Sports Science

Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.

A riveting account of the greatest small-boat rescue in American history.

The solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast on BBC radio is as familiar as the sound of Big Ben chiming the hour. Since its first broadcast in the 1920s, it has inspired poems, songs, and novels, in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales. In Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography.

Arriving at Princeton for her freshman year, Thea Slavin finds herself alone, a stranger in a strange land. Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life - including a young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous.

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."

Anybody who is familiar with the Civil Rights movement knows that 1964 was a pivotal year. And in Birmingham, Alabama - perhaps the epicenter of racial conflict - the Barons amazingly started their season with an integrated team.

On a Sunday in May 2008, an F5 tornado hit the town of Parkersburg, Iowa, killing eight people and destroying 250 homes and businesses within a span of 34 seconds. The next day, Parkersburg's beloved football coach, Ed Thomas, made a stunning prediction: "God willing, we will play our first home game here on this field this season."

An NFL tight end for the New Orleans Saints and a widely read and followed commentator on social media, Watson has taken the Internet by storm with his remarkable insights about some of the most sensitive and charged topics of our day. Now, in Under Our Skin, Watson draws from his own life, his family legacy, and his role as a father to sensitively and honestly examine both sides of the race debate and appeal to the power and possibility of faith as a step toward healing.

The extraordinary story of how Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and Joe Namath, his star quarterback at the University of Alabama, led the Crimson Tide to victory and transformed football into a truly national pastime. During the bloodiest years of the civil rights movement, Bear Bryant and Joe Namath - two of the most iconic and controversial figures in American sports - changed the game of college football forever.

Harvard Square is at the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the business district around Harvard University. It’s a place of history, culture, and some of the most momentous events of the nation. But it’s also a gathering place for some of the city’s homeless. What is life like for the homeless in Harvard Square? Do they have anything to tell people about life? And God? That’s what Harvard student John Frame discovered and shares in Homeless at Harvard.

The typical female sports fan remains very different from her male counterparts. In their insightful and engaging book, Sportista, Andrei S. Markovits and Emily Albertson examine the significant ways many women have become fully conversant with sports - acquiring a knowledge of and passion for them as a way of forging identities that until recently were quite alien to women.

The New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox. For a hundred years, no two teams have locked horns as fiercely or as frequently, and no two seasons frame the colossal battle more perfectly than 2003 and 2004. Now, with incredible energy and access, leading sports columnist Mike Vaccaro chronicles the history of the greatest rivalry in sports, and the two stunning American League Championship Series that define a century of baseball.

This year's favored team to win is Annuna, with their S-ranked captain and star player Giant Slayer. Disaster strikes when Giant Slayer is injured and put out for the rest of the season. Leadership of the team falls to the militaristic and cruel vice-captain, Harpy. To complicate matters, the team has to deal with an arrogant new player, dark secrets, and their greatest rival team, Thunder. Can Harpy lead Annuna to the A-rank championship and victory, or will they tear each other apart before the games get the chance? Find out in the first installment of Battle Games!

She Persisted, She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, and She Persisted in Science each give listeners a collection of remarkable, diverse, and tenacious women. Chelsea Clinton's words and narration bring the women to life, showing how they struggled and ultimately persevered, inspiring and empowering people across the US and the entire world. Now together for the first time, this collection is a perfect gift for feminists of all ages.

Game On is a celebration of the trailblazing women opening doors for others, and a manifesto for women’s sports–a rallying cry to ensure the progress we are currently seeing goes from strength to strength.

On the Water is a gorgeously written collection of essays that all take place on or near the water and pay tribute to the flora and fauna associated with those ecosystems. There are essays about the finer points of tickling rainbow trout in the streams of Normandy, and of eagles and ospreys fishing for bass while barely breaking the surface of the water. There are stories of droughts and floods, of dogs and boats, of worms and rattlesnakes, and even of catching and cooking soft-shell turtles that taste like osso-bucco.

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.

The legendary Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers—and white America—to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka's third work of poetry, follows the fighter's journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved.

En primavera reunimos, compilados por Peter Saint-André, fragmentos de distintas fuentes (principalmente de sus diarios), en los que Henry David Thoreau reflexiona, entre marzo y junio, sobre las particularidades que ofrece la primavera en relación con la naturaleza y con la vida de las personas. En la sociedad no encontrarás salud si no es en la naturaleza. A menos que, como mínimo, de tanto en tanto apoyáramos los pies en medio de la naturaleza, los rostros de todos nosotros serían pálidos y lívidos.

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.