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America's Victory: the Heroic Story of a Team of Ordinary Americans-- and How They Won the Greatest Yacht Race Ever
From the Publisher: "Set against the backdrop of the first world’s fair in London, America’s Victory takes listeners into a world rich in adventure and history in an unforgettable story of skill, daring, and honor at the heart of our national identity.<p>In 1850, a brilliant young boat designer and an unlikely team of humble, hard working men faced the might and arrogance of the British empire in a yacht race for The Great Exhibition in England. Revolutionary in design and strikingly beautiful, the schooner America set sail against the world’s greatest maritime nation.<p>This is an account of an amazing feat accomplished long ago at the turning point in the growth of a young nation’s confidence, but it is also the story of a victory of the American spirit that bravely lives on today."... Show More
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Augusta: Home of the Masters Tournament: a Revealing Look Inside America's Most Intriguing Golf Club
From the Publisher: "Behind the wondrous scenes and tournament play at the Augusta National Golf Club is a secretive club, an institution cofounded by the unlikely partnership of Bobby Jones, unparalleled amateur golfer, and Clifford Roberts, a Wall Street investment broker. Eubanks explores the role Roberts played in Dwight Eisenhower’s ascension to the presidency; Roberts’s suicide and the club’s subsequent loss of the pistol he used; and the Tiger Woods-Fuzzy Zoeller brouhaha of 1997. "... Show More
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Baseball in '41: a Celebration of the "Best Baseball Season Ever" in the Year America Went to War
From the Publisher: "It was the year that Joe DiMaggio set his fifty-six-game hitting streak, that Ted Williams batted .406, that the Dodgers and the Yankees battled each other in a classic World Series, and that America went to war. In this look at what he calls “the best baseball season ever,” Robert Creamer skillfully intertwines all these epochal baseball happenings with an informal history of a pivotal period in American life, as well as with his own memories of what it was like to be eighteen and a baseball fan when war was looming and the game he loved vied for his attention. "... Show More
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Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With the New York Yankees]
From the Publisher: """Sixteen-year-old Matthew McGough was a fairly typical teenager, obsessed with getting through high school, girls, and baseball, not necessarily in that order. His passion for the New York Yankees was absolute, complete with a poster of his hero, Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, hanging on his bedroom wall. Despite having no connections whatsoever with the ballclub, Matt dreamed of sitting in the dugout with the fabled Bronx Bombers. So, in the Fall of 1991, he wrote a letter in his very best penmanship to the New York Yankees asking for a position as a bat boy.Miraculously, he got the job, and on April 7, 1992, Matt walked into the madness of the Yankee clubhouse on Opening Day. And there was Don Mattingly, Donnie Baseball himself, asking him to run an errand, an errand which soon induced panic in the rookie bat boy. Thus began two years of adventures and misadventures—from the perils of chewing tobacco while playing catch with the centerfielder, to being set up on a date by the bullpen, to studying for a history exam at 3:00 a.m. at Yankee Stadium, to his own folly as Matt gradually forgets he’s not a baseball star, he’s a high school student.BAT BOY captures the lure and beauty of the American pastime, but much more it is a tale of what happens to a young man when his fondest dream comes true. Matthew McGough wonderfully evokes that twilight time just before adulthood, ripe with possibility, foolishness, and hard-won knowledge. """... Show More
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The Blind Side: [Evolution of a Game]
From the Publisher: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Moneyball and Liar’s Poker comes the story of a young man’s rise to football stardom. The young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the NFL. Plucked from the mean streets by a wealthy family, he took up football and school, and turned out to possess the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility needed to guard the quarterback’s greatest vulnerability: his blind side.... Show More
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Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation
From the Publisher: "This book tells the gripping story of Bonington’s Boys, a band legendary climbers who reinvented mountaineering during the three decades after Everest’s first ascent. It is a story of tremendous courage, astonishing achievement, and heartbreaking loss."... Show More
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Bums: an Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
From the Publisher: "Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock presents a fascinating oral history of baseball heroes and an era gone by."... Show More
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Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History
