Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball

The campaign to desegregate baseball was one of the most important civil rights stories of the 1930s and 1940s. But most of white America knew nothing about this story because mainstream newspapers said little about the color line and less about the efforts to end it. Even today, as far as most Americans know, the integration of baseball revolved around Branch Rickey's signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization in 1945. This book shows how Rickey's move, critical as it may well have been, came after more than a decade of work by black and left-leaning journalists to desegregate the game. Drawing on hundreds of newspaper articles and interviews with journalists, Chris Lamb reveals how differently black and white newspapers, and black and white America, viewed racial equality. He shows how white mainstream sportswriters perpetuated the color line by participating in what their black counterparts called a "conspiracy of silence." Between 1933 and 1945, black newspapers and the Communist" Daily Worker" published hundreds of articles and editorials calling for an end to baseball's color line. The efforts of the alternative presses to end baseball's color line, chronicled for the first time in "Conspiracy of Silence," constitute one of baseball's--and the civil rights movement's--great untold stories.

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This is magnificent. Appel, a veteran writer and PR person (longtime for the Yankees), manages the near-impossible: a huge, incredibly detailed history of the New York Yankees that never bogs down or spends too long in any one place. The style is as smooth as can be, as Appel moves from the team's murky beginnings in money, politics, and graft and on to Sunday baseball, the Titanic benefit (who knew?), the first Yankee no-hitter, the first World Series win. The Yankees, always conservative, came late to radio, night games, field lighting, and fan promotion. The DH, free agency, the Red Sox rivalry all show up, along with every player you want to remember and some whom fans might not. There were very good years (1927) and bad stretches (1965-75), and Appel rolls right through, chronologically, with a nugget on almost every page: a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Ruth and Gehrig on six pitches in an exhibition game in Chattanooga in 1931; no exact transcript exists of Lou Gehrig's luckiest man speech; Yogi Berra comes to spring training every year, and former All-Star Ron Guidry drives him about, wearing his Driving Mr. Yogi cap. Yogi himself and Bernie Williams wrote a foreword and a preface respectively; Frank Graham Jr., whose father wrote the first major history of the Yankees, contributes the introduction. Indispensable for any fan and for historians of the game of baseball.

 by Marton Appel               (Find the Book)
This is magnificent. Appel, a veteran writer and PR person (longtime for the Yankees), manages the near-impossible: a huge, incredibly detailed history of the New York Yankees that never bogs down or spends too long in any one place. The style is as smooth as can be, as Appel moves from the team's murky beginnings in money, politics, and graft and on to Sunday baseball, the Titanic benefit (who knew?), the first Yankee no-hitter, the first World Series win. The Yankees, always conservative, came late to radio, night games, field lighting, and fan promotion. The DH, free agency, the Red Sox rivalry all show up, along with every player you want to remember and some whom fans might not. There were very good years (1927) and bad stretches (1965-75), and Appel rolls right through, chronologically, with a nugget on almost every page: a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Ruth and Gehrig on six pitches in an exhibition game in Chattanooga in 1931; no exact transcript exists of Lou Gehrig's luckiest man speech; Yogi Berra comes to spring training every year, and former All-Star Ron Guidry drives him about, wearing his Driving Mr. Yogi cap. Yogi himself and Bernie Williams wrote a foreword and a preface respectively; Frank Graham Jr., whose father wrote the first major history of the Yankees, contributes the introduction. Indispensable for any fan and for historians of the game of baseball. --Booklist

Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man: Guts, Glory, and Blood in the World's Greatest Game

If all sports are really about war, then rugby is a heart-thumping epic of bayonet charges and hand-to-hand fighting. In "Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man," bestselling author Jay Atkinson describes his thirty-five year odyssey in the sport-from his rough and rowdy days at the University of Florida, through the intrigue of various foreign tours, club championships, and all star selections, up to his current stint with the freewheeling Vandals Rugby Club out of Los Angeles. Jay has played in more than 500 matches, for which he's suffered three broken ribs, a detached retina, a fractured cheekbone and orbital bone, four deadened teeth, and a dislocated ankle. Written in the style of Siegried Sassoon's Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Atkinson's book explains why it was all worth it--the sum total of his violent adventures, and the valuable insights he has gained from them.

