What do Julius Erving, Larry Brown, Moses Malone, Bob Costas, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Slam Dunk Contest have in common? They all got their professional starts in the American Basketball Association.

The NBA may have won the financial battle, but the ABA won the artistic war. With its stress on wide-open individual play, the adoption of the 3-point shot and pressing defense, and the encouragement of flashy moves and flying dunks, today's NBA is still -- decades later -- just the ABA without the red, white and blue ball.

"Loose Balls" is, after all these years, the definitive and most widely respected history of the ABA. It's a wild ride through some of the wackiest, funniest, strangest times ever to hit pro sports -- told entirely through the (often incredible) words of those who played, wrote and connived their way through the league's nine seasons.

During his career as the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Earl Weaver was called "baseball's resident genius." His distinctive style of managing helped his teams finish first or second thirteen times in his seventeen years as a manager. This volume reveals Weaver's approach to the game, with a focus on how to manage a roster, a lineup, and a pitching staff. He defines the differences between running a team during a single game and managing it during an entire season. In his characteristically blunt style, Weaver explains everything from how to tell when a pitcher is tiring to how and when to argue with an umpire. Successful ball clubs still mimic his offensive strategies. Readers of this updated edition will learn new ways to think about the game as it's played today.

"An easy, fun book to read and will surely bring back good memories for Cleveland sports fans who listened to Tait's trademark calls since 1970." -- 20SecondTimeout.com

Joe Tait is like a family friend to three generations of Cleveland sports fans. This book celebrates his Hall-of-Fame broadcasting career with stories from Joe and dozens of fans, media colleagues, and players.

He was "the Voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers." But to fans, Joe was also "one of us." Cavs basketball, Indians baseball, or Mount Union football, he made the game come alive, and wasn't afraid to speak his mind--even when it might get him in trouble with the coach or the owner.

In high school, Joe loved sports but wasn't always good enough to make the team. Then he discovered play-by-play announcing. Combining two passions, he began to carefully build a broadcasting career that would eventually touch the lives of countless other sports fans.

Pluto weaves a roughly chronological narrative that hits the highlights of a long career. It also uncovers some touching personal details. For example, one chapter describes how Joe's father, a stern man with a deep-rooted distrust of black people, came to become good friends with Cavaliers center Nate Thurmond, to Joe's surprise and delight.

With fans, Joe was often more popular than the players on the court--especially during the Cavs' dimmer days. When notoriously incompetent team owner Ted Stepien fired Joe in the 1980s, fans protested and staged a rally in his honor. When new owner Gordon Gund took over the team, the first thing did was hire Joe back. "He is the franchise," Gund said. "To have a basketball team in Cleveland, you have to have Joe Tait."

His work inspired a generation of young broadcasters. Language he invented became part of the common broadcast language in Northeast Ohio. "Left to right on your radio dial" . . . "Wham, with the right hand" . . . "It's a beautiful day for baseball " . . . "To the line, to the lane . . ."

The stories in this book will make fans feel like they're sitting alongside Joe enjoying a play-by-play recap of the remarkable career they shared together.

More from "the sportswriter who writes about faith" . . . Here's a second helping of Terry Pluto's plain and personal musings on topics we all face in everyday life: insults and what they really mean, prayers that don't seem to get answered, endless sibling rivalry, figuring out how to relate to our fathers . . .

"My goal is not to convert anyone reading the paper," Terry writes. "It is to make them think, and to bring some comfort. I write for people who are struggling with faith, or people in pain--physical or emotional. My job is to give them a voice, and to talk about the kind of faith we need to get through what life throws at us each day."

Terry already had a dream job: getting paid to write about sports for a daily newspaper. But when the opportunity arose to write about more spiritual topics, he embraced the challenge. Readers are glad he did. His "Faith and You" column now regularly touches the lives of thousands of loyal readers.

Terry writes for people who aren't always confident in their beliefs but know faith is still important to them . . . For people who sometimes get mad at their church or disagree with their pastor yet don't want to lose the spiritual side of their lives . . . For people of different faiths or backgrounds or who aren't even sure they're religious. These essays don't claim to have all the answers. But the questions they raise give readers something to think about all week.

An history of the beginnings of the National Basketball Associations for true basketball fans.
"Tall Tales" in an oral history of the early days of the National Basketball Associations, when giants such as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Maurice Stokes, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit, Lenny Wilkens, Hot Rod Hundley, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor stalked the boards. When players sometimes had second jobs in the off-season. When teams were based in towns like Fort Wayne, Syracuse, and Rochester. If you consider yourself a true basketball fan, you need to know the sport's roots. They're all here, courtesy of Terry Pluto.

For forty years, he has been the Quiet Man of the NBA. As a rookie, he was overshadowed by two pretty fair guards who entered the league

at the same time: Jerry West and Oscar Robertson. As a veteran, he was -- both figuratively and literally -- a coach on the floor, but he had the misfortune to play for several struggling teams. As a general manager, he won a championship and made back-to-back Finals appearances -- but he did it without superstars, a year before Magic Johnson and Larry Bird revitalized the league. And as a coach, he has won more games than anyone in NBA history -- but spent his best years locked in the same division as Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.

Basketball connoisseurs have long appreciated the style and intelligence with which Lenny Wilkens played and the unflappability and class he's brought to coaching. The respect he has earned resulted in his joining the legendary John Wooden as the only men to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame "twice" -- first as a player, and then as a coach.

Now, in "Unguarded, " Lenny Wilkens steps out from behind his placid demeanor to speak plainly and unequivocally on the enormous social and athletic changes he's seen in his career.

Wilkens sounds off about the challenges he had to overcome in the course of his journey: the racism that left him off the 1960 Olympic basketball team and kept him from being chosen as head coach of the first Dream Team; the fatal miscalculation that kept his Cleveland Cavaliers from getting past Michael Jordan to the NBA Finals; the painful, frustrating task of coaching a troubled and troublesome J.R. Rider, a player who contributed to his departure from Atlanta. And he credits those who went out of their way to help him: the priests and nuns who taught him the value of discipline and reinforced his faith; the coaches who pushed him to develop his talents to the fullest; the selfless players such as John Johnson, Hot Rod Williams, Larry Nance, Steve Smith, and many others who sacrificed individual glory for the good of their teams; his mother, Henrietta, and his wife, Marilyn, who stood beside him in many trying times.

"Unguarded "reveals the Lenny Wilkens we have never seen before, the tough, strong, thoughtful, and analytical man who has spent a life in basketball making his teammates and players better than they knew they could be. Thought-provoking, candid, always honest, Wilkens shares all the secrets he's learned in his four decades surviving in the NBA storm.