From the Publisher: """ James J. Braddock, dubbed “Cinderella Man” by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash. With one good hand, Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him, finding fights for Braddock to help feed his wife and children. In less than twelve months Braddock went from the relief rolls to face heavyweight champion Max Baer, the Livermore Butcher Boy, renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A ten-to-one underdog, Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders. And when boxing was the biggest sport in the world, when the heavyweight champion was the biggest star in the world, his unlikely upset made Braddock the most popular champion boxing has ever seen.Against the gritty backdrop of the Depression, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, evoking a time when the sport of boxing resonated with a country trying desperately to get back on its feet. Rich in anecdote and color, steeped in history, and full of human interest, Cinderella Man is a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport. """... Show More
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Climb: Stories of Survival from Rock, Snow and Ice
From the Publisher: "Year after year, in spite of monumental dangers, climbers return to the world's most difficult mountains, whether it's the cliffs of Yosemite or the peaks of the Himalaya. At these places, even the most cautious climber must accept the possibilities of moving unroped to save time, braving terrain vulnerable to rockfall, trusting afternoon thunderstorms to hold off long enough to get below treeline. Mistakes, bad weather and bad luck often lead to death. This collection offers harrowing accounts of extreme mountaineering and its potentially fatal consequences."... Show More
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Climb: Stories of Survival from Rock, Snow and Ice
From the Publisher: "Year after year, in spite of monumental dangers, climbers return to the world's most difficult mountains, whether it's the cliffs of Yosemite or the peaks of the Himalaya. At these places, even the most cautious climber must accept the possibilities of moving unroped to save time, braving terrain vulnerable to rockfall, trusting afternoon thunderstorms to hold off long enough to get below treeline. Mistakes, bad weather and bad luck often lead to death. This collection offers harrowing accounts of extreme mountaineering and its potentially fatal consequences."... Show More
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Emperors and Idiots: The Hundred Year Rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox, from the Very Beginning to the End of the Curse
From the Publisher: """ The New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox. For a hundred years, no two teams have locked horns as fiercely or as frequently – and no two seasons frame the colossal battle more perfectly than 2003 and 2004. Now, with incredible energy and access, leading sports columnist Mike Vaccaro chronicles the history of the greatest rivalry in sports, and the two stunning American League Championship Series that define a century of baseball.October 17, 2003: A night no Yankees or Red Sox fan will ever forget. At 12:15 am, bottom of the eleventh inning of game seven of the ALCS, New York third-baseman Aaron Boone launches a ball over Yankee Stadium’s left-field fence. The Yankees win their 39th pennant – and send the perennially vexed Boston Red Sox home . . . again . . . suffering another devastating loss to their longtime nemesis.October 20, 2004: A year later, an eerie reprise – but this time things are different. After losing three straight to the Yankees, Boston has charged back to win the next three, forcing a decisive game seven. From the start of the game Boston is in control, and by winning this game they march toward their first World Series victory since 1918. These two explosive years define an extraordinary, epic rivalry – from Mariano Rivera and Roger Clemens to Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, Derek Jeter and Aaron Boone to David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, from nearly a century of Yankee domination to the undisputed breaking of “The Curse.” With the razor-sharp instincts that have made him a top sports journalist, Mike Vaccaro delves into the history of the rollicking rivalry: a vicious collision in 1903 (between the New York Highlanders and Boston Pilgrims) that draws first blood; the era of Babe Ruth and his legendary trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees, ushering in the notorious Curse; the golden age of DiMaggio and Williams; the unstoppable power of Mantle and Maris; the heart and soul of Fisk and Yazstremski versus Pinella and Munson; and the modern era of dueling owners, skyrocketing payrolls, and a renewed rivalry that attracts sell-out crowds even to Yankees-Red Sox spring training games.EMPERORS AND IDIOTS is as lively, fascinating, and raucous as the teams themselves – a must-have volume for any Yankees or Red Sox fan."""... Show More
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Epic: Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks
From the Publisher: "Epic—a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster. The climb that went wrong: fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound running low on food, water and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits.With writing from Greg Child, David Roberts, Stephen Venables, Alfred Lansing and others, Epic is a collection of the most memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world’s most famous peaks, often in the worst possible conditions. Epic is an adventure audiobook at its most compelling!"... Show More
