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

[Uruk-Hai]

Someone mentioned Feinstein. Two I really liked by him were "Forever's Team" about the '78 Duke basketball team and the other I'm thinking of - can't recall the title right now - is about the ACC the year Dean Smith retired.

The hands-down funniest book I've ever read is "Fatso" by Artie Donovan.

"Seabiscuit" is fantastic. Bill James' "Historical Abstract"s are fun if you're into rankings and funny asides. 

 

[rockaction]

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.

FairWarning is right; this does look good.  

 

[FairWarning]

Foul is $60.95 hardcover and $41.95 softcover.  Looks like a desired book.  

 

[pollardsvision]

Ball Four, followed by Seabiscuit.

That reminds me, I need to give Ball Four another read with another Opening Day approaching.

 

[The Kansas Comet]

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, by Joe McGinniss and My Losing Season, by Pat Conroy.

 

[TakiToki]

Sports in America by James Michener is a cool book to read. It's from the '70s, but much is still relevant and Michener was an outstanding writer.

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

I really liked "Tales From Q School" by John Feinstein, about golfers trying to get their PGA tour cards

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Foul is $60.95 hardcover and $41.95 softcover.  Looks like a desired book.  

My library has it (Arkansas Library System) - so your's must have it.  

 

[Johnnymac]

Hard for me to pick a favorite.  List off the top of my head:

Against the Grain-- about Mercury Morris

A Good Walk Spoiled-- great golf book by Feinstein

The Majors-- another golf book by Feinstein

Hard Courts-- tennis book also by Feinstein

Instant Replay and Distant Replay-- both by Jerry Kramer who played for Lombardi.  Excellent books if you are a Packer fan or Lombardi fan

The Bronx Zoo--story of the 78 Yankees, Sparky Lyle I think

I am Third-- by Gale Sayers

Out of Control-- by Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson.  A very good read

A Season on the Brink-- Feinstein book on Indiana basketball and Bob Knight

The Mick-- about Mickey Mantle

 

[rockaction]

Hard for me to pick a favorite.  List off the top of my head:

Out of Control-- by Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson.  A very good read

This was a good book. I read all these as a kid, but this stuck out, much like Crusin' With The Tooz did also. Balls by Davey Johnson. This is when the behind-the-scenes taboo that Bouton broke became the norm in the eighties. I remember Out of Control, though, especially for its discussion of Martina Navratilova being gay. (I was a kid.)

 

[Zegras11]

Ball Four #1, Foul #2 for me.  I taped my 1968 Bouton baseball card to the back inside cover.

 

[Christo]

I liked Agassi's autobiography.

 

[Don Quixote]

"Boys of Summer" is my favorite. "Veeck as in Wreck" is up there too.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Ball Four #1, Foul #2 for me.  I taped my 1968 Bouton baseball card to the back inside cover.

I would go here as well.

#3 - Joe Pepitone biography - "Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud."

2015 Rolling Stone review (the book was published in '75 ...)

 

[Tau837]

No particular order, but these came to mind:

• Season on the Brink
  
• Moneyball
  
• New Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball
  
• New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
  
• Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football
  
• The Hidden Game of Football
  
• Fantasyland
  
• Committed
  

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I liked Agassi's autobiography.

Of course

 

[The General]

The Last Amateurs - John Feinstein. A season following the Patriot league NCAA basketball.

Season on the Brink - John Feinstein. I grew up in Bloomington when Bob Knight was just starting to turn crazy but was winning championships every 4 years. This is a homer pick.

Ball Four - listed by many. Great read.

Black Planet - About the Kemp, Payton, George Karl Sonics. I moved to Seattle right when this team was peaking.

The Smart Money - Not sports necessarily, but about gambling syndicate in Vegas. Fun read if you like gambling.

Odd Man Out - Matt McCarthy. A smart guy pitching in the minors.

The Bullpen Gospels - Dirk Hayhurst. Funny guy pitching in the minors.

 

[McGarnicle]

I liked Agassi's autobiography.

That was a good one.

A long time ago I read Romo by Bill Romanowski. That guy was a maniac. There's a pile of guys trying recover a fumble and he's in there breaking guys' fingers. Unfortunately he's probably a textbook case of CTE.

 

[The General]

Also, can't get enough of the Lance Armstrong stuff. Don't know why. 

Wheelman and Cycle of Lies were both good documenting the fall.

 

[lakerstan]

I'm breaking the rules here, but my favorite story is about how Buck O'Neil got the nickname "Nancy", because Satchel Paige was cheating on his fiancé.

http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/buck-oneil-joe-posnanski/

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

My father was involved in the ABA and is in this book.  Interesting times, indeed!

Great book. Was your father Marvin "Bad News" Barnes? That would be awesome. I didn't know that the commissioner, Mike Storen, is Hannah Storm's father.

 

[BigSteelThrill]

So what if doesn't neatly fit into Non Fiction...

Finding the Winning Edge by Bill Walsh. 

