OT: Your favorite books on sports
I haven't read many books focused on sports, but I just finished a great read: "Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink" by David Margolick. It's a deep dive into Louis and Schmeling as fighters and personalities, the fight game in the 1930s, and the political contexts in Germany and the U.S. and how they impacted sports in general and boxing in particular. If you like history and boxing, I'd recommend it highly.
A couple of years ago I read "A Flame of Pure Fire" by Roger Kahn, and it's similar to the Margolick book in its look at the fight game and the general social context surrounding it. Kahn knew Dempsey, so there are some interesting vignettes of interactions between them.
Since MGoBloggers are a diverse and well-read group, I'm curious what you all would recommend.
Moneyball and Friday Night Lights take the cake for me. I’m certain I’ve read the latter over seven times.
Ball Four.
On a more serious note, The Boys in the Boat was outstanding. Crew in the 1930's is a bit off the radar but man, what a story.
I've had The Boys in the Boat recommended to me by several people.
"Ball Four" is a good one. I second that.
Another good baseball book is "Veeck, As In Wreck", which is about one of baseball's more interesting front office characters Bill Veeck.
The Boys in the Boat was so, so, so great. I read it for a book club. When the guy who picked that book told us what his pick was, I was like, "I don't want to read a book about f-ing rowing!" But I'm so glad I did (and thankful to the book club bro). It was amazing.
"Throwback" by Jason Kendall is a great read for anyone into baseball - it's such a complicated and intricate game and I don't think most fans realize how difficult it is to play, but this book does a great job of explaining a lot of the detail behind the game.
The Game by Ken Dryden. Far and away the best sports book I have ever read.
In the Bin: Reckless & Rude Stories from the Penalty Boxes of the NHL. Not sure if it's my absolute favorite, but it's the first one I thought of that I don't think other people will name. It's a bit of a lighter read but it's pretty funny and thoroughly enjoyable. It doesn't only focus on the players of the penalty box - you get bits about fans, mascots, goal judges, etc. A very entertaining and quick read.
Season On The Brink and Basketball Junkie.
Fever Pitch, Hornby.
If you're a runner "Once a Runner" is pretty good
I'm now reading Down the Fairway by Bobby Jones, and I'd have to say it's my favorite though I'm not finished with it yet.
I like the casual style he writes about the game while being the best player of his time. His thoughts of the game seem to still have resonance nearly 100 years later.
Try "Massacre at Wingedfoot". It's about how the PGA set up the course for the US Open the year after Johnny Miller shot his 63. A great golf book, the only sports book I own that I've reread.
"Missing Links", about a group of diverse misfits who play golf (while gambling) at a shithole course, is one of the funniest books ever - sports related or not. Written by Rick Reilly. Highly recommend.
I love that f’ing book.
This is fiction, so it doesn't really count, but "The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach might be the best sports book I've read, regardless of genre. It's a fantastic piece of writing. It's a thick book, and I read it over the span of a few days a couple summers ago.
100% co-sign this. For another work of fiction, I’d add The Throwback Special. A group of middle-aged men get together once a year to recreate the play during which LT broke Theismann’s leg. The book follows them as they spend one weekend together prepping for the play.
I came here to recommend this as well! It's one of the best books I've ever read. I've never read a book where I was so invested in each and every character.
Though it’s not my favorite, I also read The Art of Fielding a few summers ago and thought it was surprisingly good. It almost (but not quite) made me want to re-read Moby Dick. Instead, I read W. P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe (the basis for the film Field of Dreams) and then re-read Bernard Malamud’s The Natural, both of which I’d recommend for fans of baseball fiction, as well as Daryl Brock’s If I Never Get Back.
I also loved The Art of Fielding. Even though he's not real, Henry Skrimshander of the Westish Harpooners is a damn legend in my eyes.
The Match by Mark Frost is a must read for all fans of golf.
'i am third', which is the book title for the well-known movie that was later made: 'brian's song' by gale sayers.
For fans of soccer and soccer violence, "Among the Thugs" by Bill Buford. Told from the view point of an American reporter traveling with Man U supporters in the '80's.
I read this every early fall as the start of football begins. It's a great read on mob mentality and really quite funny too.
This is in my top 2 - extremely memorable read. His second book, Heat, requires a bit more patience but was also great.
My other: Saturday's America by Dan Jenkins (who recently joined Keith Jackson in the afterlife). Yes, it's an older view, but many consider it to be the seminal college football book. A fun, easy, and worthwhile read if you like the history of the game.
