The inside story of the only undefeated team in NFL history, the 1972 Miami Dolphins?by the Hall of Fame quarterback who led it to victoryHall of Fame quarterback and long-time ABC college football announcer Bob Griese is a living football legend. Now, on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Miami Dolphins' incredible championship season, Griese tells the behind-the-scenes story of the team both on and off the field as it achieved a feat no other team has ever succeede...

New York Times bestsellerFrom celebrated sports writer Jeff Pearlman, author of The Bad Guys Won, a rollicking, completely unabashed account of the glory days of the legendary Dallas Cowboys 1990s dynasty.They were called America's Team. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin—and lorded over by swashbuckling, power-hungry owner Jerry Jones and his two h...

An insider’s look at baseball’s unwritten rules, explained with examples from the game’s most fascinating characters and wildest historical moments.Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. All aspects of baseball—hitting, pitching, and baserunning—are affected by the Code, a set of unwritten rules that governs the Major League game. Some of these rules are openly discussed (don’t steal a ...

When Bill James published his original Historical Baseball Abstract in 1985, he produced an immediate classic, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as the “holy book of baseball.” Now, baseball's beloved “Sultan of Stats” (The Boston Globe) is back with a fully revised and updated edition for the new millennium.Like the original, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is really several books in one. The Game provides a century'...

Who are the best quarterbacks in NFL history? How about running backs? Wide receivers? How can we objectively rate the performance of individual defensive players? And how can we make reasonable judgments about players at different positions and from different eras? Who is the greatest football player of all time? Jerry Rice? Lawrence Taylor? Jim Brown?Such are the questions pondered by pro football writer Steve Silverman late at night (and during the day). As statistician Elliott ...

For twenty-five years, Ken Kaiser was the most colorful umpire in the major leagues. Planet of the Umps is his sidesplitting tale of life behind the plate."Two things nobody wants to grow up to be are an umpire and broke. Thanks to my career in baseball, I got both."After calling balls, strikes, and outs for thirty-six baseball seasons and more than three thousand major-league games, umpire Ken Kaiser finally called it a career. From the first day ...

A behind-the-scenes look at the high-pressure lives of NFL head coachesCoaching Confidential chronicles a year in the life of an NFL head coach. But not just one head coach. A composite portrait is drawn through interviews with at least 20 current and former head coaches (including Super Bowl winners such as Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin, Jimmy Johnson, Tony Dungy, Sean Payton, Mike Shanahan, Dick Vermeil, Mike Holmgren, Brian Billick, and Joe Gibbs), taking...

The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history—pro football’s raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence.Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana’s gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season Inside presents a thoroughly entertaining and deeply reflective examination of America’s greatest sport: baseball.What makes baseball what it is—the good as well as the bad? Who are the game’s heroes, and who its villains? What roles do managers play, and umpires and announcers and mascots and the media? What is the game’s future?To answer these questions, renowned sports journalist John...

BLOOPER: BALL SQUIRTS THROUGH BILLY BUCKNER'S LEGS.BLUNDER: BILLY BUCKNER'S MANAGER LEFT HIM IN THE GAME.Baseball bloopers are fun; they're funny, even. A pitcher slips on the mound and his pitch sails over the backstop. An infielder camps under a pop-up...and the ball lands ten feet away. An outfielder tosses a souvenir to a fan...but that was just the second out, and runners are circling the bases (and laughing). Without these moments, the highlight reels wouldn't...

In this spellbinding book, Richard Bradley tells the story of what was surely the greatest major league game of our lifetime and perhaps in the history of professional baseball. That game, played at Fenway Park on the afternoon of October 4, 1978, was the culmination of one of the most tense, emotionally wrought seasons ever, between baseball's two most bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Both teams finished this tumultuous season with identical 99-...

Dallas Cowboys: The Complete Illustrated History presents all the legendary games, players, and teams in the history of this iconic franchise, exploring both on-the-field moments and off-the-field exploits of “America’s Team.” One of the most successful programs in pro sports history, the Cowboys have appeared in more Super Bowls than any other NFL franchise and boast a roster of players that reads like an all-time, all-star team—all highlighted here with lavish illustrations, pla...