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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