Not every book about sport is necessarily a self-congratulatory autobiography, a story of redemption, of David and Goliath, or my personal least favorite - the 'dying athlete' story. Sometimes, it's just a really well written piece on sport. Some of these are a bit difficult to find - maybe long out of print - but well worth reading.
The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown. The story of the 1936 USA crew and their journey. I was living in Seattle in the '70s, and remember hearing quite a bit about Mr George Pocock. Very few people have had as profound an impact on a sport as he did.
The Last Amateurs - John Feinstein. The Patriot League - often supplying the 64/65th position in the NCAA, but at the time they forbid 'sports scholarships', so the players were there strictly because they wanted to be.
The Amateurs - David Halberstam. David Halberstam is probably best known for his Pulitzer Prize writing on Vietnam, and Civil Rights reporting, but he was a helluva good sports writer as well. The Amateurs follows the journey of various individuals competing for seats in the 1984 Olympics. A very different look at the sport 50 years after the '36 team.
1947: When all Hell broke loose in Baseball - Red Barber. I've listened to NPR Morning Edition since the early '80s, and would bring a transistor radio to work on Fridays just to listen to Bob Edwards and Red Barber. Barber was one of the absolute best baseball announcers of all time. I rank him above Harry Carey, Jimmy Dean and the rest. This is a great book about the events of 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color line. Well worth the read.
The Mountain of my Fear - Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative - David Roberts. The best climbing books I've ever read. Roberts portrays climbing and wilderness adventure in a much more realistic light than do most writers of climbing. You really do get a sense of struggle, success and failure - and how brutally friggin' hard climbing can be.
They Call Me Super Mex: The Autobiography of Lee Trevino - Lee Trevino and Sam Blair. Not the best book about golf ever (next read), but a pretty good rags to riches story. Trevino is funny almost all the time, and made a career of being a pretty darn good pro golfer, and a bit of a standup comedian at the same time. Golf needs people like Lee Trevino.
The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf - Mark Frost. Two of the finest gentlemen to hoist a club. A story (and movie) well told.
Comment with your contributions to a summer's sports reading list.
~marsh
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