Sports

In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis invaded the insular world of competitive Scrabble players, ultimately achieving an expert-level ranking. Now, in his new book, he infiltrates a strikingly different subculture-pro football. After more than a year of preparation, Fatsis molded his fortyish body into one that could stand up-barely-to the rigors of NFL training. And for three months he became a placekicker for the Denver Broncos. Making the most of unprecedented access to an NFL team and its players, and drawing on his own personal experience, Fatsis with wry candor and hard-won empathy unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise as no writer has before.

Aaron Hernandez was a college All-American who became the youngest player in the NFL and later reached the Super Bowl. His every move as a tight end with the New England Patriots played out the headlines, yet he led a secret life--one that ended in a maximum-security prison. What drove him to go so wrong, so fast?

Between the summers of 2012 and 2013, not long after Hernandez made his first Pro Bowl, he was linked to a series of violent incidents culminating in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player who dated the sister of Hernandez's fianc?e, Shayanna Jenkins.

All-American Murder is the first book to investigate Aaron Hernandez's first-degree murder conviction and the mystery of his own shocking and untimely death.

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller!Heroes Triumphed.
Announcers Went Wild.
And The Fans Roared.
Feel The Thunder Again.
Featuring the riveting stories that bring you back to the moment, acclaimed sports photographs and two audio CDs narrated by award-winning sports journalist Bob Costas, And The Fans Roared delivers more than forty of the most spine-tingling sports moments ever broadcast.
Joe Garner's bestselling book And The Crowd Goes Wild left sports fans clamoring for more of the thrilling events that brought them to the edge of their seats. And The Fans Roared delivers.
In gripping style, And The Fans Roared highlights announcers' surprised, amazed and awestruck calls from every major sports arena--from baseball, football, basketball and the Olympics, to hockey, auto and horse racing, tennis, boxing, cycling and golf.
Accompanying this book, the two audio CDs highlight the exciting moments that brought us to our feet, when heroes reached for the stars, announcers reached for the words to describe them...and the fans roared!
Relive the most electrifying sports moments ever broadcast, including:
September 29, 1954 -- Willie Mays Makes "The Catch"
October 25, 1964 -- Jim Marshall Runs the Wrong Way
January 22, 1973 -- George Foreman Beats Joe Frazier
"Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!"
February 23, 1980 -- Eric Heiden Dominates Winter Olympics
October 7, 1984 -- Walter Payton Breaks Career Rushing Record
"Looking for the record...he's got it!"
September 11, 1985 -- Pete Rose Smacks Hit No. 4,192
"It is pandemonium here at Riverfront Stadium!"
May 7, 1989 -- "The Shot" Michael Jordan Beats Cleveland
March 28, 1992 -- Duke Beats Kentucky on Laettner Buzzer-Beater
October 23, 1993 -- Joe Carter Homer Wins World Series
August 1, 1996 -- Michael Johnson Wins 200 and 400 Gold in Atlanta
Hear each memorable broadcast again--or for the very first time in this New York Times bestseller!

From 1954 to 1975, the Milan-based San Marco boatyard wrote some of the most interesting pages in the post-war history of powerboating. San Marco is the only yard that has extensively used Italian car engines for both its racing and production boats, including those of Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Fiat and Abarth. The yard produced such models as the 600 Del Mare, Giulietta del Mare, Appia; all fast and prestigious wooden runabouts with elegant lines and refined details. Like a fashion designer or a famous Italian coachbuilder, for over 20 years Oscar Scarpa, founder of the yard, promoted a tradition of excellence, building several hundred exclusive boats with his son Sandro each with unique specifications, either technical or aesthetic, and all beautifully finished. The San Marco boatyard has also enjoyed a successful racing career, with more than 30 world speed records and hundreds of victories to its credit at the highest competitive level - often with Oscar Scarpa in the driver's seat! This book is both a tribute to the full history of the San Marco boatyard and its unique contribution to the world of speed boats. Racing Cars of the Seas is illustrated with a remarkable collection of hundreds of unpublished archival documents and photographs, as well as detailed information, including extensive production and racing records.

Ball Four is a baseball classic, a number one bestseller when it was published; it still is in demand throughout the U.S. Now in a new updated hardcover edition, Ball Four will reach a whole new generation of avid baseball fans. In fact, Ball Four has been selected by the NY Public Library as one of the Books of the Century. And David Halberstam writes: a book deep in the American Vein, so deep in fact that is by no means a sports book. Bouton has written a baseball book about the reality of the game. Thirty years after its publication, it remains as wonderful to read as ever.

This small, thorough volume presents different forms of Qigong in detail through fully illustrated exercises. Included are an explanation of the principles of Qigong, warming-up exercises, breathing exercises and a guide to self-massage of the inner organs. The authors have also provided a table that describes the various exercises, listing their physical benefits and classifying them according to level of difficulty, so that readers can tailor their own personal routines.

Bob Izumi is an expert fisherman who hasn't forgotten what it is like to be a beginner. His enthusiasm for the sport of fishing is legendary-and contagious. Written in a friendly, conversational style, Bob Izumi's 101 Fishing Tips clearly outlines and explains every important aspect of the sport: How to determine fish activity levels How to anchor a boat properly How to land a fish without a net How to choose a crankbait How to decide how long to fish in a given spot How to teach your kids to fish How to get started in tournament fishing

With over 100 color photographs and line drawings, this book teaches you the skills you need to become a better fisherman. In this engaging and informative book, Bob Izumi generously shares his many professional fishing secrets, secrets that are sure to appeal to both novice and experienced fishermen throughout North America.

