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What is the best sports related book you've ever read? (1 Viewer)

On The Rocks

On The Rocks

Footballguy
Non Fiction only.

I've been reviewing a handful of "Top 10 All Time Sports Book" lists and a few of them pop up on all of them.

Friday Night Lights (1990), Ball Four (1970) and Paper Lion (1966)  to name a few.

I was surprised to see that there aren't many recent books in most top 10 lists. 

 
"Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto.  It's an account of the ABA mostly told by the people involved with stories and quotes driving the plot along.  Great league, lots of characters....and you'd be very surprised how much of the "current" NBA came out of the ABA.  Good read, moves along quickly, no real lulls.

 
Seabiscuit for me, as well. 

just a remarkable story, expertly told/crafted. 

as good a read as I've ever had, in any genre. 

 
It's a novel: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. It's on my top 100 novel list and I will review it later in my thread. 

 
My favorite is "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. Still holds up well, but was life-changing to 12-year-old baseball fanatic me in 1981.

"A Fan's Notes" is one of my favorite books ever, and is definitely a lot about football, but is more about being a writer.

"The Glory of Their Times" is another great baseball book. Just a lot of first-person remembrances from guys in the 1910s and 20s, an incredibly well-done oral history.

One book I recommend that nobody else ever seems to read is "Bringing the Heat." It's by Mark Bowden, author of Blackhawk Down, about the year or two he covered the Philadelphia Eagles in the Reggie White/Randall Cunningham era. It's a great piece of sports journalism.

 
"It's not About the Bike" - Lance Armstrong

Of course, this was before all his crap was revealed, but at the time, it was one of the most rivetting books I'd ever read.

 
Officer Pete Malloy said:
Good call here.  

Oddly enough,  I though "Unbroken" was pretty mediocre. 
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totally disagree on unbroken but thats another thread

another great sports book is Their Lifes Work but only if you are a steeler fan

on my nightstand I have The All Americans which my wife just bought me but I haven't started yet.  It deals with 4 soldiers who play in the army/navy game of 1941 right before pearl harbor and follows them into WW2.  Not sure how a book about WWII and football could be bad.

 
Interesting that Ball Four is holding up after all these years. If you think the traditional sports fraternity is a closed shop now, you should have been around to see the backlash incurred by Bouton when his book came out. Ftr, I liked it very much; it set me on a lifetime path of keeping a non-traditional perspective about sports. 

Buzz Bissinger is completely nuts but he also had a winner in Friday Night Lights.

 
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I also read Ruffians by Tim Green when I was a kid, but that's a novel about NFL dudes doing steroids. Green did play for the Falcons though.

 
Ball Four and Loose Balls are probably my two favorite. The list should also include Heaven is a Playground, A Sense of Where You Are, The Fight, and a couple of Feinstein books.

Some will say Dryden's book, but I found that one really boring.  

Not in the same league as those, but I really enjoyed Play Their Hearts Out, and Instant Replay is like a watered down NFL version of Ball Four that I really liked.

 
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Deepster said:
"Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto.  It's an account of the ABA mostly told by the people involved with stories and quotes driving the plot along.  Great league, lots of characters....and you'd be very surprised how much of the "current" NBA came out of the ABA.  Good read, moves along quickly, no real lulls.
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My father was involved in the ABA and is in this book.  Interesting times, indeed!

 
The first "big book" I read cover to cover in one day was a biography on Lou Gehrig.  It was maybe 150-175 pages but the print was huge.  I was like 9 in the 3rd grade.  All I remember is that he killed a bird one time with a sling shot and felt real bad about it. 

The next bio I read a few years down the line was Bo vs Bo.  That was good too.  All I remember is that he killed a bunch of pigs over months or years and didn't feel bad about it.  Then, one day, he was running from the farmer and jumped a 12 ft ditch and looked down and saw dozens of pig carcasses in the ditch and then felt real bad about it.  

Take that to the bank brohans. 

 
I've got Paper Lion and my friend swears by Cobb. I could just never get into the character of Cobb.  

