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.

In this valuable guide, survivalist Dave Canterbury goes beyond bushcraft basics to teach you how to survive in the backcountry with little or no equipment. Using the foundation you learned in Bushcraft 101, Canterbury shows you how to completely immerse yourself in the wilderness with advanced bushcraft and woodcraft techniques. He covers crucial survival skills like tracking to help you get even closer to wildlife, crafting medicines from plants, and navigating without the use of a map or compass. He also offers ways to improvise and save money on bushcraft essentials like fire-starting tools and packs. With Canterbury's expert advice and guidance, you will learn how to forgo your equipment, make use of your surroundings, and truly enjoy the wilderness.

Whether you're eager to learn more after your first real outdoor adventure or have been exploring the backcountry for years, Advanced Bushcraft will help you take your self-reliance and wilderness experience to the next level.

Ben Hoganas 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 1960as, though Hoganas competitive career was over, he kept the practice habits that had made him famous and remade modern competitive golf. He hired fifteen-year-old Jody Vasquez to help. Each day, after driving to a remote part of the course at the 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 managementaunknowingly 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 Kiteas "A Fairway to Heaven" (which recalls Kiteas golf education under Harvey Penick) with the sage perspective of Penickas own "Little Red Book," Vasquezas tribute is funny, poignant, and full of advice for golfers of all levels.

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller!

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!

Manny Ramirez is a future Hall of Fame outfielder who has played in Los Angeles, Boston, and Cleveland. He ranks 17th in career homeruns and eighth in career slugging percentage--the only players above him on both lists are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, and Barry Bonds. Manny is the hottest icon in baseball right now, and that will continue throughout the offseason, where speculation regarding his free agency will be the top baseball news on ESPN and throughout

sports media. In contrast to most sports biographies, Becoming Manny brings an unusually

thoughtful analysis to the territory, examining

Manny's life through the lens of larger issues like youth-mentoring and immigration, while also telling the story of a great career. Manny has perplexed the baseball world for years now with his amazing hitting and his unique approach to life and the game. Incredibly focused at the plate and incredibly carefree everywhere else, Manny has become a constant topic of discussion on national sports radio and television, on sports websites, and in print. With unprecedented access, Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg have uncovered fascinating stories and family photos spanning from Manny's early years in the Dominican Republic to the present. This is an authorized inside look at the roots, development, and career of an individual and player on his way from Washington Heights to the Hall of Fame.

The Best American Series(R)

First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected--and most popular--of its kind.

The Best American Sports Writing 2011 includes

Paul Solotaroff, Sally Jenkins, Wells Tower, John McPhee, David Dobbs, Wright Thompson, P. J. O'Rourke, Selena Roberts, and others

If there is such a thing as hunting royalty, then the Benoit family is it. They have been raking in trophy-sized bucks since Larry Benoit first began to pioneer his unique tracking methods. As the family grew, so did the Benoit hunting repertoire, expanding beyond simple snow tracking to all-season tracking.

Author Bryce M. Towsley had a unique opportunity in the late nineties: to deer hunt with the Benoits for an extended period in the deep woods of Maine. He spent time with the Benoit family observing and learning their hunting tactics, techniques, and long-protected secrets.

The product of Towsley's inclusion in the Benoit family tradition is Big Bucks the Benoit Way. Fully illustrated with Towsley's beautiful, full-color photography and written with his trademark prose and with a new introduction by the author, it tracks his experience following in the footsteps of the great Benoit hunters, learning their craft and sharing it with you. Big Bucks the Benoit Way is more than an exploration of the fine art of tracking bucks; it's a glimpse at the heart and beauty of American big-game hunting.

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for hunters and firearms enthusiasts. We publish books about shotguns, rifles, handguns, target shooting, gun collecting, self-defense, archery, ammunition, knives, gunsmithing, gun repair, and wilderness survival. We publish books on deer hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, wing shooting, turkey hunting, deer stands, duck blinds, bow hunting, wing shooting, hunting dogs, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Even now, years after his death, Billy Martin remains one of the most intriguing and charismatic figures in baseball history. And the most misunderstood. A manager who is widely considered to have been a baseball genius, Martin is remembered more for his rabble-rousing and public brawls on the field and off. He was combative and intimidating, yet endearing and beloved.

​In Billy Martin, Bill Pennington resolves these contradictions and pens the definitive story of Martin's life. From his hardscrabble youth to his days on the Yankees in the 1950s and through sixteen years of managing, Martin made sure no one ever ignored him. Drawing on exhaustive interviews and his own time covering Martin as a young sportswriter, Pennington provides an intimate, revelatory, and endlessly colorful story of a truly larger-than-life sportsman.

"The hair on my forearms was standing up by the end of the fifth paragraph of this book's introduction. I knew Billy Martin. I covered Billy Martin. But I never knew him like this." -- Dan Shaughnessy, best-selling author of Francona

"An exhaustive, detailed and fascinating look at a baseball genius whose biggest fight might very well have been against himself." -- Tampa Tribune

Little-known facts, statistics, stories, quotes, nicknames, all-time leaders, rosters, puzzles, and more from over one hundred years of Red Sox history

The Boston Red Sox were originally named the Pilgrims--but for over one hundred years they have always been Beantown's favorite team, with a history that has been celebrated and mourned by generations of fans.

If you love the Red Sox, you'll find hours of challenging trivia in this book. Packed with text and information, it includes: *A history of the Red Sox from their origins to the present * Trvia questions designed to test your baseball memory * Corssword puzzles, word games, unusual quotes, funny nicknames, and anecdotes about the Sox *Complete all-time Red Sox roster of players, with stats * Comprehensive leader tables for batters and pitchers *Award winners, Hall of Famers, and other honors *And much more!

Do You Know...
- Who was the first pitcher to throw a perfect game in the twentieth century?
- Who decided to turn Babe Ruth into an outfielder?
- What was Ted Williams's batting average with one day left in the 1941 season: .406, .399, .3996, or .4001? What happened on that day?
- How many batting titles did Carl Yastrzemski win in his career?
- Which team Roger Clemens's had 20 strikeouts against in a 1986 game?

Bring this book to Fenway, or keep it next to your favorite armchair at home, to liven up commercial breaks and rain delays. In no time you'll be an expert on Red Sox trivia!

Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic.

What he did know: that he loved his family and his then girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time. With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, the bosses (including The Boss), the rivalries, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States and of maintaining Christian values in professional athletics.

The thirteen-time All-Star discusses his drive to win; the secrets behind his legendary composure; the story of how he discovered his cut fastball; the untold, pitch-by-pitch account of the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2001 World Series; and why the lowest moment of his career became one of his greatest blessings. In The Closer, Rivera takes readers into the Yankee clubhouse, where his teammates are his brothers. But he also takes us on that jog from the bullpen to the mound, where the game -- or the season -- rests squarely on his shoulders.

We come to understand the laserlike focus that is his hallmark, and how his faith and his family kept his feet firmly on the pitching rubber. Many of the tools he used so consistently and gracefully came from what was inside him for a very long time -- his deep passion for life; his enduring commitment to Clara, whom he met in kindergarten; and his innate sense for getting out of a jam. When Rivera retired, the whole world watched -- and cheered. In The Closer, we come to an even greater appreciation of a legend built from the ground up.