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Books > Biography > Sport
Meet Gary Fisher. The maverick kid bike racer who cycled straight
into the Acid Test scene and lit up the Grateful Dead gigs, the
relentless tinkerer who transformed an industry and sold mountain
biking to the world and the visionary who's still working flat-out
every day to prove that bikes are the answer to a healthier,
happier future for everyone. A collaboration with cycling writer
Guy Kesteven, Being Gary Fisher and the Bicycle Revolution is an
autobiography of sorts. It's also a mind-blowing trip of ingenious
innovation, dogged determination and boundless energy. Get caught
up in Gary's crazy tales and his lifelong mission to invite
everyone to the greatest dance on earth.
The Joshua Files traces the story of Britain's latest heavyweight
hero from the building site to the top of the boxing world and
beyond. Anthony Joshua's fight with Wladimir Klitschko, in front of
90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, transformed the fighter not only
into a national hero but also a global star. Having worked as a
boxing journalist for almost 30 years for Boxing News, Boxing
Monthly and Sky Sports, Matt Bozeat was perfectly placed to follow
Joshua from a ringside seat from the very start of his professional
career. Joshua turned pro soon after winning gold at the London
Olympics in 2012, and has since surpassed all expectations, going
on to dominate the division with a 100 per cent KO record. The
Joshua Files tells exactly how he fought his way to the top,
through revealing and insightful interviews with the fighter
himself, as well as with the boxing experts, trainers, sparring
partners and opponents who have the closest insider knowledge of
Anthony's incredible rise.
Jump Shooting to a Higher Degree chronicles Sheldon Anderson's
basketball career from grade school in small-town Moorhead,
Minnesota, in the 1960s, to inner-city high school and college ball
in Minneapolis, to a professional career in West Germany, and
finally to communist Poland, where he did PhD research while on a
basketball junket behind the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s.
Because he was the only American player in the league at the time,
and with help from a Polish scholar, Anderson was one of the first
Western scholars to gain access to Communist Party documents. He's
also likely the only American scholar to have funded his research
by playing semi-pro basketball in a communist country. Jump
Shooting to a Higher Degree is much more than a basketball story.
Anderson provides insights into the everyday lives of people on
either side of the Iron Curtain, such as the English coach he
played for in West Germany, an elderly woman he visited many times
in East Germany, and a sailmaker's family he lived with in Warsaw.
He reflects on German, Polish, and Cold War history, providing a
commentary on the times and the places where he lived and played,
and the importance of basketball along the way.
The book that inspired the major motion picture 'I loved it ...
extremely funny. A must-read for anyone who loves football.' Peter
Crouch In the late 1960s, in the warm glow of England winning the
World Cup, Dave Roberts, like most teenage boys his age, was
football mad. There was just one difference: rather than supporting
the likes of Arsenal or Manchester United, Dave's team of choice
was the ever so slightly less glamorous Bromley Football Club - one
of the last genuinely amateur football teams left, fighting for
survival in the lowest non-league division. This book is the story
of Bromley's worst ever season. It is a funny and heart-warming
tale of football at the very bottom: Dave turns up to each match
with his football boots in his bag, just in case the team are a
player short; the crowd is always announced as 400 as no-one can be
bothered to count; the team ship so many goals that in one match,
the taunting opposition fans actually lose count of the score. It's
easy being a football fan when your team are always winning. The
Bromley Boys is the touching true story about supporting a club
through thin and even thinner: proof that the more your team may
lose on the pitch, the more there is to gain on the terraces.
Let Stephen Curry, Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller, and
more, tell you what it was like to take the floor against one of
the Greatest of All Time. With a Foreword by Jerry West, and a new
tribute from the author about Kobe's tragic death. When he entered
the NBA in 1996 as a high-school star from Lower Merion,
Pennsylvania, Kobe Bryant faced enormous expectations. No one can
deny that he rose to the challenge. Today Bryant's status as a
future Hall of Fame player is assured. During his stellar career,
Bryant won five NBA championships; was a seventeen-time All-Star,
NBA MVP, and two-time NBA Finals MVP. He led the league in scoring
in 2006 and 2007. Now for the first time, hear stories from
opponents, teammates, and players about what it was like to go
against Kobe in Remembering Kobe Bryant. Contributors include:
Chris Webber Jeff Van Gundy Rick Barry Doc Rivers Dwayne Wade
Draymond Green Giannis Antetokounmpo Russell Westbrook Carmelo
Anthony And many more Kobe Bryant was the greatest basketball
player of his generation-a former schoolboy prodigy whose moves are
now imitated in gyms and playgrounds around the world. Remembering
Kobe Bryant provides an unprecedented glimpse into what it was like
to play against one of the best of all time. Skyhorse Publishing
and our Sports Publishing imprint is proud to publish a range of
books for readers interested in sports-baseball, pro football,
college football, pro basketball, college basketball, hockey,
soccer, and more, we have a book about your sport or your team.
Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation;
whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan;
whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals,
UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston
Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles
Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish
becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we
are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes
overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not
otherwise find a home.
Guardian's Best Sports Books SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSS BRITISH
SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2015 LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK
OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015 In Chase Your Shadow, journalist and author
John Carlin tells the gripping story of Oscar Pistorius's tragic
journey from sporting icon to accused murderer. Before Valentine's
Day of 2013, Pistorius was best known as an extraordinary athlete,
the 'Blade Runner' who became the first amputee in history to
compete in the Olympics. Everything changed after he shot his
girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead in the early hours of 14 February.
Overnight, the Olympian's status as a role model was replaced by
tales of erratic behaviour and a violent dark side. His seven-month
trial was broadcast live around the globe, its twists and turns
captivating millions. Carlin, who followed the drama inside the
courtroom, provides a vivid first-hand account of Pistorius's
wrenching emotional breakdowns, the merciless interrogation to
which he was submitted by the prosecutor, and the highly
controversial judgment. Carlin paints a portrait of a complex
personality, a man whose life story reveals extremes of courage and
insecurity, ambition and vulnerability, generosity and dangerous
hot-headedness. Not since the O. J. Simpson case has the world been
more riveted by a champion's heroic rise and calamitous fall.
This is a revealing look at the history of race relations in the
United States during the first half of the twentieth century
portrayed through the lives and times of the first two
African-American heavyweight boxing champions, Jack Johnson and Joe
Louis. Incorporating extensive research into the black press of the
time, the author explores how the public careers and private lives
of these two sports figures both define and explain vital national
issues from the early 1900s to the late 1940s.
I'm with the Cosmos' was the phrase New York Cosmos players used to
get a table reserved at the city's best restaurants or skip the
queue at the glamorous Studio 54 nightclub. And it was one Steve
Hunt became used to trotting out, after he was transferred from
Aston Villa to New York Cosmos at the tender age of 20, having
played just seven times for the first team at Villa. He walked
straight into a world of celebrity and a team of superstars
including two of the world's finest players, Pele and Franz
Beckenbauer. This is Steve's story of those heady days in New York
- but also a stellar career back in England during the early 1980s.
Returning to the West Midlands, Steve played for Coventry City,
West Bromwich Albion and returned to his beloved Aston Villa for a
second spell - and at the age of 28, he won the first of two
England caps under Bobby Robson, realising an ambition held since
early childhood. This is Steve's story, and in it he writes frankly
about his football career, as well as his life outside the game.
In October 1972, Nando Parrado and his rugby club teammates were on
a flight from Uruguay to Chile when their plane crashed into a
mountain. Miraculously, many of the passengers survived but Nando's
mother and sister died and he was unconscious for three days.
Stranded more than 11,000 feet up in the wilderness of the Andes,
the survivors soon heard that the search for them had been called
off - and realise the only food for miles around was the bodies of
their dead friends ... In a last desperate bid for safety, Nando
and a teammate set off in search of help. They climbed
17,000-foot-high mountains, facing death at every step, but
inspired by his love for his family Nando drove them on until,
finally, 72 days after the crash, they found rescue.
Benny Leonard was arguably the greatest lightweight champion of all
time. With superb boxing skills and potent punching power, he
fought over 200 times and suffered just five defeats. He spent his
boyhood in a crime-ridden ghetto in Manhattan's Lower East Side,
and was the greatest of a long line of Jewish boxers to emerge from
the slums. Leonard was still only 19 when he knocked out Freddie
Welsh to become world lightweight king in 1917. He defended the
title eight times and retired as undefeated champion in 1925, to
please the only woman he loved, his mother. But the 1929 Wall
Street Crash wiped out his fortune and he was forced to make a
comeback at 35. Leonard fought the best of his era: Johnny Dundee,
Johnny Kilbane, Rocky Kansas, Jack Britton, Ted Kid Lewis and Lew
Tendler among them. Apart from being a sublime boxer, Benny was a
first-class showman who helped to put boxing on a higher plane. He
died as he lived - in the ring - while refereeing a fight at age
51. This is the definitive account of his remarkable life and
career.
True Professional tells the story of Clive Sullivan, who emerged
from one of Cardiff's toughest neighbourhoods to become an icon of
rugby league. Overcoming a major childhood injury and a car crash
early in his career, he was a ruthless and thrilling presence on
the wings of both Hull FC and Hull KR teams for over 20 years,
scoring over 300 tries.The first-ever black Briton to captain a
British sports team, Sullivan did so with great success, even
lifting a World Cup and being awarded an MBE. He was loved by rugby
league fans and revered following his untimely and tragic death.
