Best three sports books you ever read?

I have no interest in tennis but I didn't mind Feinstein's Hard Courts.

Another great baseball book that is a bit under the radar: Slouching Toward Fargo by Neal Karlen, about a guy following the independent St. Paul Saints when Bill Murray and Darryl Strawberry were involved.

 

YES!!!!! I was trying to remember the name of that book! Loved every word of it. Hilarious and touching. A great, great read. I fear it has been lost in a move, though.

 

Foul (the Connie Hawkins bio)
Namath
Ball Four

 

Heaven is a Playground - Telander
A Sense of Where You Are - McPhee
Horns, Hogs and Nixon Coming - Frei

 

It is a damn amusing read, although I believe much of its humor was generated through the time-tested technique of passing off fictional characters and events as factual.

And under no circumstances do I see it as a sports book.

 

Good call. Giant Steps converted me from a Kareem hater to a Kareem fan. Also sent me scurrying to read Malcom X's autobiography and learn more about that world and era.

 

Thin Ice -- if my parents had only known about the off-ice content I doubt they'd let me read it in seventh grade.

Run to Daylight -- first of its kind but still stands up after all these years.

Season on the Brink -- never a Bob Knight fan, but loved the book.

 

I read Thin Ice when I was in high school and it was a great book. Had totally forgotten about it until the mentions here.

I wasn't a Knight fan either but after reading Season on the Brink I thought if my kid was good enough to play college hoops I'd want him to play for Knight. I know, I might be crazy, but that was the way he came through, to me, anyway, in that book.

 

Season on the Brink
Seabiscuit
Friday Night Lights

 

Friday Night Lights
The Hundred Yard Lie
Anything by Matt Christopher.

JK but not really.

 

Another book came to mind: "The Big Show"

Think what you wish about either Keith Olbermann or Dan Patrick. But they were incredible together, and the chemistry showed in the book the same way it used to in the 2300 SportsCenter. Problem was that they were so good that the generation of wannabes trying to imitate them drove/drive many of us nuts.

Should have broken the mold after those two.

 

I agree with so many of the above selections, I'll give a few I don't think have been mentioned:

Life on the Run: Bill Bradley's diary of three weeks in the NBA. Crisp prose and includes a scene of him hitting on a stewardess.

The Fight by Norman Mailer. Probably the best writing you'll find on this list. Mailer on the Rumble in the Jungle.,

A False Spring by Pat Jordan. What it was like to be a bonus baby pitcher and a failure.

I'm currently reading the book "The Fighter" was based on. It's damn good.