BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Book Sale haul of sports books



Look at what I picked up from Book Sale! Lots of good stuff at bargain prices. You have to look around if you want those copies if good condition. I copied the synopsis of all four books from Amazon.

The Best American Sports Writing 2006 edited by Michael Lewis (Php 115)
For fans of sports and just plain great writing, this collection of twenty-seven of the finest pieces from the past year features "outstanding sports reporting on a wealth of different topics" (Booklist). Guest editor Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Moneyball and Coach, has assembled a compelling look at the sports stories and issues that dominated 2005.

Pamela Colloff reports from the politically and sexually charged world of competitive cheerleading in Texas. Paul Solotaroff meets the star of the University of Georgia wrestling team, a nineteen-year-old world-record weightlifter who was born with no arms or legs. Ben Paynter travels the gay rodeo circuit. Pat Jordan profiles the world's greatest poker player, a boyish thirty-year-old whose mom still packs him a brown bag lunch. Jeff Duncan travels to Florida, where a New Orleans high school and its football program are picking up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We also discover Linda Robertson reporting on the supersizing of NFL players. S. L. Price profiles the most famous U.S. Para-Olympian. Katy Vine introduces a girl who can dunk -- in eighth grade -- and more.

The pieces in this outstanding volume show the true reach and impact of sports, its importance often extending far beyond the playing field. As Lewis writes in his introduction, "What's reassuring about great sports writing is what's reassuring about great sports performances: facing opposition, and often against the odds, someone, at last, did something right."


October Men by Roger Kahn (Php45)
On the morning of October 2, 1978, the World Champion New York Yankees found themselves tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox. That day these rousing ball clubs would meet at Fenway Park. Both had won ninety-nine games. Only one would win one hundred. The Yankees should have been reaching for their golf clubs-they had feuded until they were fourteen games out of first place. Then their fortunes turned, and they capped one of the most thrilling comebacks in baseball history by defeating the Red Sox that October afternoon in a game that many still remember as the greatest ever played. Transporting us into the midst of this unforgettable team, Roger Kahn weaves the first in-depth account of the legendary season of '78 and reaffirms his standing as our nation's master storyteller of baseball.




Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson (Php 80)
An inside look at the higher wisdom of teamwork from Chicago Bulls' head coach Phil Jackson. At the heart of the book is Jackson's philosophy of mindful basketball -- and his lifelong quest to bring enlightenment to the competitive world of professional sports, beginning with a focus on selfless team play rather than "winning through intimidation". Sacred Hoops is not just for sports fans, but for anyone interested in the potential of the human spirit.

Summer of ’49 by David Halberstam (Php 75)
The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions--one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season...

With incredible skill, passion and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to that miraculous summer... and to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost for gotten America rested on the crack of a bat.

One other book that I got: Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit (Php20). They also have Derek Fisher's autobiography Character Driven (Php115) and a few others.

1 comment:

  1. Great haul Rick! Why could I not find them ?! Ha ha! After your reply, I went to Booksale beside Shopwise in Cubao but could not find the 2008 edition. But that was a good branch - I found other really good books.

    Summer of 49 was the book that helped me develop an interest in baseball. One of Halberstam's best , for me, though I like all his books.

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