Geoff Shreeves is a giant of football. From reporting pitchside on the biggest matches to his iconic appearances in EA's FIFA series, Geoff's warmth, humour and expertise have made him a constant fixture of the sport. In Cheers Geoff! he shares hilarious, bizarre and moving stories from across his incredible career. A The Times Sports Books of the Year 'Cracking read . . . loved it' - Piers Morgan 'Packed with brilliant anecdotes about the biggest names' - The Mirror There are just a handful of people who have been ever-present for the thirty years of the Premier League, but only one person has been at the very epicentre for the entire period: Geoff Shreeves. From signalling the very first ball to be kicked on Sky's Premier League coverage to facing down Sir Alex Ferguson's wrath (on countless occasions), Geoff is an integral part of the football fabric, respected by everybody in the game while still asking the toughest questions. Geoff's interviews with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Arsene Wenger, Frank Lampard and Alan Shearer have become the stuff of legend, but it is his close personal relationships with the game's star names that really sets him apart. Packed full of hilarious stories on and off the pitch - including trying to teach Sir Michael Caine how to act, a frightening encounter with Mike Tyson, as well as getting a lift home from the World Cup with Mick Jagger - Cheers, Geoff! is a must-read autobiography for any fan of the beautiful game. A natural storyteller, Geoff brings an astonishing catalogue of tales to life with his unique brand of experience, insight and humour. 'A legend' - Arsene Wenger 'No one handles the big moments better' - Jordan Henderson With a foreward from Alan Shearer.

This book carefully examines the careers of the fifty men who made the greatest impact on one of the most successful franchises in the history of professional sports. Features of The 50 Greatest Players in Detroit Tigers History include quotes from opposing players and former teammates, summaries of each player's best season, recaps of their most memorable performances, and listings of their notable achievements.

In the past few decades, Spanish football has undergone a significant transformation, both on and off the pitch. Llopis-Goig analyses these trends, questioning the role of football in contemporary Spanish society and examining the historical reasons for its social hegemony.

Author Ted Kluck found, online, a community of computer nerds and football enthusiasts so rooted in the past and so uninterested in the future that they have created algorithms and computer software that can accurately simulate football games, seasons, and careers using fields of data that already exist on the thousands of players who have suited up in the National Football League. All of these players are now old. Some of them are now dead. But they became the object of Ted Kluck's fascination. The Odyssey Online Football league began in 2006, with the 1966 NFL season, and has been gradually working its way through NFL history ever since, "drafting" players, crafting game plans, calling plays, winning and losing. Theories are tested. Team owners have theories. What if NFL teams went back to power offenses like the late-80s Parcellsian Giants? Are running backs over 220 pounds more effective and less likely to get hurt? Can a running quarterback survive if he's deployed more like a running back? And why are there whole groups of people out there this obsessed with the past? Past Time explores these questions and many others, as the author-a jaded journalist, a lifelong football player, and a burned-out coach-spends a year immersed in the late 1970s, in hopes of rekindling his love for the game. Part memoir and part Bill-Jamesian exploration into football nerdery, Past Time is an homage to football's past, and a meditation on its present and future.

LeBron James is simultaneously on the cutting edge of basketball greatness and as a cultural icon. Through the international exposure of the National Basketball Association and its televised games in more than 100 countries, and as a global marketing presence, the star of the Cleveland Cavaliers is rapidly becoming one of the world's most familiar faces. This biography traces the key events in the life of LeBron James during his dizzying rise to fame in high school to his emergence as the first overall pick in the NBA draft as an 18-year-old, to his carrying the underdog Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals.

Hyped relentlessly from the time he was a high school sophomore in Ohio, James has lived up to all advance billing and with his charm, smile, and extraordinary basketball skills. James' all-around talent and unselfishness on the court are the trademarks of his play that have made him one of the most feared scorers in the league, but also one of its most versatile rebounders and passers. This biography offers a well-rounded portrait James from the difficulties encountered being raised by a single mother and overcoming poverty, which at times caused the family to move from home to home. Lew Freedman of the "Chicago Tribune" chronicles the milestones in the life of LeBron James during his dizzying rise to fame. Also highlighted are James' remarkable endorsement deals, particularly his $90 million deal with Nike. The volume is rounded out with a timeline and a bibliography of print and electronic sources to provide suggested readings for students and sports fans alike.

So You Think You Know Football? is the motherlode of NFL rules and their interpretations. Whether you know everything about on- and off-field rules or are a true novice, Austro deftly illustrates the ins and outs of the NFL rulebook using examples from actual games. Test your inner referee with questions about the correct call and how slight changes might affect the ruling. Do you know why spiking the ball immediately to stop the clock is not considered intentional grounding, while hesitating a few seconds then spiking the ball is? See if you would have made the right call in a game played between the Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders on November 27, 2011-with additional quiz questions from other games involving similar controversies. Keep this book right next to your favorite football-watching chair to consult during the game and visit ThinkYouKnowFootball.com to stay updated on interpretations affected by rule modifications.