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Eternal Summer: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan in 1960, Golf's Golden Year
From the Publisher: "Was there ever a year in golf like 1960? It was the year that the sport and its vivid personalities exploded on the consciousness of the nation, when the past, present, and future of the game collided. Television, still a new medium, provided a fresh window to this fascinating show and enabled this “rich man’s sport” to win over millions of new fans. Here was Arnold Palmer, the working man’s hero, “sweating, chain-smoking, shirt-tail flying,” winning, it seemed, every tournament with a last-second charge; grim Ben Hogan, Arnie’s opposite, the greatest player of the ‘50s, a perfectionist battling the twin demons of age and nerves; and, making his debut in the big time, a chunky, crewcut college kid who seemed to have the makings of a champion—20-year-old Jack Nicklaus."... Show More
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Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroid Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports
From the Publisher: The complete inside story of the shocking steroids scandal that turned the sports world upside down…For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of sports, there were rumors that some of our nation’s greatest athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. But as track stars blazed their way to Olympic medals and sluggers brought fans back to baseball, sports officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and cheered on the athletes to ever-higher levels of performance. Then, in December 2004, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the story of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a tiny nutritional supplement company that, according to sworn testimony, was supplying elite athletes with banned drugs. The stories shocked the nation and the exposés led to congressional hearings on baseball's drug problems and a revived effort to purge the U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats.Now, in GAME OF SHADOWS, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete story of BALCO and the investigation that has shaken the foundations of the sporting world. And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder for the San Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance has him threatening Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record.Shocking, revelatory, and riveting, GAME OF SHADOWS casts light into the shadows of American sports to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.... Show More
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Go Long!: My Journey Beyond the Fame and the Game
From the Publisher: "Jerry Rice, the son of a Mississippi brick mason, went on to become the greatest wide receiver in football history. In this autobiographical narrative, he shares the secrets of his early success while also addressing the issues of how to live fully and meaningfully in the second half of our lives."... Show More
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Golf's Greatest Championship: the 1960 US Open
From the Publisher: "One stroke separated the three leaders of the 1960 U.S. Open as they went into the final two holes. Arnold Palmer, who had overcome a seven-stroke deficit in the fourth round, won the championship by two strokes, beating both Ben Hogan and a young amateur named Jack Nicklaus. This remarkable come-from-behind achievement, which still stands as the greatest final-round comeback at the Open, signaled the end of an era and the beginning of modern-day golf and set the futures of all three men.<P>This book recounts that fateful Open from the 8:00 a.m. first-round tee-off to the finish, bringing alive a near-mythic moment in modern golf. Along for the journey are some of the greatest players of the day: Sam Snead, Gary Player, Ken Venturi, Tommy Bolt, Billy Casper, Julius Boros, Bob Rosburg, Dow Finsterwald, Gene “The Machine” Littler, and Art Wall. "... Show More
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Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf
From the Publisher: "In 1930, young amateur golfer Bobby Jones mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, this natural, self-taught player captured four major golf championships, an achievement so extraordinary that writers dubbed it the Grand Slam. No one has ever repeated it. Author Mark Frost provides an unprecedented intimate portrait of this golf great."... Show More
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Great Chase: the Dodgers-Giant Pennant Race of 1951
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Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
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Junction Boys
From the Publisher: The legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant is recognized nationwide as one of the greatest coaches ever. So why did he always cite his 1-9 A&M team of 1954 as his favorite? This is the story of a remarkable team—and the beginning of the legend.... Show More
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Let's Go to the Beach: a History of Sun and Fun By the Sea
