Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football's Forgotten Town

In a town deep in the Florida Everglades, where high school football is the only escape, a haunted quarterback, a returning hero, and a scholar struggle against terrible odds.
The loamy black "muck" that surrounds Belle Glade, Florida once built an empire for Big Sugar and provided much of the nation's vegetables, often on the backs of roving, destitute migrants. Many of these were children who honed their skills along the field rows and started one of the most legendary football programs in America. Belle Glade's high school team, the Glades Central Raiders, has sent an extraordinary number of players to the National Football League - 27 since 1985, with five of those drafted in the first round.
The industry that gave rise to the town and its team also spawned the chronic poverty, teeming migrant ghettos, and violence that cripples futures before they can ever begin. "Muck City" tells the story of quarterback Mario Rowley, whose dream is to win a championship for his deceased parents and quiet the ghosts that haunt him; head coach Jessie Hester, the town's first NFL star, who returns home to "win kids, not championships"; and Jonteria Willliams, who must build her dream of becoming a doctor in one of the poorest high schools in the nation. For boys like Mario, being a Raider is a one-shot window for escape and a college education. Without football, Jonteria and the rest must make it on brains and fortitude alone. For the coach, good intentions must battle a town's obsession to win above all else.
Beyond the Friday night lights, this book is an engrossing portrait of a community mired in a shameful past and uncertain future, but with the fierce will to survive, win, and escape to a better life.

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Winning Spirit Basketball: Find Your Greatness Within

Winning Spirit Basketball grew out of conversations between basketball great Chris Mullin and sports psychologist Tom Mitchell about players, coaches, parents and the game of basketball. The book was written specifically for players who want to gain a competitive edge and a better understanding of the habits and behaviors that are key to an athlete's success: confidence, communication, work ethic, teamwork, practice and concentration. It is also valuable for parents and coaches who want to help players develop their mental game.Though written by a Hall of Fame player and former basketball head coach, this book is not about the Xs and Os of basketball. Readers will not learn how to run a play, shoot a free throw, or break a full court press. Rather, they will learn about the values within the game of basketball that help you become a better player on the court and a better person in life. Through basic, easy-to-understand messages and exercises, athletes of all ages will be able to put the things they learn from this book into practice immediately.

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Build the Swing of a Lifetime: The Four-Step Approach to a More Efficient Swing

The best way to shave multiple strokes off your golf game is to develop an efficient, repeatable swing that enables you to hit the ball farther and straighter with greater consistency. To achieve this ideal swing, you need a clear picture of the finished product and a simple step-by-step process for building it, testing it, and maintaining it. Now you have it.
In Build the Swing of a Lifetime, Mike Bender, one of Golf Digest's 5 Best Teachers in America, shows you how to develop the same swing that boosted the careers of 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, multiple PGA Tour winner Jonathan Byrd, and 2006 LPGA Rookie of the Year Seon Hwa Lee.
Mike Bender didn't become the 2009 PGA National Teacher of the Year by offering quick fixes and compensations for deficient swings. He did it by creating a science-based, biomechanical approach to understanding the elements of an efficient, powerful, repeatable swing and devising a simple, checkable method for practicing and perfecting that swing.
In four simple steps illustrated by 150 photographs, Mike shows you how to aim and turn properly, get your hands on the correct downswing plane, and match up your arm swing and body rotation to square the clubface more consistently. He provides clear and simple guidance on how to make sure you're practicing each step correctly. Using broken club shafts, construction cones, and other forms of feedback, you'll discover how to check your alignment and posture, and make sure that your shaft and hands are moving on-plane in good sequence with one another.
There are a million ways to hit a golf ball, but only one is the most efficient way to produce shots that are consistently long and on target, and only one will help you keep shaving that handicap down toward scratch for as long as you keep playing. That is the swing you will develop by practicing and applying what you learn in Build the Swing of a Lifetime.

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The Wild Duck Chase: Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest

"The Wild Duck Chase "takes readers into the peculiar world of competitive duck painting as it played out during the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest-the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government. Since 1934, the duck stamp, which is bought annually by hunters to certify their hunting license, has generated more than $750 million, and 98 cents of each collected dollar has been used to help purchase or lease 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the U.S.-the core of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
As Martin J. Smith chronicles in his revealing narrative, within the microcosm of the duck stamp contest are intense ideological and cultural clashes between the mostly rural hunters who buy the stamps and the mostly suburban and urban birders and conservationists who decry the hunting of waterfowl. At issue is preserving the habitat of ducks and other waterfowl for all to enjoy: If the number of hunters continues to decrease-and unless nature lovers support the duck stamp program-this landmark conservation effort faces possible extinction.
The competition also fuels dynamic tensions between competitors and judges, and among the invariably ambitious, sometimes obsessive, and often eccentric artists-including Minnesota's three fabled Hautman brothers, the "New York Yankees" of competitive duck painting. Martin Smith takes readers down an arcane and uniquely American rabbit hole into a wonderland of talent, ego, art, controversy, scandal, big money, and migratory waterfowl.