Do you enjoy golf and travel to exotic locations in overseas countries? "The World Is Our Course" is a guide to fantastic golfing around the world, written by Dr. Jerry Bailey, founder of Bailey Golf Tours. Find out where to play some of the finer courses around the world, while allowing time for the local sights. This book includes details about playing many courses and their histories. Dr. Bailey also recounts some of the more amusing adventures he has had while golfing and traveling in this entertaining and informative book.

The last player to hit .400 in the Major Leagues, Ted Williams approached hitting as both an art and a science. Through his discipline, drive, and extraordinarily keen eyesight, "The Splendid Splinter" became the best hitter in baseball. From his early days as a cocksure rookie for the Boston Red Sox, through his two Triple Crown seasons, six batting titles, his service in two wars, and his tenure as a Major League manager, Ted Williams forged an indelible image in the minds of baseball fans. Yet Williams's public resentment toward fans and, especially, the media, made him few friends. Bruce Markusen presents the brilliant and often embittered career of the man whose mission was to become the greatest hitter of all time. A timeline, bibliography, and narrative chapter on the making of Williams' legend enhance this biography.

It has been said that hitting is the hardest thing to do in professional sports. "Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters" series presents biographies on Greenwood's selection for the twelve best hitters in Major League history, written by some of today's best baseball authors. These books present straight forward stories in accessible language for the high school researcher and the general reader alike.

"The definitive book of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers" (Scott Brown, "ESPN"): A unique literary sports book that--through exquisite reportage, love, and honesty--tells the full story of the best team to ever play the game.
The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and three decades later their names echo in popular memory: "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, and John Stallworth. In ways exhilarating and heartbreaking, they define not only the brotherhood of sports but those elements of the game that engage tens of millions of Americans: its artistry and its brutality.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews, "Their Life's Work" is a richly textured story of a team and a sport, what the game gave these men, and what the game took. It gave fame, wealth, and, above all, a brotherhood of players, twelve of whom died before turning sixty. To a man, they said they'd do it again, all of it. They bared the soul of the game to Gary Pomerantz, and he captured it wondrously. "Here is a book as hard-hitting and powerful as the 'Steel Curtain' dynasty that Pomerantz depicts so deftly. It's the NFL's version of "The Boys of Summer," with equal parts triumph and melancholy. Pomerantz's writing is strong, straightforward, funny, sentimental, and blunt. It's as working class and gritty as the men he writes about" ("The Tampa Tribune," Top 10 Sports Books of 2013).

"The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime."
During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath-two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports-changed the game of college football forever. Brilliantly and urgently drawn, this is the gripping account of how these two very different men-Bryant a legendary coach in the South who was facing a pair of ethics scandals that threatened his career, and Namath a cocky Northerner from a steel mill town in Pennsylvania-led the Crimson Tide to a national championship.
To Bryant and Namath, the game was everything. But no one could ignore the changes sweeping the nation between 1961 and 1965-from the Freedom Rides to the integration of colleges across the South and the assassination of President Kennedy. Against this explosive backdrop, Bryant and Namath changed the meaning of football. Their final contest together, the 1965 Orange Bowl, was the first football game broadcast nationally, in color, during prime time, signaling a new era for the sport and the nation.
Award-winning biographer Randy Roberts and sports historian Ed Krzemienski showcase the moment when two thoroughly American traditions-football and Dixie-collided. A compelling story of race and politics, honor and the will to win, RISING TIDE captures a singular time in America. More than a history of college football, this is the story of the struggle and triumph of a nation in transition and the legacy of two of the greatest heroes the sport has ever seen.

To the Nines will introduce you to a whole new golfing experience by sharing the stories of nineteen nine-hole layouts across the country. Fenwick, Katherine Hepburn's playground, dates back to the 1890s. Just before a hurricane destroyed her family home in 1938, Hepburn aced Fenwick's ninth hole and shot even par. Long before Mike Keiser set out to turn a chunk of Oregon coast into one of the world's great golf destinations, he built The Dunes Club, easily the finest nine-hole course of the modern era. To the Nines will send you on a mission to discover the roots of the game, and to seek out your own unique and unheralded courses. This second edition includes recent renovations and rebunkering of several of these classic "nines" as well as a chapter on a newly built course.

Blending exclusive rare interviews with Rachel Robinson (Jackie's widow), Mack Robinson (Jackie's brother), Hall of Famers Monte Irvin, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Ralph Kiner, and others, celebrated author Harvey Frommer evokes the lives of general manager Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson by describing how they worked together to shatter baseball's color line. Rickey and Robinson is a dual biography tracing the convergence of the lives of two of baseball's most influential individuals in a marker moment in sports and cultural history.