the stadium and millions watching at home, the ref's goal is fairness and neutrality. He truly does not care who wins or loses. His passion to do the right thing on the court is shaped by character and training and a rare kind of honor. In The Whistleblower, the fascinating yet nearly unknown role of the referee is artfully revealed by a writer of talent.

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Rickey & Robinson: The True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball

In Rickey & Robinson, legendary sportswriter Roger Kahn at last reveals the true, unsanitized account of the integration of baseball, a story that for decades has relied on inaccurate, second-hand reports. This story contains exclusive reporting and personal reminiscences that no other writer can produce, including revelatory material he’d buried in his notebooks in the 40s and 50s, back when sportswriters were still known to "protect" players and baseball executives.
That starts, first and foremost, with an in-depth examination of the two men chiefly responsible for making integration happen: Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. Considering Robinson’s exalted place in American culture (as evidenced by the remarkable success of the recent biopic), the book’s eye-opening revelations are sure to generate controversy as well as conversation. No other sportswriter working today carries Kahn’s authority when writing about this period in baseball history, and the publication of this book, Kahn’s last, is a true literary event. In Rickey & Robinson, Kahn separates fact from myth to present a truthful portrait of baseball and its participants at a critical juncture in American history.

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The Great Defender: My Hockey Odyssey

:Legendary Canadien and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Larry Robinson takes readers rink-side in this highly anticipated and poignantly told memoir.
Larry Robinson spent 20 seasons playing in the NHL -- seventeen with the Montreal Canadiens and retiring from the game after his final 3 seasons with the LA Kings. His great size gave his teams an incredible presence on the blue line and a tremendous defender in front of their net. But he was more than just big. He was agile, he could score and he played a style that provided both offensive and defensive strengths.
For his effort, Robinson was twice recognized as the NHL's top defencemen and his contribution helped the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup six times during his tenure with the team. Never afraid to drop his gloves and play a physical game, Robinson is and will forever be regarded as one of the NHL's greatest defencemen.
In The Great Defender, Robinson relives his road to the NHL and the unexpected NHL journey that has lasted over 4 decades. He has enjoyed the good fortune of playing with greats, including Ken Dryden and Guy Lafleur to coaching the greatest of all--Wayne Gretzky. His successes as a player and coach are well-documented and in his memoir, hockey fans will now enjoy the opportunity to experience the odyssey of this legendary player as seen through his eyes, lived through his emotions, and told through his voice. Robinson's story is one of triumph and will leave readers cheering for the man fondly nicknamed "Big Bird."
In the process of writing this book, bestselling sports writer Kevin Shea interviewed many of Robinson's teammates, colleagues, players and family members and spent countless hours with Larry himself to capture a fascinating picture of one of hockey's greatest careers.

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Running Away: A Memoir

When journalist Robert Andrew Powell finished his first marathon, he cried, cradled in his father's arms. Long-distance runners understand where those tears come from, even if there are others who will never grasp what drives someone to run 26.2 consecutive miles in a grueling mental and physical test. Powell's emotional reaction to completing the race wasn't just about the run, though. It was also about the joy and relief of coming back up after hitting rock bottom.
"Running Away" is the story of how one decision can alter the course of a life. Knocked down by a divorce and inspired by his father, Powell decided to change his mindset and circumstances. He moved to Boulder and began running in earnest for the first time in his life. Over the 26.2 chapters that follow, Powell grapples with his past, gaining insight and hard-won discipline that give him hope for the future.

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Enlarge Image Day Hikes & Overnights on the Pacific Crest Trail: Southern California From the Mexican Border to Los Angeles County

Provides information and detailed topographical maps for easy day hikes and extended overnight trips along the Pacific Crest Trail, one of America's great long-distance hiking routes, that extends from the Mexican border in the south to the Canadian border in the north

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Gopro: Professional Guide to Filmmaking [Covers the Hero4 and All Gopro Cameras]

WHERE INSPIRATION MEETS TECHNICAL CRAFT, this guide to professional filmmaking with a GoPro is packed with hundreds of beautiful photos and interactive links to videos created by professional athletes, filmmakers, and inspired GoPro users around the world.
As the only book to cover the art and technique of advanced filmmaking by the team at GoPro, you'll get a unique insider's look at GoPro's history, all the different camera modes and settings, standard and experimental mounts, shooting principles, and editing techniques. Compelling stories from users such as Kelly Slater, Shaun White, and Kevin Richardson offer a rare view into an incredible world of athleticism, artistic beauty, and storytelling. 