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The Perfect Game: How Villanova's Shocking 1985 Upset of Mighty Georgetown Changed the Landscape of College Hoops Forever

Critically acclaimed veteran sportswriter Frank Fitzpatrick takes readers courtside for one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history, the 1985 Villanova/Georgetown national championship showdown
A veteran Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Frank Fitzpatrick has long followed and covered Villanova basketball. In all that time, nothing compares with the Wildcats' legendary 1985 upset of Georgetown--a win so spectacular and unusually flawless that days after its conclusion, sports columnists were already calling it "The Perfect Game."
The game, particularly its second half, was so different from what observers expected--so different, in fact, from what anyone had ever seen that a shroud of myth almost immediately began to envelop it. Over the years, the game took on mythological proportions with heroes and villains, but with a darker, more complex subtext. In the midst of the sunny Reagan Administration, the game had been played out amid darker themes--race, death, and, though no one knew it at the time, drugs.
It was a night when the basketball world turned upside down. Villanova-Georgetown would be a perfect little microcosm of the 1980s. And it would be much more. Even now, a quarter-century later, the upset gives hope to sporting Davids everywhere. At the start of every NCAA Tournament, it is recalled as an exemplar of March's madness. Whenever sport's all-time upsets are ranked, it is high on those lists, along with hockey's Miracle on Ice. Now, through interviews with the players and coaches, through the work of sociologists and cultural critics, through the eyes of those who witnessed the game, Fitzpatrick brings to life the events of and surrounding that fateful night.

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Running Ransom Road: Confronting the Past, One Marathon at a Time

The monikers "drunk," "addict," "abuser," and "boozehound "were Caleb Daniloff's for fifteen years. Now, the introduction that fits him best is "My name is Caleb and I am a runner."
In Running Ransom Road, Daniloff, many years sober, confronts his past by setting out, over the course of eighteen months, to run marathons in the cities where he once lived and wreaked havoc. Competing from Boston to New York, Vermont to Moscow, Daniloff explores the sobering and inspiring effects of running as he traverses the trails of his former self, lined with dark bars, ratty apartments, lost loves, and lost chances. With each race he comes to understand who he is, and by extension who he was, and he finds he is not alone. There are countless souls in sneakers running away from something, or better, running past and through whatever it is that haunts them.
In this powerful story of ruin, running, and redemption, Daniloff illuminates the connection between running and addiction and shows that the road to recovery is an arduous but conquerable one. Strapping on a pair of Nikes won't banish all your demons, but it can play an important role in maintaining a clean life. For Daniloff, sweat, strained lungs, and searing muscles are among the paving stones of empowerment, and, if he's lucky, perhaps even self-forgiveness.

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Soldiers First: Duty, Honor, Country, and Football at West Point

Bestselling author Joe Drape reveals the unique pressures and expectations that make a year of Army football so much more than just a tally of wins and losses.
The football team at the U.S. Military Academy is not like other college football teams. At other schools, athletes are catered to and coddled at every turn. At West Point, they carry the same arduous load as their fellow cadets, shouldering an Ivy League-caliber education and year-round military training. After graduation they are not going to the NFL but to danger zones halfway around the world. These young men are not just football players, they are soldiers first.
"New York Times" sportswriter Joe Drape takes us inside the world of Army football, as the Black Knights and their third-year coach, Rich Ellerson, seek to turn around a program that had recently fallen on hard times, with the goal to beat Navy and "sing last" at the Army-Navy game in December. The 2011 season would prove a true test of the players' mettle and perseverance.
Drawing on his extensive and unfettered access to the players and the coaching staff, Drape introduces us to this special group of young men and their achievements on and off the field. Anchoring the narrative and the team are five key players: quarterback Trent Steelman, the most gifted athlete; linebacker Steve Erzinger, who once questioned his place at West Point but has become a true leader; Andrew Rodriguez, the son of a general and the top scholar-athlete; Max Jenkins, the backup quarterback and the second-in-command of the Corps of Cadets; and Larry Dixon, a talented first-year running back. Together with Coach Ellerson, his staff, and West Point's officers and instructors, they and their teammates embrace the demands made on them and learn crucial lessons that will resonate throughout their lives--and ours.

