College soccer star Mark Zupan had been out drinking one night and had passed out in the back of his best friend's pickup truck when his friend got in the driver's seat, decided to take the truck for a spin, and accidentally crashed it. Thrown into a canal and stuck in frigid water for fourteen hours, Mark was finally rescued and learned soon after that he'd broken his neck. He'd most likely be a quadriplegic and spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, doctors told him. At first Mark's only goal was to walk again. When that proved impossible, he fell into the depths of anger and despair, retreating from the world and the people closest to him. But love, friendship, and a new sport, quad rugby (a.k.a. murderball), helped Mark create a new existence that's truly exceptional. Gimp, the no-holds-barred memoir of a Paralympic athlete and the star of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Murderball, is an inspiring, defiant, and revealing celebration of spirit and will that confounds readers' prejudices by offering proof that a guy in a chair can still do amazing things: have sex with his girlfriend, party with his friends . . . even crowd-surf at Pearl Jam shows.

April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front -- and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.

He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.

In "Opening Day," Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? "Opening Day" is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.

Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, "Opening Day" brings to life baseball's ultimate story.

Lewis 'Mad Dog' Moody has been a familiar face in English rugby for fifteen successful and, at times, painful years. The former Leicester and now Bath flanker has seen and done it all in a sport that has changed beyond recognition from his first forays into the sport to the huge spectacle that rugby, and especially test match rugby, has become. Known for his near-suicidal fashion of playing the game, Moody has achieved as much as anyone in the history of the sport, from league, cup and European honours with an iconic Leicester Tigers team alongside the likes of Martin Johnson and Neil Back, to a 2003 World Cup winners medal and an MBE when still a young man. A great deal of heartbreak would follow - pain, illness, self-doubt and dark days in the four years before the next World Cup campaign that saw Moody and England fall in the 2007 final but he re-emerged to finally captain his country to a third World Cup campaign in 2011. Mad Dog - An Englishman is the story, warts and all, of one of the most-loved and respected British sporting figures; a story that allows the reader into the inner sanctum of a top rugby star's life, from the early days of student and rugby dressing room mayhem, to the latter years of dedication to the cause, and utter professionalism against all odds. You may think some of Lewis Moody's adventures are well-known. You would be wrong. In this searingly honest autobiography the original 'Mad Dog' lays himself bare and, along the way, takes you on an incredible journey that will make you laugh, cry and understand what it takes to construct a career as successful as Lewis Moody's.

Floyd Patterson delivered a number of knockout punches during his Hall of Fame career, but it might have been the fights he won beyond the boxing ring that made him great. Born in 1935, he overcame poverty and prejudice to become the youngest world heavyweight championship in history. He would later became the first man to regain the crown after losing it. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali called Patterson the most skillful fighter he ever faced.In the first biography of the former heavyweight, Alan Levy covers Patterson's meteoric rise as boxer while giving equal attention to the boxer's life away from sport, including Patterson's work as an activist for civil rights causes in the 1960s. Joining Ali and George Frazier as boxers who used their celebrity to bring attention to social issues, he became an icon of the movement.

This is the first full-length biography of Ron Greenwood, West Ham United's most successful trophy-winning manager - a man who was instrumental in the development of 1966 World Cup-winning heroes Moore, Hurst and Peters. Ron lacked the ruthlessness of his more feted contemporaries, Bill Shankly and Don Revie, with whom his trophy success did not compare. But his West Ham team of the mid-1960s had its own moments of heady triumph - an FA Cup win in 1964 (the club's first), a European Cup Winners' Cup victory in 1965 (only the second European win by an English club) - and crucially they were always easy on the eye, even in defeat. Then there was the little matter of supplying three team members to England's World Cup victory in 1966, at a tournament in which their perfection of Greenwood's near-post cross ploy proved devastating. After 16 years at West Ham, Greenwood became England manager in 1977 and led them to the 1982 World Cup. An impeccable sportsman, deep thinker and skilled communicator, he was a noble servant to football.

Joe Gans captured the world lightweight title in 1902, becoming the first black American world title holder in any sport. Gans was a master strategist and tactician, and one the earliest practitioners of "scientific" boxing. As a black champion reigning during the Jim Crow era, he endured physical assaults, a stolen title, bankruptcy, and numerous attempts to destroy his reputation. Four short years after successfully defending his title in the 42-round "Greatest Fight of the Century," Joe Gans was dead of tuberculosis. This biography features original round-by-round ringside telegraph reports of his most famous and controversial fights, a complete fight history, photographs, early newspaper cartoons depicting boxers, and discussion of contemporary cultural representations of and tributes to the man considered to be among the finest boxers in history.

