Who are the fifteen best players ever to represent Wales at rugby? We all know the answers, but all our answers are different! In pubs and clubs, in classrooms and chat rooms the length and breadth of this rugby-mad nation, this is a question that prompts energetic and entertaining debate; a question that has divided households and destabilized lifelong friendships. In The Greatest Welsh XV Ever, which includes over 130 full-colour photographs, Eddie Butler has gone where angels (and ex-international back-row forwards) fear to tread. Devoting a chapter to each position on the field, he produces a shortlist of the great players, before making his final, decisive, definitive choice in each case. So will it be Barry John or Phil Bennett at number 10? Jamie Roberts or John Dawes at number 12? Graham Price or Adam Jones at number 3? This is your chance to join in the greatest national debate since devolution.

One of the most influential and controversial team owners in professional sports history, Walter O'Malley (1903-79) is best remembered-and still reviled by many-for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Yet much of the O'Malley story leading up to the Dodgers' move is unknown or created from myth, and there is substantially more to the man. When he entered the public eye, the self-constructed family background and early life he presented was gilded. Later his personal story was distorted by some New York sportswriters, who hated him for moving the Dodgers. In Mover and Shaker Andy McCue presents for the first time an objective, complete, and nuanced account of O'Malley's life. He also departs from the overly sentimentalized accounts of O'Malley as either villain or angel and reveals him first and foremost as a rational, hardheaded businessman, who was a major force in baseball for three decades and whose management and marketing practices radically changed the shape of the game.

Chicago in the Roaring Twenties was a city of immigrants, mobsters, and flappers with one shared passion: the Chicago Cubs. It all began when the chewing-gum tycoon William Wrigley decided to build the world's greatest ball club in the nation's Second City. In this Jazz Age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting to attract eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark. Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heart-an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes, equally memorable disasters, and shadowy intrigue. Readers take front-row seats to meet Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Joe McCarthy, Lewis "Hack" Wilson, Gabby Hartnett. The cast of characters also includes their colorful if less-extolled teammates and the Cubs' nemesis, Babe Ruth, who terminates the ambitions of Mr. Wrigley's ball club with one emphatic swing.

During the 1972-73 season, the Philadelphia 76ers were not just a bad team; they were fantastically awful. Doomed from the start after losing their leading scorer and rebounder, Billy Cunningham, as well as head coach Jack Ramsay, they lost twenty-one of their first twenty-three games. A Philadelphia newspaper began calling them the Seventy Sickers, and they duly lost their last thirteen games on their way to a not-yet-broken record of nine wins and seventy-three losses.
Charley Rosen recaptures the futility of that season through the firsthand accounts of players, participants, and observers. Although the team was uniformly bad, there were still many memorable moments, and the lore surrounding the team is legendary. Once, when head coach Lou Rubin tried to substitute John Q. Trapp out of a game, Trapp refused and told Rubin to look behind the team's bench, whereby one of Trapp's friends supposedly opened his jacket to show his handgun. With only four wins at the All-Star break, Rubin was fired and replaced by player-coach Kevin Loughery.
In addition to chronicling the 76ers' woes, "Perfectly Awful" also captures the drama, culture, and attitude of the NBA in an era when many white fans believed that the league had too many black players, most of whom were overtly political and/or using recreational drugs.

21 years after its publication, a new edition is being published with updated text and new chapters as well as a new Introduction, written by one of the book's many fans and the biggest name in British football, Sir Alex Ferguson. But this is a book about much, much more than football It is loved not only by Sir Alex but also by Gordon Brown, Alistair Campbell, Ian Rankin and the Rev Kathy Galloway and it was a huge favourite of poet, George Mackay Brown. So why have the trials and tribulations of Cowdenbeath football club - one of the most unsuccessful football clubs in Britain - excited the imagination even of those who have no interest in football and who have never been to Cowdenbeath? Cowdenbeath's story is set against the rise and decline of the local mining industry and the life after mining. It is very funny, deeply spiritual, moving and also a little bit political. But what makes it so interesting to so many groups is the uplifting story of a real community spirit throughout all of the ups and downs of a town and a football club that is at its social heart and core. It is also the most autobiographical book that Ron Ferguson has written, never taking himself very seriously. The book's quirkiness appeals across the religious, local, national, and footballing worlds. Long out of print, this is the new and updated 21st-anniversary edition.

One of the most influential and controversial team owners in professional sports history, Walter O'Malley (1903-79) is best remembered--and still reviled by many--for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Yet much of the O'Malley story leading up to the Dodgers' move is unknown or created from myth, and there is substantially more to the man. When he entered the public eye, the self-constructed family background and early life he presented was gilded. Later his personal story was distorted by some New York sportswriters, who hated him for moving the Dodgers. In Mover and Shaker Andy McCue presents for the first time an objective, complete, and nuanced account of O'Malley's life. He also departs from the overly sentimentalized accounts of O'Malley as either villain or angel and reveals him first and foremost as a rational, hardheaded businessman who was a major force in baseball for three decades, and whose management and marketing practices radically changed the shape of the game.

