Sports & Recreation

25001 books

A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey Through the World of Fighting - Paperback

$18.00

by Sam Sheridan (Author)In 1999, after a series of wildly adventurous jobs around the world, Sam Sheridan found himself in Australia, loaded with cash and intent on not working until he'd spent it all. It occurred to him that, without distractions, he could finally indulge a long-dormant obsession: fighting. Within a year, he was in Bangkok training with the greatest fighter in muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) history and stepping through the ropes for a professional bout. That one fight wasn't en...

Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession - Paperback

$17.00

by Dave Jamieson (Author)When award-winning journalist Dave Jamieson rediscovered his childhood baseball card collection he figured that now was the time to cash in on his "investments." But when he tried the card shops, they were nearly all gone, closed forever. eBay was no help, either. Baseball cards were selling for next to nothing. What had happened? In Mint Condition, the first comprehensive history of this American icon, Jamieson finds the answers and much more. In the years after the ...

Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running - Paperback

$18.95

by Rachel Toor (Author)Rachel Toor was a bookish egghead who ran only to catch a bus. How such an unlikely athlete became a runner of ultramarathons is the story of Personal Record, an exhilarating meditation on the making, and the minutiae, of a runner's life. The food, the clothes, the races, the injuries, the watch (and Toor loves her watch) are all essential to the runner, as readers discover here, and discover why. A chronicle of Toor's relationship with the sport of running, from her ea...

Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life - Paperback

$21.95

by Katya Cengel (Author)Forget the steroid-addled, overpaid, and unmotivated players: America's pastime is still alive and well, and is still the heartfelt sport it's always been--in the Minor Leagues. And nowhere is this truer than in Kentucky, whose rich baseball history continues to play out in the four teams profiled in this book. Following these teams through the 2010 season--the triumphs, struggles, and big league hopes and dreams--the book tells the larger story of baseball in America'...

$34.95

by Rob Ruck (Author), Maggie Jones Patterson (Author), Michael P. Weber (Author) Born to an Irish Catholic working-class family on the Northside of Pittsburgh, Art Rooney (1901-88) dabbled in semipro baseball and boxing before discovering that his real talent lay not in playing sports but in promoting them. Though he was at the center of boxing, baseball, and racing in Pittsburgh and beyond, Rooney is best remembered for his contribution to the NFL, in particular to the Pittsburgh Steelers, t...

Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand: Portraits of Champions Who Walked Among Us - Paperback

$19.95

by John Schulian (Author), William Nack (Foreword by)John Schulian, a much-honored sportswriter for nearly forty years, takes us back to a time when our greatest athletes stood before us as human beings, not remote gods. In this compelling collection, Schulian paints prose portraits to remind fans of what today's cloistered stars won't share with them. Here, Willie Mays remembers how to smile in dreaded retirement; Muhammad Ali muses about a world that was once his. For every moment of triump...

$18.95

by Bill Littlefield (Author)It's only a game, Bill Littlefield's National Public Radio program tells us, trying to keep sports in perspective. And for all the deadly serious perspectives of sports commentators and fans, Littlefield's is perhaps the most realistic. It is certainly the most entertaining. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, Littlefield's take on the games people play is as refreshing as it is enlightening. From baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett's untimely death, to pickup so...

1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York - Paperback

$24.95

by Lyle Spatz (Author), Steve Steinberg (Author), Charles C. Alexander (Foreword by)At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, the two teams that emerged to fight for the future of the game were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city dramatically rose to the pinnacle of the baseball w...

American Colossus: Big Bill Tilden and the Creation of Modern Tennis - Hardcover

$39.95

by Allen M. Hornblum (Author), John Newcombe (Foreword by)Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, and Bill Tilden were the legendary quartet of the "Golden Age of Sports" in the 1920s. They transformed their respective athletic disciplines and captured the imagination of a nation. The indisputable force behind the emergence of professional tennis as a popular and lucrative sport, Tilden's on-court accomplishments are nothing short of staggering. The first American-born player to win Wimbledon a...

