Growing up on Chicago's Westside in the 90's, Arshay Cooper knows the harder side of life. The street corners are full of gangs, the hallways of his apartment complex are haunted by junkies he calls "zombies" with strung out arms, clutching at him as he passes by. His mother is a recovering addict, and his three siblings all sleep in a one room apartment, a small infantry against the war zone on the street below. Arshay keeps to himself, preferring to write poetry about the girl he has a crush on, and spends his school days in the home-ec kitchen dreming of becoming a chef. And then one day as he's walking out of school he notices boats lined up on the floor of the gymnasium, and a poster that reads "Join the Crew Team". Arshay, having no idea what the sport of crew is, decides to take a chance. This decision to join is one that will forever change his life, and those of his fellow teammates. As Arshay and his teammates begin to come together, learning not only how to row, many never having been in water before, the sport takes them from the mean streets of Chicago, to the hallowed halls of the Ivy League. But Arshay and his teammates face adversity at every turn, from racism, gang violence, and a sport that has never seen anyone like them before. A Most Beautiful Thing is the inspiring true story about the most unlikely band of brothers that form a family, and forever change a sport and their lives for the better.

"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero.

In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original.

From the management of major bands in the 1970s to 1980s like Fleetwood Mac, Queen, The Rolling Stones and ACDC to his swift move across to boxing management and promotion in 1984, this biography brings the late South African-born American boxing promoter Cedric Kushner’s history to life.

Leaving by ship with $400 in his pocket from South Africa to the United States, Cedric Kushner has become one of the most renowned music and boxing promoters and managers of his time. Driven by self-belief and the desire for success, Kushner rose to the very pinnacle of the boxing and music worlds. He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, with the promotion of over 300 World Title Fights and boxers such as Shane Mosley, Hasim Rahman, Shannon Briggs, Oleg Maskaev, Chris Byrd, Corrie Sanders, Ike Ibeabuchi and David Tua to name a few, under his belt.

With stories of co-promotion alongside Donald Trump, his infamous rivalry with Don King, the legendary heavyweight championship Hasim Rahman vs Lennox Lewis known as “Thunder in Africa”, the late Kushner’s decorated life is told through the eyes of his Muizenberg hometown friend Barry John Cohen.

This is a tale of Ashdon Scriven's life, a professional polo player. It will tell of many of the fantastic polo ponies that helped shape his career. It is also a tale of the many young ladies that passed through it, however long or short their stay and changed it, some for better some for the worse.

The "New York Times" bestseller about the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it--"A fascinating saga" ("Booklist").
In search of the sport's old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs--Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern--and captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game.
"Fourth and Long" reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a team's angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his master's exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio State's Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigan's athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, "Fourth and Long" finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn State's tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill O'Brien to save the university's treasured program--and with it, a piece of the game's soul.
This is the work of a writer in love with an old game--a game he sees at the precipice. Bacon's deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.

For 125 years the British & Irish Lions have stood out as a peerless emblem in world sport. This unique account of the best from the four Home Nations examines every tour in the Lions' history, including the victorious 2013 tour to Hong Kong and Australia, told in the players' words. Behind the Lions sees rugby writers from across the Home Nations delve to the heart of what it means to be a Lion, interviewing a vast array of former and current players to uncover the passion, pride and exhilaration experienced when wearing the famous red jersey. It is a tale of heartbreak and ecstasy, humour and poignancy that is at once inspirational, moving and utterly compelling. This is the story of the British & Irish Lions in their own words.

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Tiger Woods comes the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots--the greatest sports dynasty of the 21st century. It's easy to forget that the New England Patriots were once the laughingstock of the NFL, a nearly bankrupt team that had never won a championship and was on the brink of moving to St. Louis. Everything changed in 1994, when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and soon brought on board head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Since then, the Patriots have become a juggernaut, making ten trips to the Super Bowl, winning six of them, and emerging as one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. How was the Patriots dynasty built? And how did it last for two decades? In The Dynasty, acclaimed journalist Jeff Benedict provides richly reported answers in a sweeping account based on exclusive interviews with more than two hundred insiders--including team executives, coaches, players, players' wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more--as well as never-before-seen recordings, documents, and electronic communications. Through his exhaustive research, Benedict uncovers surprising new details about the inner workings of a team notorious for its secrecy. He puts us in the room as Robert Kraft outmaneuvers a legion of lawyers and investors to buy the team. We listen in on the phone call when the greatest trade ever made--Bill Belichick for a first-round draft choice--is negotiated. And we look over the shoulder of forty-year-old Tom Brady as a surgeon operates on his throwing hand on the eve of the AFC Championship Game in 2018. But the portrait that emerges in The Dynasty is more rewarding than new details alone. By tracing the team's epic run through the perspectives of Kraft, Belichick, and Brady--each of whom was interviewed for the book--the author provides a wealth of new insight into the complex human beings most responsible for the Patriots' success. The result is an intimate portrait that captures the human drama of the dynasty's three key characters while also revealing the secrets behind their success. "The Dynasty is...[a] masterpiece...It's a relationship book, it's a football book, it's a business book...you'll just eat up these stories" (Colin Cowherd).

