Drugs in professional sports. Today''s news? Not to the authors who take you behind the scenes into the backrooms, the board rooms and the high perches of politics where the quest for a state''s profit often outweighs giving the public a fair return for their loyalty and support. This is not your average sports story. It delves into the experiences of two people who defied fierce opposition and personal threat to do the right thing in the management of Thoroughbred Racing and Professional Hockey and in the evaluating and negotiating of Pro Baseball and Football teams. We are not born with integrity. It is the product of our pasts, how we meet life''s challenges, and in our case, the deep faith which gave us the courage to confront our enemies and realize our goals. Biographical in form, you will relive the author''s early years and travel the diverse paths their lives took. You may often ponder how this successful partnership evolved, Man/Woman. Catholic/Jew. Poor Boy/Rich Girl. New England Newspaper columnist/ New York entertainment writer. Running sports facilities, hosting thousands of patrons daily at an arena, stadium or paying field was a unique challenge. Vin Bartimo had the prime responsibility for the action, Roz Muller was the champion of the fans. Together, they made winners of losing entities, shared their largesse with the communities in which they operated and gave the public what they wanted and deserved.

David 'Bumble' Lloyd is one of cricket's great characters - hilarious, informative and insightful, and filled with boundless enthusiasm for the game. Now, in Cricket Characters, he tells the stories of the most important, influential, talented and entertaining characters he has come across in sixty years in the game. Following on from the bestselling successes of Last in the Tin Bath and Around the World in 80 Pints, in his new book Bumble looks back at the cricketers who have had the greatest impact on him throughout his career. From the gnarly veterans he first played against as a teenager in the Lancashire League, through the old pros he met on the county circuit while at Lancashire on to a revealing insight into life alongside Mike Atherton, Ian Botham, Nasser Hussain and Shane Warne in the commentary box, this book reveals Bumble at his best: telling great stories about his favourite people. Along the way, the reader not only learns who have been the funniest or most dangerous players to be around, but also gets an insight into what makes a team gel and players to perform at their very peak. It's the perfect gift for any cricket fan who loves the game and needs something to keep them amused as the autumn draws in and winter takes over.

Brian Kinchen was a thirty-eight-year-old father of four and seventh-grade Bible teacher whose professional football career had been over for three years when he received the call of a lifetime. The New England Patriots needed him to fill in for their injured long snapper for the remainder of the 2003 season and the playoffs. In the hands of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Marx, Brian's remarkable true story becomes a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. For all lovers of the game of football, "The Long Snapper" reveals the grit and glory of America's favorite sport.

Author Cornel Vena was just a teenager when World War II ended, changing life in the tiny Transylvanian village of his childhood forever. A ruthless Bolshevik army swarmed over the land, and his family faced an uncertain future living under a communist regime. But it soon became clear that the country was keen to promote its athletic prowess on an international stage, offering a glimmer of hope to the young man. If Cornel could shoot, ride, fence, run, and swim well enough, he might be able to find freedom. Success in the sporting arena offered better conditions for athletes and priceless opportunities to escape the constraints of communism; however, the athletes who survived the intense training regimen could not fail. An entire country counted on them to succeed, and losing was not tolerated. The weak would be punished, and those who succeeded would be rewarded. Join Cornel as he prepares to confront superhuman physical challenges in this inspiring true story of one man's quest for freedom, set against the backdrop of the 1956 Olympic Games. Romanians, history students and athletes alike will find important lessons that continue to resonate today in "Barbed Circles: The Perfect Score."

Former Australian rugby union legend and World Cup winner, now acclaimed television sports pundit, on his glittering career in the game - and how close he came to losing his life. Few players in the history of the game have had as illustrious a career as Wallaby fly-half and captain Michael Lynagh. In an era when Australia took the rugby world by storm with their glittering array of mercurial talent, in chief orchestrator and courageous captain Lynagh they had a pivotal figure at fly-half who shaped their style of play and at the same time played a major ambassadorial role in the world game. Yet fast forward to that April day in 2012, as Lynagh lay partially blinded in intensive care at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, his life hanging by a thread following a major stroke, his wife and three young boys on the other side of the world. The day that defined the rest of his life. Lynagh's story is one of corruscating highs and crippling lows. It's the personal tale of a sportsman playing to the extremes of his profession, but also a human tale of surviving debilitating trauma and finding a new meaning to life.

The sixth volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of American Sports," this supplement provides biographies for 616 athletes, coaches, managers, officials, administrators, writers, and broadcasters who have played an active role in American sports or helped to promote them. Most of the entries are from team sports, including baseball (202), football (181), and basketball (58). Some entries treat individual sports, including track and field (29), golf (14), and tennis and other racquet sports (16). Other sports covered include ice hockey, horse racing, boxing, swimming, bowling, skating, shooting, wrestling, skiing, and cycling. Thirty women athletes are included.