Wartime Basketball: The Emergence of a National Sport During World War II - Hardcover

$34.95

by Douglas Stark (Author)Wartime Basketball tells the story of basketball's survival and development during World War II and how those years profoundly affected the game's growth after the war. Prior to World War II, basketball--professional and collegiate--was largely a regional game, with different styles played throughout the country. Among its many impacts on home-front life, the war forced pro and amateur leagues to contract and combine rosters to stay competitive. At the same time, the ...

The Art of Football: The Early Game in the Golden Age of Illustration - Hardcover

$39.95

by Michael Oriard (Author)The Art of Football is a singular look at early college football art and illustrations. This collection contains more than two hundred images, many rare or previously unpublished, from a variety of sources, including artists Winslow Homer, Edward Penfield, J. C. Leyendecker, Frederic Remington, Charles Dana Gibson, George Bellows, and many others. Along with the rich art that captured the essence of football during its early period, Michael Oriard provides a histori...

Jackie & Campy: The Untold Story of Their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball's Color Line - Hardcover

$24.95

by William C. Kashatus (Author)As star players for the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, and prior to that as the first black players to be candidates to break professional baseball's color barrier, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella would seem to be natural allies. But the two men were divided by a rivalry going far beyond the personality differences and petty jealousies of competitive teammates. Behind the bitterness were deep and differing beliefs about the fight for civil rights. Robi...

Here's the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising - Hardcover

$34.95

by Roberta J. Newman (Author)2020 SABR Baseball Research Award In the mid-nineteenth century, two industries arrived on the American scene. One was strictly a business, yet it helped create, define, and disseminate American culture. The other was ostensibly just a game, yet it soon became emblematic of what it meant to be American, aiding in the creation of a national identity. Today, whenever the AT&T call to the bullpen is heard, fans enter Minute Maid Park, or vote for favorite All-St...

The Hard Way Home: Alaska Stories of Adventure, Friendship, and the Hunt - Paperback

$16.95

by Steve Kahn (Author)A lifelong Alaskan, Steve Kahn moved at the age of nine from the "metropolis" of Anchorage to the foothills of the Chugach Mountains. A childhood of berry picking, fishing, and hunting led to a life as a big-game guide. When he wasn't guiding in the spring and fall, he worked as a commercial fisherman and earned his pilot's license, pursuits that took him to the far reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. He lived through some of the most important moments in the state's hist...

Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West - Hardcover

$24.95

by Mark Spitzer (Author)Fisherman Mark Spitzer takes readers on an action-packed investigation of the most fierce and fearsome freshwater grotesques of the American West ever to inspire both hatred and fascination. Through the lenses of history, folklore, biology, ecology, and politics, Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West depicts the environmental destruction plaguing the most maligned creatures in our midst while subtly interweaving Spitzer's experiences of personal tragedy and s...

The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League - Hardcover

$29.95

by Robert B. Ross (Author)The Players League, formed in 1890, was a short-lived professional baseball league controlled and owned in part by the players themselves, a response to the National League's salary cap and "reserve rule," which bound players for life to one particular team. Led by John Montgomery Ward, the Players League was a star-studded group that included most of the best players of the National League, who bolted not only to gain control of their wages but also to share ownersh...

Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball's Golden Age - Hardcover

$32.95

by Steve Steinberg (Author)2018 SABR Baseball Research Award Winner Baseball in the 1920s is most known for Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees, but there was another great Yankee player in that era whose compelling story remains untold. Urban Shocker was a fiercely competitive and colorful pitcher, a spitballer who had many famous battles with Babe Ruth before returning to the Yankees. Shocker was traded away to the St. Louis Browns in 1918 by Yankees manager Miller Huggins, a trade Huggins ...

