Sports Biblio Digest 12.30.18: Notable Sports Books of 2018

To close out the year, I’ve chosen 50 books published during 2018 across genres, sports, and nations (most of them English-speaking) that are noteworthy for a variety of reasons and that fit many of the topical areas explored on Sports Biblio: Sports history, culture, the arts and more.

There is a mix of biography, memoir, history and reportage, and I tried to include a wide variety of sports and sports figures, well-known or otherwise, as well as some exceptional storytelling.

This is just one woman’s selection for one particular year, and admittedly this is heavy on American sports. I appreciate the suggestions readers from other countries pass along to me, and in the coming year I want to include more of them in this newsletter.

I will be taking at least next week off, and possibly won’t return until mid-to-late January. I have some family matters to take care of out of town.

Thanks for your readership and Happy New Year! Whatever’s on your bookshelf for 2019, Happy Reading!

Alou: My Baseball Journey, by Felipe Alou with Peter Kerasotis (University of Nebraska). The former major league player and manager’s first memoir delves into his baseball family’s story in Puerto Rico, at the dawn of the game’s Latin American renaissance.

Arthur Ashe: A Biography, by Raymond Arsenault (Simon & Schuster). Twenty-five years after his death, a full-scale appraisal of the late tennis and civil-rights icon, whom some have claimed is the “spiritual father” of Colin Kaepernick.

Basketball: A Love Story, by Jackie McMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores (Crown Archetype). Three journalists interview many of the game’s legends about their passion for the game.

Basketball: Great Writing About America's Game, edited by Alexander Wolff (Library of America). The longtime Sports Illustrated writer collects work by John McPhee, Pete Axthelm, Pat Conroy, John Edgar Wideman, Rick Telander and many others.

Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time, by Ian O”Connor (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The latest biography of the New England Patriots boss by the veteran ESPN.com writer.

Berlin 1936: Sixteen Days in August, by Oliver Hilmes and Jefferson Chase (Other Press). The controversial Olympics is presented through the eyes of a variety of witnesses, famous and otherwise, focusing more on anecdote than analysis, and in very entertaining fashion.

Best American Sports Writing 2018, by Glenn Stout and Jeff Pearlman (Mariner). The latest of longform pieces (published in 2017) includes the work of Sally Jenkins, Kent Babb, Tom Junod, Dave Kindred and more.

Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, by Mark Leibovich (Penguin Press). A hard-nosed look at the business of professional football by the chief national correspondent for The New York Times. He doesn’t think much of Commissioner Roger Goodell and many of the owners who keep him in the position, comparing this football oligarchy to the swamp rats running around in Washington, D.C.

The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy (HarperCollins). The esteemed biographer of Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle takes on the most outsized baseball legend of all, 100 years after he rose to fame leading the Boston Red Sox to the World Series, and chronicles how he transcended the game, and sports, with the Yankees in the Roaring 20s.

The Black Bruins: The Remarkable Lives of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, Tom Bradley, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett, by James W. Johnson (University of Nebraska). Before they became known for professional athletic exploits, political success and civil rights activism, this quintet forged close bonds as college football teammates in the late 1930s.

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). 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.

BoomTown: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, its Chaotic Founding... its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis, by Sam Anderson (Crown). How a city craving for respectability via its first major league sports franchise was able to pry the SuperSonics from Seattle.

A Boy in the Water, by Tom Gregory (Penguin). A co-winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in Britain, Gregory’s memoir details his feat in 1984, at the age of 11, of being the youngest person ever to cross the English Channel. The 32-mile journey took 12 hours, as he endured grueling, choppy waters and the excesses of a coach who veered into borderline abusive behavior.

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). 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 (University of Nebraska Press). The story of the complicated QB-coach relationship for the 1960s Baltimore Colts teams. They never won a championship together in their seven years, but that association helped transcend the NFL as it moved into the Super Bowl era.

Court Justice: The Inside Story of My Battle Against the NCAA, by Ed O'Bannon and Michael McCann (Discover Publishing). The former UCLA basketball player who sparked a landmark lawsuit about college athletes and amateurism writes about his cause with Sports Illustrated’s sports legal expert.

Creating the Big Ten: Courage, Corruption, and Commercialization, by Winton U Solberg (University of Illinois). A history of the first major conference in college athletics, which started out humbly in 1895 and now is one of the richest leagues, with its own television network and reaches in the New York media market.

Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way, by Gideon Haigh (Slattery Media). The acclaimed cricket writer turns in another crisp account of the sport Down Under in his 37th book, focusing on a ball-tampering scandal earlier this year that led to the departure of Australia captain Steve Smith and prompted a public reaction from the prime minister.

The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968, by George Howe Colt (Scribner). 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). The catalog published in conjunction with this year’s exhibit of more than 2,000 cards from 1887 to 1914.

The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism, by Howard Bryant (Beacon Press). The ESPN writer sounds off on sports, politics, race and athlete activism in the wake of the Colin Kaepernick saga, the rise of Donald Trump and continuing flyovers and other symbols of militarism and support for law enforcement in arenas and stadiums.

Hockey: A Global History, by Stephen Hardy and Andrew C. Holman (University of Illinois Press). Hockey’s Canadian roots are well-known, but the sport’s long history has plenty of international confluences that not only produced players for the NHL, but dramatically changed how the game is played everywhere.

In the Name of the Father: Family, Football and the Manning Dynasty, by Mark Ribowsky (Liveright). How the professional and personal struggles of Archie Manning manifested into a different course for his Super Bowl-winning sons, and created the game’s biggest familial name brand.

