Displaying the top 100 results that match your query. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/rssapi.jsp?Re=7431&Ne=7431&N=7493 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1715661 After their wealthy father awakens from a stroke to find them less extraordinary than he remembered, three former tennis champion daughters resolve to prove themselves by fixing up a carriage house their grandfather built. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1738042 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1715728 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1705437 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1576220 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1663810 Ever wondered why college football coaches wear visors at night and always chew gum with their mouths open? Though the Southeastern Conference football season is still months away, the fans obsession is year-round. So head coach Von Driver will take his motivational magic and his Isosceles Triangle of Success on a Pigskin Cavalcade to the small towns in the state. Raymond Love, a young coach unfamiliar with the bequest circuit of big-shot boosters and chat-room gurus, will go along as his wide-eyed errand boy. Also on the trip is the athletic directors daughter, whom Love has tried to win by joining her book club--a dubious strategy at best. The football aspects of the Cavalcade will prove childs play compared to the literary hazards he faces. Will Love master the art of coach-speak? Will he win the affection of the girl? Find out in this fist-bumping, high-fiving, all-out comedic blitz about the sublimely ridiculous world of college football.--from cover, p. [2] http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1682582 When race caller and television presenter Mark Shillingford calls a race in which his twin sister, Clare, an accomplished and successful jockey, comes in second when she could have won, he believes the worst: that she lost on purpose, and the race was fixed. That night, Mark confronts Clare with his suspicions, she storms off after an argument--and its the last time Mark sees her alive. Hours later, Clare jumps to her death from the balcony of a London hotel; or so it seems. Devastated and guilty over her death, Mark goes in search of answers. What had led Clare to take her own life? Or was it not suicide at all? -- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1629741 A Dick Francis novel from the author of Dick Franciss GAMBLE-- http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1624102 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1672147 The scrappy martial arts fighter Aaron Woodshed Wallace prepares for his first big break stemming from the legitimate MMA promotion Warrior, Inc., in this second installment of the Woodshed Wallace series. Having fought to survive his entire life, Woodshed thinks such an opportunity will forever change his life for the better, but before he can put his shady past behind him, a band of Japanese mobsters threaten Warrior, Inc., and its president, Banzai Eddie Takanori. Seeking to collect on the debt Eddie owes, the gang wants to take payment in blood. Calling on all of his mixed martial arts skills in and out of the cage, Woodshed attempts to help Eddie and his ex-SAS bodyguard, Mr. Burch, stay alive and keep the company intact. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1533816 This story, based on the Cubs and Mets 1973 season follows the divergent paths of Joe Castle, a rookie hitter for the Chicago Cubs and Warren Tracey, a hard-throwing Mets pitcher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1575679 Hoping to achieve a lifelong goal when he is called up to the major leagues after ten years in the minors, Edward Everett Yates makes a risky play that results in a devastating injury and is unable to pursue a life without baseball as the years progress. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1363711 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1521362 When does the End Zone Justify the Means. The Los Angeles Leopards and the Portland Pioneers are on a collision course toward the Super Bowl Championship. One team is led by a take-no-prisoners head coach; the other by a cerebral, slow-and-steady coach who has been trust into the spotlight because of a tragedy. A tense showdown is about to unfold before the worlds football fans. But along the way to the championship game, something bad happens: the very integrity of the game comes within a yard of ruin. In this thrilling new work of fiction, Hall of Fame Coach and New York Times best-selling author Marv Levy takes us on a journey through the NFL like weve never seen before. Through the eyes of a memorable cast of characters, many of whom are based on real football players, coaches, general managers, and owners, we get to see professional football from the inside. --amazon.com. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1336074 A sports hero seeks a comeback in this wild, funny, and ultimately redemptive novel. --Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1374131 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1381711 At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.--from publishers description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1303603 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1372899 At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.--from publishers description. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1302031 At the 1936 Berlin Olympics the beautiful Sydney Stringfellow begins an intense love affair with a German but the affair abruptly ends when political forces tear them apart. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1302037 From New York Times bestselling author Stephen King comes the haunting story of Blockade Billy , the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game. Even the most die-hard baseball fans dont know the true story of William Blockade Billy Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the games history. Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1055068 This novel provides a blend of mystery thriller and baseball narrative. It tells the story of Felicity Lindsay, a small-town police officer who finds a murder victim on the beach. Her curiosity about the crime eventually leads Felicity and her father, the alcoholic manager of the major-league baseball team, into a confrontation with a drug cartel--Provided by publisher. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1099165 Sixteen of Americas favorite author-anglers spin tales of mystery-- and fishing. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1302825 In early twentieth century Brooklyn, Ruby endures many hardships including the flu epidemic, the death of family members, and even starvation, until her pitching talents open new opportunities in the changing world of sports for women. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=991091 Cal, the only mixed martial arts fighter to take legendary fighter Rivera the distance, and his trainer, Riley, are on their way to Mexico for a make-or-break rematch with Rivera, four years later. In the three fraught days leading up to this momentous match, each privately begins to doubt that Cal can win. The men strive to stay true to themselves and each other in the only way they know how. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=830432 Witness the inspirational true story of a real American hero, Ernie Davis. Rising from humblest of beginnings, Ernie Davis overcame impossible odds to become the first African-American to win college footballs greatest honor-the Heisman Trophy. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=933013 The racist, sexist and generally politically incorrect Texas football player, Billy Clyde Puckett, forms a football team of his own and takes them to the Super Bowl. A tongue-in-cheek look at the football industry by the author of Semi-Tough. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1116864 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=942562 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=970039 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=958743 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=998121 Cal, the only mixed martial arts fighter to take legendary fighter Rivera the distance, and his trainer, Riley, are on their way to Mexico for a make-or-break rematch with Rivera, four years later. In the three fraught days leading up to this momentous match, each privately begins to doubt that Cal can win. The men strive to stay true to themselves and each other in the only way they know how. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1614105 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=813037 Film about the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal. The young, idealistic White Sox players who, despite being pennant winners, are treated with disdain by their penny-pinching owner/manager. Ripe for a money-making scheme, the demoralized team agrees to throw the World Series. But when theyre defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=932889 The baseball season gets off to a rocky start when the Durham Bulls new catcher Crash Davis punches out the cocky young pitcher, Nuke LaLoosh, hes just been hired to train. Matters get even more complicated when sexy Annie Savoy informs both men that each season she chooses one player to share her bed-- and Nuke and Crash are this years draft picks! http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=776283 A jujitsu master becomes corrupted by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. When a respected jujitsu master eschews a lucrative prizefighting career in favor of opening a self-defense dojo, it appears that he has chosen a peaceful path in life. The dedicated masters fate takes an unanticipated turn, however, when he is manipulated into participating in ultimate fighting championships by a group of unscrupulous actors and fight promoters. Later, as the master is being relentlessly beaten in a dirty street fight, he connects with a high-profile action star with serious marital problems. Realizing that the only way to regain his honor is to step into the ring, he reluctantly prepares for the fight of his life. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=812252 Based on the true story of a young girl who becomes the first quarterback in the history of a football leagues team, and leads her team to a championship in their hometown. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=773760 Fortysomething sportswriter Jack Brannon is bored to tears with the mens tour. So he decides to check out Ginger Clayton, the hot, new franchise babe on the ladies links. Things get interesting in a hurry, as it becomes clear somebody wants the gorgeous superstar disqualified for good. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=714792 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=739332 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=709939 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=724990 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=820651 Kabir Khan knows what its like to come back from the dead. The ex-Indian field hockey captain has now come back to the sport as the coach of the Indian Womens National Hockey team, a team that exists more on paper and less in reality. The girls have never known the thrilling energy of being Team India, but Kabir, once a captain, now forgotten, does. Despite his past, he believes that if only the girls played as one, anything could be possible. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=821210 Southall United is an all Asian football club going through a major crisis. The team has no stars, no sponsors, no spectators and most importantly, no coach. Yet, it nurtures the hope that it will win the cup this time--Container. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=735145 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=762392 Fledgling fourteen-year-old sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie investigate suspicious activities at the Super Bowl after Stevie gets fired from his co-anchor job on a ground-breaking teen sports show. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=737439 Angels join the Pittsburgh Pirates on the field for a wild race to the world series. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=698817 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=676496 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=642069 Raymond Stick Harts life is turned upside down when his hated blue-blooded father drops dead, his friend loses money to a hustler funded by the Russian mob, his wife throws him out, and he must qualify for the British Open to solve his problems. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=673012 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=640978 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=813284 Nine races. One champion. Formula One drivers compete to be the best in this tale of speed, spectacle, and intertwined personal lives. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=804279 Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time. He works in a meat factory in Philadelphia for a meager wages so he also earns extra cash as a debt collector. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer. The promoters are touting the fight as a chance for a nobody to become a somebody. The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=617400 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=574757 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=701613 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=573632 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=571755 Although he is best known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian and as a writer of historical fiction and fantasy, Robert E. Howard was both a successful author of popular boxing stories and an avid amateur boxer himself. T he sixteen stories and three poems collected in this volume show the full range of his talents for action, humor, and fistic philosophy. Ten of the stories feature the sailor Steve Costigan, a lovable, hard-fisted, and innocent semipro pugilist who takes on dastardly villains in exotic ports of call. Howards brilliant blue-collar humor belies his preoccupation with the real-life issues near and dear to his heart - death, honor, pride, and a mans love for his dog. Other stories are more dramatic and somber, including Iron Men, which Howard called the best fight story I ever wrote - in many ways the best story of any kind I ever wrote. Severely edited and truncated for its original publication in 1930 in Fight Stories magazine, the tale has never been published in its original form - until now. It appears here, completely restored from Howards original typescript, in an authoritative version that Howard fans everywhere will appreciate.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=631746 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=512722 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=538321 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=507477 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=466016 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=1301911 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=483814 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=448273 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=538679 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=400191 A riveting sequel to the bestselling The Greatest Player Who Never Lived brims with even more legendary characters from golf history in a tantalizing what-if tale. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=393016 Now in paperback, Horse Heaven combines the intense feeling of Smileys Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres with the wit, pace, and brightness of Moo. Spanning two years on the circuit, from Kentucky and California to New York and Paris, the book puts readers among the trainers, track brats, jockeys, billionaire owners, restless wives, gamblers, and hangers-on who populate the endlessly fascinating world of horse racing. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=373562 Bobby Joe Grooves is a sixteen-year tour veteran trying to turn his one annual tournament win and considerable Texas charm into his first appointment to the Ryder Cup team. Standing between Bobby Joe and his little piece of golf heaven are two ex-wives and a girlfriend, all of whom know to a penny his spot on the money list; Swedish sensation Knut Thorssun, known to his fans as Nuke and to his fellow pros as Cheater; a completely rational fear of reptiles; tempting but dangerous groupies; and his embarrassing lack of a career major. As we follow Bobby Joes quest for a spot on the Ryder Cup team, we learn more about golf history than youll find in any weepy sunset-over-the-18th-green retrospective, and more about how to actually get the damn ball into the cup than in any of the thousands of instructional books none of us can understand.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=362929 It is the summer of 1985, and on the lush fairways and immaculate greens of the exclusive Fox Chase Country Club in suburban Delaware, Timmy Price is pure. His fluid, powerful golf swing inspires awe among the adult membership and envy among his peers, and under the tutelage of the enigmatic guru Foster Pearse, he is beginning to develop a complete game that will soon make him Junior Champion of the state and draw the attention of college recruiters. But when his self-made father forces him to become a caddy at the club to learn a lesson in humility, Timmy is thrown into the hardscrabble world of the behind-the-scenes workers who make the game possible. The motley crew of loopers who inhabit the caddy hole introduce him to the other side of the game he loves. There is the braggart lothario Position A, who boasts of his sexual conquests of the members wives; Jeffrey, the heroin-addicted misfit from North Philly; Lewis, the abusive and autocratic caddy master; and, above all, Jamie Byrne, the secretive teenager from the wrong side of town who has lost his thumbs in a mysterious accident and quickly becomes Timmys closet confidant. As he progresses in his quest for excellence, from tournament to elite golf camp and beyond, Timmy grows in his appreciation of the price of failure - and the dangers of success. And when Jamie begins missing his steady loops at the course, it begins a series of events that will rock his quiet suburban community to its very core.