Sports Biblio Digest 10.28.18: 2018 Fall Sports Books Guide
News, Views and Reviews About Sports Books, History and Culture
In This Special Issue: New Books By/About Babe Ruth; Bjorn Borg; Wyomia Tyus; Early Baseball Cards; Shane Warne; Bob Cousy and Bill Russell; Don Shula; Kobe Bryant; Tom Gola; Pat Summitt; English Premier League; Bobby Orr; Dale Earnhardt Jr.; Gaelic Sports; Thomas Hauser; Women’s Cycling; The USFL; Rick Pitino; and More
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The publication dates for the following books are between September and December. Links are to the Indiebound site, of which Sports Biblio is an affiliate member.
If I’m missing anything or you would like to recommend other books to be included in later newsletters, please feel free to contact me at: sportsbiblio@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy these selections! They are listed in alphabetical order by title, and reflect American publishing dates, except where noted otherwise.
Baseball Goes West: The Dodgers, the Giants and the Shaping of the Major Leagues, by Lincoln A. Mitchell (Nebraska, Nov. 12)—The author argues that Major League Baseball’s move to California, along with Jackie Robinson’s arrival, helped forge the contemporary game.
Basketball: A Love Story, by Jackie McMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores (Crown Archetype, Sept. 18)—Three journalists interview many of the game’s legends about their passion for the game.
Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time, by Ian O”Connor (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sept. 25)—The latest biography of the New England Patriots boss by the veteran ESPN.com writer.
Best American Sports Writing 2018, by Glenn Stout and Jeff Pearlman (Mariner, Oct. 2)—This year’s edition of longform pieces includes the work of Sally Jenkins, Kent Babb, Tom Junod, Dave Kindred and more.
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy (Harper, Oct. 16)—As noted in last week’s newsletter, this new biography takes aim at the Bambino’s formative years and the times that he shaped.
Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, by Mark Leibovich (Penguin Press, Sept. 4)—A hard-nosed look at the business of professional football by the chief national correspondent for The New York Times.
Bill James Handbook 2019, by Bill James (ACTA, Nov. 1)—With the 2018 baseball season almost done, this is just in time for hot-stove aficionados.
Bjorn Borg and the Super Swedes: Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander and the Golden Era of Tennis, by Mats Holm, Ulf Roosvald and Cecilia Palmcrantz (Skyhorse, Oct. 2)—An examination of how a small country produced some of the leading tennis pros in the 1970s and 1980s and their influence in their country off the court.
Blue Blood II: Duke-Carolina: The Latest on the Never-Ending and Greatest Rivalry in College Hoops, by Art Chansky (St. Martin’s Press, Oct. 30)—A sequel to a popular book first published in 2005 about a rivalry that remains strong despite many dramatic changes in the sport.
Bobby Orr: My Story in Pictures, by Bobby Orr (Viking, Oct. 30)—A photo memoir by the hockey legend, including shots from his personal collection.
Boise State of Mind: The Emergence of College Football’s Grittiest Underdog, by Joel Gunderson (Sports Publishing, Oct. 16)—How a team outside the powerhouses conference developed a winning track record against some of the biggest names in the game.
Bower: A Legendary Life, by Dan Robson (HarperCollins, Oct. 16)—A biography of the Hall of Fame Maple Leafs goalkeeper, whose stardom was long in the making.
Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football, by Merrill Hoge (Amplify, Oct. 23)—The former NFL player and current TV analyst takes issue with claims that a degenerative brain disease has prompted an epidemic of concussions in football.
The Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Wirtz Family Business and the Chicago Blackhawks, by Bryan Smith (Northwestern, Oct. 1)—The dramatic story of a (mostly badly-run) family sports business that eventually turned itself around.
The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey, by Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, Nov. 20)—The Paris Review sports correspondent writes about the 2017 season on the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours.
City of Champions: An American Story of Leather Helmets, Iron Wills and the High School Kids from Jersey Who Won It All, by Hank Gola (Tatra Press, Nov. 26)—An account of a Depression-era football team that prevailed in a mythical national title game played at the Orange Bowl.
The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports, by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Dec. 4)—A business-focused history of the most lucrative sports league in the world by two reporters for The Wall Street Journal.
