The Reader's Shelf: Score with These Sports Books

By Nancy Pearl -- Library Journal, 6/1/2006

As Laura Hillenbrand's biography of Seabiscuit proved, the best books about sports have an appeal far beyond die-hard devotees. Even for those who aren't particularly interested in the rock 'em, sock 'em world of games of strength, prowess, and skill, such books bring the sport alive by focusing on a particular individual (two- or even four-legged) or team, often through a season or a series of games; in addition, they also show how the sport plays out on a wider, societal canvas. Of course, for fans, these books are like manna from heaven: not only are they entertaining to read, they also broaden and deepen fans' appreciation of their favorite sport.

In Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (Da Capo. 2000. ISBN 0-306-80990-7. pap. $15.95), H.G. (Buzz) Bissinger examines the lives of high school football players in Odessa, TX. It's not only hot on the plains of Texas, but the Permian Panthers are under constant pressure to win the state championship every year. Bissinger chronicles the reactions of the players, their parents, their coaches, and the town itself to the ups and downs of a 1988 season of wins and heartbreaking losses. The wonderful film made from this book is true to its subject and well worth seeing, but don't miss this classic sports book.

Switching sports in Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager (Houghton. 2005. ISBN 0-618-40544-5. $25; pap. Mariner. 2006. ISBN 0-618-71053-1. $13.95), Bissinger looks at professional baseball through the experiences of Tony La Russa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Bissinger focuses on a series of three games late in the 2003 season between St. Louis and arch rivals Chicago Cubs. Those who think baseball is boring will be surprised by this book: Bissinger introduces readers to the intricacies of its strategy and the myriad decisions that a manager must make throughout the course of a game, as well as the relationships with players and coaches that must be juggled constantly throughout the long season.

Michael Lewis's Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Norton. 2003. ISBN 0-393-05765-8. $24.95; pap. 2004. ISBN 0-393-32481-8. $13.95) is a compulsively readable analysis of why the Oakland Athletics, one of the poorest teams in major league baseball, are consistently successful. The hero of the tale is general manager Billy Beaner, who uses statistics to judge players rather than rely on the conventional wisdom of old-time scouts as other managers do. Lewis offers insight into the lives of some of the people he discusses, traces the history of statistical analysis in baseball, and gives readers a lot to think about. (Of course, the danger with Lewis's book is that it will turn formerly rabid fans of the Seattle Mariners or Boston Red Sox into A's supporters!)

Minor league baseball is the subject of Jim Collins's The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream (Da Capo. 2004. ISBN 0-7382-0901-5. $24.95; pap. 2005. ISBN 0-306-81418-8. $14.95), which chronicles one season in the Cape Cod Baseball League, MA. In profiling the players and coaches of the Chatham A's, Collins shows how important this league is to the players involved, the communities in which they play, and the continued health of professional sports.

Jeff MacGregor, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated, and his wife, photographer Olya Evanitsky, spent the entire 2002 stock car racing season following the NASCAR circuit. Filled with colorful characters and enough excitement to satisfy the greatest adrenaline junkie, their Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR (HarperCollins. 2005. ISBN 0-06-009471-0. $25.95; pap. 2006. ISBN 0-06-009472-9. $14.95) describes races run at death-defying (and sometimes, sadly, deadly) speeds around an oval track. MacGregor also traces NASCAR's history from when it was just a gleam in the eye of founder Bill France to today's national popularity. He acquaints readers with the big names in the sport: Jeff Gordon, the Pettys, Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart, and more.

Two beautifully written biographies show how it's impossible to write about boxing in America without coming to terms with the issue of race. David Remnick's King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (Vintage. 1999. ISBN 0-375-70229-6. pap. $14) describes how Ali's spectacular boxing career was derailed by his refusal to fight in Vietnam (encapsulated in his oft-quoted statement, “I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong”) and his subsequent prison sentence (later overturned by the Supreme Court). Geoffrey Ward's Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (Knopf. 2004. ISBN 0-375-41532-7. $26.95; pap. Vintage. 2006. ISBN 0-375-71004-3. $16.95) details the life of the first black heavyweight boxing champion and makes clear the difficulties Johnson had to overcome before white boxers would even agree to face him in the ring.