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Eclipse: The Horse That Changed Racing History Forever

A chestnut with a white blaze is scorching across the turf towards the finishing post. His four rivals are so far behind him that, in racing terms, they are "nowhere." Watching Eclipse is the man who wants to buy him. An adventurer and rogue who has made his money through gambling, Dennis O'Kelly is also companion to the madam of a notorious London brothel.
While O'Kelly is destined to remain an outcast to the racing establishment, his horse will go on to become the undisputed, undefeated champion of his sport. Eclipse's male-line descendants include Secretariat, Barbaro, and all but three of the Kentucky Derby winners of the past fifty years.

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Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931

The Philadelphia Athletics dominated the first fourteen years of the American League, winning six pennants through 1914 under the leadership of their founder and manager, Connie Mack. But beginning in 1915, where volume 2 in Norman L. Macht's biography picks up the story, Mack's teams fell from pennant winners to last place and, in an unprecedented reversal of fortunes, stayed there for seven years. World War I robbed baseball of young players, and Mack's rebuilding efforts using green youngsters of limited ability made his teams the objects of public ridicule.
At the age of fifty-nine and in the face of widespread skepticism and seemingly insurmountable odds, Connie Mack reasserted his genius, remade the A's, and rose again to the top, even surpassing his earlier success. Baseball biographer and historian Macht recreates what may be the most remarkable chapter in this larger-than-life story. He shows us the man and his time and the game of baseball in all its nitty-gritty glory of the 1920s, and how Connie Mack built the 1929-1931 champions of Foxx, Simmons, Cochrane, Grove, Earnshaw, Miller, Haas, Bishop, Dykes--a team many consider baseball's greatest ever.

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2012 Minor League Baseball Analyst (7TH ed.)

The first book of its kind to fully integrate sabermetrics and scouting, the "2012""Minor League Baseball Analyst" provides a distinctive brand of analysis for more than 1,000 minor league baseball players. A one of a kind analysis, this resource is ideally suited for baseball analysts and those who play in fantasy leagues with farm systems.

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Building Outdoor Gear, 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded: Easy-To-Make Projects for Camping, Fishing, Hunting and Canoeing

Outdoor people don’t make their own gear to save money. The fly fisherman who ties his own flies or makes her own rods will readily admit, if they are honest, that they have more money tied up in inventory and tools than they would ever have spent on store-bought flies or fly rods. Economy isn’t the objective; it is the satisfaction of making something and then seeing it do what it was designed to do. And, they will argue, what they make is better than what they can buy. They are right!

In this book, you’ll find a variety of fun and functional projects for the outdoor enthusiast. From a canoe paddle to a pack frame to a reflector oven—you’ll find the instruction you need to for items to keep you safe and comfortable on your adventures. Besides the great outdoor equipment you can build from this book, there is detailed information on the use of epoxy technology—the greatest boon to the outdoorsman since the birch bark canoe. And a generous collection of hints, tips, ideas, and recipes will make your days outdoors more enjoyable and productive.

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Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America

Fenway Park. The name evokes a team and a sport that have become more synonymous with a city's identity than any stadium or arena in the country. Since opening in the same week of 1912 that the Titanic sank, the park's instantly recognizable confines have seen some of the most dramatic happenings in baseball history, including Carlton Fisk's "Is it fair?" home run in the 1975 World Series and Ted Williams's perfectly scripted long ball in his final at-bat. For 100 years, the Fenway faithful have been tested. They have known triumph and heartbreak, miracles and curses--well, one curse in particular--to such a degree that an entire nation of fans heaved a collective sigh of relief when Dave Roberts stole a base by a fingertip in 2004, triggering the most amazing comeback in the game's annals. To sit and watch a game at Fenway is to recognize that the pitcher is standing on the same mound where Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Babe Ruth pitched, that a hitter is in the same batter's box where Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron and Shoeless Joe Jackson dug in to take their swings. This is a ballpark that has embraced its odd construction quirks, including the bizarre triangle out in center field and the Green Monster that looms above the left fielder, and today--for better and for worse--it remains largely unchanged from the day it opened.In its long history, Fenway has hosted football, hockey, soccer, boxing, and so much more. It has provided a backdrop to hundreds of historic events having nothing to do with sports, including concerts, religious gatherings, and political rallies. It was the site of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's final campaign address, as well as visits by music luminaries from Stevie Wonder to Bruce Springsteen to the Rolling Stones. Through it all, the Boston Globe has been the consistent, respected chronicler of every important moment in park history. In fact, the newspaper played a remarkable role in Fenway's creation and evolution: the Taylor family--founders and longtime owners of the Globe--owned the ballclub in 1912, helped finance the new stadium, and renamed the team the "Red Sox." It is the Globe's insider perspective, combined with more than a century of exemplary journalism, that makes this book the definitive narrative history of both park and team, and a centennial collectors' item unlike any other. Its pages offer a level of detail that is unmatched, with exceptional writing and hundreds of rarely seen photographs and illustrations.
This is Fenway Park, the complete story, unfiltered and expertly told.