Every cricket lover recalls the deeds of one Ian Botham during England's against-all-odds Ashes victory against Australia in 1981. Now, twenty years on from that memorable event, what could be more appropriate than to look back and remember when English cricket was on top of the world and reflect on the personalities past and present who have made the game so enjoyable to so many people.

'Botham's Century' is a unique collection of 100 cricketing characters taken from his own personal scrapbook. Players, some household names and others not so well known; umpires and coaches; mentors; television commentators; writers; groundsmen; popstars and philanthropists – in fact all those who in Botham's opinion have been an influence for good in the game during his era.

Featured among the cast of characters are the likes of the legendary Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Sunil Gavaskar; Botham's soulmate and sparring partner Viv Richards; rival fast bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomas; and more recent stars of the game in Brian Lara, Shane Warne and the irresistible Darren Gough.

Not forgetting the more eccentric personalities encountered along the way, such as Dickie Bird, Jack Russell and Phil Tufnell; the late John Arlott and Brian Johnston from the commentators box; and Elton John, Mick Jagger and other celebrities from the world of pop and showbiz.

Entertaining, controversial, and written in typical swashbuckling style, these portraits from Botham's Hall of Fame are sure to incite a plethora of opinions from both those inside and outside the game. 'Bothams Century' will be a treasured item for cricket fan's and nostalgia lovers, as well as those just seeking a jolly good read.

In 2014, a self-proclaimed 'relatively normal 50-year-old, overweight desk-jockey', took on the monumental task of attempting a 5,000-mile walk around the coast of mainland Britain in the name of two worthy charities.Developed and adapted from his award-winning blog, this is a journal documenting the highs and lows of his 42-week hike around Britain with only the support of his friends, family, the odd stranger or two and a trusty second-hand motorhome as a roving base camp. Peter Hill, the man behind the whimsical idea, never viewed the trek as a voyage of personal discovery and instead takes the reader on a truthful blisters-and-all journey with friendly enthusiasm, gentle humour, numerous trials, a few grumbles, the odd rant and many, many ice-creams. With added extracts from a driver's diary and fully illustrated with a selection of spectacular photographs, this book is only readable with a smile.

Joey Dunlop, ‘Yer Man’, as he was affectionately known, was a racing legend, adored by the Irish people. Born and raised in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, Dunlop started racing in 1969 on a 199cc Tiger Cub for which he paid £50. It was the beginning of a passion that would rule and ultimately take his life.He was never more at home than competing in the famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) races. His mastery of this treacherous course was total, and his passion for success mirrored that of his fans. In 1998 he arrived having crashed in the 100-mile Tandragree road race, breaking his pelvis and collarbone. Still, there was a race to be won and Dunlop duly took the lightweight TT by a margin of 47 seconds. His first two TT victories came on Yamahas, but Honda would be the ally from 1983, the plain yellow helmet a beacon to the supporters who idolised the Irishman. In all he took the chequered flag in 26 TT races, until his tragic death on 2 July 2000 while racing in Estonia.There were honours off the bike too. In 1986 he was awarded an MBE for services to motorcycling. That was followed 10 years later by an OBE in recognition of his efforts transporting food and medical supplies to Romanian orphanages.The Author has blended archive material and freshly conducted interviews with Joey’s friends, family and racing peers like Steve Hislop, Carl Fogarty and Roger Marshall to produce this book. The result is a balanced, revealing and passionate account of a genuine sporting hero.

Part adventure, part love story, part inquiry into the mystery of connection between humans and dogs, Fast into the Night is an exquisitely written memoir of a woman, her dogs, and what can happen when someone puts herself in that place between daring and doubt-and soldiers on.

As a widely respected cricket historian, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, and also a writer with a great sense of fun, Henry Blofeld is the ideal man to select the great characters of cricket who have livened up the sport. We learn of the exploits of the legendary Ian Botham, a man who made up his own rules and has been at the centre of controversy on countless occasions; Garry Sobers, an immensely popular all-round great; and Dennis Lillee, the temperamental fast bowler who once held up a game with a tantrum when ordered to change his aluminium bat. Henry Blofeld regales us with marvellous - sometimes mischievous - stories to add to the "Boy's Own" nature of the book, and highlights those players who would make cricket lovers cancel their appointments to see them, even on a cold April day.

There is no college ball more passionate and competitive than football in the Southeastern Conference, where seven of the twelve schools boast stadiums bigger than any in the NFL and 6.5 million fans hit the road every year to hoot and holler their teams to victory.

