The 24 short stories in this collection glow with passion for the game of golf. For fans, this is the next best thing to stepping onto the green. Golf is the trigger for romance, comedy, heartbreaks, and high dramas; it is the backdrop for mystery, adventure chicanery, and farce. And the way they play the game reveals the men and women who people these pages as heroes, duffers, schemers, dupes, egomaniacs, starry-eyed lovers, murderers, and champs.

This expanded edition features the best-loved short stories from the 20th century as well as new tales from some of the 21st century’s most iconic names in fiction.   No other sport has inspired as many great writers as baseball has, and this exceptional anthology brings together 34 short stories about the nation’s favorite pastime. The stories span several decades and are written by some of America’s favorite writers, including Zane Grey, James Thurber, Robert Penn Warren, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and Michael Chabon, among others. Many of the stories are about the game itself, while others use baseball as a backdrop for timeless themes, such as morality, greed, and love. Eight new stories have been added to this expanded edition and include “Bullet in the Brain� by Tobias Wolff, in which baseball is the surprising last memory of a dying man; George Plimpton’s “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch,� a fictional story about a baseball player who throws a 150-mph fastball that was a notorious April Fools’ Day hoax in Sports Illustrated; and Leslie Pietrzyk’s “What We All Want,� about a pitcher’s wife’s concern for her aging husband. This collection is for all baseball lovers—long after the season is over.

Fans of professional sports have been forced to pay attention to labor relations in the last five years. The 1994-1995 season reminded baseball enthusiasts that a player's strike can mean something more than a swing and a miss, and the fans of other sports have experienced similar frustrations. In Playing for Dollars, Paul D. Staudohar analyzes the business dimension of sports with a timely assessment of the interactions among labor, management, and government in baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Author of The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining, an earlier version of the current volume, Staudohar describes the mechanics of contract and salary negotiations, including the pivotal issue of free agency. He explains how unions became established in sports, how the balance of power shifted between owners and players, and how the salaries of stars escalated. He investigates the gambling controversies and changing drug policies that have sometimes alienated fans and comments, as well, on the impact AIDS has had on professional sports. Sports events are media events and Staudohar takes a look at the effects of television contracts and international expansion. He also considers the future of team sports, discussing league expansion, prospects for growth, and the issue of franchise relocation.

For all the billions of dollars the sports industry generates, its labor laws and negotiations are still relatively new, and their impact is only beginning to be felt. Labor Relations in Professional Sports offers a step-by-step examination of how these new management-player relationships have come about and what they may portend for the future. In an engaging style that is rich in sports history and anecdotes, the authors examine the background of the major team sports--baseball, football, basketball, and hockey--and analyze how business and legal considerations have affected each sport's development. They also probe current unresolved issues and predictable future problems, such as the relationships of broadcast networks and sports leagues. Surprisingly, this book with so formidable a title is not only readable but even difficult to put down. Explanations of complex legal decisions are reduced to brief, lucid passages. Extensive footnotes are provided in each chapter for readers who wish greater detail.

"Choice"

. . . a comprehensive treatment of labor relations in sports. . . . Overall, the book is a slam-dunk success.

"Journal of Law and Commerce"