Random House New Releases - Sports & Recreation - History - Between June 19, 2012 and July 19, 2013.

Lefty by Lawrence Goldstone

2013-02-26T00:30:00-05:00

Lefty An American Odyssey
Written by Vernona Gomez and Lawrence Goldstone

“An intimate portrait of a man whose life off the field was equally as captivating as his unparalleled baseball career.”—Yankees Magazine

Born into a small-town California ranching family, Vernon “Lefty” Gomez rode his powerful arm and jocular personality across America to the dugout of the New York Yankees. Lefty baffled hitters with his blazing fastball, establishing himself as the team’s ace. Now, drawing on countless conversations with Lefty, more than three hundred interviews conducted with his family, friends, competitors, and teammates over the course of a decade, and revealing candid photos, documents, and film clips—many never shown publicly—his daughter Vernona Gomez and her award-winning co-author Lawrence Goldstone vividly re-create the life and adventures of the irreverent southpaw. A star-studded romp through America’s most glamorous years, with cameos from Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, George Gershwin, Ernest Hemingway, and Marilyn Monroe, Lefty is at once a long-overdue reminder of a pitcher’s greatness and a heartwarming celebration of a life well-lived.

“His story transcends sports and gives us a much-needed lesson in grit and grace.”—Jon Meacham

“A loving and beautifully written tribute . . . Be prepared to be transformed, and to discover stars who were stars in an age when that word really meant something.”—Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning

“An amiable portrait of a baseball great—like Yogi Berra, Dizzy Dean and Satchel Paige—whose outsized personality looms even larger than his considerable athletic achievements.”—Kirkus Reviews

Team Talk by Julian Walker

2013-02-19T00:30:00-05:00

Team Talk Sporting Words and their Origins
Written by Julian Walker

Have you ever wondered why we talk about a handicap in sport, why boxing is so named, or whether a dumbbell ever rang? It was during the nineteenth century that hitherto local games with relaxed and varying rules were formalized. During this process terminologies developed to refer to these new standardized sports, borrowing, modifying and redefining words from all walks of life in sometimes strange and unexpected ways. Considering such subjects as why sport shares so many words with the fields of hunting and conflict, and how English sports terms have been both adopted from and given to other languages, this book looks at how words have come into the field of sport and how they have developed and changed.

Next Goal Wins! by Liam Maguire

2012-11-20T00:30:00-05:00

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey Trivia
Written by Liam Maguire

Fun, always surprising and a hockey lover's treasure chest of the little-known facts that shaped the game, you cannot Google the stuff that Liam Maguire shares in this entertaining little book. About 30% updated, revised and renewed from Liam’s 2001 trivia collection, What's the Score?, First Goal Wins! includes a foreword by Wayne Gretzky. Liam has scoured the depths of the NHL archives and stats to put together many of these questions and answers, which you can't get from just looking up your favourite player on Wikipedia. What sets his take on hockey trivia apart from the many pretenders out there is the magical connections he builds between the numbers, the players and the game's history. Besides the straight goods, you always get the ultimate "And did you know...?"

Next Goal Wins! by Liam Maguire

2012-11-20T00:30:00-05:00

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey Trivia
Written by Liam Maguire

Showdown by Thomas Smith

2012-09-04T00:30:00-05:00

Showdown JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins
Written by Thomas Smith

A classic NFL/civil rights story—the showdown between the Washington Redskins and the Kennedy White House

In Showdown, sports historian Thomas G. Smith captures a striking moment, one that held sweeping implications not only for one team’s racist policy but also for a sharply segregated city and for the nation as a whole. Part sports history, part civil rights story, this compelling and untold narrative serves as a powerful lens onto racism in sport, illustrating how, in microcosm, the fight to desegregate the Redskins was part of a wider struggle against racial injustice in America.

Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson

2012-08-29T00:30:00-05:00

Haunts of the Black Masseur The Swimmer as Hero
Written by Charles Sprawson

In a masterful work of cultural history, Charles Sprawson, himself an obsessional swimmer and fluent diver, explores the meaning that different cultures have attached to water, and the search for the springs of classical antiquity.

In nineteenth-century England bathing was thought to be an instrument of social and moral reform, while in Germany and America swimming came to signify escape. For the Japanese the swimmer became an expression of samurai pride and nationalism. Sprawson gives is fascinating glimpses of the great swimming heroes: Byron leaping dramatically into the surf at Shelley’s beach funeral; Rupert Brooke swimming naked with Virginia Woolf, the dark water “smelling of mint and mud”; Hart Crane swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico; Edgar Allan Poe’s lone and mysterious river-swims; Leander, Webb, Weissmuller, and a host of others.

Informed by the literature of Swinburne, Goethe, Scott Fitzgerald, and Yukio Mishima; the films of Riefenstahl and Vigo; the Hollywood “swimming musicals” of the 1930s; and delving in and out of Olympic history, Haunts of the Black Masseur is an enthralling assessment of man—body submerged, self-absorbed. It is quite simply the best celebration of swimming ever written, even as it explores aspects of culture in a heretofore unimagined way.

Random House New Releases - Sports & Recreation - History - Between June 19, 2012 and July 19, 2013.

Lefty by Lawrence Goldstone

Lefty An American OdysseyWritten by Vernona Gomez and Lawrence Goldstone

Team Talk by Julian Walker

Team Talk Sporting Words and their OriginsWritten by Julian Walker

Next Goal Wins! by Liam Maguire

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey TriviaWritten by Liam Maguire

Next Goal Wins! by Liam Maguire

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey TriviaWritten by Liam Maguire

Showdown by Thomas Smith

Showdown JFK and the Integration of the Washington RedskinsWritten by Thomas Smith

Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson

Haunts of the Black Masseur The Swimmer as HeroWritten by Charles Sprawson

Lefty An American Odyssey
Written by Vernona Gomez and Lawrence Goldstone

Team Talk Sporting Words and their Origins
Written by Julian Walker

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey Trivia
Written by Liam Maguire

Next Goal Wins! The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-Kind Collection of Hockey Trivia
Written by Liam Maguire

Showdown JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins
Written by Thomas Smith

Haunts of the Black Masseur The Swimmer as Hero
Written by Charles Sprawson