From the Publisher: "Did you know that women once wore corsets under their bathing suits? Or that “semi-drowning”—the strip and plunge practice—was thought to be good for one’s health? Or that Pudgy Stockton, the body-building queen of Muscle Beach, California, opened the country’s first gym for women? From the bathhouses of the ancient Greeks to Venice Beach and Coney Island, Let’s Go to the Beach takes a multifaceted and well-researched look at beaches and their attendant customs. The text explores such historical transformations as the evolution of the waterways from places of commerce to venues of health and recreation, as well as the bathing suit's revealing journey from full-body cover-up to string bikini. Information about environmental concerns (including beach safety and preservation), along with quirky facts and trivia, round out this intriguing volume."... Show More
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Masters: Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia
From the Publisher: "The Masters golf tournament weaves a hypnotic spell. Tournament founder Clifford Roberts still seems to run the place from his grave. The story behind the elusive and reclusive Roberts has never been told, until now. The Masters is a portrait of a tournament unlike any other."... Show More
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Maybe I'll Pitch Forever: [Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story Behind the Legend]
From the Publisher: "Satchel Paige was forty-two years old when he became the first black pitcher in the American League in 1948. Although the oldest rookie around, he was already a legend. For twenty-two years, beginning in 1926, Paige dazzled throngs with his performance in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Then he outlasted everyone by playing professional baseball, in and out of the majors, until 1965. Struggle against early poverty and racial discrimination was part of Paige’s story. So was fast living and a humorous point of view. This is his autobiography, as told to David Lipman."... Show More
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Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
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Pitching in a Pinch: Baseball from the Inside
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Pro: Lessons About Golf and Life from My Father, Claude Harmon, Sr
From the Publisher: """Butch Harmon is the world’s number one golf coach. He taught Tiger Woods through one of the greatest stretches of victories in golf history (and, perhaps even more conspicuously, did not teach Tiger Woods following his unprecedented run), as well as superstars like Greg Norman, Adam Scott, Fred Couples, Darren Clarke, Natalie Gulbis, and Davis Love III. How did he become such a legendary teacher and mentor? The answer is simple: He learned from watching his father.The Harmons are the First Family of golf, and Claude Harmon, Sr., was the greatest of them all. His skill as a player, an innovator, a teacher, a devoted father, a loyal friend, and a peer of giants such as Ben Hogan has gone largely unappreciated by all but those who knew him best. In this book by his son, he finally gets his due. In The Pro, Butch Harmon paints a compelling portrait of an era in sports before the emergence of big media and bigger money, and shows how the lessons he learned about life and golf at his father’s knee made him the man he is today.The Pro is both a family and a golf memoir, as well as an inside look at what it takes to teach the Tigers of the world. It describes how Butch and his brothers, who are also teachers, transfer their father’s unique wit, wisdom, and philosophy to the next generation of golfers. Sometimes their advice relates to the game, sometimes they simply offer words of encouragement and motivation, sometimes they make pointed criticisms intended to shock their students into focus, and sometimes they try to impart simple advice about “walking around through life.” The Harmon brothers are teachers who share a special quality: All of their lessons are passed down from their father.Millions of golf fans know Butch Harmon; many are even familiar with his father and brothers. But never before have we been given such an intimate look at life among the legends of golf. The Pro is the story of an extraordinary father and son that will resonate with anyone who has ever looked back on life and recognized the wisdom of their parents’ teachings.""Golf's hard,"" Dad would say, pointing a meaty finger at me as if he were about to reveal the secret of the Rosetta Stone. “Good golf is damn hard, and championship golf is something only a few will ever see. But that’s how it should be. If it were easy, everybody would do it. And where’s the fun in that?”From Butch Harmon, the world’s number one golf coach, comes the inside story of how he learned everything he knows about golf and life from his father, Claude Harmon, Sr. Both a family memoir and a reminiscence of growing up among the legends of sport, The Pro is a portrait of one extraordinary family and the game that will carry their legacy for years to come. """... Show More
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The Progress of the Seasons: Forty Years of Baseball in Our Town
From the Publisher: "The Progress of the Seasons confirms what admirers of the author’s sparkling accurate prose already know, that Higgins is to writing what Ted Williams was to baseball, an all-star. Beginning in 1946, the then eight-year-old author, accompanied by father and grandfather, takes the long train ride out to Fenway Park to find some truth in immortals like Doerr, DiMaggio, York, and Williams. "... Show More
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Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey Into the Heart of the Heart of Fan Mania