Moneyball is a classic. Fall River Dreams (about Chris Herren in high school) and Where the Game Matters Most are two of my favs.
If you like basketball, or good writing, I'd recommend Hoop Dreams. The documentary that goes along with the book is great too.
anything written by david halberstam, including non-sports, were great for me.
My favorite sports book is the Bellagio. Great recliners and free cocktails.
Heaven is a Playground, Hoop Dreams, and The Fab Five: Basketball Trash Talk the American Dream. Absolutely phenomenal.
- A Civil War: Army vs Navy by John Feinstein
- Pele: My Life and the Beautiful Game
- Man in Motion by Joe Falls (written after I think Bo's 3rd season at UM)
- Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (loose tie to our '97 national title run)
I know Rick Reilly has turned himself into a punchline and he deserves it but “Shanks for Nothing” is a really fun and easy piece of fiction read.
Any book by Matt Christopher. Best sports writer ever.
So many, several of which have been mentioned, but allow me to throw out some others.
- Loose Balls by Terry Pluto, which is an oral history of the ABA (and a fantastic one at that. Similarly, Tall Tales, about the first 20-25 years of the NBA is a great read as well.)
- The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff is a sports book, but it's also so much more than a sports book.
- My Turf: Horses, Boxers, Blood Money, And The Sporting Life by William Nack which is just a collection of Nack's best SI columns, but my goodness, what a collection.
As a young lad growing up in the (2nd, I guess) heydey of American tennis (late 80's to 2k), I read "Open" by Andre Agassi and loved it. Hearing about his conflict with his Dad pushing him and hitting against the ball machine for hours, to his resentment of some of his early endorsement deals to purposefully throwing matches, reading it as an adult was really interesting. Not to say that it cast a dark cloud over him, but rather when you're 15 and in junior tennis and Agassi and Sampras are your heroes, always intriguing to take a deeper dive.
Fiction:
"Bang the Drum Slowly," Mark Harris. The tale of the star pitcher and his terminally ill catcher on a fictional New York team in the 1950's. Terrific read, and the basis of the 1973 movie of the same name with Robert DeNiro.
Non-Fiction:
"The Boys of Summer", Roger Kahn. Great look at the Brooklyn Dodgers players of 1952-53, with a follow up 20 years later, by the reporter who covered the team for the New York Herald-Tribune.
"Nice Guys Finish Last," Leo Durocher. Although more than a little whitewashed, it's a funny, entertaining, and extremely readable autobiography by the famous manager.
"Summer of '49" and "October 1964", both by David Halberstam. An in-depth look at the post-war Yankees-Red Sox pennant race, and the fight to the World Series by the up-and-coming Cardinals and the on-their-last-legs Yankees.
If you're into boxing, The Sweet Science is a must read!
“The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football” - David Goldblatt - He’s the best soccer writer in the UK. Just fantastic. Used to regularly appear on Howler podcast and was a must listen.
”Soccer Against the Enemy” - Simon Kuper. Stories about rivalries or between nations with not so healthy relationships.
“The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro” - John McGinniss. A really tiny village team in Italy gets all the way up to Serie B and a writer spends a year with the team.
“Blue Ice” by John U Bacon. We need an updated edition of this.
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. She also wrote Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage -- not sports, but absolutely great.
--Paper Lion by George Plimpton. A journalist goes "undercover" and participates in the Lions' training camp 50 years ago.
--A Sense of Where You Are by John McPhee. He profiles Bill Bradley (former US Senator, Rhodes Scholar, failed Presidential nomination candidate, NBA Hall of Famer Knick) during his senior year on Princeton's basketball team.
--The Amateurs by David Halberstam. About crew and the 1984 olympic trials. Crew is a peculiar world.
As already noted, Kahn's, Boys of Summer - my first serious sports book (high school)
Also Arnold Rampersad's biography of Jackie Robinson. Incredibly well-researched, fluid prose, a beautiful rendering of the man and his engagement with baseball and society.
"Playing for Pizza" - John Grisham
"The Three Year Swim Club" - Julie Checkoway
Non-Fiction: Fab Five
Fiction: FREEP
A Fan's Notes, by Frederick Exley; Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby; Friday Night Lights; Visions of Yzerman
For avid golfers, A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein.
Eye opening look at the PGA tour.
"Trunk slamming"= missing the cut
Mentioned already but I'll put in an additional good word for A Fan's Notes, Among the Thugs and Seabiscuit.
Boys in the boat
The Arm
most recent one I have read, I recommend.