This is not a book about how to train for an Ironman, the kit you need or anything that could actually prove to be useful. If there is anything useful in this book then that's purely by accident. If you are looking for some genuine training tips on Ironman then please get one of the decent training books - not the 55,000 words of illiterate drivel this represents. This is a simply a story about someone (fat northerner in the shape of Darren) deciding to do something as stupid as Ironman and the things you encounter on the way. Such as the psychotic geese, paperless portaloos, the mind games and the doomsday feeling that no matter how much training you do it's never enough. Darren is fat, bald, ugly and lives in the North West of England with his wife Amy and daughter Lilly-Mae where he continues to try to be a triathlete.

'I loved it. I thought it was fascinating - really, really interesting story that he's got to tell... I've known him for years and I learned an awful lot.' Marc Priestley Kimi Raikkoenen is the Finnish superstar Formula One driver with a reputation for being fast on the track and silent off it - until now! In this superb and authorised portrait of Raikkoenen, Kari Hotakainen gets to reveal the side of the man that few beyond his close family and friends have ever seen. Enigmatic and private, Ferrari's former world champion driver rarely opens up to outsiders, but he granted Hotakainen exclusive access to his world and to his way of thinking. It ensures that this will be a book that will delight all fans of motorsport, who have long revered the Finn. Including never-previously-seen photographs from his own collection, The Unknown Kimi Raikkoenen takes the reader into the heart of the action at grands prix around the world, behind the scenes as race strategies are planned, and opens up the private side of his life that he normally guards so carefully. With all the cult appeal of I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the raw excitement of Formula One and the insight of the best biographies, this is a book every sports fan will want to treasure.

A biography of America's greatest all-around athlete that "goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe's life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty" (Los Angeles Times), by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered. Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw's New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his awesome talent, Thorpe's life was a struggle against the odds. At Carlisle, he faced the racist assimilationist philosophy "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe survived, determined to shape his own destiny, his perseverance becoming another mark of his mythic stature. Path Lit by Lightning "[reveals] Thorpe as a man in full, whose life was characterized by both soaring triumph and grievous loss" (The Wall Street Journal).

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2019 THE FULL STORY BEHIND THE RISE, FALL AND RISE AGAIN OF TIGER WOODS 'A rattling read... Superbly written' Daily Mail 'Arguably the most serious attempt ever made to get behind golf's great enigma' Guardian 'Exhilarating, depressing, tawdry and moving... perfectly pitched biography' New York Times Based on three years of extensive research and reporting, two of today's most acclaimed investigative journalists, Jeff Benedict of Sports Illustrated and eleven-time Emmy Award winner Armen Keteyian, deliver the first major biography of Tiger Woods - sweeping in scope and packed with groundbreaking, behind-the-scenes details of the Shakespearean rise and epic fall of a global icon. In 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendent star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune living what appeared to be the perfect life - married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children. Winner of fourteen major golf championships and seventy-nine PGA Tour events, Woods was the first billion-dollar athlete, earning more than $100 million a year in endorsements from the likes of Nike, Gillette, AT&T and Gatorade. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years - one that exploded in the aftermath of a late-night crash that exposed his serial infidelity and sent his personal and professional life off a cliff. In Tiger Woods, Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian dig deep behind the headlines to produce a richly reported answer to the question that has mystified millions of sports fans for nearly a decade: who is Tiger Woods? Drawing on more than four hundred interviews with people from every corner of Woods's life - friends, family members, teachers, romantic partners, swing coaches, business associates, Tour pros and members of Woods's inner circle - Benedict and Keteyian construct a captivating psychological profile of an African-American child programmed by an attention-grabbing father and the original Tiger Mom to be the 'chosen one', to change not just the game of golf, but the world as well. But at what cost? Benedict and Keteyian provide the startling answers in a biography, updated for this edition, destined to make headlines and linger in the minds of readers for years to come.

