Bismarck once said that God looked after drunkards, children and the U.S. of A. Some say that baseball should be added to the list. It must have been divine intervention that led the sport through a series of transformative challenges from the end of World War II to the games first expansion in 1961. During this period baseball was forced to make a number of painful choices. From 1949 to 1954, attendance dropped more than 30 percent, as once loyal fans turned to other activities, started going to see more football, and began watching television. Also, the sport had to wrestle with racial integration, franchise shifts and unionization while trying to keep a firm hold on the minds and emotions of the public. This work chronicles how baseball, with imagination and some foresight, survived postwar challenges. Some of the solutions came about intelligently, some clumsily, but by 1960 baseball was a stronger, healthier and better balanced institution than ever before.

Be inspired by Football Legend, Kylian Mbappe! Discover more about this incredible player's journey from his early career at AS Bondy, coached by his father, to his success at Paris Saint-Germain FC and fulfilling his dream of playing for France. Football Legends: Young readers will love finding out all about the lives of their favourite players in this incredible biography series. Packed with footie facts and match stats plus Mbappe's career highlights Also in the series: Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Tammy Abraham, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lionel Messi. Amazing cover artwork illustrated by Stanley Chow, whose iconic work has found worldwide acclaim

Once the opinionated, party-going socialite, complete with celebrity girlfriends and ridiculous haircuts, Kevin Pietersen has developed into the biggest crowd pleaser in English cricket, some would say modern sport. This fascinating and well-researched biography draws on interviews with Pietersen and those who know him best, including many of his mentors, team-mates and opponents. As Pietersen prepares for his biggest challenge yet - leading England's attempt to regain the Ashes from Australia - this unique appraisal tells, for the first time, the full story behind Britain's most exhilarating and successful sportsman.

This ground breaking collection provides the first detailed social analysis of football within Africa. The book features case-study essays that draw heavily on detailed fieldwork to examine the distinctive football cultures that have grown up in African communities. The book should be compulsory reading, for social scientists in sport studies and African studies, and for informed football followers everywhere.

Though many of his contemporaries considered him second only to Babe Ruth in the 1920s and 1930s, Mickey Cochrane is often overlooked by fans and historians. The hard-hitting catcher played on three World Series winners. Fiercely competitive on the field, Cochrane was a true gentleman off it. Though he was a highly regarded member of the A's championship teams, it is his career in Depression-era Detroit that he is best remembered. The pressure of the adulation there and his duties as player, manager and Tigers vice president led to a breakdown in 1935. On his way to recovery, he was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Bump Hadley and was nearly killed, ending his career. This full story of Cochrane's Hall of Fame career and his off-field life was researched from primary documents and interviews with his family.

Liverpool's magnificent number 7s is 112 pages full of everything a football fan could ever want to know about the most iconic players to have not only worn the Number 7 shirt, but to have played at one of the most iconic clubs in the world. Packed with features, including a detailed account of their time at the club. Also included are in-depth statistics, facts, trivia, most memorable games, and an unmatched historical account of the famous Number 7s to have elevated the club.

This book analyzes the 2018 and 2019 men's and women's World Cups to understand how the use of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) affected each tournament. Unlike goal technology, where the decision is entirely left to the machine's algorithm, the VAR still has a human component, making it prone to errors and controversies. Building on the theories of justice, the book quantitatively reviews event-level data while using a historical perspective to depict a novel approach to the effects of VAR in major soccer tournaments. The six chapters examine the use of VAR, discuss when it was not used (but maybe should have been used), and explore how the World Cup evolved with the new technology. Combining the VAR events of 2018 and 2019 with comparable situations from past World Cups guides the reader into debating the meaning of justice and the potential of ever achieving fairness in soccer.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Globe-trotting golfer Tom Coyne has finally come home. And he's ready to play all of it. After playing hundreds of courses overseas in the birthplace of golf, Coyne, the bestselling author of A Course Called Ireland and A Course Called Scotland, returns to his own birthplace and delivers a "heartfelt, rollicking ode to golf...[as he] describes playing golf in every state of the union, including Alaska: 295 courses, 5,182 holes, 1.7 million total yards" (The Wall Street Journal). In the span of one unforgettable year, Coyne crisscrosses the country in search of its greatest golf experience, playing every course to ever host a US Open, along with more than two hundred hidden gems and heavyweights, visiting all fifty states to find a better understanding of his home country and countrymen. Coyne's journey begins where the US Open and US Amateur got their start, historic Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. As he travels from the oldest and most elite of links to the newest and most democratic, Coyne finagles his way onto coveted first tees (Shinnecock, Oakmont, Chicago GC) between rounds at off-the-map revelations, like ranch golf in Eastern Oregon and homemade golf in the Navajo Nation. He marvels at the golf miracle hidden in the sand hills of Nebraska and plays an unforgettable midnight game under bright sunshine on the summer solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska. More than just a tour of the best golf the United States has to offer, Coyne's quest connects him with hundreds of American golfers, each from a different background but all with one thing in common: pride in welcoming Coyne to their course. Trading stories and swing tips with caddies, pros, and golf buddies for the day, Coyne adopts the wisdom of one of his hosts in Minnesota: the best courses are the ones you play with the best people. But, in the end, only one stop on Coyne's journey can be ranked the Great American Golf Course. Throughout his travels, he invites golfers to debate and help shape his criteria for judging the quintessential American course. Should it be charmingly traditional or daringly experimental? An architectural showpiece or a natural wonder? Countless conversations and gut instinct lead him to seek out a course that feels bold and idealistic, welcoming yet imperfect, with a little revolutionary spirit and a damn good hot dog at the turn. He discovers his long-awaited answer in the most unlikely of places. Packed with fascinating tales from American golf history, comic road misadventures, illuminating insights into course design, and many a memorable round with local golfers and celebrity guests alike, A Course Called America is "a delightful, entertaining book even nongolfers can enjoy" (Kirkus Reviews).

