The campaign to desegregate baseball was one of the most important civil rights stories of the 1930s and 1940s. But most of white America knew nothing about this story because mainstream newspapers said little about the color line and still less about the efforts to end it. Even today, as far as most Americans know, the integration of baseball revolved around Branch Rickey’s signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers’ organization in 1945. This book shows how Rickey’s move, critica...

Patrick S. Washburn and Chris Lamb tell the full story of the past, the present, and to a degree, the future of American sports journalism. Sports Journalism chronicles how and why technology, religion, social movements, immigration, racism, sexism, social media, athletes, and sportswriters and broadcasters changed sports as well as how sports are covered and how news about sports are presented and disseminated. One of the influential factors in sports coverage is the upswing in t...

When the eleven- and twelve-year-olds on the Cannon Street YMCA All-Star team registered for a baseball tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1955, it put the team and the forces of integration on a collision course with segregation, bigotry, and the southern way of life. When all the white teams withdrew in protest, the Cannon Street team won the state tournament. If the team had won the regional tournament in Rome, Georgia, it would have advanced to the Little League World Se...

Jackie Robinson believed in a God who sides with the oppressed and who calls us to see one another as sisters and brothers. This faith was a powerful but quiet engine that drove and sustained him as he shattered racial barriers on and beyond the baseball diamond. Jackie Robinson: A Spiritual Biography explores the faith that, Robinson said, carried him through the torment and abuse he suffered for integrating the major leagues and drove him to get involved in the civil rights move...

Finalist for the 2023 Anthology Book Award from North American Society for Sport HistoryShortlisted for the 2024 Indiana Authors AwardWhen the eleven- and twelve-year-olds on the Cannon Street YMCA All-Star team registered for a baseball tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1955, it put the team and the forces of integration on a collision course with segregation, bigotry, and the southern way of life. White teams refused to take the field with ...

The campaign for racial equality in sports has both reflected and affected the campaign for racial equality in the United States. Some of the most significant and publicized stories in this campaign in the twentieth century have happened in sports, including, of course, Jackie Robinson in baseball; Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos in track; Arthur Ashe in tennis; and Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali in boxing. Long after the full integration of college and professional a...

The Art of the Political Putdown is a book of over 300 witty verbal jabs and ripostes from politicians around the world, all of whom share a common sharp tongue.Liberal or conservative, humor can be a powerful weapon in any politician's arsenal, and political journalists Chris Lamb and Will Moredock have seen their fair share of quips, witty remarks, and sarcastic pleasantries.In mining the past few thousan...

Why are you here? Where did you come from? What awaits after this life? In Eternal Progression: Premortality to Eternal Life, Chris Lambe unveils God’s magnificent plan—from our premortal existence with Him to the promise of eternal life through Christ’s Atonement. This book explores timeless truths restored through Joseph Smith, revealing how agency, opposition, and the Savior’s sacrifice shape your divine potential.Understand your premortal life as a child of God.Explore ...

“Football is force and fanatics, basketball is beauty and bounce. Baseball is everything: action, grace, the seasons of our lives. George Vecsey’s book proves it, without wasting a word.”—Lee Eisenberg, author of The NumberIn Baseball, one of the great bards of America’s Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from its pre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles a...

This definitive biography of Henry (Hank) Aaron—one of baseball's immortal figures—is a revelatory portrait of a complicated, private man who through sports became an enduring American icon.“Beautifully written and culturally important.” —The Washington Post“The epic baseball tale of the second half of the 20th century.” —Atlanta Journal ConstitutionAfter his retirement in 1976, Aaron’s reputation only grew in magnitude. But his in...

“How can the NCAA blithely wreck careers without regard to due process or common fairness? How can it act so ruthlessly to enforce rules that are so petty? Why won’t anybody stand up to these outrageous violations of American values and American justice?”In the four years since Joe Nocera asked those questions in a controversial New York Times column, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has come under fire. Fans have begun to realize that the athl...

"Enlightening" essays on athletes, activism, and the important role sports plays in our society ( Publishers Weekly).Sportscaster Howard Cosell dubbed it "rule number one of the jockocracy": sports and politics just don't mix. But in truth, some of our most important debates about class, race, religion, sex, and the raw quest for political power are played out both on and off the field. From the NFL lockout and the role of soccer in the Arab Spring to the ...