The Giro d'Italia is one of the world's most important and popular bicycle races, yet there is almost no information in English about this magical Italian race's rich past. With "The Story of the Giro d'Italia," the fabulous history of Italy's national tour is at last available. Volume One took the story of the Giro from its origin as a desperate promotional gamble by a nearly broke newspaper to Eddy Merckx's convincing 1970 victory. Volume Two describes the growth of the Giro into a modern, vital international race that is followed by cycling fans all over the world. Along the way, the stories and races that have excited the public over the last forty years are told, including the Francesco Moser/Giuseppe Saronni rivalry, the tragic tale of Marco Pantani and the Alberto Contador affair that left the Spaniard stripped of his 2011 Giro championship.

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 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.

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.

National league glory last visited Manchester City in 1968, when the likes of Bell, Lee and Summerbee lifted the English Football League Championship trophy. Fast forward forty-four years. The 2011/12 Premiership season belongs to Manchester City. It has been a long wait, but premiership glory has finally come to rest at the Ethiad Stadium. My Eyes Have Seen the Glory is a match-by-match, blow-by-blow, superbly illustrated account of the most memorable season of English football in recent years. The world has looked on as Man City has grown in strength under the steady leadership of Roberto Mancini. The chairman expected, the fans expected; Mancini has delivered. It has been a season of magnificent highs - the 6-1 trouncing of Manchester United, named by Sir Alex Ferguson as 'the worst result in my history' - and depressing lows - the infamous Carlos Tevez saga - but there has always been drama, passion and world-class football. Victory in the Premiership is to be cherished; My Eyes Have Seen the Glory is the book every Man City fan has been waiting to read. Read it, bask in the glory of long-awaited victory, and celebrate the birth of a new era in the Premiership - Manchester City's era.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

We may not always be World Cup standard on the field, but on the page we are the best. This anthology brings together heroes, favourite grounds and historic moments from Welsh soccer as Cardiff's Dannie Abse lines up alongside the Rhondda's Ron Berry, John Toshack pens a poem on the immortal John Charles, and the great Trevor Ford writes about himself. This is a new-look Welsh XI that shows that our football is world class.

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.

The story of a typical English rugby club set in its historical context linked to the tale of the rare survival of a multi-sport Victorian complex. This will be of interest and use to local people, sports enthusiasts and serious sports historians.

At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, the two teams that emerged to fight for the future of the game were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city dramatically rose to the pinnacle of the baseball world. 1921 tells the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all-New York City World Series. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg re-create the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw's disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun, and with more than fifty photographs, offering a vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances of this classic season.

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.

The Giro d'Italia is one of the world's most important and popular bicycle races, yet there is almost no information in English about this magical Italian race's rich past. With "The Story of the Giro d'Italia," the fabulous history of Italy's national tour is at last available. Volume One takes the story of the Giro from its origin as a desperate promotional gamble by a nearly broke newspaper to Eddy Merckx's convincing 1970 victory.

The Butler Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA National Championship basketball game against Duke University upon defeating Michigan State on April 3, 2010. With only 4,500 students, Butler was the smallest school to play for a national championship since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Coached by Brad Stevens just three years into his position as head basketball coach the undefeated Bulldogs were a hometown team, playing before a hometown crowd on the national stage. Two days later, Butler lost narrowly to Duke, 61 59, but their run for the championship had become a national phenomenon. From her vantage point as a Butler professor, acclaimed writer Susan Neville observed (and participated in) Hoosier Hysteria firsthand. In Butler's Big Dance, she intertwines her recollections of the events with interviews, anecdotes, and photographs to bring readers a taste of the on-campus and courtside excitement of the Bulldogs David-and-Goliath bid for the national title."

"The Surfing Tribe" is the definitive story of the history of surfing in Britain. First published in 2009, this second edition has been significantly updated and expanded with an additional 32 pages and 60 new photos. Written by renowned surf historian Roger Mansfield, the book pieces together the origins and history of the sport around the country. All the key characters are profiled, from early pioneers like Rod Sumpter to international heroes on the pro circuit like Russell Winter. The book also charts the evolution of British surfboards and looks back at the films and magazines that have portrayed the British scene over the decades.

At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a Major League game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, two teams emerged to fight for the future of the game. They were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city rose in dramatic fashion to the pinnacle of the baseball world. "1921" captures this crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all-New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees' franchise. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg recreate the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw's disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun. With more than fifty photographs, the book offers a remarkably vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances that made this season a classic.

From the introduction of the reserve clause in 1879 to the lockout and new basic agreement of 1990, baseball players have been engaged in one of the longest and most colorful labor struggles in our nation's history. "The Imperfect Diamond" tells the stories of the players and their opponents, the powerful owners: how John Montgomery Ward led the Players League Rebellion of 1890; the rise and fall of David Fultz and the Baseball Players Fraternity (1912-18); the iron-fisted regime of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis; the case of "Danny Gardella vs. Happy Chandler" and the blacklisting of the players who jumped to the Mexican League; the founding of the Baseball Players Association in 1953 and the tempestuous but triumphant reign of Marvin Miller; the struggles of Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith, and Dave McNally, and how they brought about the demise of the reserve clause; the unprecedented midseason strike of 1981 and the collusion cases of the late 1980s. In the epilogue for this Bison Books edition, Lee Lowenfish guides the reader through the turbulent 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century, covering expansion teams, the monumental 1994 strike, and performance-enhancing drugs. Listed by the Society of American Baseball Research as one of the fifty essential baseball books, "The Imperfect Diamond" will stand for years to come as the source for the real story behind America's national pastime.

