Other books that might interest you

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  Practice

  Ross Gay, Noah Davis

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  A 45-year-old Black man. A 24-year-old white man. Both writers. One a teacher; the other his student. Before the pandemic separated them, Ross Gay and one of his graduate poetry students, Noah Davis, met regularly to play one-on-one basketball. It was a real hard workout. After each session they were moved to exchange letters about basketball and so much more. Gay and Davis, who both attended college on sports scholarships, have taught and coached basketball, and love the sport—its beauty, its athleticism—see their letters as a way to work through some of the larger issues inherent in sports, from misogyny to race to competition, and as their friendship deepens, basketball becomes a springboard for talking how men relate to each other and to the world. All while never losing sight of how playing games brings them delight, which is, of course, Gay’s signature subject.

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  The Red Kelly Story

  Leonard “Red” Kelly

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  The life and times of the eight-time Stanley Cup winner
   
  When Boston coach Lynn Patrick was asked who he’d pick between Rocket Richard or Gordie Howe he answered, “Neither! I’ll take Red Kelly!” The only player to have won eight Stanley Cups without playing for Montreal, Red began his life in hockey on the cedar swamps near Port Dover, Ontario, and went on to win accolades and championships as a Detroit Red Wing and Toronto Maple Leaf.
   
  Go back in time with Red as he reminisces about his childhood: the time he nearly drowned; when he brought St. Michael’s College to three provincial championships; and his jump into a career with the NHL where sportsmanlike conduct won him multiple Lady Byng trophies. While playing with the Leafs, he served as member of parliament in Lester Pearson’s government. After retiring in 1967 as a player, Red coached for a decade in the NHL with Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. This is a fascinating biography of a life well lived — on and off the ice.

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  Trout from a Boat - Tips...

  Dennis Moss

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  This is a book for boat-flyfishers: those who spend time afloat in pursuit of trout, who know how difficult and frustrating the sport can be – but also how thrilling and rewarding.
  Few trout anglers have fished as widely as Dennis Moss, and fewer still have his ability to convey the skills of boatfishing with such insight and passion.
  He tells of his experiments with a new kind of improved drogue, of the breakthrough of the intermediate flyline, his discoveries about hook strengths and he shares his all-time favourite stillwater flies.
  This book will tell you a great deal about the craft of boatfishing and, as you learn, you will be taken to some fabulous locations and on some thrilling trips.
  This fully revised and updated edition includes new material on summer caenis fishing, dry fly techniques and latest leader compositions.

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  Bottom of the 33rd - Hope and...

  Dan Barry

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  In “a worthy companion to . . . Boys of Summer,” a Pulitzer prize winning journalist “exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace” (New York Times). 
   
  From award-winning New York Times columnist Dan Barry comes the beautifully recounted story of the longest game in baseball history—a tale celebrating not only the robust intensity of baseball, but the aspirational ideal epitomized by the hard-fighting players of the minor leagues. 
   
  On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. For eight hours, the night seemed to suspend a town and two teams between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys—the shivering fans; their wives at home; the umpires; the batboys approaching manhood; the ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; and the players themselves—two destined for the Hall of Fame (Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs), the few to play only briefly or forgettably in the big leagues, and the many stuck in minor-league purgatory, duty bound and loyal forever to the game. 
   
  With Bottom of the 33rd, Barry delivers a lyrical meditation on small-town lives, minor-league dreams, and the elements of time and community that conspired one fateful night to produce a baseball game seemingly without end. An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America’s pastime—and America’s past. 
   
  “Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
   
  “Bottom of the 33rd is chaw-chewing, sunflower-spitting, pine tar proof that too much baseball is never enough.” —Jane Leavy, author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax 

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  Clubbie - A Minor League...

  Greg Larson

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  Greg Larson was a starry-eyed fan when he hurtled headfirst into professional baseball. As the new clubhouse attendant for the Aberdeen IronBirds, a Minor League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, Larson assumed he'd entered a familiar world. He thought wrong.He quickly discovered the bizarre rituals of life in the Minors: fights between players, teammates quitting in the middle of the games, doomed relationships, and a negligent parent organization. Despite the team's struggles and his own lack of baseball talent, he yearned to join the exclusive fraternity of professional ballplayers.Like most Minor Leaguers, the gravitational pull of baseball was still too strong for Larson—even if chasing his private dream might cost him his girlfriend, his future, and, ultimately, his love of the game. That is, until an unlikely shot at a championship gives Larson and the IronBirds one final swing at redemption.An unflinching look at the harsh experience of professional sports, Clubbie will be a touchstone in baseball literature for years to come.

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  On The Seventh Day: Thirty Years...

  John Green

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  Have you read about the day Eamon Dunphy went for a drink in London with George Best? Or the day Paul Kimmage sat down with Roy Keane in Saipan? Or the story about Paul O'Connell and the Superman tee-shirt? Have you met Hurling Man? Do you know why prop forwards rule the roost in Rugby Hell? Or why a famous goal brought so much misery to the man who scored it? These stories and many more can be found in On The Seventh Day, an anthology of some of the best sports writing published in Ireland over the last thirty years, now released in paperback.
  
  
  There is a literary quality to the best sports writing – a refusal to dumb down. On the Seventh Day showcases some of the best, and features undoubted stars of the genre like Paul Kimmage, Eamon Dunphy and David Walsh. Kimmage's remarkable piece, 'Inside the team that Mick built', which tells the story of Ireland's memorable win over Holland in 2001, opens the book and sets the tone for a stunning collection of articles spanning the years from Euro '88 to the summer of 2018. Featured writers also include Eamonn Sweeney, Joe Brolly, Neil Francis, Colm O'Rourke, Brendan Fanning, Marie Crowe, Anthony Cronin, Dion Fanning, Richard Sadlier, Cliona Foley, Tommy Conlon and Mick Doyle, covering the GAA, soccer, rugby, golf, athletics, horse racing, boxing, snooker and more. On The Seventh Day explores anger, joy, humour, sadness, pity, tragedy, beauty; there are memories, controversies and celebrations; tales of addiction and tales of redemption. Together, the pieces, which are taken from the pages of the Sunday Independent over the last three decades, show how truly great sports writing stands the test of time.

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