Striking Distance: Bruce Lee and the Dawn of Martial Arts in America - Hardcover

$24.95

by Charles Russo (Author)In the spring of 1959, eighteen-year-old Bruce Lee returned to San Francisco, the city of his birth. Although the martial arts were widely unknown in America, Bruce encountered a robust fight culture in the Bay Area, populated with talented and trailblazing practitioners such as Lau Bun, Chinatown's aging kung fu patriarch; Wally Jay, the innovative Hawaiian jujitsu master; and James Lee, the Oakland street fighter. Regarded by some as a brash loudmouth and by others ...

The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner - Hardcover

$39.95

by Ring Lardner (Author), Ron Rapoport (Editor), James Lardner (Foreword by)Ring Lardner's influence on American letters is arguably greater than that of any other American writer in the early part of the twentieth century. Lauded by critics and the public for his groundbreaking short stories, Lardner was also the country's best-known journalist in the 1920s and early 1930s, when his voice was all but inescapable in American newspapers and magazines. Lardner's trenchant, observant, sly, and c...

Hairs vs. Squares: The Mustache Gang, the Big Red Machine, and the Tumultuous Summer of '72 - Hardcover

$29.95

by Ed Gruver (Author)Hairs vs. Squares is an ode to an unforgettable season that began with the first major players' strike in the history of North American sports and ended with a record-setting World Series played by two of the game's greatest and most colorful dynasties. In a sign of the times it was Hippies vs. Hardhats, a clash of cultures with the hirsute, mod Mustache Gang colliding with the clean-cut, conservative Big Red Machine on the game's grandest stage. When the Oakland A's met ...

The Integration of the Pacific Coast League: Race and Baseball on the West Coast - Paperback

$19.95

by Amy Essington (Author)While Jackie Robinson's 1947 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers made him the first African American to play in the Major Leagues in the modern era, the rest of Major League Baseball was slow to integrate while its Minor League affiliates moved faster. The Pacific Coast League (PCL), a Minor League with its own social customs, practices, and racial history, and the only legitimate sports league on the West Coast, became one of the first leagues in any sport to completely...

Taekwondo Basics: Everything You Need to Get Started in Taekwondo - From Basic Kicks to Training and Competition - Paperback

$11.99

by Scott Shaw (Author)Taekwondo Basics teaches you all the fundamentals of this Korean martial art form in a clear and easy-to-understand manner! This basic introductory survey contains the following vital information: The origins, philosophy, and history of Taekwondo How to find a teacher and a class that are right for you Getting ready for your first class--what actually happens in a Taekwondo class? The essential elements--stances, blocks, hand and arm strikes, and kicks How to compl...

Knife Throwing: A Practical Guide - Paperback

$9.95

by Harry K. McEvoy (Author)"Knife Throwing is the most authoritative guide on every aspect of the sport. From knives and knife throwing techniques to competition and advice, as well as profiles of pioneers and legends in the field, this book covers it all." --Bobby Branton, President of American Knife Thrower's Alliance (AKTA) Not only is knife throwing fun, but it is also a great sport, entertainment, recreation and exercise. It can be an enjoyable hobby, pastime, or even a profession, and t...

The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke - Hardcover

$14.95

by Thomas Cleary (Author), Oscar Ratti (Illustrator)Learn the ways of the Japanese Bushido Code with this very readable, modern translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu. Code of the Samurai is a four-hundred-year-old explication of the rules and expectations embodied in Bushido, the Japanese Way of the Warrior. Bushido has played a significant role in shaping the behavior of modern Japanese government, corporations, society, and individuals, as well as in developing modern Japanese martial arts ...

Krav Maga Extreme Survival: Active Shooter * Carjacking * Home Invasion * Predator Profiling - Paperback

$19.99

by Gershon Ben Keren (Author)The result of extensive research, including an analysis of over 140 active shooter/killer incidents, Krav Maga Extreme Survival provides an apolitical view of personal safety--concentrating on practical methods to survive violent situations. In his third book, Gershon Ben Keren explains how Krav Maga techniques can be used to survive some of the most relevant, extreme situations including carjackings, home invasions and attempted mass killings. The book also detai...

Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do: A Comprehensive Guide to Bruce Lee's Martial Way - Paperback

$19.99

by Bruce Lee (Author), John Little (Editor)Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do is the iconic book presenting the martial art created by Bruce Lee as explained in the master's own words. In 1970, Bruce Lee suffered a back injury that confined him to bed. Rather than allowing this to slow his growth as a martial artist, he read feverishly on Eastern philosophy and Western psychology and self help books, constructing his own views on the totality of combat and life. It was during this time that Lee wrote 7 v...

Karate Basics: Everything You Need to Get Started in Karate - From Basic Punches to Training and Tournaments - Paperback

$9.99

by Robin Rielly (Author)Get your karate training off to a great start--from basic footwork and strikes to training and demonstrations. This martial arts guide is a perfect introduction to karate for beginners. Are you planning to learn Karate, but don't know where to begin? Are you looking for a teacher? Are you taking a class but confused by the technical terms used to describe the punches? Karate Basics teaches you all the fundamentals of this ancient martial art form in a clear and easy-to...

The Fighting Tigers, 1993-2008: Into a New Century of LSU Football - Hardcover

$39.95

by Scott Rabalais (Author), Peter Finney (Foreword by)Magnificent, maddening, thrilling, heartbreaking-- over the years, LSU football has been called many things; boring is not among them. But no period in the team's history exemplifies the extreme highs and lows of sport better than the past fifteen years. In 1993, the Tigers were in the midst of a record six-season losing streak and the program was struggling to dig its way out of its darkest days. By 2008, LSU had emerged as one of the pre...

Call Me Coach: A Life in College Football - Hardcover

$39.95

by Paul F. Dietzel (Author)When LSU head football coach Paul Dietzel saw Billy Cannon field an Ole Miss punt on LSU's own eleven yard line on a stifling Halloween night in 1959, his shouts of "No, no, no!" turned to "Go, go, go!" as Cannon eluded tackler after tackler, sending fans in Tiger Stadium into a frenzy and earning himself that year's Heisman Trophy. Dietzel is probably best known for leading LSU to its first national championship the year before Cannon's legendary run, but his caree...

Cruise of the Pintail: A Journal - Hardcover

$43.15

by Robert L. Winans (Editor), James R. Turner (Introduction by)In 1932 a young Fonville Winans (1911--1992) left his home in Fort Worth and set out on the waterways of south Louisiana searching for adventure and fortune. This journal recounts, in his own words, how the now-renowned photographer and his two friends -- first mate Bob Owen and second mate Don Horridge -- ventured onto untamed Louisiana waters aboard a leaking, rudderless sailboat, the Pintail. Fonville was shooting footage for a...

Hiking the Florida Trail: 1,100 Miles, 78 Days, Two Pairs of Boots, and One Heck of an Adventure - Paperback

$19.95

by Johnny Molloy (Author)The Florida Trail stretches the length and breadth of the Sunshine State, from Gulf Islands National Seashore in the panhandle to Big Cypress National Preserve less than an hour from suburban Miami. In 2006, veteran hiker and outdoorsman Johnny Molloy hiked the length of the trail in one three-month stretch. This engaging story of his journey, the first narrative account of a Florida Trail thru-hike, is peppered with outrageous and charming characters. Molloy's peanut...

The Keeneland Association Library: A Guide to the Collection - Paperback

$42.75

by Amelia King Buckley (Author), Joseph a. Estes (Foreword by)A research center for Thoroughbred racing, breeding, and related subjects, the Keeneland Association Library is located at Keeneland Race Course near Lexington, Kentucky. Amelia King Buckley, who became librarian in 1953, has compiled an alphabetical author listing of the titles in this unique collection as of June 1, 1958. Begun in 1939 with a gift of 2,000 volumes from William Arnold Hanger, the library has grown with the additio...