Arthur Wharton was the world's first black professional footballer and 100 yards world record holder, and was probably the first African to play professional cricket in the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues. His achievements were accomplished against the backdrop of Africa's forced colonization by European regimes. But while Arthur was beating the best on the tracks and fields of Britain, the peoples of the continent of his birth were being recast as lesser human beings. The tall Ghanaian was an extreme irritation to many white supremacists because his education and sporting triumphs refuted their theories. In the late Victorian era, when Britain's economic and political power reached its zenith and when the dominant ideas of the age labelled all blacks as inferior, it was simply not expedient to proclaim the exploits of an African sportsman. This shaped the way Wharton was forgotten.

Many young coaches, over the years have asked me," How does one climb the ladder in the baseball coaching profession?" This book will give you examples, through real life stories, on how you can move ahead in a coaching career. Someone has coined the phrase, Apples don't fall too far from the tree" or" He comes from good genes or good stock." These statements seem to indicate some successful endeavors are related, to some degree, to genetics. O the other hand, some doors may open because of the success of someone in the family. Not being an expert in genetics, let's leave this to speculation In addition, networking and what it is and how it works will be discussed in The Mainieri Factor, and how it may open doors for you in the coaching profession. Getting your foot in the door is only the beginning, being successful and proving yourself at each level is paramount to moving up the later. This book will give general insight into ways in which you can prove yourself as successful coach. You will be judged as having been a successful coach if you are able to substantially improve the players' skills from the time the players initially come under your tutelage. In the final analysis, the ultimate evaluation of you as a coach and leader will be directly related to your win-lost record In addition, it is essential that you develop the total person so that your players have the tools to meet the vicissitudes of their daily living. The game of baseball is a great laboratory for developing these skills. After reading The Mainieri Factor, you should understand better how the road to success in coaching works. You should find these life stories to be practical, helpful, interesting andentertaining.

Steve was born in Ely on 4 May 1960 and lived and worked in the city for more than 40 years. He played football for Cambridge City, Kings Lynn, Bury Town, Soham Town Rangers, Ely City, Ely Crusaders and Ely Park Rangers (plus many other local teams) over four decades, ending his career on the exact date of his 53rd birthday in the colours of Littleport Town. In addition to representing the Civil Service on one occasion, he made more than 50 Lewis Cup appearances for the Inland Revenue Great Britain & Northern Ireland team over 17 consecutive seasons and played for the Inland Revenue Eastern Counties and Cambridge Taxes teams, leading from the front to help all of those sides to unprecedented successes. This book recounts his journey from a child to a veteran, and how that journey impacted on his life.

Since 2002, Mike Pratt and Tom Leach have become as much a part of Kentucky Basketball as Rupp Arena itself, as longtime colour analysts for the UK Radio Network. This collection of candid and intimate conversations between Pratt and Leach gifts fans and readers insights into each season between 2002 and 2021 that only they could have. Pratt and Leach cover it all here: the games, the players, the coaches, and the moments that stood out. Mike Pratt is colour analyst for the UK Radio Network, alongside Tom Leach. Pratt was a three-year letterwinner under legendary coach Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky from 1967 through 1970. Tom Leach began his work on the UK Radio Network in 1989 as host of the postgame scoreboard and call-in shows. Eight years later, he was named the play-by-play voice for Kentucky football and he added the basketball responsibilities in 2001. Leach is an acclaimed sports journalist, winning several awards including two Eclipse Awards for Thoroughbred racing coverage, and six Sportscaster of the Year awards for Kentucky from the National Sports Media Association.

This coffee table title details his writing as it was published during the World Cup and combines with the most powerful imagery (from the photographers at the tournament) in celebration of the pertinent moments in the Boks' World Cup success. The title covers the players, the build-up to each of the Boks' Seven matches and an analysis of each match, finishing with celebration, reflection, tributes and glory. To give you an indication of what to expect this is Jake White's foreword.

Winner of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Rugby Book of the Year Among the best stories in modern British team sport has been the rise of Exeter Chiefs. How, exactly, did an unfashionable rugby team from Devon emerge from obscurity to become the double champions of England and Europe? What makes them tick? What are their secrets? Exe Men is a compelling story of regional pride, fierce rural identity, larger-than-life local heroes, remarkable characters, epic resilience, big city snobbery, geographical separation, steepling ambition and personal sacrifice which will strike a chord with anyone who enjoys a classic underdog story. This is not any old rugby book, it is the inside story of Exeter's incredible journey from the edge of nowhere to the summit of the English and European club game.

This book explores the key issues of racism, anti-racism and identity in British football. It relates the history of black players in the game, analyzes the racism they have experienced, and evaluates the efficacy of anti-racist campaigns. The efficacy of the policing of racism is also assessed. The nationalism and xenophobia evident in much of the media's coverage of major tournaments is highlighted in the context of the way that English, Scottish, and Welsh identities are constructed within British football.