Sports Legends

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?

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, and the youngest man elected to the office. He was assassinated at the age of 46 in 1963. Arthur Ashe was an African American professional tennis player who won more than forty singles titles. He died in 1993 at the age of 49 of AIDS-related pneumonia. But imagine if the lives of JFK and Ashe had not been cut short? In this pair of speculative biographies, two writers suppose what might have been if JFK had lived long enough to serve out his presidency and what Arthur Ashe may have done to enhance his already notable legacy.

The English Premier League is the richest in the world, with clubs able to attract some of the best footballing talent on the planet. But who are the 10 greatest players ever to have graced the Premier League?

This entry in a brand new line of sports biographies from Matt Christopher takes listeners onto the plate with a baseball legend. Babe Ruth was baseball's first true power hitter, a strong pitcher, and smart outfielder who made some amazing game-saving catches. His love of the sport came through in his playfulness on the field and drive to win, but Babe had to overcome a lot of obstacles in order to become the greatest. This comprehensive biography - with bonus photos and infographics - tells the story behind the legend.

Il metodo che ha ispirato Bill Gates e The Secret. Da Charles Haanel, figura di riferimento della Scienza della Mente, un metodo pratico di straordinaria efficacia per ottenere ciò che vogliamo, per scoprire e diventare ciò che sentiamo veramente di essere e per essere felici di ciò che siamo. A highly effective method to develop our inner power, to activate the law of attraction, to attract all forms of abundance in our lives, to get everything we want, and to be happy to be ourselves. By Charles Haanel, the method that inspired Bill Gates and The Secret.

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.

There was little about the childhood of Phoebe Ann Mosey that indicated that she would grow up to become Annie Oakley, one of the best sharpshooters the world has ever seen, and an icon of the West. Her parents, Jacob and Susan, were Quakers who migrated from Pennsylvania to Darke County, Ohio. Their daughter, who would become a national celebrity during her own life for "The Little Sure Shot of the West", learned her gun skills out of necessity, using them to hunt for food around the Cincinnati area, thousands of miles away from the Wild West.

During a time when America's heroes were recognized for toughness and strength, Jack Dempsey was the prototypical "golden boy" of the Roaring Twenties. Just as Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Bill Tilden, and Bobby Jones were the signature figures for their respective sports, Dempsey personified the sport of boxing.

"Iron" Mike Tyson was one of the most feared opponents to ever step into a boxing ring. With unbelievable power that floored or stopped all but two of his first 28 professional opponents, Tyson began an unprecedented ascent to the top of the boxing world, becoming the youngest champion in history with a second-round TKO over Trevor Berbick, the last man to box and defeat Muhammad Ali.

The sports world has never suffered from a shortage of self-promoters, but none have ever walked the walk and backed up the talk like Muhammad Ali, boxing's greatest icon and possibly history's most famous athlete. Indeed, even referring to Ali just as a boxer does a disservice to the transcendent figure he has become around the world as a living legend.

The Olympics have long been the center of attention in the sports world, but perhaps no moment in the history of the games was as poignant as Jesse Owens' performance in Berlin in 1936. Owens would finish his career with four gold medals and become known as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history" (as his obituary in The New York Times put it), but nearly 80 years later, it's the context that has made his performance so memorable.

In Jackie Robinson: The Inspiring Story of One of Baseball's Greatest Legends, you will learn the story of the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, Jackie Robinson. Robinson was one of the most influential players to ever play baseball. Over the span of his 10-year professional career, he won the Rookie of the Year Award, received six All-Star nominations, and was the first African American player to win the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.

The life of baseball legend Babe Ruth is chronicled in this hard-hitting audio biography narrated by the author. In rare archival interviews, Ruth discusses his early life, the trappings of stardom, and his eternal, abiding love of America's favorite game.

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.

Cliff Morgan talks to sporting personalities of the past. In this recording he is in conversation with the England Test cricket captain, Ted Dexter. Ted Dexter’s love of cricket started at school. After National Service he went to Cambridge where he gained a Cricket blue, but no degree. His success in university cricket led to his joining Sussex County Cricket Club, becoming captain in 1960.

Cliff Morgan talks to sporting personalities of the past. In this recording he is in conversation with one of the greatest English footballers of all time, Tom Finney. “Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age - even if he had been wearing an overcoat,” was Bill Shankly’s verdict on Tom Finney. Some people rated him more highly than his contemporary, Stanley Matthews. Sir Tom was born in Preston in 1922.

Cliff Morgan talks to sporting personalities of the past. In this recording he is in conversation with the Olympic Pentathlon champion, Mary Peters. Mary Peters won the gold medal for the Pentathlon at the Munich Olympics in 1972, beating the West German favourite by the narrowest of margins with a performance which also broke the world record. Mary was born in Liverpool in 1939.

Cliff Morgan is interviewed about his rugby career by the sports journalist, Ian Wooldridge. “Morgan the Magnificent” was the title given to Cliff Morgan by South African newspapers when he toured the country with the British Lions team in 1955. His success in that tour earned him the captaincy of Wales the following season. Cliff was born into a mining family in the Rhondda in 1930 and joined Cardiff Rugby Club straight from school, playing at fly-half.

Cliff Morgan talks to sporting personalities of the past. In this recording he is in conversation with the first full-time manager of the England football team, Walter Winterbottom. Walter Winterbottom was the first full-time manager of the England football team. He was appointed in 1946 and held the job for sixteen years. In the 1930s he played for Manchester United but his on-field career was cut short by a spinal condition.

Kitty Godfree - Women’s Singles Champion at Wimbledon 1924, 1926Fred Perry - Men’s Singles Champion at Wimbledon 1934, 1935, 1936. Compiled and presented by Paddy Feeny. This recording was made in 1991 when Kitty Godfree was 95 and Fred Perry was 82.