*A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021* Tim Moore, the author of the Sunday Times bestselling French Revolutions, completes his epic (and ill-advised) trilogy of cycling's Grand Tours. Julian Berrendero's victory in the 1941 Vuelta a Espana was an extraordinary exercise in sporting redemption: the Spanish cyclist had just spent 18 months in Franco's concentration camps, punishment for expressing Republican sympathies during the civil war. Seventy nine years later, perennially over-ambitious cyclo-adventurer Tim Moore developed a fascination with Berrendero's story, and having borrowed an old road bike with the great man's name plastered all over it, set off to retrace the 4,409km route of his 1941 triumph - in the midst of a global pandemic. What follows is a tale of brutal heat and lonely roads, of glory, humiliation, and then a bit more humiliation. Along the way Tim recounts the civil war's still-vivid tragedies, and finds the gregarious but impressively responsible locals torn between welcoming their nation's only foreign visitor, and bundling him and his filthy bike into a vat of antiviral gel. 'Bill Bryson on two wheels' Independent

For better or for worse, the Giro d'Italia remains the sporting metaphor for Italians. To celebrate its centenary, Herbie Sykes produced a unique - and uniquely personal - evocation. In realising it he undertook a Giro of his own. Travelling the length of the peninsular, he met with 100 of its constituents, and simply listened to their stories. They were the champions and gregari, the superstars and nearly-men, their wives, families and tifosi. There were kingmakers and journalists, sponsors and officials, those who have loved it and a few who abhorred it. Collectively their testimonies represent a journey to the heart of the race, and to Italian cycling identity. This, however, is a cycling journey with a difference. In a departure from recent cycling convention, they were invited to open not only their hearts, but also their scrapbooks, photo albums and old cupboard drawers. There's no anodyne photographic agency fodder here, no cliched Dolomite vistas and no hackneyed portraits of Coppi, Merckx or Pantani. Rather the images conjure the spirit, pathos and beauty of the greatest race on earth and, more poignantly still, of 100 lives conditioned by it.

Born with 'learning difficulties' and all but abandoned by his schools, Neil went on to become kit man to Stoke City FC. Lou Macari, the club's then manager, described him as 'my best-ever signing'. But who is Neil Baldwin? As a boy in a working-class part of the Potteries in the fifties and sixties, the education system wrote him off. But Neil, who believes you can just 'get things by asking for them', knows his late Mum wanted him to have a happy life, and it's his duty to her to have one. So he does. At Keele University, they hold regular celebrations and services for the decades he's been a friend to the students, academics and vice-chancellors; but he's never been a student, a teacher, or had any formal connection with the place. At Stoke City Football Club, he's 'more famous than the players'. He's even got a dialogue going with the Queen - though that one's still a little one-sided. This is the inspiring, moving and at times hysterically funny story of Neil Baldwin's marvellous life.

Phil shares his personal ecstasy and anguish in learning the lessons of life through wrestling. The vivid and intimate descriptions of his hilarious and sometimes terrifying experiences keep you wanting to read more about his life.

The Tiger Woods of his day, legendary professional golfer HARRY VARDON (1870-1937), from Jersey in the Channel Islands, was the sport's first superstar. He won six British Open championships-a record that stands to this day-and was the first British golfer to win the U.S. Open. Some consider him the best player in the history of the game. In this classic work of sports literature, Vardon offers his stupendous and invaluable insight into the game. Part biographical, part instructional, part inspirational, Vardon's advice covers: the makings of a player the mistakes of the beginner the choice and care of clubs "concerning caddies" the pleasure of a good drive individuality in putting the proper attitude toward your opponents "golf for ladies" tips for the left-handed player and much more. First published in 1904, this beautiful replica edition features all of the essential original diagrams and photographs. It will delight and encourage the modern golfer, no matter how seriously-or lightheartedly-one takes the game.

He is the larger-than-life figure who bounced back from rejection at 16 and graduated from parks pitches to become a Premier League goalkeeper, and later represent his country. Paddy Kenny's career was certainly not straightforward... just like his life. In his autobiography, Kenny lifts the lid on his time on and off the football field - including dressing-room rucks, being beaten for the Premier League's most famous goal and having his eyebrow bitten off in a curry house, just days before he faced Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Manchester United. This is Kenny's story... and the gloves are well and truly off.

'This terrific biography...well-researched, well written' David Winner 'Deeply researched...nicely written, and manages to get inside Cruyff's very bizarre head' Simon Kuper Argumentative, brilliant, arrogant, visionary. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, a worldwide phenomenon and arguably the most famous Dutchman of the twentieth century. Both on the pitch and from the sidelines as a coach, with his brand of Total Football he changed how the game was played and left a lasting legacy. Although Cruyff led a large part of his illustrious career and life in the spotlight, in many ways Cruyff the man and sportsman is still a complete mystery. Based on years of extensive research, this biography the first to cover all aspects of Cruyff's life and work, from his key influence in the great Ajax and Netherlands sides of the 1970s to his role in creating the modern footballing phenomenon that is Barcelona. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with friends from his childhood and school, coaches, teammates, on-pitch opponents, business associates and family members, Auke Kok has written the definitive biography of the skinny impish street footballer that became the genius player, inspirational manager, football philosopher and commercial pioneer that was Johan Cruyff.

How did Tiger Woods become the greatest of all time?

And how did he fall so spectacularly?

Tiger Woods is unrivalled as an athlete. He made the ultimate commitment to his chosen sport - and transformed it.

Before the age of twenty-five, he rose to phenomenon status: twice named 'Sportsman of the Year' by Sports Illustrated, champion of more than thirty professional tournaments and the youngest player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments.

Tiger, Tiger taps into the transformative moments of Woods's life, revealing in vivid, dramatic scenes what he saw and felt on the course and in his inner life - from his only 'perfect' shot to his missed first putt at the 1995 Masters through his recent comeback tours.

Through a compelling series of original interviews, passionate golfer James Patterson and golf reporter Peter de Jonge get inside the impossible mystery of a global star.