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Heart of Iron: My Journey from Transplant Patient to Ironman Triathlete

Throughout his life, Kyle Garlett hated nothing more than losing, and he knew early on that four diagnoses of cancer could not match his spirit of competition. His appetite for victory and his love of life pushed him over his health hurdles--including a bone marrow transplant, hip replacement, and heart transplant--and into the greatest challenge of his life: the Ironman World Championship. Kyle tells his amazing life story with clear-headed optimism and a winning sense of humor, beginning with his first diagnosis of lymphoma as a teenager and continuing through years of chemotherapy that destroyed his joints and weakened his heart. Not just about his health crisis but also about forging a remarkable life around cancer and his career as a sportwriter, the amazing friends and family who supported him, and finding love. After five and half years on the organ transplant waiting list then being gifted with a new heart, Kyle embarks on a challenge of his own making: to compete in the Ironman Triathlon, in which he competed not once but twice. His miraculous recovery and athleticism are recounted, along with the story of how he became an Olympic torch bearer, a devoted Lymphoma & Leukemia Society spokesperson, a motivational speaker, and an author. "Heart of Iron" is an invaluable companion for those affected by cancer and a breathtaking memoir about one man's unstoppable spirit and success against all odds.

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The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods

The Big Miss "is Hank Haney's candid and surprisingly insightful account of his tumultuous six-year journey with Tiger Woods, during which the supremely gifted golfer collected six major championships and rewrote golf history. Hank was one of the very few people allowed behind the curtain. He was with Tiger 110 days a year, spoke to him over 200 days a year, and stayed at his home up to 30 days a year, observing him in nearly every circumstance: at tournaments, on the practice range, over meals, with his wife, Elin, and relaxing with friends.
The relationship between the two men began in March 2004 when Hank received a call from Tiger in which the golf champion asked him to be his coach. It was a call that would change both men's lives.
Tiger--only 28 at the time--was by then already an icon, judged by the sporting press as not only one of the best golfers ever, but possibly the best "athlete "ever. Already he was among the world's highest paid celebrities. There was an air of mystery surrounding him, an aura of invincibility. Unique among athletes, Tiger seemed to be able to shrug off any level of pressure and find a way to win.
But Tiger was always looking to improve, and he wanted Hank's help.
What Hank soon came to appreciate was that Tiger was one of the most complicated individuals he'd ever met, let alone coached. Although Hank had worked with hundreds of elite golfers and was not easily impressed, there were days watching Tiger on the range when Hank couldn't believe what he was witnessing. On those days, it was impossible to imagine another""human playing golf so perfectly.
And yet Tiger "is "human--and Hank's expert eye was adept at spotting where Tiger's perfection ended and an opportunity for improvement existed. Always haunting Tiger was his fear of "the big miss"--the wildly inaccurate golf shot that can ruin an otherwise solid round--and it was because that type of blunder was sometimes part of Tiger's game that Hank carefully redesigned his swing mechanics.
Hank's""most formidable""coaching challenge, though, would be solving the riddle of Tiger's personality. Wary of the emotional distractions that might diminish his game and put him further from his goals, Tiger had developed a variety of tactics to keep people from getting too close, and not even Hank--or Tiger's family and friends, for that matter--was spared "the treatment."
Toward the end of Tiger and Hank's time together, the champion's laser-like focus began to blur and he became less willing to put in punishing hours practicing--a disappointment to Hank, who saw in Tiger's behavior signs that his pupil had developed a conflicted relationship with the game. Hints that Tiger hungered to reinvent himself were present in his bizarre infatuation with elite military training, and--in a development Hank "didn't "see coming--in the scandal that would make headlines in late 2009. It all added up to a big miss that Hank, try as he might, couldn't save Tiger from.
There's never been a book about Tiger Woods that is as intimate and revealing--or one so wise about what it takes to coach a superstar athlete.

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