Collision of Wills: Johnny Unitas, Don Shula, and the Rise of the Modern NFL, by Jack Gilden (Nebraska, Oct. 1)—The story of the complicated QB-coach relationship for the 1960s Baltimore Colts.
Crawl of Fame: Julie Moss and the Fifteen Feet That Created an Ironman Triathlon Legend, by Julie Moss and Robert Yehling (Pegasus, Oct. 2)—The memoir of an accomplished triathlete whose legend was forged in a memorable finish at a 1982 world championship in Hawaii.
Cricket Ball, by Gary Cox (Bloomsbury Academic, Oct. 18)—An Oxford philosopher traces the mysterious evolution of a spheroid.
Death of the Territories: Expansion, Betrayal and the War That Changed Pro Wrestling Forever, by Tim Hornbaker (ECW Press, Oct. 18)—How the proudly regional entities of pro wrestling were undone by Vince McMahon at the dawn of the cable television age.
Don Shula: A Biography of the Winningest Coach in NFL History, by Carlo DeVito (Sports Publishing, Nov. 6)—The author, a noted sports historian, profiles Shula from his earliest days as a young assistant coach.
Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL, by Jeff Pearlman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sept. 11)—A rollicking account of a short-lived, but fondly remembered league whose gargantuan figures included Donald Trump.
Formula One: The Illustrated History, by Bruce Jones (Carlton, Oct. 2)—The acclaimed motor sports commentator has collected a hefty volume of interviews and photos about the sport since its inception in 1950.
Full Court Press: How Pat Summitt, A High School Basketball Player, and a Legal Team Changed the Game, by Bill Haltom and Amanda Swanson (Tennessee, Oct. 15)—The legendary women’s basketball coach’s role in a rules change from six-on-six play as Title IX was opening up sports opportunities to females.
The GAA and the War of Independence, by Tim Pat Coogan (Head of Zeus, Dec. 1)—The noted Irish writer delves into the history of Gaelic sports between 1916-23, during nationalist struggles against British rule.
The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968, by George Howe Colt (Scribner, Oct. 9)—One of the most famous ties in college football history is recounted against the backdrop of social turbulence that reached the Ivy League.
Game Faces: Early Baseball Cards from the Library of Congress, by Peter Devereaux, (Smithsonian Books, Oct. 23)—The catalog published in conjunction with this year’s exhibit of more than 2,000 cards from 1887 to 1914.
The Giants of the Polo Grounds: The Glorious Times of Baseball's New York Giants, by Noel Hynd (Createspace Oct. 3)—A vastly expanded and self-published revision of the original, published in the 1990s, with more stories about Willie Mays, Mel Ott, Leo Durocher and other luminaries.
Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL, by Michael Lombardi (Crown Archetype, Sept. 11)—A former NFL general manager shares what he learned from Bill Walsh, Al Davis, Bill Belichick and other championship coaches.
Hockey: A Global History, by Stephen Hardy and Andrew C. Holman (Illinois, Nov. 15, 2018)—Hockey’s Canadian roots are well-known, but the sport’s long history has plenty of international confluences as well.
The Last Good Year: Seven Games That Ended an Era, by Damien Cox (Viking, Oct. 23)—An account of the 1992-93 Stanley Cup finals between Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, a series that represented a decisive power and money shift in the NHL.
The Last Pass: Cousy, Russell, the Celtics, and What Matters in the End, by Gary M. Pomerantz (Penguin Press, Oct. 23)—Two aging basketball legends and championship teammates assess the racially embroiled times in which they played, and how their lives have been influenced by that over the years.
The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino: A Story of Corruption, Scandal, and the Big Business of College Basketball, by Michael Sokolove (Penguin Press, Sept. 25)—The episode that brought down the Hall of Fame coach is examined as a symptom of a far greater problem in amateur athletics in the U.S.
The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire, by John Eisenberg (Basic Books, Oct. 9)—The tale of the roles played by Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell in the late 1950s, as the NFL was poised to surge ahead of other popular sports.
The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, by Kobe Bryant (MCD: Oct. 23)—The former Lakers star explains his mental and physical approach to the game, with photos from acclaimed sports photographer Andrew Bernstein.