 

[On The Rocks]

Hard for me to pick a favorite.  List off the top of my head:

The Bronx Zoo--story of the 78 Yankees, Sparky Lyle I think

Surprised this was the first mention of The Bronx Zoo.  I thought for sure this would have been high on lists.

 

[On The Rocks]

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.

 

[Deepster]

My father was involved in the ABA and is in this book.  Interesting times, indeed!

Wow.  That's really cool.  Any good stories or tidbits you can share?

 

[Phil Elliott]

Wow.  That's really cool.  Any good stories or tidbits you can share?

The purpose of starting the ABA was to eventually merge with the NBA. Most of today's NBA statistics came from the ABA. Was with my dad when we picked up Rick Barry at the Denver airport when he jumped from the NBA to the ABA. Lew Alcinder signed with the NBA after a bidding war with the ABA. He never intended to sign with the ABA, but was just using the ABA to increase the offer from the NBA. Both ABA and NBA reps were in the same hotel and Alcinder would go between rooms to see what the next offer was. League office moved from Minneapolis  (George Mikan's home town and first commissioner) to New York to try and get better media coverage.    NBA players liked the existence of the ABA as it drove salaries up.  Nothing juicy, just some tidbits.

 

[Fariq]

Of course

Yeah, there was a lot of talk about plump women in that book.

 

[FUBAR]

Just started "every day I fight" by Stuart Scott.  Looks promising so far. 

 

[NewlyRetired]

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, by Joe McGinniss 

This was a fantastic read.  

 

[dickey moe]

Probably Where Men Win Glory about Pat Tillman.

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

I don't read much in this genre but Seabiscuit would be my choice.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a good read too.

 

[Anarchy99]

Agree with many other selections so far. Thought there would have been more mentions of The Bronx Zoo. I would add Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker.  Certainly not heavy reading but some amusing stories. 

 

[Fariq]

The Baseball Hall of Shame series was great.

 

[Short Corner]

I haven't read a lot in this genre but I enjoyed A Few Seconds of Panic by Stefan Fatsis and Can I Keep My Jersey by Paul Shirley.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Agree with many other selections so far. Thought there would have been more mentions of The Bronx Zoo. I would add Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker.  Certainly not heavy reading but some amusing stories. 

Love Uecker and have always wanted to read this - just ordered for $4 used from Amazon.  Library didn't carry it.  

Uecker on Letterman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0rIYl4w6Y&index=2&list=PLhx3eIRnkf1xbqOVhqJ_G6DbyhWWldJ8G

 

[Binky The Doormat]

More Uecker

Artie & Norm talking about their day with Bob

 

[bentley]

Obvious Texas football bias here, but I loved Friday Night Lights (which is now reading in some Texas history classes for its frank portrayal of west Texas and the struggle between athletics and academics) along with The Junction Boys.

The Last Boy, mentioned earlier, was very interesting but left me with a lot of mixed emotion about Mickey Mantle. Extra hard because Mickey was my dad's only boyhood hero.

Boys Will Be Boys, about the 90s Dallas Cowboys, was also revealing. Learned more about Charles Haley's crank than anyone needs to know.

Agree with others on Seabiscuit, Boys in the Boat and Catcher in the Wry. I read Ue cker's book for the first time in 20+ years a couple years ago. Thought I might not find it funny any more since I wasn't a teenage boy but I laughed my ### off.

For fiction, I really enjoyed the Iowa Baaeball Confederacy by WP Kinsella. Found out about it from an excerpt published in Sports Illustrated in the 80s.

 

[jwb]

Surprised this was the first mention of The Bronx Zoo.  I thought for sure this would have been high on lists.

Great book.

 

[[scooter]]

"Breaks Of The Game" (by David Halberstam) -- story of the post-Championship Trail Blazers; one of the first books to ever describe the "behind the scenes" workings of the NBA.

I also have a soft spot for "The Mysterious Montague" (by Leigh Montville), which tells the story of a guy who was one of the biggest names of golf in the 1930s, but turned out to be a bit of a con artist with a criminal past (which eventually caught up with him).

 

[Encyclopedia Brown]

"Breaks Of The Game" (by David Halberstam) -- story of the post-Championship Trail Blazers; one of the first books to ever describe the "behind the scenes" workings of the NBA.

One of the better things in that book was in the section of Walton during his college days, and Halberstam saying aloud about John Wooden that before (and since) had only been whispered: Wooden was one of the biggest frauds in American sports. 

 

[In The Zone]

 

[timschochet]

For nonfiction: Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times by Thomas Hauser. It's a great oral history in the style of Studs Terkel, and it covers an epic subject. 

 

[Hooper31]

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a good read too.

Had this recommended to me last week. 

 

[boilerdave]

"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.

I'm going to order this from Amazon. The ABA's Indiana Pacers had their share of characters including Coach Bobby Leonard who is still around Indianapolis sharing stories from those days. Bob Netolicky and Darnell Hillman (an incredible leaper at the time) are still around here too and Mel Daniels recently passed away.

A book I read a long time ago and enjoyed was Jack Tatum's They Call Me Assassin.