Best sport books?

[sabremike]

1 minute ago, elizium said:

I'm guessing the amount of truth in that book will take up about 10 pages.

Nails is essentially the baseball version of Kenny Bolin and Hulk Hogan in that they are amazing bullshitters.

[Josh Mann]

Not mentioned yet but reccomended:

Jerry Izenberg's "No Medals For Trying" 

Thomas Hauser's oral bio on Ali 

John Feinstein's "A Civil War" (about the Army-Navy rivalry)

There isn't a BAD choice by Halberstam but my favorite might be October 1964.

John Heylar's Lords of the Realm

 

[Kuetsar]

 The books I read during my sports run earlier this year. I remember someone here pimping Ty Cobb: a terrible beauty by Charles Alexander, and it is outstanding  On a related note, fuck Al Stump with a chainsaw and I hope he's rotting in hell. Also great is Mickey Mantle: the last boy by Jane Leavy. Clemente: by David Maraniss is also outstanding. Those are all five star bios. Also five stars for the Glory of their times by Lawrence Ritter, is a oral history of the early days of baseball and I can't recommend it enough.

 I also read  Roger Maris: Baseball's reluctant hero, I would give it 3 stars, as its a good read, but bogs down in the day to day minutia of the HR chase and his career too much. Luckiest Man: the life and death of Lou Gehrig by Johnathan Eig is better, 4 star, but there's just something about the writing(while very good) that just misses the mark. George Steinbrenner: Last Lion of Baseball is also very good, a 4 star book, but Bill Madden is an okay, easy to read sportswriter, but his prose lacks the  magic of the truly great writers. Finally Matty: an American hero by Ray Robinson is as bad at the title suggests. A by the books bio, its dated in style, and lacks any conversational narrative. Its one star and in my purge pile, and it takes a lot for a book to end up there. . . 

[Zheroen]

Somewhat surprised that  Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby hasn't been mentioned as of yet.  All of the idiosyncratic and neurotic passion for details and outright mania exhibited in High Fidelity, transposed to football culture (specifically, Arsenal).

On that note, let's just pretend that the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore film abortionadaptation to being about the Red Sox in place of Arsenal does not exist, shall we?

[odessasteps]

Not a book, but each issue of the Blizzard might as well be a book.

The Euros issue is out next week i think. 

[Liam]

On 28/05/2016 at 4:58 PM, odessasteps said:

Not a book, but each issue of the Blizzard might as well be a book.

The Euros issue is out next week i think. 

Thanks for the tip on these - they are excellent.

[odessasteps]

Esp since they are pay what you like. 

Although since i have a subscription, its like £3 or 4 an issue. But worth it.

[Josh Mann]

If we're going fiction, I'm pimping Semi-Tough and the Rabbit series. 

[Tabe]

I'm about 1/3 of the way into Tim Hornbaker's new Shoeless Joe Jackson book and it's been very good so far.