Tapping into the rich tradition and exceptional storytelling of the Associated Press, Profiles of the Game delivers an outstanding collection of sports reporting that will capture the attention of sports fans and non-fans alike. Culled from the archives, readers will experience original sports writing about people, events and newsworthy moments in sports history. Readers will get to experience the same stories their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents read in the sports pages year...

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 ...

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...

Super Season celebrates the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XLV-winning season in a commemorative publication that covers the memorable season and the people who made it happen. We recap each game of the 2010-11 season with stats, highlights and commentary from those involved, with a special look at the Super Bowl itself. We also have exclsusive features on Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, general manager Ted Thompson and many other star players on the team. Plus, we take a look back at the 12 o...

In modern baseball history, only one team not named the New York Yankees has ever won three consecutive World Series. That team was the Oakland Athletics, who captured major league baseball's crown each year from 1972 through 1974.Led by such superstars as future Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, in the final years before free agency and the movement of players from one team to another forever changed the game, the Athletics were a largely homegrown ...

The latest and greatest in ESPN.com baseball guru Rob Neyer'sBig Book series, Legends is a highly entertaining guide to baseball fables thathave been handed down through generations.The well-told baseball story has long been a staple for baseball fans. In Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends, Neyer breathes new life into both classic and obscure stories throughout twentieth-century baseball -- stories that, while engaging on thei...

Friday Night Lights meets The Bad News Bears in “a brisk, warmhearted reminder of how professional sports can occasionally reach stunning unprofessional depths” (Publishers Weekly): the first two seasons with the worst team in NFL history, the hapless, hilarious, and hopelessly winless 1976–1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.Long before their first Super Bowl victory in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did something no NFL team had ever done before ...

What do Dizzy Dean, Catfish Metkovich, John Boccabella, Bill Buckner, Mark Prior, and Jason Heyward all have in common? They all wore number 22 for the Chicago Cubs, even though eight decades have passed between the last time Dizzy Dean buttoned up a Cubs uniform with that number and the first timeoutfielder Jason Heyward performed the same routine.Since the Chicago Cubs first adopted uniform numbers in 1932, the team has handed out only 77 numbers to more than 1,500 players...

Amazing Stories From the Cubs Dugout is crammed with stories, quotes, and anecdotes about the greatest Cubs players of past and present. The story of the Cubs is part legend, part pathos; heroic and, on occasion, hilarious. Enjoy the heartbreak and joy of unforgettable afternoons at Wrigley Field. Without a doubt Amazing Stories From the Cubs Dugout is a must for any Chicago Cubs fan.

True Wolverine fans can tell you where they were when championships were won, heartbreakers were lost, records were broken, and heroes were made. Victors Valiant is a gift book for true University of Michigan fans, celebrating the history, the pageantry, and the drama of Michigan Football in both print and on an audio CD that Wolverine fans will listen to over and over.Victors Valiant is a tribute to a football program that has received national acclaim and a loya...

WE ARE . . . SPORTS BY THE NUMBERS. The new, exciting, and completely original book series continues with an in-depth look at the proud history of Penn State football.THE TEAM: Rooted in success achieved through dignity and situated amongst the rolling farmland of Pennsylvania’s “T” region, the Penn State football program has won two national championships and posted seven undefeated, untied seasons as far back as 1887. The Sports by the Numbers franchise combs through the program’...