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  Death of WCW - 10th Anniversary...

  R.D. Reynolds, Bryan Alvarez

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  In 1997, World Championship Wrestling was on top. It was the number-one pro wrestling company in the world, and the highest-rated show on cable television. Each week, fans tuned in to Monday Nitro, flocked to sold-out arenas, and carried home truckloads of WCW merchandise. It seemed the company could do no wrong.But by 2001, however, everything had bottomed out. The company — having lost a whopping 95% of its audience — was sold for next to nothing to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. WCW was laid to rest.What went wrong? This expanded and updated version of the bestselling Death of WCW takes readers through a detailed dissection of WCW’s downfall, including even more commentary from the men who were there and serves as an object lesson — and dire warning — as WWE and TNA hurtle toward the 15th anniversary of WCW’s demise.

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  The Numbers Game - Baseball's...

  Alan Schwarz

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  The Numbers Game is the first-ever history of baseball statistics - the keeping of them, the study of them, the people who devised them, the cultural phenomenon of them, from 1845 until today.Most baseball fans, players and even team executives assume that the National Pastime's infatuation with statistics is simply a byproduct of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong.In this unprecedented new book, Alan Schwarz - whom bestselling Moneyball author Michael Lewis calls "one of today's best baseball journalists" - provides the first-ever history of baseball statistics, showing how baseball and its numbers have been inseparable ever since the pastime's birth in 1845. He tells the history of this obsession through the lives of the people who felt it most: Henry Chadwick, the 19th-century writer who invented the first box score and harped endlessly about which statistics mattered and which did not; Allan Roth, Branch Rickey's right-hand numbers man with the late-1940s Brooklyn Dodgers; Earnshaw Cook, a scientist and Manhattan Project veteran who retired to pursue inventing the perfect baseball statistic; John Dewan, a former Strat-O-Matic maven who built STATS Inc. into a multimillion-dollar powerhouse for statistics over the Internet; and dozens more.Almost every baseball fan for 150 years has been drawn to the game by its statistics, whether through newspaper box scores, the backs of Topps baseball cards, The Baseball Encyclopedia, or fantasy leagues. Today's most ardent stat scientists, known as "sabermetricians," spend hundreds of hours coming up with new ways to capture the game in numbers, and engage in holy wars over which statistics are best. Some of these men--and women --are even being hired by major league teams to bring an understanding of statistics to a sport that for so long shunned it.Taken together, Schwarz paints a history not just of baseball statistics, but of the soul of the sport itself. The Numbers Game will be an invaluable part of any fan's library and go down as one of the sport's classic books.

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  Dr J - The Autobiography

  Karl Taro Greenfeld, Julius Erving

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  “A terrific memoir by a man worthy of one.” — Sports IllustratedAn honest, unflinching self-portrait of the basketball legend whose classy public image as a superstar and a gentleman masked his personal failings and painful losses, which he describes here—from his own point of view—for the very first time.For most of his life, Julius Erving has been two men in one. There is Julius, the bright, inquisitive son of a Long Island domestic worker who has always wanted to be respected for more than just his athletic ability, and there is Dr. J, the cool, acrobatic showman whose flamboyant dunks sent him to the Hall of Fame and turned the act of jamming a basketball through a hoop into an art form. In many ways, Erving’s life has been about the push and pull of Julius and The Doctor.It is Dr. J who has stories to tell of the wild days and nights of the ABA in the 1970s, and of being the seminal figure who transformed basketball from an earthbound and rigid game into the creative, free-flowing aerial display it is today. He has a long list of signature plays - he’s famous for winning the first dunk contest in 1976 with a jam on which he lifted off from the foul line, and he made a miraculous layup against the Lakers on which he soared behind the backboard before reaching back in to flip the ball in on the other side, with one hand. He inspired a generation of dunkers, including Michael Jordan, to express their improvisational talents.But Julius wasn’t always as graceful and in control as Dr. J. Erving had a pristine image throughout his career and early retirement, but he was far from a perfect man. Here he gives detailed accounts of some of the personal problems he faced -- or created -- behind the scenes, including the adulterous affair with sports writer Samantha Stephenson, which led to the birth of his daughter, professional tennis player Alexandra Stephenson.Though his marriage survived that infidelity, the death of Erving’s 20-year-old son Cory in 2000 in a tragic accident proved too much for the union to bear. Erving paints a raw, heartbreaking picture of the dissolution of his marriage, as his wife Turquoise began to blame him for his refusal to be paralyzed by grief for as long as she was. Their intense arguments came to a head when Erving stepped out of the shower one day to find his wife holding a lamp in one hand and a vase in the other, ready for a physical confrontation. “I knew somebody was going to get hurt, and it wasn’t going to be me,” he says. He packed a suitcase and he and Turquoise never lived under the same roof again.Erving’s story is a tale of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man, and how he has come to terms with both of them. It will appeal to readers on a sports level and on a human one.

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  University of Nike - How...

  Joshua Hunt

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  The dramatic expose of how the University of Oregon sold its soul to Nike, and what that means for the future of our public institutions and our society. 
   
   
   
  In the mid-1990s, facing severe cuts to its public funding, the University of Oregon—like so many colleges across the country—was desperate for cash. Luckily, the Oregon Ducks' 1995 Rose Bowl berth caught the attention of the school's wealthiest alumnus: Nike founder Phil Knight, who was seeking new marketing angles at the collegiate level. And so the University of Nike was born: Knight has so far donated more than half a billion dollars to the school in exchange for high-visibility branding opportunities. 
   
   
   
  But as journalist Joshua Hunt shows in University of Nike, Oregon has paid dearly for the veneer of financial prosperity and athletic success that has come with this brand partnering. 
   
   
   
  Hunt uncovers efforts to conceal university records, buried sexual assault allegations against university athletes, and cases of corporate overreach into academics and campus life. 
   
   
   
  Encompassing more than just sports and the academy, University of Nike is a riveting story of our times.

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  Fragrance of Grass

  Guy de la Valdène

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  An ode to one man's enduring love affair with hunting, The Fragrance of Grass stands as a testament to Guy de la Valdène's deep affection for and abiding respect of the natural work and all its inhabitants. Set in places as far afield as France and Montana, Saskatchewan and Florida, this beautifully written memoir is a treatise on dogs, birds, and wildlife; food, wine, and women. 
   
   
   
  The Fragrance of Grass is suffused with la Valdène's appreciation for and understanding of natural history along with his vast knowledge of centuries-old hunting traditions. It is a walk through the decades of memories of fields and birds, friends and dogs that will be treasured by all true sportsmen.

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  De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi...

  Philippo Vadi

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  Immerse Yourself in Knightly Combat 
  Step back into the world of the late 1400s with Philippo Vadi's De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: the Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest. This extraordinary audiobook, read in its original Italian by the captivating Eleonora Rebecchi, brings Vadi’s work to life. 
  Dedicated to Guido da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Vadi's work includes 16 chapters on longsword fencing theory, followed by 25 longsword plays, and shorter sections on armoured combat with the lance and the sword, and a section on the dagger. 
  Whether you are a historian, martial artist, or simply a lover of medieval lore, De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi offers a unique auditory journey into the world of chivalric combat. 
  Please note, the audiobook contains just Vadi’s words, translated into English by Guy Windsor. To hear the audiobook read in Italian by the captivating Eleonora Rebecchi, see De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (Italian version). For a full interpretation of those words, see The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest.

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