Sports Politics

The Presidents and the Pastime draws on Curt Smith's extensive background as a former White House presidential speechwriter to chronicle the historic relationship between baseball, the "most American" sport, and the US presidency. Smith, who USA Today calls "America's voice of authority on baseball broadcasting", starts before America's birth, when would be presidents played baseball antecedents. He charts how baseball cemented its reputation as America's pastime in the 19th century and tracks every US president from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump

Is the face of American baseball throughout the world that of goodwill ambassador or ugly American? Has baseball crafted its own image or instead been at the mercy of broader forces shaping our society and the globe? The Empire Strikes Out gives us the sweeping story of how baseball and America are intertwined in the export of “the American way."

Ned Boulting has noticed something. It's to do with bikes. They're everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'. In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. Ned’s search puts him in contact with some of the wonderful and wonderfully idiosyncratic people who have contributed to this nation’s two-wheeled history.

Among many legendary episodes from the life and career of men's basketball coach Dean Smith, few loom as large as his recruitment of Charlie Scott, the first African American scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drawn together by college basketball in a time of momentous change, Smith and Scott helped transform a university, a community, and the racial landscape of sports in the South.

Ann Meyers Drysdale is one of the greatest stars in the history of basketball. But her rise wasn't without controversy. Her 1979 NBA bid to play with the Indiana Pacers brought a barrage of criticism. But Ann simply wanted to play among the best. She had always competed with the guys. A female first in many categories, Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman ever signed to a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA, where she remains the only four-time Bruin basketball All American, male or female.

Most of us have enjoyed walking on a bridleway at some time, but we rarely stop to think about how these old routes came to be. These ancient networks criss-cross the British countryside and are so familiar to walkers and riders that they have become almost invisible as we meander our way along them. From atop a horse and on foot, Tiffany Francis-Baker provides listeners with a new perspective on bridleways and a glimpse into their intriguing history.

Allein gegen alle und sich selbst: die mitreißende Autobiografie des deutsch-türkischen Profi-Boxers und vehementen Erdoğan-Kritikers Ünsal Arık.Als "Kanake" im Land der "Almans" lebt Ünsal Arık von Anfang an nach der Devise: ganz oder gar nicht. Er versucht sich als Fußballer, IT-Vertriebler und Versicherungsfachmann. Doch sein Glück findet Arık dabei nicht und fällt tief, rutscht sogar in die Obdachlosigkeit ab. Was ihn schließlich vor dem Untergang rettet, ist das Boxen.

El deporte no es solamente una actividad física, sino una actividad integral, holística, que altera, desarrolla y activa las distintas dimensiones del ser humano, las visibles y las invisibles, las materiales y las inmateriales, lo más nuclear y esencial que hay en él, pero también lo más exterior. Partiendo de esa premisa, esta obra muestra la práctica deportiva como un camino de extraordinaria utilidad para activar la inteligencia espiritual, trascendente o existencial, latente en todo ser humano.

Dass Fußball-Weltmeisterschaften unter merkwürdigen Umständen vergeben werden, ist keine Neuigkeit - hier sei nur an die "Vorgänge" um das deutsche "Sommermärchen" erinnert. Aber als der Fußball-Weltverband FIFA die WM ins kleine, reiche Emirat Katar vergab, verstanden auch die skandalresistentesten Fußballfans die Welt nicht mehr. In "Boykottiert Katar!" fasst das Autorenduo Beyer/Schulze-Marmeling - anderthalb Jahre vor Start der Wüsten-WM - die Katar-Kontroverse kompakt zusammen und beleuchtet auch bis dato weniger bekannte Aspekte. Für alle, die ab jetzt mitreden wollen.

In 1963, the West Indian Marxist C.L.R. James posed the deceptively benign question: "What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?" A challenge to the public to reconsider cricket and its meaning by placing the game in its true social, political, and economic context. Different Class does not simply challenge the widely accepted orthodoxy of English cricket, it demonstrates how the values and belief systems at its heart were intentionally developed in order to divide the English along class lines at every level of the game.

Available once again for a new generation, the first volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and the fulfillment of this legendary sports star and global activist’s lifelong dream.

Borja Bauzá no escribe de oídas. Él mismo formó parte de una banda ultra en su juventud, y para escribir este libro ha pasado años recorriendo España de norte a sur y de este a oeste para entrevistarse con docenas de hooligans de todas las aficiones y de todas las ideologías. Este no es un libro denuncia ni un libro blanqueador. Es una enciclopedia sociológica, cultural y política de un fenómeno de masas desde sus orígenes en los años 70 hasta el día de hoy, pasando por el caos de los años 80, el salvajismo de los años 90 y la sofisticación que llegó a partir del 2000 con las nuevas tecnologías.

On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of Black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half men, half heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket.

Ahmed und Hussen Chaer sind Wrestling-Stars - und doch ganz anders als die meisten Erfolgssportler. Die Flucht des Vaters aus dem Libanon, eine Kindheit im Kreuzberger Hinterhaus, ihr Einsatz gegen Vorurteile und Ausgrenzung: All das hat die unzertrennlichen Brüder geprägt - und macht sie zu sympathischen Streitern für eine bessere Welt.

Red Card to Racism is not only a welcome addition to the ongoing debate surrounding ending prejudice within football but also a timely and necessary addition to the wider discussion of the need within our evermore global multicultural society for all people, whatever their beliefs, gender, identity, sexuality or ethnic background, to be treated with equity, humanity and respect.

February 1974. Football manager Charlie Gordon is struggling, and only a decent cup run is keeping him in work. Meanwhile, as the country prepares for a general election, one of the most audacious and high-profile political assassinations in the IRA's history is being planned in London. An active service unit of two men and a woman await the critical signal to proceed.

Schieber, Spieler und Rebellen: Der Bundesligaskandal erschüttert das Land, die Nationalelf um Beckenbauer und Netzer spielt Zauberfußball im Wembley-Stadion und wird Europameister, Willy Brandt übersteht das Misstrauensvotum, die RAF hält Deutschland in Atem, die Band Ton Steine Scherben liefert den Sound für Aufbruch und Protest. Stan Libuda und Rio Reiser sind die Träumer, die die Leser durch ein aufregendes Jahr begleiten und ein Schlaglicht werfen auf die Anatomie der bundesdeutschen Gesellschaft.

A young, Black kid from a hardworking family in one of the poorest sections of Washington, DC, despite being legally blind in one eye, leaps to the pinnacle of his sport: the Hall of Fame. A rookie bank teller rises to become one of the nation's most celebrated Black business leaders. A once-reluctant political neophyte answers the call to become a major of America's most troubled big city, and he establishes a mentoring program for African American boys that serves as a model for the nation. All of these stories belong to Dave Bing.

FEAT DESC

Dass es in der Welt des Fußballs immer weniger um den Sport und immer mehr um schmutzige Geschäfte geht, ahnen die Fans nicht erst seit den Skandalen um die Fifa und die vermeintlich gekaufte WM 2006 in Deutschland. Die "Football Leaks" bieten nun erstmals Einblicke in die Schattenwelt der Branche, offenkundig wird die grenzenlose Gier, die hinter den Kulissen des Weltfußballs herrscht.