From the Publisher: """Why do people care about the outcome of a game they're not playing themselves? And what does it mean that so many people care so much? Warren St. John decided to find out by joining a group where the particulars of the fan psyche would show themselves in sharp relief: the caravan of hundreds of RVs that follow the Alabama Crimson Tide across the South, taking over college towns with a moveable feast of Weber grills, karaoke machines, Igloo coolers, and fast-draining liquor bottles. RAMMER JAMMER YELLOW HAMMER offers not a locker-room view, but a seat in the bleachers, stadium parking lots and in the inner lives of fans (not to mention their RVs). Drawing on psychological and sociological research on fandom, this is not just a travel story, but a cultural anthropology of fans. """... Show More
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Reasonable Art of Fly Fishing
From the Publisher: "One of the best acid tests of an introductory book...is that the text allow the reader to learn an important skill independent of the illustrations. This book contains the best, the most interesting, and the most effective introduction to fly casting I have ever read. --Tom Rosenbauer "... Show More
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Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler
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Shanks for Nothing
From the Publisher: """The hilarious sequel to Rick Reilly’s beloved bestselling golf novel Missing LinksLife is going pretty well for Raymond “Stick” Hart. He’s happily married to the former Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Club assistant pro, the beauteous Cajun firecracker Dannie, raising his rambunctious son, Charlie, and getting by writing smart-mouthed greeting cards for fifty bucks a pop. Best of all, nothing has changed at Ponky, the worst golf course in America. You still have to hook it past the toxic waste dump on No. 1 and under the billboard on No. 8, the fried-egg sandwiches are terrible but cheap, and his pal Two Down is always up for a sucker bet.Then, one disaster of a day, Stick’s world does a ten-car pile-up. The cheapskate bastard owner of Ponky announces he’s retiring to a nudist camp in Florida and selling the club to the Mayflower Club next door, a bastion of blue-blood snobbery that plans to pave Ponky over. Worse, its membership includes Stick’s hated father. Who promptly drops dead. Just before Stick’s pal Two Down loses $12,000 to a golf hustler who turns out to be funded by the Russian mob. Which is about the same time that Hoover, Ponky’s worst golfer and the owner of an impressive array of useless golf gadgets purchased with his wife’s money, learns she’ll cut him off if he doesn’t break a hundred in one month. Then a practical joke makes Dannie believe that Stick’s been stepping out with the gorgeous new clubhouse girl, the eye-popping Kelly, and he’s soon living on the forty-year-old couch in the Ponky clubhouse. Luckily, Stick has a solution to all his problems. He’ll qualify for the British Open. """... Show More
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Squeeze Play
From the Publisher: "Reporter A. B. Berkowitz finds herself “alone with a locker room full of naked men” as she tries to write about the game of baseball amidst players who only want to gross her out, in this funny, raunchy, authentic tale by a former Washington Post sportswriter."... Show More
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Sweet Science
From the Publisher: "Here are the great events of boxing’s American heyday: Sugar Ray Robinson's dramatic comeback, Rocky Marciano's rise to prominence, Joe Louis's unfortunate decline, brought so vividly to life that Sports Illustrated named <i>The Sweet Science</i> the best American sports book of all time."... Show More
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Tales From the Ballpark: More of the Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told
From the Publisher: "Author Mike Shannon takes you behind the scenes into the ballpark, the clubhouse, and the minor leagues in this memorable collection of anecdotes about America’s pastime from some of the greatest players and storytellers. From legendary Hall of Famers Ralph Kiner and Bob Gibson to modern-day stars Mo Vaughn and David Wells, Tales from the Ballpark contains more than 125 priceless stories."... Show More
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Tales from the Dugout: the Greatest True Baseball Stories Ever Told
From the Publisher: "This memorable collection of anecdotes about America’s national pastime will take you into the dugout, clubhouse, and press box with some of the game’s greatest players and storytellers. From Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays to the always quotable Casey Stengel to modern-day stars Ken Griffey, Jr., and Larry Walker, Tales from the Dugout features more than 150 entertaining stories sure to delight fans of all generations."... Show More
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When the Boys Came Back: Baseball and 1946
From the Publisher: "After World War II, as everyone eagerly awaited baseball’s spring training, the national pastime was as unsettled as the rest of the country. Drawing on interviews with many of the players who wrote the season’s history, Turner brings it all vividly back to life."... Show More
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Who's Your Caddy?: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf
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