Jim Brown: Last Man Standing, by Dave Zirin (Blue Rider Press). The leftist sports-and-politics writer examines the former Cleveland Browns great, now in his early 80s, and his political and community activism, including Brown’s meeting with Donald Trump and his criticism of Colin Kaepernick.

The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer, by Laurent Dubois (Basic Books). Soccer history, tactics and culture are presented, along with the global appeal of the game as another World Cup beckons.

The Last Pass: Cousy, Russell, the Celtics, and What Matters in the End, by Gary M. Pomerantz (Penguin Press). 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). 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). 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 Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee, Paul Gibson (The Mercier Press). A co-winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in the U.K. A former world welterweight champion, Magee initially went into decline from an excess of women, drinking, drugs, gambling and depression, followed by out-of-the-ring violence, including being shot by the IRA. The 2015 stabbing death of his son in Belfast plunged him into further despair, as he was forced to confront a lifetime of wasted sporting potential.

The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, by Kobe Bryant (MCD). The former Lakers star explains his mental and physical approach to the game, with photos from acclaimed sports photographer Andrew Bernstein.

Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball, by Bob Tewksbury and Scott Miller (Da Capo Press). An insider’s account of the psychology of the game, using techniques of imagery, strategic thinking and other tools to maximize performance.

Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town’s Secret to Happiness and Excellence, by Karen Crouse (Simon & Schuster) The New York Times reporter relocated to a place that has produced more U.S. Olympians per capita, and discovered so much more.

No Spin, by Shane Warne (Ebury Press). 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). Long before Tom Brady, Gino Cappelletti starred for an original AFL franchise that’s had a circuitous route to its current dynasty.

Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Remade American Politics, by Jesse Berrett (University of Illinois Press). NFL impresarios and politicians alike tapped into American cultural traditionalists during the heat of the anti-Vietnam protests of the late 1960s, and as the country was literally on the verge of cracking up.

Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game, by Rob Neyer (Harper). A fresh look at analytics, and how the sport has changed, through the lens of a 2017 game between the Houston Astros and the Oakland A’s.

The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Baseball and the White House, by Curt Smith (University of Nebraska). An historian of baseball on radio and television and presidential speechwriter chronicles how occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue regarded the game.

Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream, by Ibtihaj Muhammad (Hachette). The first female Muslim U.S. Olympian recounts her battle to wear the hajib while she fenced and growing up in an American community where she was often singled out for her differences.

Pushing the Boundaries: Cricket in the Eighties: Playing home and away, by Derek Pringle (Hodder & Stoughton). The English game is detailed during a decade of mixed results domestically and in the Ashes.

Quarterback: Inside the Most Important Position in the National Football League, by John Feinstein (Doubleday). The prolific sports author with another behind-the-scenes profile of the careers of Alex Smith, Andrew Luck, Joe Flacco, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Doug Williams. He goes into the locker rooms, film sessions and practice fields and examines other routines and demands that make up being a signal caller in the pro game.

Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal, by Ken Bensinger (Simon & Schuster). The latest account to dig deeply in the Department of Justice investigation and the exploits of the late Chuck Blazer, an American member of the FIFA executive committee who became an informant for his government.

The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage, by Keith Gave (Gold Star Publishing). How Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov left the clutches of the Soviet sports regime to play for the Detroit Red Wings.

State of Play: Under the Skin of the Modern Game, by Michael Calvin (Random House UK). 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). 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.

Tiger Woods, by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian (Simon & Schuster). The first biography of the golfing great since his fall from grace doesn’t spare any of the sordid details about his descent. His infidelities and the destruction of his family took an enormous toll on his personal and professional life, as the authors pull back the curtain on a carefully crafted double life that, in their telling, was bound to unravel.

Tom Yawkey: Patriarch of the Boston Red Sox, by Bill Nowlin (University of Nebraska). A full-scale biography of the controversial owner, who was also a leading philanthropist. The Red Sox were dreadful on the field for most of the years of his ownership, and were the last team in the majors to integrate. but he helped establish and long supported many charities around Boston that continue today.

Walter Camp and the Creation of American Football, by Roger R. Tamte (University of Illinois). A detailed look at the so-called “father” of the game, from his playing days at Yale, his work crafting key rules and his prolific promotional efforts as a writer for books and magazines.

What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen, Kate Fagan (Back Bay Books). The suicide of Madison Holleran, a 19-year-old track and field standout at the University of Pennsylvania, shocked virtually everyone around her. The book explores issues of depression and mental illness among young people, especially those facing the pressures of academic and athletic perfection in an age of constant social media connectivity.

Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn, by Todd Radom (Sports Publishing). The noted baseball graphic designer and branding ace recounts the long history of some eyesore looks. The Astros wore softball unis and the White Sox donned shorts, but they have plenty of company in the unfashionable department.

World in Motion: The Inside Story of Italia ‘90, the Tournament That Changed Football, by Simon Hart (Decoubertin Books). One of the most poorly played World Cups remains among the more memorable, and not just because of England’s dramatic crash out of the semifinals. The event became more commercialized, African nations began making a statement and the Cold War was coming to an end. In the same vein as Pete Davies’ “All Played Out,” Hart’s book illustrates how a sport England modernized was becoming more global.

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This is Digest issue No. 149, published Dec. 30, 2018.

PLEASE NOTE: There will not be a newsletter next week. It will resume in mid-January.

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