This book looks back at the last 17 seasons of Premiership football. Featuring in-depth profiles of the club's chairmen and manager and 23 of the best players to don the red shirt, this is an essential guide to England's pre-eminent club. There are also in-depth statistical analyses of every Premiership season, all cup results since 1992 and every result in the Manchester Derby since 1894.

With "Final Innings" Dean Sullivan concludes his four-volume documentary history of baseball, whose three earlier volumes have been called "a broad array of illuminating and often unexpected materials" ("Sports Collectors Digest"), "an invaluable reference tool" ("Newark Star-Ledger"), and a "fascinating collection" ("Washington Post"), in which "ancient myths are shattered and new facts are uncovered" ("USA Today Baseball Weekly"). Culling the most pertinent, newsworthy, and just plain curious stories from newspapers and periodicals, and putting each into context, Sullivan constructs an informative and entertaining account of Major League baseball from 1972 through 2008. The 105 essays cover key topics such as George Steinbrenner's purchase of the Yankees, the first free-agent draft, the coming of lights to Wrigley Field, the cancellation of the World Series in 1994, and the BALCO steroid probe. They also bring to light lesser-known gems like the rise of sabermetrics and the federal injunction against team owners in 1995. Offering a you-are-there view of the events that made baseball into the game we know today, this book gives readers a chance to go back and experience baseball's recent history as it happened and was reported by many of the game's finest writers and most prominent voices.

The definitive history of the iconic football club: the glory, the scandal, the stars and its enduring influence on Italian life. Juventus utterly dominates the Italian game. Home to some of the biggest names in sport, it has won title after title, trophy after trophy. However, parallel to the success and myth, there's a murkier reality. For one hundred years the club and its billionaire owners, the Agnelli family, have been synonymous with match-fixing, doping, political chicanery and more. While La Vecchia Signora remains Italy's best-supported team, it's also its most despised. Juve! charts the story of Italy's great sporting dynasty, chronicling the triumphs and tragedies of the Agnellis, and of the icons - Boniperti, Del Piero, Ronaldo - who have been their sporting emissaries for almost a century. The pride of Italy or its dark heart? Footballing colossus or vanity project? With this unique institution, as with so much about life in Italy, things are seldom black and white... 'Superbly entertaining and incisive' TLS 'A compelling case for a football club encapsulating the entire psyche of Italy' Observer

Buffaloes and Beatniks is a historical, nostalgic narrative of the efforts of a group of young boys who set aside their quest for individual glory to conduct a superb effort to achieve team glory and became the first team in 50 years of Waycross High School football to be State Champs. It's the true stories woven together about what really happened when a new coaching staff employed "out of the box" techniques to inform, instruct, inspire and motivate a bunch of boys, who came from all over the City of Waycross to the Georgia AA State Championship. The story explains how the name of Buffaloes and Beatniks came to be applied due to the offensive speed, power and size along with defensive toughness, rebelliousness and pride. Together they were the "Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object." The story comes straight from the "Buffalos' mouth. It tells how young men exposed to a pursuit of athletic excellence, become champions for their entire life. These ordinary young men learned how to do extraordinary things that were "taught on the practice field and learned in life." The story tells of "How to get a suntan and learn how to swim"; "How the State Championship was won two weeks before the first game was ever played"; what is "Thinking about the game"; why you will have "To live with them the rest of your life"; "Pay the price for failure"; "Vitamin shots"; and "it's a long way to go just to say hello." You will learn of the Promise that was made and the Promise that was kept. The story is relevant today. When the principles the 1960 Bulldogs who drilled, practiced and rehearsed, are applied today to your life, you too will be a Champion.

Two childhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the two rival soccer teams in this memoir of friendship and loyalty. As they approached their teenage years a new youth phenomenon which had already began to appear on the soccer scene in Britain--the Casual movement. Instead of becoming bitter rivals and sworn enemies they stood side by side in the one and only group in the city which defended both their teams. This is the true, honest, and very unique story of the Dundee Utility thugs.

The Greatest Escape in the History of Huddersfield Town F.C.(synopsis) The Great Escape of the 1997-8 season for Huddersfield Town has been well documented. Without the enormous efforts from Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath the team would have faced certain relegation. However, now I am proud, pleased and relieved to be in a position to give an account of the Greatest Escape in the history of the club; a monumental milestone in the history of the Terriers. The Great Escape was made possible by efforts on the field, whereas in the Greatest Escape it was the massive contributions of the ones off it that made the vital difference to survival. Find out how close the club was to closure as thousands contributed to saving the Terriers not from relegation but from folding as a club forever; from being robbed of the joy, excitement and intensity that every match day brings.

In the mid-1950s three unrecruited black basketball players, coached by a white former prison guard who had never before coached a college team, led a small Jesuit university in San Francisco to two national titles. "The Dandy Dons" describes for the first time how the unprecedented accomplishment of the Dons, led by coach Phil Woolpert and future hall-of-famers Bill Russell and K. C. Jones, paved the way for black talent in major college basketball and transformed the sport.
James W. Johnson traces the backgrounds of the coach and players, chronicles the heart-stopping games on the road to the championships, and details the Dons' novel techniques: a more vertical game, more central defense, and intimidation as part of game strategy. He also gives a textured picture of life on an integrated basketball team amid a culture of racism and Jim Crow in mid-twentieth-century America.