Good Books Involving Sports

[MylesKnight]

My Girlfriend picked up the title, Foulball - My Life and Hard Times Trying to Save An Old Ballpark, by Jim Bouton (Author of Ball Four - I haven't read this but will soon), at a used bookstore last week, and I must say that I am enjoying it immensely. Definitely an eye opener about small town government and the amount of money spent on sporting facilities by American Taxpayers nowadays.

Does anyone have any recommendations of any other solid sports-related books to check out? I've read a few over my time but I'm sure I've missed some good ones.

[molson]

SI came out with a "top 100 sports books" list a few years ago, I still occasionally refer to it:

hxxp://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/features/2002/top_sports_books/1/

[SirFozzie]

read ball four. NOW.

Then Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer

[ISiddiqui]

First we have to know what sports you like. I have a few soccer books I could recommend, but it'd help if you liked the sport first .

Molson, thanks for the link!

[Northwood_DK]

I have just finished "Moneyball" and have "Why my wife thinks Iam an Idiot" waiting next.

[Lathum]

the curious case of Sid Finch was fun.

If you like more non fiction PM saldana, he has the largest collection of sports books I have ever seen. Fiction and non fiction.

[MylesKnight]

Yes, thanks a bunch Molson for the link.. SirFoz, I see you are from Mass. Any personal info you have on the topic of the book I'm reading currently? Foul Ball takes place in Pittsfield/Berkshire County.

As for sports books, hey I'm up for pretty much anything.. As for soccer, I've read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro and A Season with Verona, but I have not picked up Fever Pitch yet.

Thanks!

On another note, it's sad to see how far the Castel di Sangro soccer franchise has fallen since that time.. They are now basically a Rec League Team so to speak, playing at what may be the lowest organized level of soccer in Italy.

[ISiddiqui]

Well for soccer books, I'd recommend "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer and "Football Against the Enemy" by Simon Kuper (there is a "Soccer Against the Enemy", but that's just for dumb Americans who get confused with "Football" in the title and all they did was change ever mention of 'football' with 'soccer' in the book, which leads to strangeness when you see the words "American soccer" when they are refering to the NFL).

Both are great books detailing how politics is deeply injected into soccer.

[NoMyths]

The Universal Baseball Association.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by MylesKnight

Yes, thanks a bunch Molson for the link.. SirFoz, I see you are from Mass. Any personal info you have on the topic of the book I'm reading currently? Foul Ball takes place in Pittsfield/Berkshire County.

As for sports books, hey I'm up for pretty much anything.. As for soccer, I've read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro and A Season with Verona, but I have not picked up Fever Pitch yet.

Thanks!

On another note, it's sad to see how far the Castel di Sangro soccer franchise has fallen since that time.. They are now basically a Rec League Team so to speak, playing at what may be the lowest organized level of soccer in Italy.

That's more in Western MA then where I am (I'm in eastern MA, if you look at a map, I live roughly where the border with Rhode Island stops going North and starts going west.).. but the vibe I got from googling stuff after reading Foul Ball ..

After a certain point, it became sheer bloody-mindness from the town.. the first part was an attempt to enforce THEIR view on the city (they are/were an insular group, with one city newspaper tied in with the city government, all heavily connected with the industry that was in that town for so long)

At some point it became more spiteful from the city, that even if it was to benefit the city, they were not going to let him win, no matter what. They cut off their nose to spite their face

[SirFozzie]

If you're an American soccer fan, try Once in a Lifetime, the story of the Cosmos (yes, the one that got turned into a movie and is on ESPN 2 tonight)

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by MylesKnight

Yes, thanks a bunch Molson for the link.. SirFoz, I see you are from Mass. Any personal info you have on the topic of the book I'm reading currently? Foul Ball takes place in Pittsfield/Berkshire County.

wow, I lived and worked in Pittsfield, MA for almost a couple of years (mid 96 to mid 98 or about), heck my oldest son was born in Pittsfield.

This book has just moved into my list of books I should try to get my hands on. Can't say I can help you much with the city though as I think I went to Wahconah park once maybe, and I never really paid attention to city politics, as I knew I was coming back to Canada once my contract was done...

I keep a list of all the books I've read over the years, many of them are sports related novels/books. I'll post it from home tonight. It's got the ISBN numbers on it, so you could check some of them out, may be some stuff you've never heard about.

Thanks to Molson for the list too, very interesting list...

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, a quick check at boockloseouts.com reveals they have over 200 copies of that Foul Ball book. Added it to my cart and will order it at some point when I next purchase some book there.

FM

[cougarfreak]

If you're a baseball fan.........I'd highly recommend "Men at Work" by George Will. Great book. Three nights in August was pretty good too. The one Feinstein wrote on the Indiana basketball team was good too........the name slips my mind at the moment.

[SirFozzie]

A season on the brink

[Icy]

What about sports books real or fictional based on players lifes? Something like the 1st person dynasties written for sports sims here or in GDS or OOTP forums.

I really love those dynasties and i would love to read good books telling the lifes of sportmen, real or fictional, like the baseball movie "the natural" or "Friday night lights" or "Hoosiers" or "Rudy" or "Any given sunday" etc, stuff like that.