"Bushville hits the sweet spot of my childhood, the year my family moved to Wisconsin and the Braves won the World Series against the Yankees, a team my Brooklyn-raised dad taught us to hate. Thanks to John Klima for bringing it all back to life with such vivid detail and energetic writing." -- David Maraniss, New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered

The rip-roaring story of baseball's most unlikely champions, featuring new interviews with Henry Aaron, Bob Uecker and other members of the Milwaukee Braves, Bushville Wins! takes you to a time and place baseball and the Heartland will never forget.

In the early 1950s, the New York Yankees were the biggest bullies on the block. They were invincible: they led the New York City baseball dynasty, which for eight consecutive years held an iron grip on the World Series championship.

Then the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, becoming surprise revolutionaries. Led by visionary owner Lou Perini, the Braves formed a powerful relationship with the Miller Brewing Company and foreshadowed the Dodgers and Giants moving west, sparking continental expansion and the ballpark boom.

But the rest of the country wasn't sold. Why would a major league team move to a minor league town? In big cities like New York, Milwaukee was thought to be a podunk train station stop-off where the fans were always drunk and wouldn't know a baseball from a beer. They called Milwaukee Bushville.

The Braves were no bushers! Eddie Mathews was a handsome home run hitter with a rugged edge. Warren Spahn was the craftiest pitcher in the business. Lew Burdette was a sharky spitball artist. Taken together, the Braves reveled in the High Life and made Milwaukee famous, while Wisconsin fans showed the rest of the country how to crack a cold one and throw a tailgate party. And in 1954, a solemn and skinny slugger came from Mobile to Milwaukee. Henry Aaron began his march to history.

With a cast of screwballs, sluggers and beer swiggers, the Braves proved the guys at the corner bar could do the impossible - topple Casey Stengel's New York baseball dynasty in a World Series for the ages.

"Deftly told."--Washington Post

In The Captain, Ian O'Connor draws on unique access to Derek Jeter and more than 200 new interviews to reveal how a biracial kid from Michigan became New York's most beloved sports figure and the face of the steroid-free athlete. O'Connor takes us behind the scenes of a legendary baseball life, from Jeter's early struggles in the minor leagues, when homesickness and errors threatened a stillborn career, to the heady days of Yankee superiority and nightlife, to the battles with former best friend A-Rod. All along the way, Jeter has made his Hall-of-Fame destiny look easy. But behind that leadership and hero's grace there are hidden struggles and complexities that have never been explored, until now.

Scripted, directed, and narrated by Carl Adams, author of the widely acclaimed book, Essential Guide to Dual Sport Motorcycling, this video is a valuable companion to the book, teaching critical riding skills necessary for safe off-road travel. Many people are attracted to dual sport and adventure riding by the challenge of riding well away from highways, but off-road conditions are often loose, rocky, and steep. Rather than having fun, new dirt riders may struggle with unfamiliar motorcycles on unforgiving ground. Others return to dirt riding after a long absence, or ride infrequently and need to polish their skills. The eight lessons in the video teach how to ride safely and smoothly over a wide variety of dirt surfaces. Lessons two through six cover seated riding, line selection, and riding while standing, stressing body position and control. Lesson seven shows techniques for frequently encountered obstacles such as sand, rocks, and hills, and Lesson eight introduces rough terrain. The riding techniques are presented in a series of simple exercises which are meant to be ridden. They build in a logical sequence to show increasingly difficult techniques. The DVD package also includes a printed Field Guide that may be taken on training rides as a reference for all of the exercises.

Originally drawn to the game by his father, Carl wisely quit golfing in 1973, when "Richard Nixon was hunkered down like a meth-crazed badger in the White House, Hank Aaron was one dinger shy of Babe Ruth's all-time home run record, and The Who had just released Quadrophenia." But some ambitions refuse to die, and as the years--and memories of shanked 7-irons--faded, it dawned on Carl that there might be one thing in life he could do better in middle age than he could as a youth. So gradually he ventured back to the dreaded driving range, this time as the father of a five-year-old son--and also as a grandfather.

"What possesses a man to return in midlife to a game at which he'd never excelled in his prime, and which in fact had dealt him mostly failure, angst and exasperation? Here's why I did it: I'm one sick bastard."

And thus we have Carl's foray into a world of baffling titanium technology, high-priced golf gurus, bizarre infomercial gimmicks and the mind-bending phenomenon of Tiger Woods; a maddening universe of hooks and slices where Carl ultimately--and foolishly--agrees to compete in a country-club tournament against players who can actually hit the ball. "That's the secret of the sport's infernal seduction," he writes. "It surrenders just enough good shots to let you talk yourself out of quitting."

Hiaasen's chronicle of his shaky return to this bedeviling pastime and the ensuing demolition of his self-esteem--culminating with the savage 45-hole tournament--will have you rolling with laughter. Yet the bittersweet memories of playing with his own father and the glow he feels when watching his own young son belt the ball down the fairway will also touch your heart. Forget Tiger, Phil and Ernie. If you want to understand the true lure of golf, turn to Carl Hiaasen, who has written an extraordinary book for the ordinary hacker.