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Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story

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By the time he retired, Brad Park had surpassed the great Bobby Orr in career assists by a defenseman. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible, and later named one of the Top 100 NHL players of all time by "The Hockey News," Park will forever be remembered as one of the greatest men ever to take the ice. The first and only authorized biography of Park's life and career, "Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story," delves deeper into his legendary success than any book has before, bringing together exclusive, candid insights from Park himself, as well as interviews with dozens of players, family members, and key figures from the hockey world.
Covering Park's early years growing up in Toronto, to his first exposure to the NHL with the New York Rangers and his stellar performance with the Boston Bruins, through the twilight of his career and retirement, the book examines every aspect of his remarkable life in unprecedented detail. Giving hockey fans a full, frank look at the career of an NHL legend--including the challenges Park faced in his personal life, including caring for his physically handicapped son--"Straight Shooter" is a fascinating look at one of the game's true greats.Offers a fascinating insight into the life of Brad Park, one of the greatest defensemen the NHL has ever seenCovers Park's life in detail, from his time with the Rangers and Bruins to his experiences with Team Canada in the 1972 Summit SeriesFeatures a Foreword from hockey legend Don Cherry
Working closely with Park himself, writer and researcher Thom Sears has created a thorough, authorized biography of one of the NHL's greatest legends and an essential read for hockey fans everywhere.

 

The Ultimate Super Bowl Book: A Complete Reference to the Stats, Stars, and Stories Behind Football's Biggest Game--And Why the Best Team Won (2ND ed.)

With a television viewership of over 100 million people and hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on tickets, concessions, and merchandise alone, the Super Bowl is the greatest game on Earth. Offering in-depth analysis, detailed statistics, play-by-play recaps, and post-game insights for every Super Bowl ever played, "The Ultimate Super Bowl Book" is the most definitive reference to this iconic sporting event, exploring all the high and lows from more than four decades of gridiron drama, with stories and quotes from the men who made history on football's biggest stage. In addition to a comprehensive examination of each Super Bowl played since 1967, the book presents features on the greatest individual performances in Super Bowl history--from Joe Namath to Joe Montana, Tom Brady to Aaron Rodgers, Marcus Allen to Emmitt Smith, Jack Lambert to James Harrison--and the best and worst decisions by some legendary coaches, including Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, and more. Author Bob McGinn weighs in on the biggest Super Bowl shockers, the worst blunders, and the most entertaining characters. Quotes from players and coaches take you to the sidelines and into the huddle with the greatest teams in Super Bowl History, including the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, and more. No sporting event can compete with the Super Bowl--and no book can compete with this one as the ultimate reference to the ultimate game.

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Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds

This may be hard to believe but it is very likely that more people live in closer proximity to more wild animals, birds and trees in the eastern United States today than anywhere on the planet at any time in history. For nature lovers, this should be wonderful news -- unless, perhaps, you are one of more than 4,000 drivers who will hit a deer today, your child's soccer field is carpeted with goose droppings, coyotes are killing your pets, the neighbor's cat has turned your bird feeder into a fast-food outlet, wild turkeys have eaten your newly-planted seed corn, beavers have flooded your driveway, or bears are looting your garbage cans.
For 400 years, explorers, traders, and settlers plundered North American wildlife and forests in an escalating rampage that culminated in the late 19th century's "era of extermination." By 1900, populations of many wild animals and birds had been reduced to isolated remnants or threatened with extinction, and worry mounted that we were running out of trees. Then, in the 20th century, an incredible turnaround took place. Conservationists struggled to reverse wildlife devastation by outlawing commercial hunting, creating wildlife sanctuaries, transplanting isolated species to restored habitats and imposing regulations on hunters and trappers. Over decades, they slowly nursed many wild populations back to health.
But after the Second World War something happened that conservationists hadn't foreseen: sprawl. People moved first into suburbs on urban edges, and then kept moving out across a landscape once occupied by family farms. By 2000, a majority of Americans lived in neither cities nor country but in that vast in-between. Much of sprawl has plenty of trees and its human residents offer up more and better amenities than many wild creatures can find in the wild: plenty of food, water, hiding places, and protection from predators with guns. The result is a mix of people and wildlife that should be an animal-lover's dream-come-true but often turns into a sprawl-dweller's nightmare.
"Nature Wars" offers an eye-opening look at how our well-meaning efforts to protect animals allowed wild populations to burgeon out of control, causing damage costing billions, degrading ecosystems, and touching off disputes that divided neighborhoods, polarized communities, and wreaked havoc on local politics. What's more, award-winning journalist and reporter Jim Sterba demonstrates what happens when Americans now spend 90% of their time indoors and how our society lost touch with the natural landscape and got its ideas about nature from films and television shows where wild creatures act like humans or are portrayed as furry, cuddly animals.
A deeply researched, eloquently written, counterintuitive and often humorous look at relations between man and beast--and the deepening chasm between the two--" Nature Wars" will be the definitive book on how we created this unintended mess.
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