Clyde Kinlaw is a washed-up baseball coach who wants to prove it isn't so.Kinlaw was a good ballplayer who became a loyal company man once he retired. He managed his old team, the Portland Loggers. Now he's a scout who doesn't feel as if the new generation of talent evaluators puts any stake in his judgment anymore. He wants to prove them wrong but doesn't know how.Then Kinlaw stumbles upon Taiquon Wattson.Kinlaw's only ally in the Portland front office, Frank Stale...

A veteran sports columnist unexpectedly loses his job.A rebellious young writer takes a weed-clouded trip to Southern California with a tawdry dropout.An English teacher at a prep school toils in vain on a breakthrough novel, watching his teen-aged pupils grow rebellious and decadent.All are related. All are drawn together as they gradually learn they are pawns in a vast illegal conspiracy.The columnist's new job is not one he chooses. The young writer mista...

NASCARs Winston Cup Series has become one of Americas fastest-growing spectator sports, with nationwide television coverage, custom-built race cars, and superstar drivers. Yet the sports roots are grounded in the moonshiners and farm boys who raced souped-up family cars every weekend on the dirt tracks of the Southeast. The evolution of stock car racing from a band of regional weekend warriors into a billion-dollar industry sponsored by some of the nations largest corporations is explored by ...

Straight from the mouths of the world's most famous drivers and entertainers comes a unique and hilarious volume of NASCARUs wit and wisdom. Contributors include Kyle Petty, Jeff Foxworthy, Jeff Gordon, and many others. Illustrations throughout.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the ups and downs of an NFL season focuses on the Baltimore Ravens and reveals the lesser-known aspects of the professional league, from the dangerous conditions under which athletes are expected to train to the unrelenting pressures faced by coaches and players.In the NFL there is only one certainty: that every day, someone will have to be the Next Man Up. Football is an unrelentingly punishing sport, played and practiced at undiminishe...

John Feinstein's illuminating recollections from two decades of interviews with sports legends.John Feinstein's career is a sports fan's dream-a lifetime of encounters with the great figures in sports, not just on the field, but in the locker room and behind the scenes with legends like Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and John McEnroe.Since his days as a young Washington Post journalist, Feinstein has written tw...

On a cold February day in 1979, when most of the Northeast was snowed in by a blizzard, NASCAR entered the American consciousness with a dramatic telecast of the Daytona 500. It was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live on national television and featured the heroes and legends of the sport racing on a hallowed track. With one of the wildest finishes in sports history -- a finish that was just the start of the drama -- everything changed for what is now America's second most popular...

A colorful, fearless portrait of the larger-than-life first family of NASCAR, the Earnhardts, and the rise of the world’s fastest stock car racing organization.More than sixty years ago, Ralph Earnhardt toiled in a cotton mill in his native North Carolina to support his growing family. Weekends he could be found going pedal to the metal at the dirt tracks, taking on the competition in the early days of box car racing and becoming one of the best short-track drivers in the state. Hi...

An all-access pass into the powerhouse teams and passionate fanbases of the legendary Southeastern Conference, from one of the most influential men in college football: ESPN’s Paul Finebaum.Proud owner of 14 prestigious college football programs, producing seven consecutive national championships, twelve NFL first round draft choices, and a budget that crushes the GDP of Samoa, the Southeastern Conference collects the most coveted ratings, rankings, and revenue of any conference in...

The bestselling author of Dream Team tells the interconnected stories of the twenty-first-century Golden State Warriors and the early-1970s Los Angeles Lakers, two extraordinary teams playing in extraordinary times and linked by one extraordinary man: Jerry West.“Full of juicy anecdotes and wagging fun . . . [Jack] McCallum holds legitimate claim for being the greatest NBA writer of all time.”—The Wall Street Journal

The history of auto racing is chock-full of famous moments, with big-name drivers like Mario Andretti and Jeff Gordon. The histories of the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 races are rich with legendary drivers, family dynasties, rivalries, and tragedies. Fans of this sport are truly loyal and fanatical, and readers will eat up all the descriptions of nail-biting moments of tension.Packed with facts and action, this is a book young NASCAR fans will reach for again and again -- and because ...

Pete Lyons grew up on the track, and has covered auto racing since the early 1960s. His pieces couple his enthusiasm for motorsports with clear insight into the factors that make cars and men champions. Whether he's screwing up his chance to learn how to drive fast from Dan Gurney, or taking a lap while precariously wedged into a Can-Am car with Peter Revson at the wheel and at full noise, Lyons picks up on the details that help us understand and appreciate what makes racing great. Fast Li...