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The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain

The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of contemporary Britain through the lens of soccer. In the last two decades soccer in the United Kingdom has made the transition from a peripheral dying sport to the very center of British popular culture, from an economic basket-case to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. What does it mean when soccer becomes so central to the private and public lives of the British people? Has it enriched this island nation or impoverished it? From the goals, to the players, to the managers, to the money, David Goldblatt describes how the English Premier League was forged by Margaret Thatcher's Britain and an alliance of the big clubs -- Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur -- the Football Association and Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV. He identifies the real winners and losers in this extraordinary period, and explains how soccer has closely mirrored the wider political and social scene.Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon tracks the momentous economic, social and political changes of post-Thatcherite Britain in a more illuminating manner than soccer, and The Game of Our Lives provides the definitive social history of the EPL -- most popular soccer league in the world.

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Swim, Bike, Run - Eat: The Complete Guide to Fueling Your Triathlon

It's race day and you have your quick-closure running shoes, sleek suits, bikes, goggles, and watches, but if you haven't been training with the proper nutrition, you'll be left in the dust in the third mile. Enter "Swim, Bike, Run--Eat" to guide you from day one of training to the finish line and help your body perform at it's peak of fitness. In this book, author Tom Holland joins up with sports dietitian Amy Goodson to cover race-day essentials, food choices to complement your training regimen, as well as recovery nutrition. Learn how to determine what to eat; what to drink; how many calories to consume each day; whether or not to carry snacks while training; the difference between taking in calories from solid foods, semi-solids, and liquids; and whether or not to take electrolyte or salt tablets.This books is the ideal companion to Holland's "The 12-Week Triathlete." Casual and core triathletes alike require a nutrition guide that is easy to understand with expert advice that is easy to implement. Look no further and get ready to take your triathlon to a new, healthier level.

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You're Not Lost If You Can Still See the Truck: The Further Adventures of America's Everyman Outdoorsman

Writing for magazines and newspapers for more than twenty years, including two decades at Field & Stream, Bill Heavey has become famous as America's everyman outdoorsman, unafraid to draw attention to his many and varied failures--from sporting French lavender deodorant to scaring a UPS man half to death while bowhunting in his front yard. Heavey's 2007 collection If You Didn't Bring Jerky What Did I Just Eat?, co-published with Field & Stream, the leading American outdoors magazine, was a resounding success that went into multiple hardcover printings. This new book, again co-published with Field & Stream, collects more of Heavey's top pieces from the magazine, as well as the best of his writing from the Washington Post and elsewhere. In this far-ranging read, Heavey's adventures include nearly freezing to death in Eastern Alaska, hunting ants in the urban jungles of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and reconnecting to cherished memories of his grandfather through an inherited gun collection. With Heavey's trademark witty candor, You're Not Lost if You Can Still See the Truck traces a life lived outdoors through the good, the bad, and the downright hilarious.

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Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at twenty-eight was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death.
Boy on Ice is the richly told story of a mountain of a man who made it to the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Widely regarded as the toughest man in the NHL, Boogaard was a gentle man off the ice but a merciless fighter on it. With great narrative drive, Branch recounts Boogaard's unlikely journey from lumbering kid playing pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan, so big his skates would routinely break beneath his feet; to his teenaged junior hockey days, when one brutal outburst of violence brought Boogaard to the attention of professional scouts; to his days and nights as a star enforcer with the Minnesota Wild and the storied New York Rangers, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But, as Branch reveals, behind the scenes Boogaard's injuries and concussions were mounting and his mental state was deteriorating, culminating in his early death from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers.
Based on months of investigation and hundreds of interviews with Boogaard's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, Boy on Ice is a brilliant work for fans of Michael Lewis's The Blind Side or Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. This is a book that raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports from peewees to professionals and the damage that reaches far beyond the game."

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