In September 2006, popular sports columnist and lifelong University of Tennessee fan Clay Travis set out on his "Dixieland Delight Tour." Without a single map, hotel reservation, or game ticket, he began an 8,000-mile journey through the beating heart of the Southland. As Travis toured the SEC, he immersed himself in the bizarre game-day rituals of the common fan, brazenly dancing with the chancellor's wife at a Vanderbilt frat party, hanging with University of Florida demigod quarterback Tim Tebow, and abandoning himself totally to the ribald intensity and religious fervor of SEC football. "Dixieland Delight" is Travis's hilarious, loving, irreverent, and endlessly entertaining chronicle of a season of ironic excess in a world that goes a little crazy on football Saturdays.

No Irish rugby player has ever achieved more, or been a source of more inspiration to teammates and fans alike, than Johnny Sexton.

In his hotly anticipated autobiography, Johnny tells the story of his life and explores the sources of his unmatched will to win. The Sexton era was marked by four European Cups, four Six Nations championships (including two Grand Slams), a series win in New Zealand, two stints for Ireland at number 1 in the world, and the World Player of the Year award. Always outspoken on and off the field, Sexton offers an honest look at his childhood, his seemingly inauspicious early experiences in club and professional rugby, his relationships with key teammates and coaches (including Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara, Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell), and his ideas about the game.

Obsessed is more than just a brilliantly detailed account of a legendary playing career. It is also a work of deep self-exploration, tracing the psychological arc of a player who almost always felt embattled, who struggled with self-doubt, and who was still learning new lessons about being a team-mate and a leader into his late thirties. Intense, witty, perceptive and frank, Obsessed is an autobiography worthy of its author and the essential chronicle of an extraordinary era in Irish rugby.

Golden-haired and handsome, brothers Shane and Brett Lee are the latest in a long line of famous Australian cricket siblings. Brett's older brother Shane is also an impressive cricketer and an all-rounder of enormous talent. This is the incredible and inspiring story of these two cricketing firebrands and their stratospheric rise from the state game to their donning of the baggy green. From their backyard cricket days in Wollongong to the cauldron of international matches, the Lees have dealt with not only media scrutiny and injury worries, but also some of the world's finest batsmen, to hold their own amongst the game's elite. This is their story.

Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On explores the real life of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, the inspiration behind the iconic sports film, Rudy. Rudy Ruettiger first overcame the odds by being accepted to the University of Notre Dame. Because he was dyslexic and got poor grades in school, he had to find another way. He continued to accomplish his dream by becoming a walk-on player for the football team, culminating in being able to dress for just one game and leading to an epic sack that has inspired generations of fans in the beloved sports movie. However, there was still so much of Rudy's story to tell. Emmy (R) award-winning Director and Producer Nick Nanton presents Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On, using the full dialogue and cinematic images from the feature documentary film of the same title, to examine the Rudy story everyone knows and loves to provide further depth and detail about Rudy's past struggles and triumphs at Notre Dame, as well as what it took to get that story onto film. Furthermore, Rudy Ruettiger: The Walk On elaborates on who Rudy has become and how he still serves as an inspiration today. Whether you're looking for insider information on the actual story behind a favorite sports figure, or you're hoping to find some continued inspiration in Rudy's story, this tell-all has something special hidden amongst its pages for you.

In early 1978, an extraordinary new invention for rock climbers was featured on the BBC television science show Tomorrow's World. It was called the 'Friend', and it not only made the sport safer, it helped push the limits of the possible. The company that made them was called Wild Country, the brainchild of Mark Vallance. Within six months, Vallance was selling Friends in sixteen countries. Wild Country would go on to develop much of the gear that transformed climbing in the 1980s. Mark Vallance's influence on the outdoor world extends far beyond the company he founded. He owned and opened the influential retailer Outside in the Peak District and was part of the team that built The Foundry, Sheffield's premier climbing wall - the first modern climbing gym in Britain. He worked for the Peak District National Park and served on its board. He even found time to climb eight-thousand-metre peaks and the Nose on El Capitan. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his mid fifties and robbed of his plans for retirement, Vallance found a new sense of purpose as a reforming president of the British Mountaineering Council. In Wild Country, Vallance traces his story, from childhood influences like Robin Hodgkin and Sir Jack Longland, to two years in Antarctica, where he was base commander of the UK's largest and most southerly scientific station at Halley Bay, before his fateful meeting with Ray Jardine, the man who invented Friends, in Yosemite. Trenchant, provocative and challenging, Wild Country is a remarkable personal story and a fresh perspective on the role of the outdoors in British life and the development of climbing in its most revolutionary phase. Mark Vallance (1945-2018), the man who made Friends.