Yet the wider sporting public overlooked his achievements at the
time and his name is rarely mentioned when discussing Britain's
sporting greats. The book is a snapshot of the working class
Northern towns that have long been the heartland of rugby league,
and the communities that gave them their unique character. It is
also a look at how Clive's career developed against the backdrop of
a declining fishing industry, the lifeblood of the city of Hull.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR The truth
about being a rugby player from the horsey's mouth. This book is
not just about how a psychiatrist called Humphrey helped me get
back on my horse and clippity-clop all the way to the World Cup
semi-final in Japan. It's the story of how a fat kid who had to
live up to the nickname Psycho grew up to play and party for over a
decade with rugby's greatest pros and live weird and wonderful
moments both in and out of the scrum. That's why I'm letting you
read my diary on my weirdest days. You never know what you're going
to get with me. From being locked in a police cell to singing Adele
on Jonathan Ross (I'll let you decide which is worse), being kissed
by a murderer on the number 51 bus to drug tests where
clipboard-wielding men hover inches away from my naked genitalia,
melting opponents in rucks, winning tackles, and generally losing
blood, sweat and ears in the name of the great sport of rugby. This
is how (not) to be a rugby player.
The survivor of a difficult childhood and youth, Rubin Carter rose
to become a top contender for the middleweight boxing crown. But
his career crashed to a halt on May 26, 1967, when he and another
man were found guilty of the murder of three white people in a New
Jersey bar. While in prison, Carter chronicled the events that led
him from the ring to three consecutive life sentences and 10 years
in solitary confinement. His story was a cry for help to the
public, an attempt to set the record straight and force a new
trial. Bob Dylan wrote a classic anthem for Carter's struggle; and
Joan Baez, Muhammad Ali, Roberta Flack, and thousands more took up
the cause as well. Originally published in 1974, this account is an
eye-opening examination of growing up black in America, problems in
the United States prison system, and Carter's own battles.
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.
An early celebrity pitcher, Denton "Cy" Young (1867-1955)
established supreme standards on the mound. A small-town Ohio
farmer made good, he set Major League pitching records in the late
19th and early 20th centuries that will likely last forever. The
winner of 511 games - nearly one hundred more than the
second-ranked hurler - Young pitched the first perfect game of the
modern era, as well as three no-hitters. His talents helped
establish the American League in 1901. Among the Hall of Fame's
first inductees, he remained a sought-after interviewee decades
after retirement. A year after his death, the Cy Young Award was
dedicated as baseball's most prestigious honor for pitchers.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Wrighty's characteristic honesty means
his book is far more engrossing than most bland football memoirs'
Sunday Times Ian Wright, Arsenal legend, England striker and TV
pundit extraordinaire, is one of the most interesting and relevant
figures in modern football. His journey from a South London council
estate to national treasure is everybody's dream. From Sunday
morning football directly to Crystal Palace; from 'boring, boring
Arsenal' to inside the Wenger Revolution; from Saturday afternoons
on the pitch to Saturday evenings on primetime television; from a
week in prison to inspiring youth offenders, Ian will reveal all
about his extraordinary life and career. Ian will also frankly
discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham
deserves a statue, social media, why music matters, breaking
Arsenal's goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of
playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks of
Tottenham. Not a standard footballer's autobiography, Ian Wright's
memoir is a thoughtful and gripping insight into a Highbury Hero
and one of the greatest sports stars of recent years.
In this unique book, one of football's greatest cult players
reflects on the travails of the sport and draws upon his own
experience to offer an honest assessment on one of its final
remaining taboos: mental health. The most difficult position in
football? Being a goalkeeper. That's what they say, right? You must
be mad to stand between those posts and bat away shots and crosses
all game long. Neville Southall should know. He was the goalkeeper
for one of the best teams of the 1980s and became an icon of the
game during his 20-year career between the sticks. But what did it
take to prepare himself mentally for the difficulties of the
position? How did he dig so deep on the biggest occasions and in
the highest-pressured moments? What scars were left at the end of
his long career - a tenure that saw the highs of winning trophies,
but also the lows of losing games, making mistakes and feeling the
full weight of club and country on your shoulders. And how has he
used his post-playing career to campaign for a better future for
the next generation? In this unique book, one of football's
greatest cult players reflects on the travails of the modern game,
how some of society's problems are reflected within it and draws
upon his own experience to tackle one of its final remaining
taboos: mental health. On fear of failure, confidence, sexuality
and homophobia, suicide, social media and many other talking points
- Neville doesn't hold back on the biggest subjects and gets stuck
in to some of the most important topics surrounding the beautiful
game.
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