Mr. All-Around: The Life of Tom Gola, by David Grzybowski (Temple, Nov. 15)—A biography of the former LaSalle All-American, one of the iconic names of Big 5 college basketball in Philadelphia and a Hall of Famer.
Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City, by Albert Samaha (Public Affairs, Sept. 4)—How working-class boys in a black Brooklyn neighborhood found refuge on a youth football team.
No Spin, by Shane Warne (Ebury Press, Oct. 4)—Now published in the U.S., the Australian cricketing great tells his story in this memoir.
The Pats: An Illustrated History of the New England Patriots, by Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nov. 20)—Long before Tom Brady, Gino Cappelletti starred for an original AFL franchise that’s had a circuitous route to its current dynasty.
Paul Brown's Ghost: How the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals Are Haunted by the Man Who Created Them, by Jonathan Knight (Sports Publishing, Oct. 2)—The snakebitten sagas of Ohio’s two NFL teams seemingly won’t be changing anytime soon.
Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, by Rob Neyer (Harper, Oct. 9)—A fresh look at analytics, and how the sport has changed, through the lens of a 2017 game between the Astros and the A’s.
Protect Yourself at All Times: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing, by Thomas Hauser (Arkansas, Oct. 19)—The acclaimed boxing writer weighs in with another year-in-boxing collection, his 51st book.
Pushing the Boundaries: Cricket in the Eighties: Playing home and away, by Derek Pringle (Hodder & Stoughton, Dec. 18)—The English game is detailed during a decade of mixed results domestically and in the Ashes.
Racing to the Finish: My Story, by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan McGee (Thomas Nelson, Oct. 16)—The NASCAR driver, and son of a NASCAR legend, writes about his final year in stock car racing.
Quarterback: Inside the Most Important Position in the National Football League, by John Feinstein (Doubleday, Nov. 13)—The prolific sports author profiles the careers of five starting QBs who symbolize the evolution of the position.
Republicans Buy Sneakers Too: How the Left Is Ruining Sports with Politics, by Clay Travis (Broadside Books, Sep. 25)—The sports radio host takes on activists and sports media, including ESPN, for injecting what he says are leftist political views that are alienating fans.
Spirals: A Family’s Education in Football, by Timothy B. Spears (Nebraska, Oct. 1)—The author, who followed his father and grandfather in playing football at Yale, writes about his family and the convergence of college football and higher education.
State of Play: The Heartbeat of Modern Football, by Michael Calvin (Random House UK, Dec. 1)—The author of several books about contemporary soccer continues his exploration with an overview of how the sport remains so colossal across the world.
Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story, by Wyomia Tyus and Elizabeth Terzakis (Edge of Sports, Sept. 4)—The Olympic champion recounts her life, from growing up in the Jim Crow South to starring for the legendary Tennessee State women’s track team, her springboard for gold medal performances.
Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing, by Wil Haygood (Knopf, Sept. 18)—Athletes at a segregated high school in Columbus, Ohio, excel during the turmoil of contentious time in American history.
University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education, by Joshua Hunt (Melville House, Oct. 23)—How the shoe manufacturer changed college athletics with its contact with the University of Oregon, Phil Knight’s alma mater, and not necessarily for the better.
Welcome to Hell?: In Search of the Real Turkish Football, by John McManus (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Oct. 16)—A British anthropologist based in Ankara tries to mystify the game in a land widely misunderstood by outsiders.
The Wizard of Foz: Dick Fosbury's One-Man High-Jump Revolution, by Bob Welch and Dick Fosbury (Skyhorse Publishing, Sept. 4)—The master of the “flop” describes his technique and his life 50 years after his Olympic gold medal fame in Mexico City.
Women on the Move: The Forgotten Era of Women’s Bicycle Racing, by Roger Gilles (Nebraska, Oct. 1)—Around the turn of the 20th century, women racers drew big crowds at marathon events in American cities, prompting a rethinking of notions of female frailty.
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The Sports Biblio Digest is an e-mail newsletter delivered each Sunday. You can subscribe here and search the archives.
This is Digest issue No. 141, published Oct. 28, 2018.
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