Barry Fry is one of the most colourful characters in English football. Currently at Peterborough, his journeyman career has taken him to Old Trafford, where as a player he was one of the original Busby Babes, through to football management at Barnet, Southend and Birmingham, among other clubs. Wherever he goes, 'Bazza' has a knack of making the headlines. His days as a youth apprentice for Manchester United saw plenty of action on the pitch as he came under the tutelage of Matt Busby - but even more off it as he joined the likes of George Best on 'a binge of birds, booze and betting'. He quickly gained the reputation of 'the has-been that never was'. Playing stints at Luton, Bedford and Stevenage failed to inspire a reckless Fry, and it wasn't long before injury forced him to hang up his boots. His first managerial role was at Dunstable, where Fry recalls with sharp humour how the chairman had suitcases full of currency in his office with hitmen protecting them. He followed this with spells at Maidstone and Barnet, - where he joined forces with the notorious Stan Flashman and proved his pedigree by gaining the club promotion into the League - and Southend, where he was responsible for bringing on a young Stan Collymore. It wasn't long before he was poached by Birmingham under owner and ex-pornographer David Sullevan and his glamorous sidekick, Karren Brady - about whom stories in the book will 'blow people's minds'. Whether it's tax evasion, fraud, transfer bribes or chicanery in the dressing room, Barry Fry has experienced it all as a player, manager and now club owner. He is ready to tell everything in his autobiography - 'Enough to make your eyes water'.

'The last descent and I can't let myself think it's in the bag. Anything could happen, take it easy, take no risks. Just get to the finish and win.' 'The challenge and anticipation that pushes me to try harder. The obsessive urge to achieve. It's not all about winning. Why do I do it?' Growing up in Bristol, Heather Dawe was 17 when she started running. Having fallen in to the teenage trap of smoking and drinking she resolved to do something about it, not knowing then where it would take her. A climber since her youth, an obsession with wild places and the mountains was engrained in her DNA. Moving to Leeds to study, she began to compete in fell races and mountain marathons, joking in the pub one night that she could race at the highest level. Being hit by a car doing over 40mph while cycling would have ended many athletes' dreams, but Dawe's drive pushed her even harder. Hard enough to make her pub joke a reality, hard enough to win Elite Mountain Marathons, to win the Three Peaks Cyclo-cross race and to complete the Bob Graham Round. Pushing harder still, she entered the Tour Divide - racing the 2745-mile route of the Continental Divide in North America as she to sought to discover her physical - and emotional - limits. Dawe writes of what it takes to compete in adventure races; the training, the sacrifice, the mistakes that must be made in order to learn and develop. An intensely deep and personal book, Adventures in Mind explores what drives a woman - living with her partner and their child, working 9-5 - to push so hard and so far; into herself, and into the wild.

Sixty Years a Red... and Counting! is a unique, affectionate, fun and frank account of Liverpool FC over 60 years from the perspective of a dedicated fan and informed observer of Anfield life. From attending his first game at Anfield in 1961, to watching the Kop sing and sway as the Reds plotted a triumphant course through the 1960s and early 70s under Bill Shankly, to league title glory with Bob Paisley and lifting the European Cup three times, Brian Barwick saw it all. In his role as the FA's chief executive, he was in Istanbul for that unforgettable Champions League final. And like thousands of others he punched the air in his front room when the Reds finally lifted the Premier League trophy in 2020. As a journalist and broadcaster, he gained special insight into Liverpool's triumphs while building a rapport with some of the club's top personalities. This book takes you behind the scenes at Anfield to tell the story of Liverpool's rise from Second Division mediocrity to becoming one of the most recognisable names in world sport.

The moving true story of an ordinary Welsh woman who dreamed of breeding a race horse, and Dream Alliance, who defied the odds to become a champion and brought a community together. Janet Vokes was working behind the bar in her local working men's club in the small Welsh mining community of Cefn Fforest when she fixed upon the idea of breeding a racehorse. She'd always loved animals, having dabbled in showing whippets and racing pigeons, and her husband Brian used to be a rag and bone man with a horse of his own. Why shouldn't a working-class horse take on the high flyers in the rarified world of racing? She bought a mare for GBP350, paired her up with a pedigree stallion and helped to create a syndicate of twenty-three friends from the village - each paying GBP10 a week - to raise the resulting foal, Dream Alliance. He may have grown up on an allotment but Dream Alliance had star quality, beating all the odds to become a winner at a number of world-class racetracks. Then a terrible injury to his leg threatened not just his career but his life. Refusing to have him put down, the syndicate paid for experimental surgery and Dream Alliance went on to not only make a full recovery but win the Welsh Grand National. Funny and charming, Dream Horse by Janet Vokes is the extraordinary story of a woman who defied the snobbery of the racing world to breed a champion, and a remarkable horse who brought a community together.

