Biography & Autobiography : Sports

Chris Coste dreamed of playing major-league baseball from the age of seven. But after eleven grueling years in the minors, a spot on a major-league roster still seemed just out of his reach–until that fateful call came from the Philadelphia Phillies in May 2006. more...

Price: $15.00

Details Alex Rodriguez as a plunge-in-progress, a once-in-a-generation baseball talent tortured by an internal struggle between the polished family man he wants to be and the unabashed hedonist he has become. This book includes his dalliances with strippers and infatuation with Madonna. more...

Price: $20.99

Ben Hogan’s former ball shagger recounts firsthand stories of the golf legend—and reveals, for the first time, Hogan’s Swing Secret, a source of mystery to golfers for more than fifty years. Ben Hogan’s pro golf record is legendary. A four-time PGA Player of the Year, he celebrated sixty-three tournament wins and became known as a man of few words and fewer close friends. Most of what we know about Hogan has been based on myth and speculation. Until now. In the 1960s, though Hogan’s competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired seventeen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at Shady Oaks Country Club, Hogan would spend hours hitting balls and Vasquez would retrieve them. There, and over the course of their twenty-year friendship, Hogan taught Jody the mechanics of his famous swing and shared his thoughts on playing, practicing, and course management—unknowingly revealing much about his character, values, and beliefs, and the events that shaped them. In Afternoons with Mr. Hogan , Jody Vasquez shares dozens of stories about Hogan, from the way he practiced, selected his clubs, and interacted with other star players to his little-known humor and generosity. Combining the gentle insight of Tom Kite’s A Fairway to Heaven (which recalls Kite’s golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of Penick’s own Little Red Book , Vasquez’s tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels. more...

Price: $15.00

Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. (1820–92) was present during the organization of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York in the mid-1800s. That much is certain. Since that time, and especially with his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938, Cartwright has been celebrated as the founder of our national pastime, much like Abner Doubleday. As with Doubleday, Cartwright’s claim to fame has caused all sorts of conjecture and controversy. His complex life, not just the mythography surrounding him, comes clearly into focus in Monica Nucciarone’s biography of the incomparable Cartwright. more...

Price: $27.95

From February to April 2007, starting with his play-by-play call of Super Bowl XLI, Jim Nantz had a historic 63-day broadcasting run as he became the first commentator to broadcast the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, and the Masters ® all in the same year. Yet the man who inspired him to pursue his broadcasting dream, his father, was unable to share the voyage with him. In Always By My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other, 2007 Sportscaster of the Year Nantz recounts how he felt his father’s presence every step of the way – and through this championship journey, he celebrates the people and moments that tap into all the goodness that his dad – and his dad’s generation – represent. Always By My Side traces Nantz’s career, from creating his own imaginary TV studio he created as a boy to his college days rooming with future PGA Tour golfers to his chance meeting with NBC Sports producer Don Ohlmeyer that started him on a path that led to a successful CBS network audition at the age of 26. Along the way, he remembers his friendships with such sports royalty as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Mike Krzyzewski, and Bill Walton – as well as Hollywood A-listers like Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery, all the time remaining humble and grateful for the opportunity to be afforded such an amazing life. Nantz also recalls father-figures he found throughout his life when his own ailing father was unable to be physically with him: George H. W. Bush, Ken Venturi, Jim McKay, Pat Summerall, Billy Packer, Frank Chirkinian, and others. Ultimately, Always By My Side is a collection of poignant stories that explore the theme of fathers and sons who have bonded through a common love of sports. It turns every day into Father’s Day. more...

Price: $16.00