Your five favorite sports books

I still enjoy Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls," about the ABA. A million times more entertaining than "Semipro."

David Halberstam's "The Breaks of the Game" was very good as well.

 

I'll second "Luckiest Man" by Eig. Good guy, too. Friday Night Lights, Season on the Brink, The Blind Side and 3 Nights in August also make my list.

 

Friday Night Lights (Bissinger)
Memories of Summer (Kahn)
The Game (Dryden)
Heaven is a Playground (Telander)
Season on the Brink (Feinstein)

Honorable mention to "No Shortcuts to the Top," Ed Viesturs' autobiographical account of becoming the first American to climb the 14 highest peaks in the world, but then there's the "ssport/not a sport" debate.

 

Good call on "Clemente." Another good Maraniss book is the one he wrote on Vince Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered."

"Little Girls In Pretty Boxes," by Joan Ryan - on competitive figure skating and gymnastics.

"In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle," by Madeleine Blais - a year of following the Amherst (Mass.) H.S. girls basketball team

"Open Net," by George Plimpton. (Though I know this might not fall under the thread criteria ...)

 

Wow, this is an interesting thread because as I've evolved, how I perceive the books I read has evolved. For example, I remember really enjoying reading Breaks of the Game when I read it somewhere around 9th-10th grade. But I was reading strictly as a reader and a basketball fan. I enjoyed, more recently, reading The Blind Side (not as good as Moneyball, but a more recent read) but I read it from a completely different frame of mind -- I was reading as much for the writing as I was for the content of the writing.

Having said that, I'll give a list, based on how much of an impression they made at the time I read them.
In no particular order:

1. Loose Balls by Pluto
2. Breaks of the Game by Halberstam
3. Boys of Summer by Kahn
4. Moneyball by Lewis
5. The Game of their Lives by Klein (about the Colts-Giants 1958 title game...I read it when I was about 12-13).
6. Big Game, Small World by Wolff
7. Season on the Brink by Feinstein
8. Friday Night Lights by Bissinger

I include Halberstam, Kahn and Klein's books because, while I wouldn't have said so back then, reading those books really put the bug in my head about telling the story of sports when I was still young. How they measure up to more recent books I've read with a more critical eye? I'll have to re-read them someday to see.


I'm sure I'm leaving many good ones too. I've probably forgetten a lot of good books over the years I've read so many...

 

Eight Men Out, Asinof
Late Innings, Angell
Glory of Their Times, Ritter
The Summer Game, Angell

Ball Four remains the best "sports book" ever written, though.

 

"Pistol"
"Summer of '49" (the book that made me want to become a sportswriter in the first place)
"Return to Glory" (A 1965 book about the Browns. It ends with them winning the title. Let me have my moment)
"Miracle at St. Anthony"
"Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?"

 

Wow, to limit it to five is a tough call, but here goes:

1-The Boys of Summer; in my opinion, the all-time best baseball book.
2-Clemente; couldnt put it down once I started; a great read.
3-The Echoing Green; likewise, once I got to reading it, tough to leave.
4-Namath; was always interested in hearing about his exploits on and off of the field and this is the best of 'em.
5-No Cheering in the Press Box; put this one in there as being one of the classics on our craft and to see how those "old guys" used to do it.

 

Bellagio
Caesar's
Bally's
Palms
MGM Grand


Ohhhh, sorry. Wrong kind of sports book.

 

There's one I believe you guys are missing.
The Golden Boys, written about the 1992 Dream Team.
I can't add anything else new to the conversation, as I agree with a lot of earlier nominees.

 

1 Three Bricks Shy of a Load Roy Blount
2 Season On the Brink John Feinstein
3 Courtship of Marcus Dupree - Willy Morris
4 War As They Knew It - Michael Rosenberg
5 Last Night of The Yankee Dynasty - Buster Olney

Hard not to include Foul by David Wolf or Let Me Tell You a Story by Red Auerbach and John Feinstein

 

here i am a louisiana guy and I left "Pistol" out and that was a heckuva read.
but again, a list of five makes it tough.
"The Mick" (no relation, although he was my man to follow growing up... ) was another baseball book I enjoyed.