"Shoeless" Joe Jackson was one of baseball's greatest hitters and most colorful players. Born on July 16, 1888, in Pickens County, South Carolina, Jackson went to work in a textile mill when he was around six years old, and got his start in baseball playing for the Brandon Mill team at the age of 13 earning $2.50 a game. He emerged as the star of the team and a favorite of fans, and moved up to play in the Carolina Association, where he received his nickname "Shoeless" because the blisters on his feet forced him to play in stockings. He then made his move to the major leagues, signing on with the Philadelphia Athletics and rising to fame. This work chronicles Jackson's life from his poor beginnings to his involvement in the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series to his life after baseball and his death December 5, 1951, with most of the work focusing on his baseball career. This entry refers to the LARGE PRINT edition. For the standard edition please see ISBN 978-0-7864-0978-5.

Henry Chadwick remains one of the titans of baseball history. As a pioneering baseball journalist and author, an innovator of scorekeeping practices and statistics, and chairman of the first rules committee, Chadwick left an indelible mark on the history of the game. This deeply researched biography is the first book-length work on the Hall of Famer, known at the time of his death as the "Father of Base Ball." It covers Chadwick's driving role in the symbiotic rise of baseball and sports journalism, and demonstrates how Chadwick helped baseball to become firmly established as an American cultural institution. Appendices provide a selected bibliography of Chadwick's writing and a guide for further research.

"An extraordinary book . . . invitingly written and brisk."
--"Chicago Tribune"

"Perhaps no one has ever told the tale [of Robinson's arrival in the major leagues] so well as [Simon] does in this extended essay."
--"The Washington Post Book World"

"Scott Simon tells a compelling story of risk and sacrifice, profound ugliness and profound grace, defiance and almost unimaginable courage. This is a meticulously researched, insightful, beautifully written book, one that should be read, reread, and remembered."
--Laura Hillenbrand, author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Seabiscuit"

The integration of baseball in 1947 had undeniable significance for the civil rights movement and American history. Thanks to Jackie Robinson, a barrier that had once been believed to be permanent was shattered--paving the way for scores of African Americans who wanted nothing more than to be granted the same rights as any other human being.

In this book, renowned broadcaster Scott Simon reveals how Robinson's heroism brought the country face-to-face with the question of racial equality. From his days in the army to his ascent to the major leagues, Robinson battled bigotry at every turn. Simon deftly traces the journey of the rookie who became Rookie of the Year, recalling the taunts and threats, the stolen bases and the slides to home plate, the trials and triumphs. Robinson's number, 42, has been retired by every club in major league baseball--in homage to the man who had to hang his first Brooklyn Dodgers uniform on a hook rather than in a locker.

Roberto "Bobby" Maduro (1916-1986) was a visionary baseball team owner and executive. His dedication to promoting the game internationally from the 1950s through the 1970s remains unrivaled. He headed Havana-based clubs in the Cuban Winter League and teams in the U.S. minor leagues, which helped brand Caribbean baseball in the eyes North American fans. He co-built the first million-dollar ballpark in Latin America. His Havana stadium was confiscated by Castro's revolution, along with all his accumulated wealth. Maduro began a new life in exile in the U.S., first as a minor league owner, then as a front office executive. He founded the short-lived Inter-American League in 1979, composed of five Caribbean-basin teams and one U.S. entry from his adopted hometown of Miami. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn said of his many achievements, "No one was more dedicated, more knowledgeable or more concerned about the game than Bobby Maduro.

The intimate biography of the charismatic Tour de France winner Marco Pantani, now updated to include the 2014 and 2015 investigation into Pantani's death. National Sporting Club Book of the Year Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 'An exhaustively detailed and beautiful book . . . a fitting, ambivalent tribute - to the man, and to the dark heart of the sport he loved' Independent On Valentine's day 2004, Marco Pantani was found dead in a cheap hotel. It defied belief: Pantani, having won the rare double of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in 1998, was regarded as the only cyclist capable of challenging Lance Armstrong's dominance. Only later did it emerge that Pantani had been addicted to cocaine since 1999. Drawing on his personal encounters with Pantani, as well as exclusive access to his psychoanalysts, and interviews with his family and friends, Matt Rendell has produced the definitive account of an iconic sporting figure.