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=396229 Entering the ring are some of Americas greatest mystery writers challenging boxing, one of the worlds oldest sports. Readers are provided front row seats as heavyweight authors provide knock-out combinations for your reading pleasure. While each story stands alone as a masterful mystery, the combination of such fine writing against the backdrop of the shadowy violent world of boxing leads to a greater appreciation of both crafts. Book jacket. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=383232 This season, the coolest guy in basketball isnt a guy. From the author of the boisterous, bawdy, sharp-witted (The Philadelphia Inquirer) national bestseller comes another deliciously wicked tale of contemporary professional sports. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=376125 Caddies are the storytellers of the golf world, its oral historians, its philosophers. Now the author of Follow the Wind offers an edgy and entertaining collection of linked stories from the perspective of this vagabond subculture. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=361697 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=339518 From one of sports writings best-known commentators comes a Semi-Tough for the new century--a hilarious novel about the world of professional football filled with black comedy, outrageous characters, and a lot more truth than the NFL will ever admit. For readers who ever wondered what they would do if they owned a football team, this is the book to read. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=297329 Haunting, exquisite Rosalind Maybrick, wife of a billionaire owner, one day cant quite decide what it is she wants, and discovers too late that her whole life is transformed . . . Twenty-year-old Tiffany Morse, stuck in her job at Wal-Mart, prays, Please make something happen here . . . This time, I mean it, and something does . . . Farley, a good trainer in a bad slump; Buddy, a ruthless trainer who cant seem to lose even though he knows that his personal salvation depends upon it; Roberto, an apprentice jockey who has the hands but is growing too big for his dream career with every passing day; Leo the gambler and his earnest son, Jesse, who understands everything about his fathers system except why it doesnt work; Elizabeth, the sixty-two-year-old theorist of sex and animal communication, and her best friend, Joy, the mare manager at the ranch at the center of the universe - all are woven together by the horses that pass among them: two colts and two fillies who begin with the promise of talent and breeding, and now might or might not achieve stardom. There are the geldings - Justa Bob, the plain brown horse who always wins by a nose, a lovable claimer who passes from owner to owner on a heart-wrenching journey down from the winners circle; and the beautiful Mr. T., raced in France and rescued in Texas, who is discovered to have some unusual and amazing talents. And then there is the Jack Russell terrier, Eileen, a dog with real convictions - and the will to implement them.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=322639 These 25 unforgettable stories about fishing boast fast action, dramatic plot twists, and intriguing characters from the sinister to the hilarious. They represent world-class authors including todays Stephen King, Bob Shacochis, Thomas McGuane, and E. Annie Proulx; timeless storytellers such as Guy de Maupassant and the Brothers Grimm; and early- and mid-century favorites Stephen Vincent Benet, Philip Wylie, Henry Van Dyke, and others. Sportsmen and short story lovers alike will find this collection irresistible. Book jacket.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=661755 A funny tale on four blue-collar golfers in Boston who manage to get one of their own to play in the snobbish Mayflower Country Club where one plays by invitation only. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=754027 In 1920s St. Louis, sleuth Mickey Rawlings hunts for killers who lynched a black baseball pitcher, against whom Rawlings was playing. The murder threatens to touch off another race riot. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=288499 Mix elements of Jim Thompson with the street-smart verve of Donald Goines, add a couple of dashes of the compact delivery of Richard Stark, and you get The Jook: a crime novel where football and venal ambitions collide in the end zone. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=138118 After losing his house and his girlfriend, thus opting for suicide, Jamie Brooks heads north on a snowy road straight into his past. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=114723 Frederick Exleys inimitable fictional memoir A Fans Notes has assumed the status of a classic since its first publication in 1968. Mordantly and poignantly, Exley describes the profound failures of his life - professional, sexual, and personal. His attempts to find a place for himself in an unaccommodating world take him from the University of Southern California to Chicago - where he meets the dangerously seductive, lovely Bunny Sue Allorgee - to New York Citys Greenwich Village saloons, and back to Watertown, his hometown in upstate New York, where he spends months on his mothers living room davenport watching television before undergoing shock treatment at Avalon Valley hospital. Between bars, women, and jobs, Exley exercises his obsession with the New York Giants and their great halfback Frank Gifford, until he at last realizes his lifes ambition: writing A Fans Notes.