If we're counting auto racing and allowing long form journalism, then "The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!" by Tom Wolfe has to be up there for not only giving a great depiction of NASCAR but predicting its rise as a huge sport in the South. 

Wolfe is so awesome that even his really bad books seem prescient, but that's an aside. 

 
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It's been a long time since I read it, but was really into golf in my mid teens and the book 'A Good Walk Spoiled' was probably my favorite.  By John Feinstein, its about golfers trying to make the PGA tour through the qualification process.  

 
Feinstein also did a good job with Season on the Brink. I thought it was a pretty balanced look at Bobby Knight, pointing out when he was being a needless dooshnozzle as well as when he was at his best, teaching the game.

 
cockroach said:
The first "big book" I read cover to cover in one day was a biography on Lou Gehrig.  It was maybe 150-175 pages but the print was huge.  I was like 9 in the 3rd grade.  All I remember is that he killed a bird one time with a sling shot and felt real bad about it. 

The next bio I read a few years down the line was Bo vs Bo.  That was good too.  All I remember is that he killed a bunch of pigs over months or years and didn't feel bad about it.  Then, one day, he was running from the farmer and jumped a 12 ft ditch and looked down and saw dozens of pig carcasses in the ditch and then felt real bad about it.  

Take that to the bank brohans. 
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That is so funny, I remember reading that Gehrig bio too.

 
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I really enjoyed seabiscuit.  Lighter reading, but The Miracle of St. Anthony.  Unbroken if you consider that a sports book.

 
I don't know if I'd still call it my favorite if I re-read it now, but my father is/was an enormous Mickey Mantle fan and when I was about 9-10 years old he had me read "My Favorite Summer: 1956" which was Mantle telling the story of the season where he hit for the Triple Crown. I must have read it 5 or 6 times over the following year. Probably because it was about baseball and he was talking about all the boozing, banging women, etc he was doing with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin throughout the year, and that's obviously right up the alley of a 10 year old. 

 
timschochet said:
It's a novel: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. It's on my top 100 novel list and I will review it later in my thread. 
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Perhaps you missed this in the OP:

Non Fiction only.

 
RUSF18 said:
I don't know if I'd still call it my favorite if I re-read it now, but my father is/was an enormous Mickey Mantle fan and when I was about 9-10 years old he had me read "My Favorite Summer: 1956" which was Mantle telling the story of the season where he hit for the Triple Crown. I must have read it 5 or 6 times over the following year. Probably because it was about baseball and he was talking about all the boozing, banging women, etc he was doing with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin throughout the year, and that's obviously right up the alley of a 10 year old. 
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This reminds me of the book, "The Last Boy."  It was a Mantle bio, but told in the style of just focusing on ten or so specific days/events of his life.  I was not a huge fan of Mantle's going in, but went through a roller coaster ride.  A few chapters in I became a fan, the a few chapters later started to feel sorry for him, then by the end I hated him.  Interesting book.

 
Deepster said:
"Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto.  It's an account of the ABA mostly told by the people involved with stories and quotes driving the plot along.  Great league, lots of characters....and you'd be very surprised how much of the "current" NBA came out of the ABA.  Good read, moves along quickly, no real lulls.
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I saw the thread and came here to post "Loose Balls."  As a fan of the ill-fated Spirits of St. Louis, the universally acknowledged wildest team of all time, I loved every second of this book.  Terrific characters and great storytelling.  If you've never heard of Wendell Ladner, you should look him up. 

 
Phil Elliott said:
My father was involved in the ABA and is in this book.  Interesting times, indeed!
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Biography on Connie Hawkins is a great book in this area - "Foul".  Pretty pricey these days, your library may have it.  Easily top 5 for any books for me.

519OSZa8FCL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


 
I really enjoyed "Play Their Hearts Out" by George Dohrmann. It's a look inside the dark side of elite youth basketball/AAU.

Also, "They Call Me Coach" by John Wooden - autobiography of John Wooden

 
Not sure if I have a single book, but most anything by SABR will be at the top of my must-read list.  

The Connie Hawkins book does look interesting.  

 
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