Tom Clavin and Danny Peary chronicle the life and career of baseball's "natural home run king" in the first definitive biography of Roger Maris--including a brand-new chapter to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his record breaking season.
Roger Maris may be the greatest ballplayer no one really knows. In 1961, the soft-spoken man from the frozen plains of North Dakota enjoyed one of the most amazing seasons in baseball history, when he outslugged his teammate Mickey Mantle to become the game's natural home-run king. It was Mantle himself who said, "Roger was as good a man and as good a ballplayer as there ever was." Yet Maris was vilified by fans and the press and has never received his due from biographers--until now.
Tom Clavin and Danny Peary trace the dramatic arc of Maris's life, from his boyhood in Fargo through his early pro career in the Cleveland Indians farm program, to his World Series championship years in New York and beyond. At the center is the exciting story of the 1961 season and the ordeal Maris endured as an outsider in Yankee pinstripes, unloved by fans who compared him unfavorably to their heroes Ruth and Mantle, relentlessly attacked by an aggressive press corps who found him cold and inaccessible, and treated miserably by the organization. After the tremendous challenge of breaking Ruth's record was behind him, Maris ultimately regained his love of baseball as a member of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals. And over time, he gained redemption in the eyes of the Yankee faithful.
With research drawn from more than 130 interviews with Maris's teammates, opponents, family, and friends, as well as 16 pages of photos, some of which have never before been seen, this timely and poignant biography sheds light on an iconic figure from baseball's golden era--and establishes the importance of his role in the game's history.

In 2013, Alan Hodgkinson marks 60 years spent playing and coaching at clubs including Sheffield United, Manchester United and England. This is the story of his life - and the life of the game - in that time. In 2013, Alan Hodgkinson marks 60 years spent playing and coaching at clubs including Sheffield United, Manchester United and England. In 'Between the Sticks', Alan tells the story of a life in football: from his days as a trainee at Worksopp Town in the 50s, to his big-money move to Sheffield United (where his signing-on fee was a new suit for 'courting'), to England duty, as well as a glittering coaching career at Man United, Rangers, Villa among others. It is a story that features legends of the game such as Matthews, Charlton, Best, and Pele, all of whom Alan has played with or against. 'Between the Sticks' will transport the reader back to a golden age of football, when pig skins were hoofed around with hobnail boots, to the modern day where as a coach at Oxford United Alan sees the realities of 21st century football first-hand. It is a story that no football fan will want to miss.

Having made the daring decision to set off around the world by bicycle, Pam Goodall left the comfortable surroundings of her home in West Sussex one spring morning, and went on to pedal her way through Europe, Asia and America. She was approaching her sixtieth birthday and travelled alone. Riding It Out is a record of this remarkable journey, giving a vivid and lighthearted account. This includes the trials of finding a place to sleep each night, the reality of owning a Brooks saddle and choosing to ignore persistent warnings from well meaning strangers of the dangers lurking ahead for a lone female cyclist. The challenge of obtaining visas throughout Asia proves nerve-wracking and costly. This one woman tale of adventure encapsulates the spirit of freedom of the open road (or bumpy track) so that you can enjoy the experience without the discomforts.

"This is the best book looking inside the mind of a big-league manager I have ever read, because Francona is sharp and loves the game, because Shaughnessy is eloquent and a dazzling storyteller."--"Philadelphia Daily News"
When Terry Francona took over as manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2004, the storied franchise hadn't won a World Series championship in eighty-six years. Led by Francona, the team won two over the course of four years. During the full eight years of Francona's tenure, the Red Sox were transformed from "cursed" into one of the most successful and profitable teams in baseball history--only to fall back to last place as soon as Francona was gone.
"Francona: The Red Sox Years" lets readers in on the inner workings of the Red Sox clubhouse like no book has ever done before. From the highs of the World Series to the lows of the final months of the 2011 season--the most epic collapse of a team in baseball history--this book features the never-before-told stories about Sox fans' favorite players, moments, wins, and losses.
"A scorched-earth memoir . . . that] touches fleetingly on steroid use, sabermetrics, and Michael Jordan's stint in the minor leagues . . . but saves its heaviest artillery for the owners . . . and] Theo Epstein backs him up."--"New York Times Book Review"
"It's not often that baseball aficionados and gossip gluttons can plunk down on a shared portion of outfield grass with the same book for an afternoon of readerly delight, but "Francona "can bridge those kinds of differences."--"Boston Globe"

Coach Bobby Bowden is an icon of college football who ran his legendary, top-ranking program with a trademark southern charm. With his recent retirement, Bowden is ready to give fans and readers the behind-the-scenes story of his 55-year career and the path that helped him become one of college football's most successful coaches and patriarch of the sport's most famous coaching family.
In this book, Bowden will reveal never-before-published details of the moments and events that have defined his life, including:
* The tragic death of his grandson and son-in-law in a 2004 automobile accident.
* The details of his retirement as FSU's coach at the end of the 2009 season.