"Fear and Loathing in La Liga" is the definitive history of the greatest rivalry in world sport: FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid. It's Messi vs. Ronaldo, Guardiola vs. Mourinho, the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs. Franco's fascists, plus majestic goals and mesmerizing skills. It's the best two teams on the planet going head-to-head. It's more than a game. It's a war. It's El Clasico.
Only, it's not quite that simple. Spanish soccer expert and historian Sid Lowe covers 100 years of rivalry, athletic beauty, and excellence. "Fear and Loathing in La Liga" is a nuanced, revisionist, and brilliantly informed history that goes beyond sport. Lowe weaves together this story of the rivalry with the history and culture of Spain, emphasizing that it is "never about just the soccer." With exclusive testimonies and astonishing anecdotes, he takes us inside this epic battle, including the wounds left by the Civil War, Madrid's golden age in the fifties when they won five European cups, Johan Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team, the doomed Galactico experiment, and Luis Figo's "betrayal."
By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics, and language--while never forgetting the drama on the field--Lowe demonstrates the relationship between these two soccer giants and reveals the true story behind their explosive rivalry.

WINNER OF THE CRICKET SOCIETY AND MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 'I doubt there will be a better book written about this period in West Indies cricket history.' Clive Lloyd Cricket had never been played like this. Cricket had never meant so much. The West Indies had always had brilliant cricketers; it hadn't always had brilliant cricket teams. But in 1974, a man called Clive Lloyd began to lead a side which would at last throw off the shackles that had hindered the region for centuries. Nowhere else had a game been so closely connected to a people's past and their future hopes; nowhere else did cricket liberate a people like it did in the Caribbean. For almost two decades, Clive Lloyd and then Vivian Richards led the batsmen and bowlers who changed the way cricket was played and changed the way a whole nation - which existed only on a cricket pitch - saw itself. With their pace like fire and their scorching batting, these sons of cane-cutters and fishermen brought pride to a people which had been stifled by 300 years of slavery, empire and colonialism. Their cricket roused the Caribbean and antagonised the game's traditionalists. Told by the men who made it happen and the people who watched it unfold, Fire in Babylon is the definitive story of the greatest team that sport has known.

By 1964 the storied St. Louis Cardinals had gone seventeen years without so much as a pennant. Things began to turn around in 1953, when August A. Busch Jr. bought the team and famously asked where all the black players were. Under the leadership of men like Bing Devine and Johnny Keane, the Cardinals began signing talented players regardless of colour, and slowly their star started to rise again. Drama and Pride in the Gateway City commemorates the team that Bing Devine built, the 1964 team that prevailed in one of the tightest three-way pennant races of all time and then went on to win the World Series, beating the New York Yankees in the full seven games. All the men come alive in these pages - pitchers Ray Sadecki and Bob Gibson, players Lou Brock, Curt Flood, and Bobby Shantz, manager Johnny Keane, his coaches, the Cardinals' broadcasters, and Bill White, who would one day run the entire National League - along with the dramatic events that made the 1964 Cardinals such a memorable club in a memorable year.

No owners...Five players under contract...In administration...Not even a kit to play in...Is it any wonder that Port Vale FC were written off as 18th favourites for promotion at the start of the 2012-2013 season? But by the end of a memorable campaign, the club had been promoted, finished as the division's top scorers and a life-long Vale fan was the club's top goalscorer. How on earth did that happen? Rob Fielding, editor of the award-winning Port Vale website onevalefan.co.uk chronicles one of the most extraordinary seasons in the long history of Port Vale FC. A contribution to charity will be made for every book sold.

When the Leeds United players celebrated winning the championship in April 1992, they had no idea how momentous the occasion was. Manchester United, losers at Liverpool that Sunday afternoon, had now gone 25 years without winning the league. Howard Wilkinson's side, promoted just two seasons ago, could bring back the glory days to Leeds. But Wilkinson would prove to be the last English manager to win the league. In 1992, football changed beyond all recognition. The Last Champions explores the roots of that success and the amazing cast of characters who came together to fashion the triumph. As in his acclaimed book The Fallen, Dave Simpson's quest to catch up with the protagonists of the era, from the visionary Sergeant Wilko, top scorer Lee Chapman and unsung heroes like Mike Whitlow and Carl Shutt (not forgetting Eric Cantona), sees him unearth some extraordinary untold stories. And he finds that The Last Champions were also the last ordinary people to win the league, before the Premier League saw skyrocketing wages, billionaire foreign owners and the dictates of television taking the game away from the fans. It is the brilliantly told story of the end of an era.

