Sports Legends

Love them or hate them, the New York Yankees have been an American institution for nearly a century. With their rich history and colorful cast of characters, the Yankees never fail to inspire or provoke. In this exciting compendium, some of today's most acclaimed writers - including Pete Dexter, Colum McCann, Roy Blount, Jr., Dan Barry, Jane Leavy, Charles P. Pierce, J. R. Moehringer, Daniel Okrent, Frank Deford, Bill James, and many more - step up to the plate to take their cuts. The result is a collection of original essays as idiosyncratic and expansive as the team that has inspired them.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997, Don Shula remains the winningest coach of all time with 347 career victories and the only undefeated season in NFL history. But before he became the architect of the Dolphins dynasty, Shula was a hardworking kid selling fish on the banks of Lake Erie. As acclaimed sports biographer Mark Ribowsky shows, Shula met serious resistance at home when he asked to play high school football, but when his parents finally relented, they discovered that their son had an unmatched mind for the game's strategy and a stomach for its brutality.

Joe Grudeck is a living legend - a first-ballot Hall of Famer beloved by Boston Red Sox fans who once played for millions under the bright Fenway lights. Now, he finds himself haunted by his own history. Horace Mueller is a different type altogether - working in darkness at a museum blacksmith shop and living in a rundown farmhouse. He clings to an anachronistic lifestyle, fueled by nostalgia for simpler times and a rebellion against the sport-celebrity lifestyle of Cooperstown, struggling to bring his baseball prodigy son to his side. Gods of Wood and Stone is the story of these two men.

Kobe Bryant was a true legend. He was one of the greatest basketball players of all time and also a known philanthropist, an Academy Award winner, and a loving husband. His untimely death in a helicopter crash came as a shock to the entire world. Even people who had little interest in basketball were deeply affected by the passing of this outstanding person. This audiobook is a collection of tweets that document the world’s immediate reaction to the tragic news.

Learn the Inspiring story of the New York Yankees' legendary star Babe Ruth! In Babe Ruth: The Inspiring Story of One of Baseball’s Greatest Legends, you will learn the story of one of baseball's greatest players, Babe Ruth. Ruth remains one of the most accomplished athletes of all time. He won seven World Series championships and was the American League's home run leader 12 different times. Get this unauthorized baseball biography today to learn the inspiring story behind star baseball legend Babe Ruth!

Nothing is ever constant in the tumultuous world of pro wrestling! On the eve of their victory over the most powerful family in wrestling history, Leilana Ito and Dana Harding look forward to a bright future, but that perfect ending is snatched away when Leilana disappears. Desperate to find her, Dana starts on a country-wide search, spurred on not only by friendship, but something stronger: love! Meanwhile, Leilana faces a gauntlet of rigged matches, hidden spies, and psychological torture as a 'guest' of the Von Richters.

In Rafael Nadal: The Inspiring Story of One of Tennis' Greatest Legends, you will learn the incredible story of one of tennis' best players, Rafael Nadal. For the last two decades, three men have dominated the game of tennis: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal. Nadal will likely go down as the greatest clay-court player to ever grace the court.

Considered to be "as monumental -- and enigmatic -- a legend as American sport has ever seen" ( Sports Illustrated), Willie Mays is arguably the greatest player in baseball history, still revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball's bold expansion to California.

Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Chris Myers reflects on his illustrious career as one of the most trusted and renowned journalists in sports. Myers has witnessed and participated in his fair share of historic events: on the field when the earthquake struck the 1989 World Series; on the air throughout the tragic aftermath of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing; on the sidelines during the Patriots’ stunning comeback at Super Bowl LI; and a contentious live interview with the notorious OJ Simpson.

Learn the inspiring story of one of tennis' greatest stars, Roger Federer! In Roger Federer: The Inspiring Story of One of Tennis' Greatest Legends, you will learn the inspirational story of one of tennis' premier players, Roger Federer. Few players have dominated the game of tennis as much as Federer. As of early 2017, Federer holds 18 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in history for a male tennis player.

Bert Trautmann is famed as the goalkeeper who broke his neck in an FA Cup final and played on. But his early life is no less extraordinary: he grew up in Nazi Germany and fought for the Germans in World War Two. In 1945 he was captured and sent to a British POW camp where, for the first time, he saw a better way of life. He embraced England as his new home and before long became an England football hero. This is his extraordinary story.

Lloyd Daniels learned to hoop on the playgrounds of Brooklyn and Queens during the 1980s. "Swee'pea" they called him. His rep on the court traveled all the way to the Bronx and across the country, earning him enthusiastic comparisons to the likes of Magic Johnson. Swee'pea was sure to make it to the big time and out of a New York City where drugs and violence had gripped many of its neighborhoods. Eventually he did, leaving the city's asphalt courts for the shiny hardwoods of NCAA programs.

Due to his achievements as a player and manager, as well as his sterling character, Gil Hodges deserves to be in the Hall of Fame more than any other player. A towering figure during the Golden Era of the 1950s, Hodges was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ powerful first baseman who, alongside Jackie Robinson, helped drive his team to six pennants and a thrilling World Series victory in 1955. Fans never booed the beloved home run hitter from Indiana who married a Brooklyn girl and settled in their borough, and they famously prayed for him when he slumped.

Perfect for cricket fans everywhere, Thanks, Johnners is a rich blend of biography and anecdote, of antics and dramas on and off the pitch, in and out of the commentary box, filled with stories about the great names of cricket, including Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, and Ian Botham.

Where do you go to escape everything when you're one of the most famous rugby players in the world? For Liam Callaghan that place is a remote lodge on Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Perfect, except he doesn't exactly want to be alone with his thoughts. Enter Tess Chambers, the ultimate distraction. Still reeling from a professional disaster that's made her all but unemployable, Tess understands the desire to move through life as somebody else.

Before 1918, the Boston Red Sox were unstoppable. They won World Series after World Series, thanks in part to their charismatic pitcher-slugger Babe Ruth. But some people on the Red Sox felt the Babe was more trouble than he was worth, and he was traded away to one of the worst teams in baseball, the New York Yankees. From then on, the Yankees became a golden team. And the Red Sox? For more than 80 years, they just couldn’t win another World Series. Then, in 2004, along came a scruffy, scrappy Red Sox team. Could they break Babe Ruth’s curse and win it all?

This story describes USAC sprint car racing in the early 1960s and a driver named Stan Bowman. It captures Bowman's win at the first USAC sprint car race at Eldora Speedway in 1962. Bowman also captured the attention of Clint Brawner, the legendary Indianapolis 500 mechanic of that era. The story is told through the eyes of Diane Beck Lane, who was daughter of Harold Beck, the owner of Bowman's race car at Eldora in 1962.

In August 1939, Alice Marble graced the cover of Life magazine, photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt. She was a glamorous worldwide celebrity, having that year won singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles tennis titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open, then an unprecedented feat. Yet today one of America's greatest female athletes and most charismatic characters is largely forgotten. Queen of the Court places her back on center stage.

Lou Gehrig is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time and is credited for changing the way baseball was played. This book will reveal much about Lou's story and the many accomplishments throughout his career.

"As much as I love boxing, I hate it." So begins screenwriter, novelist, and journalist Budd Schulberg's collection of essays on the sweet science of bruising, a sport that fueled his literary ambitions and unsettled his conscience from a young age. He gives riveting accounts of classic bouts, such as Rocky Marciano - Archie Moore, Muhammad Ali - George Foreman, and Marvin Hagler - Thomas Hearns. Yet these essays also offer insight into the sport's sociological significance from a man who covered its highlights and corruption-marred lowlights for decades.