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=186152 Raymond Lee Hart - better known to his unshaven buddies as Stick - has a pretty good life, most of it spent at Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Course and Deli, the single worst golf course in America. For Stick, Dannie, Two Down, Thud and the rest of the Chops, Ponky is a little slice of paradise - if you picture paradise with a rusted-out 57 Chevy on the 8th hole and ninety-five-cent egg sandwiches waiting after the round. Mostly, the Chops like to bet, a habit thats about to get them into serious trouble. Just adjacent to Ponky, over a twelve-foot-high hedge, lies the Mayflower Country Club, the most exclusive private club in all of Boston. For the Chops, it is both an irritant and a lure. Tortured by the Mayflowers immaculately manicured fairways and intrigued by its fanatical exclusivity, the Chops propose a bet. Stick, the devious Two Down, and the slyly beautiful Dannie, Sticks sometime bedmate, plunk down a thousand dollars each, a small fortune for people who sometimes take the bus to the course. The first to play all 18 holes at the Mayflower wins the pot. Lying, cheating and fraud are encouraged. But as each of these three pursue their quest - and one anothers money - the charm of their odd friendships, and their strange loyalty to Ponky, begin to unravel. One of the three will win The Bet, but it seems a hollow victory. Missing Links is a tremendously funny novel, but it is also a book wise in the ways of friendship and family, broken dreams and unexpected gifts. Above all, Missing Links is a long overdue tribute to those unsung heroes of the game of golf, the dog-meat public course and the incurables who play it.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=121262 This is a collection of all the best fiction and poetry ever penned on this extraordinary sport and obsession. It wont improve your backhand, but it might just change the way you play the Game. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=235008 Baseball is lousy with hope. It sustains you and betrays you inning by inning and game by game, to the last out of the World Series, and even through the long, cold winter. The game call kill you with hope. John Barr is the kind of player who isnt supposed to exist anymore. An all-around superstar, he plays the game with a single-minded ferocity that makes his New York Mets team all but invincible. Yet Barr himself is a mystery, with no past, no friends, no women, and no interests outside of hitting a baseball as hard and as far as he can. Not even Rapid Ricky Falls, a.k.a. The Old Swizzlehead, his shrewd, streetwise teammate, can get a handle on him. Neither can Ellie Jay, the jaded sportswriter who can outthink, outdrink, and out-write any man in the press box. She wants to think she admires Barrs skill on a ballfield, but suspects she might be in love with a man who isnt really there. Barr leads the Mets to one championship after another. Then chaos arrives in the person of new manager Charli Stanzi, well-known psychopath. As The Old Swizzlehead tells it, strange and dire things begin to happen. Under Stanzis careful tutelage, the team simply falls apart. Then Barr himself inexplicably starts to unravel. For the first time in his life, his formidable skills fail him, and only Falls and Ellie Jay can help - if he will let them. Hanging in the balance are his sanity, the World Series, and true love. Kevin Baker has written a sometimes exuberant, sometimes rueful novel, not only about the glorious game of baseball, but about the bittersweet, far more complicated game of life.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=23918 More than any other writer in this century, Ring Lardner (1885-1933) was identified with baseball. He was the first writer to match the American language with the great American pastime. His years covering the Chicago White Sox and Cubs gave him the inside knowledge of the sport and how it reflected the American experience; starting in 1906 as a reporter, Lardner responded to baseball as a social phenomenon. His short stories remain the core of his career, and the basis of his enduring reputation. Here are Ring Lardners complete baseball stories, twelve of them collected in print for the first time. With his unerring eye for detail and his sense of the absurd, Lardner ranges over the entire game. His first published magazine series, You know Me Al, recounts the travails of Jack Keefe, a minor-league player who remains a Busher even after he reaches the big leagues. Although he eventually wanted to bench the character, Lardner continued to write Keefe stories to satisfy the publics hunger. At the same time, though, he began to expand his work, introducing new characters, new concerns, new slants on the sport. He went on to probe not only the nature of the game, but also the lives of the men who played it. His famous portraits in Alibi Ike and My Roomy convey his profound understanding of baseball and the people associated with it. Historically accurate, richly textured, Ring Around the Bases reveals the master at the height of his craft, and celebrates America at play. This collection, then, is the ultimate lineup in baseball fiction.--BOOK JACKET. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=6273 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=26552 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=9494 http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=725091 Henry Wiggen, a star pitcher for the New York Mammoths, receives a letter from a seamstress fan who plans to attend their game on the Fourth of July. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=202868 A rich parody of the parallels between the jargon of football and the jargon of battle and a touch of cold-war existentialism makes this powerful novel as hilarious as it is relevant. http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/record.jsp?R=59646