Of all the New York Yankees championship teams, the 1947 club seemed the least likely. Bridging the gap between the dynasties of Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, the team, managed by Bucky Harris, was coming off three non-pennant-winning seasons and given little chance to unseat the defending American League champion Boston Red Sox. And yet, led by Joe DiMaggio, this un-Yankees-like squad of rookies, retreads, and a few solid veterans easily won the pennant over the Detroit Tigers and the heavily favoured Red Sox, along the way compiling an American League-record nineteen-game winning streak. They then went on to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers in a dramatic seven-game World Series that was the first to be televised and the first to feature an African American player. Bridging Two Dynasties commemorates this historic club - the players, on the field and off, and the events surrounding their remarkable season. Along with player biographies, including those of future Hall of Famers DiMaggio, Bucky Harris, Yogi Berra, and Phil Rizzuto, the book features a seasonal timeline and covers pertinent topics such as the winning streak, the Yankees' involvement in Leo Durocher's suspension, and the thrilling World Series.

Manchester United have boasted some of the game's greatest ever players but who makes it into their all-time best XI? The competition is fierce as Old Trafford has played host to so many legendary talents, from the Busby Babes in 1950s to the 1968 European Cup winners and the Treble winners of 1999. Who plays in the heart of the defence, Jaap Stam, Steve Bruce, Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand? And how can you ever possibly separate Paul Scholes, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane? It gets even harder when having to choose between Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and George Best. Up front there are only two places, so who from Wayne Rooneyhange, Denis Law, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Eric Cantona will make it on to the team sheet? Experienced football writer Sam Pilger selects his side from this vast array of talent and aims to finally settle the debate of who should be included in United's greatest ever XI. A lifelong United fan, and the author of several books on United's history, Sam Pilger has interviewed and got to know nine of the eleven players in his side, and so provides his own unique and personal insights in to what makes each of them great. Reviews for Best XI Manchester United A superb book, rich in insight and anecdote, it reflects Sam Pilger's deep knowledge of his subject...Thoroughly entertaining and wise.' Paul Hayward, Chief Sports Writer of The Daily Telegraph An excellent book; poignant, fascinating, and packs an emotional punch...Pilger possesses an uncanny ability to evoke fandom's entire spectrum of sweet and sour shades and the endless nuances of Saturdays gone by. ESPN Soccernet.com **** (4/5 Stars) FourFourTwo

In 1937, when local beer baron Emil Sick stepped in, the Seattle Indians were a struggling minor-league baseball team teetering on collapse. Moved to mix baseball and beer by his good friend and fellow brewer, New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, Sick built a new stadium and turned the team into a civic treasure. The Rainiers (newly named after the beer) set attendance records and won Pacific Coast League titles in 1939, '40, '41, '51, and '55. The story of the Rainiers spans the end of the Great Depression, World War II, the rise of the airline industry, and the incursion of Major League Baseball into the West Coast (which ultimately spelled doom for the club). It features well-known personalities such as Babe Ruth, who made an unsuccessful bid to manage the team; Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who did manage the Rainiers; and Ron Santo, a batboy who went on to a storied career with the Chicago Cubs. Mixing traditional baseball lore with tales of mischief, "Pitchers of Beer" relates the twenty-seven-year history of the Rainiers, a history that captures the timeless appeal of baseball, along with the local moments and minutiae that bring the game home to each and every one of us. "Pitchers of Beer" showcases fifty-two photographs of players and memorabilia from noted Northwest baseball collector David Eskenazi.

Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid: A Tactical Analysis - Attacking & Defending A Chance for You to Learn Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 System of Play, Tactics, Each Player's Responsibilities, Positioning & Movement With Every Possible Phase of Play The long awaited study of Jose Mourinho's tactics is finally here with an extensive analysis of his Real Madrid team's 4-2-3-1 formation. You can now see a full analysis of Real Madrid's attacking and defending tactics which have been so important to their success. They scored 121 goals in La Liga and this book shows Real's 4-2-3-1 system of play, each player's responsibilities, positioning and movement within every possible phase of play. The defensive phase was key for Real Madrid and the main features were applying pressure near the opposition's penalty area to regain the ball, aggressive zonal marking across the whole pitch, using intelligent positioning to double mark opposing players and Xabi Alonso's great tactical awareness. Terzis Athanasios is a Tactical Professor of Football and has compiled an extensive assessment of Real Madrid's defensive play after over 1000 hours of studying all the games from the 2011-12 season. Real Madrid won the La Liga title, beating Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team, one of the most successful club sides in history, by 9 points. This defending book starts with the characteristics of the players and builds into a comprehensive overview of the defensive tactics employed with clear diagrams and detailed descriptions. This gives you a unique opportunity to use the same 4-2-3-1 pattern of plays that Jose Mourinho's used for his winning Real Madrid team.. Integrate them into your sessions Now This Defending book includes: Pages: 244 Diagrams: 292 Coaching Topics: 103 Printed: B/W Don't miss this unbelievable chance for you to learn Jose Mourinho's 4-2-3-1, how the team play and adapt their tactics to all conceivable situations. Their attacking and defensive play is key to their great success and the blueprint is available right here for you to learn and apply the same tactics for your team.

Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid: A Tactical Analysis - Attacking A Chance for You to Learn Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 System of Play, Tactics, Each Player's Responsibilities, Positioning & Movement With Every Possible Phase of Play The long awaited study of Jose Mourinho's tactics is finally here with an extensive analysis of his Real Madrid team's 4-2-3-1 formation. You can now see a full analysis of Real Madrid's attacking and defending tactics which have been so important to their success. They scored 121 goals in La Liga and this book shows Real's 4-2-3-1 system of play, each player's responsibilities, positioning and movement within every possible phase of play. The attacking phase was key for Real Madrid and the main features were creating width, maintaining superiority in numbers around the ball zone, long diagonal passes, in/out swinging crosses from the flank and Ronaldo's efficiency in front of goal. Terzis Athanasios is a Tactical Professor of Football and has compiled an extensive assessment of Real Madrid's defensive play after over 1000 hours of studying all the games from the 2011-12 season. Real Madrid won the La Liga title, beating Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team, one of the most successful club sides in history, by 9 points. This attacking book starts with the characteristics of the players and builds into a comprehensive overview of the attacking tactics employed with clear diagrams and detailed descriptions. This gives you a unique opportunity to use the same 4-2-3-1 pattern of plays that Jose Mourinho's used for his winning Real Madrid team.. Integrate them into your sessions Now This Attacking book includes: Pages: 286 Diagrams: 382 Coaching Topics: 131 Printed: B/W Don't miss this unbelievable chance for you to learn Jose Mourinho's 4-2-3-1, how the team play and adapt their tactics to all conceivable situations. Their attacking and defensive play is key to their great success and the blueprint is available right here for you to learn and apply the same tactics for your team.

Inside you'll find: a punchy, rabidly red-eyed review of every single match and goal, from the Reading false start to the Wigan and Moscow highs. It is an entertaining, minute-by-minute guide to the matches that really mattered - Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, Wigan and Chelsea.It contains all the season's best quotes from everyone from Ferguson and Crerand to the dreaded Scousers. And, uniquely, it also contains a round-up of all the news, jokes, gossip and rumours affecting both United and our fiercest rivals between matches. Most season reviews follow the same old blueprint of stats and dry match reports. "Destination Moscow" is a book for everyone who lives and breathes United, not just on match day but every single day

Of all the teams in the annals of baseball, only a select few can lay claim to historic significance. One of those teams is the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, the first racially integrated Major League team of the twentieth century. The addition of Jackie Robinson to its roster changed not only baseball but also the nation. Yet Robinson was just one member of that memorable club, which included Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, Duke Snider, Eddie Stanky, Arky Vaughan, and Dixie Walker. Also present was a quartet of baseball's most unforgettable characters: co-owners Branch Rickey and Walter O'Malley, suspended manager Leo Durocher, and radio announcer Red Barber. This book is the first to offer biographies of everyone on that incomparable team as well as accounts of the moments and events that marked the Dodgers' 1947 season: Commissioner Happy Chandler suspending Durocher, Rickey luring his old friend Burt Shotton out of retirement to replace Durocher, and brilliant outfielder Reiser being sidelined after running into a fence. In spite of all this, the Dodgers went on to win the National League pennant over the heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals. And of course, there is the biggest story of the season, where history and biography coalesce: Jackie Robinson, who overcame widespread hostility to become Rookie of the Year-and to help the Dodgers set single-game attendance records in cities around the National League.

For the Baltimore Orioles, the glory days stretched to decades. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the team arguably had the best players, the best manager, the best Minor League teams, the best scouts and front office-and, unarguably, the best record in the American League. But the best of all, and one of baseball's greatest teams ever, was the Orioles team of 1970. Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers documents that paradoxically unforgettable yet often overlooked World Champion team. Led by the bats of Frank Robinson and Boog Powell and a trio of 20-win pitchers, the Orioles won 108 regular season games and dropped just 1 postseason game on their way to winning the World Series against the Reds. The club featured three future Hall of Fame players (Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, and Jim Palmer), a Hall of Fame manager (Earl Weaver), and several other star players in the prime of their careers. Featuring biographical articles on Weaver, his coaches, the broadcasters, and the players of the 1970 season, this book tells what happened in and out of the game. It details highlights and timelines, the memorable games, spectacular plays, and the team's working philosophy, "the Oriole Way"-and in sum recreates the magic of one of the greatest seasons in baseball history.