[MylesKnight]

I do enjoy Feinstein's work.. He's written quite a few more, but I've read these five thus far..

A Civil War (Army v. Navy Football)
The Last Amateurs (Patriot League Basketball)
The Punch (Rudy Tom/Kermit Washington NBA)
A Good Walk Spoiled (PGA Tour)
The Majors (Golf)

Other titles I really enjoyed;

Loose Balls (A History of the old ABA)
Big Game, Small World (Basketball Stories, Globally)
Where Dreams Die Hard (Texas HS 6-Man Football)
Fixed: How Goodfellas Bought BC Basketball (College Basketball)
Rites of Autumn (College Football History)
Keeping the Faith (College Football's Worst Team - Trinity Bible College, ND)
The Sweet Season (College Football - St. John's Univ., MN)
The 50 Year Seduction (College Football, TV, BCS)
Missing Links (Golf Comedy)

[FrogMan]

Here's the list of sports books I've read so far. I see many of whom you've already read but anyway, if that can help you, here goes:

Title	Author	ISBN
Pros and Cons	Benedict, Jeff	0446524034
Friday Night Lights	Bissinger, H.G.	0060974060
Bringing the Heat	Bowden, Mark	0679428410
Toss	Esiason, Boomer	0451408748
A Civil War: Army vs Navy	Feinstein, John	0316278246
The Wives Room	Gardocki, Sally	1570281580
The Dark Side of the Game	Green, Tim	0446520330
Double Reverse	Green, Tim	044652333X
Ruffians	Green, Tim	0312953887
The Red Zone	Green, Tim	0446607568
Outlaws	Green, Tim	0061012130
Titans	Green, Tim	0446606367
Rough Trade	Hartzmark, Gini	0804118299
You're Okay, It's Just a Bruise	Huizenga, Rob	0312136277
Rude Behavior	Jenkins, Dan	044023560X
The Forever Season	Keith, Don	0312146035
Balls	Kincaid, Nanci	0385334532
Fourth Down	Klein, Dave	0312863705
Last Call: Memoirs of an NFL Refereee	Markbreit, Jerry	1583820302
Glory for Sale	Morgan, Jon	096312465X
The Football Hall of Shame	Nash, Bruce	0671745514
The Big Show	Olbermann & Patrick	0671009192
Paper Lion	Plimpton, George
If I Don't Six	Reid Elwood	0385491204
Another Season	Stallings, Gene	0767902556
Illegal Motion	Stockley, Grif	0684803550
The Gridiron Game	Wimmer, Dick (editor)	157028153X

I've like most of them, don't really remember one I didn't finish because I hated it...

FM

[rowech]

My favorite sports books depending on the sport:

October, 1964 David Halberstam -- great comparing of Cardinals and Yankees as they make their way to the series.

When Pride Still Mattered -- David Marinass -- biography of Lombardi. Simply an amazing book.

Rites of Autumn -- not a read through book but a very cool book on the history of college football.

Season on the Brink -- great inside look at a basketball season under Knight.

America's Game -- Macambridge -- just a fantastic history of the NFL. Learned so much by reading this book.

The Heisman -- cool book about some of the heisman winners. Probably wouldn't tell you to buy it but a good book.

The Last Good Coach -- Bear Bryant biography -- not at the level of the Lombardi book though.

Bill James Historical Abstract -- lot to the book and a lot you'll disagree with but a great read.

Wooden's little blue book -- a great book if you're into coaching.


My favorite of all of them is probably Lombardi's bio or America's game. Just a couple of great football books.

[SirFozzie]

A Civil War: Army vs Navy Feinstein, John 0316278246

AWESOME book

[bbor]

Anything by Fienstein.

'Somewhere in Ireland a village is missing it's idiot' by David Fehrety was good for a laugh.

[cthomer5000]

Moneyball (enough said on this from others... great book)

The New Thinking Man's Guide To Pro Football (Paul Zimmerman AKA Dr. Z of Sports Illustrated)
-
This book is out of print but you can find it fairly easily on half.com. It's WELL worth the read for both a read on the evolution of the game but most of all for the stories. I found myself laughing out loud regularly from quotes and stories, and i've re-read the book a few times.

[Celeval]

Fever Pitch. No, it's not actually about the Red Sox.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, it's about a far worse team .

[lcjjdnh]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

If you're an American soccer fan, try Once in a Lifetime, the story of the Cosmos (yes, the one that got turned into a movie and is on ESPN 2 tonight)

Did anyone watch this? I, for one, thought it was excellent and plan on picking up the book soon. Even non-soccer fans I watched it with thought it was extremely well done.

It's a shame they couldn't get Pele to speak (I believe I heard he was asking for too much money), but still a very cool documentary. It's facisnating to see how popular the sport was here for a while.

There were some great tales about both on-the-field and off-the-field stuff and some cool clips of Pele. The dynamic between Chinagila and the rest of the team was also very interesting, as is how all those involved in that mess talk about it now. I thought even the soundtrack was teriffic.