Liam Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Could have put this in the reading section, but assume more people pass through this way. Simple really - I love a good book about sport, and there have been some brilliant books over the years. What are your favourites? The Dirtiest Race in History is a great look at the 1988 Olympic 100m final. Covers the lead up to, and the fall out from, the big race. A Life Too Short is probably the best sports book I've read. The life and death of Robert Enke explores his life and his battles with depression which ultimately led to his suicide. I Am Zlatan is exactly what you'd expect. Good book to read, Zlatan is mental. I worked in a bookies for a while, so have a passing interest in horses. The story of Seabiscuit is one that is enjoyable no matter how much you like horse racing. Another one that is arguably one of the best books I've read, Four Kings is an excellent book covering the fights between Haggler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard. Tried to link to the books, but it didn't work for some reason. Oh well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimo Necro Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I really enjoyed Bob Proberts book, its brutally honest. 'Tough Guy: My Life on the edge". Goes into his wild days in incredible detail at times. I also recently read a boxing book called "rope burns" by an English writer called Ian Probert (weird) which details the writers rise from homelessness to one of the UK's top boxing correspondents. If you like the late eighties / early 90's british boxing era then it's a good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 Might pick up that 'Rope Burns'. Sounds like my kind of book, and only £3 on Kindle. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assfax Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Satchel Paige's America. Catcher in the wry. I can recommend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Loose Balls by Terry Pluto about the ABA The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith about a season with the early 90's Bulls Foul by David Wolf about Connie Hawkins' NBA blackballing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Loose Balls by Terry Pluto about the ABA Still my favorite sports book. I'll throw out: The Miracle of Castle del Sangro by Joe McGuinness The Game by Ken Dryden The Fix by Declan Hill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 A Season On The Brink by John Feinstein is my favorite sports book of all time I really need to go back and read Ron Luciano's books again since I really liked them as a kid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Also check out my book club selection from last year, up up and away by jonah keri about the expos. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Also check out my book club selection from last year, up up and away by jonah keri about the expos. It was a very good choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Loose Balls by Terry Pluto about the ABAStill my favorite sports book.I'll throw out: The Miracle of Castle del Sangro by Joe McGuinness The Game by Ken Dryden The Fix by Declan Hill The Fix was incredible, and ridiculously depressing. Lords of the Realm is by far my favorite baseball book ever. Fantastic look at the formation of the MLBPA and its early wars with baseball's ownership. The Game of Our Lives is probably my favorite soccer book from my four-plus month series of immersing myself in footy. Number two would be Fear and Loathing in La Liga, a great exploration of Real-Barca. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Breaks of the Game & Simmons's Book of Basketball is fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabremike Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Slim and None by Howard Baldwin is great. Dynasty by Greg Pratto on the Islanders fron 72-84 is also highly recommend. But the best sports book ever is The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman on the defining team of my youth: the World Champion 1986 New York Mets. Go out and get it, just trust me on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I really enjoyed Bob Proberts book, its brutally honest. 'Tough Guy: My Life on the edge". Goes into his wild days in incredible detail at times.Agreed. Loved his book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charro! Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I'll also second the recommendations for the Jordan Rules, Four Kings & Robert Enke book. I've read quite a lot of football (soccer) autobiographies and Zlatan's one is definitely one of the better ones. Tony Adams 'Addicted' is good from what I remember, 'Cloughie' is worth checking out. There's another fun Brian Clough book called "Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough" by Duncan Hamilton which is worth reading too. Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Alex Ferguson & Gary Neville autobiographies are among the better football autobiographies too. Here's another list of recommended sports books here: http://talkingbooks.dpi.wi.gov/tab_sports Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Yeah, the 'Provided You Don't Kiss Me' book is excellent. Clough is a great character to read about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy Dunlop Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Clough's family consider much of it bullshit and want nothing to do with it but 'The Damned United' is still a tremendous read. The author has said it's fiction based on fact and, I mean, by all accounts, Clough really did tell the Leeds players upon first meeting them to throw all their medals and trophies into the biggest fucking dustbin they could find because they won all of them by cheating. But, yeah, I love reading about all those cool as hell 60s/70s managers like Cloughie, Shankly and whatnot. The author of 'The Damned United' also wrote one on Shankly called 'Red or Dead' but the way it's written it's an, ah, acquired taste, shall we say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charro! Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Yeah I like The Damned United book. The movie is very good too with Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor & Michael Sheen as Clougie. Brian Clough did legit hate Leeds with a passion, I think it does go back to a slight from Don Revie when Leeds played at Hartlepool and Revie cold shouldered him. They both had an infamous on-screen spat on ITV which you can see here: Malcolm Allison is another 70's manager to read about too, he was even more outlandish than Cloughie. Haven't heard of the Shanks book, but will check it out. I have read Bill Shankly's autobiography which is a good read. Think they re-printed it a few years back as it was out of print for years. I find the 70's & 80's was really the golden era for characters in Football and also arguably football in general. It was a time where anyone had a real chance of winning the league & the english clubs in the 70's to mid 80's did great in European competitions. I think the game today has lost much of it's grit & spirit as it seems much more money motivated now. But I guess that's true of most sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizium Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Also check out my book club selection from last year, up up and away by jonah keri about the expos.About halfway through and enjoying it immensely, but not surprising since their isn't much in life I miss more than the Expos. I'm literally 2 pages away from Blue Monday and I think I need to stop to prepare myself. I was one when it happened, but I've been dreading getting to it. The 94 strike too, that's going to be my Red Wedding. One thing that strikes me as I'm reading it is the feeling of how doomed the Expos always were. It's honestly surprising they made it almost 40 years. Awarded the franchise and then only having a few months to put together a front office, minor league system, get a park and draft and sign players before hitting the field. Jarry Park not even being fit for temporary stadium and having to use it for a decade and then getting stuck with the Owe, when they finally do get a stadium. As much as I'd love the Expos to come back and there's currently a big push for it, it's never going to be feasible unless they have a new stadium plan in place before the team comes back. Playing at the Owe again for an indefinite period of time will just lead to failure. Big recommendation so far, even though it's bumming me the fuck out. The caricatures of important players sprinkled throughout the book are charming as all hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Yeah, you're on the money with that assessment. MLB has essentially said that they're interested in going back....as long as there's a stadium deal in place. Stade Olympique is fine for a couple of exhibition games each year, but no more. Haven't read many good books lately. Slogged my way through Soccer vs the State, which wasn't what I was expecting at all. I liked Golazo!, but couldn't really fall deep into it. Graham Poll's Seeing Red was a good, quick read. Just started Hatters, Railwaymen, and Knitters, and it looks like it'll be another quick read. Not sure if Ill be able to fall into it like I have other books. Only have four unread on my shelf, so come May, I might need to start reloading again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Oh, by the way, if you've never read When Pride Still Mattered, I highly recommend it. Also The Bad Guys Won! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 I'm halfway through John U Bacon's "Fourth and Long", about the state of college football in 2012 and it's great. Love his work. He's got a book on the Brady Hoke/Jim Harbaugh stuff at Michigan coming out in September. I'll be buying that for sure. After 30 years without one, we get TWO different Ty Cobb biographies in the next couple weeks. I'm eagerly anticipating both. One of them, "Terror on the Basepaths" is by Tim Hornbaker, author of the massive book on the NWA. He's also done a book on Charles Comiskey that I have not yet read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted May 27, 2016 Author Share Posted May 27, 2016 Any other Boxing books people can recommend? Picking up McIlvanney (I hope I spelt that right) on Boxing and Dark Trade, but always enjoy a good boxing book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 Ralph Wiley wrote a well received one Serenity: a boxing memoir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabremike Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 I think this is the appropriate place for this: Lenny Dykstra has a book coming out at the end of next month and is doing a book release event at the Gramarcy Theatre with a Q&A where you get a copy of the book with admission. I know he's a shady character but he's entertaining as all hell and I'll always love him for 86. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizium Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 I'm guessing the amount of truth in that book will take up about 10 pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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