Best three sports books you ever read?

Sirs, Madames,

I'll set aside collections (Smith, Nack, Deford, BASW, BASW of the Century, etc). Two of my favorites are about a sport that I used to like but haven't paid any attention to in 20 years: horse-racing. Very different approaches.

Secretariat, Nack
Laughing in the Hills, Bill Barich (a memoir of a year spent working at a dumpy racetrack before he became a New Yorker writer)
Koufax, Jane Leavy (edging out Kram's Ghosts of Manila, Darcy Frey's The Last Shot)

YHS, etc

 

My all-time fave remains Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's "Giant Steps" (1983... if you can still find it). For years, he was so private and perceived as just another angry asshole. After reading it, you understood why he seemed to be so aloof. Good read, from his early years growing up Catholic, his conversion to Islam, getting burned by "friends" time and time again, his love of jazz, his relationship with Bruce Lee, Wilt Chamberlain, John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, et al. Love this autobio.

 

Good call on Meat on the Hoof.

I'll throw in "The League" by David Harris (written at the height of the NFL franchise shifting trials in the '80s)
"Seabiscuit"
Anything by Dan Jenkins and Pete Gent

 

A Walk in the Woods ... in my view, not really a sports book. It's more along the lines of "this is something unusual that some people do." That said, it is so funny in spots you will have trouble breathing. Bryson is genius.

 

I've had The League sitting on my book shelf for years and never opened it. Heard good things about it, mebbe I'll crack it open this summer.

Many of my faves have been mentioned before so here are some others I have enjoyed over the years:

Muhammad Ali - Thomas Hauser
John L. Sullivan and His America - Michael Isenberg
Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting - Kevin Kerrane
When The Lights Went Out - Gare Joyce

 

"Ball Four" - Jim Bouton
"Friday Night Lights" - Buzz Bissinger
"A March To Madness" - John Feinstein

Honorable mention:
"Men at Work" - George Will
"Damned Yankees" - Bill Madden and Moss Klein
"The Jordan Rules" - Sam Smith
"A Season On The Brink" - John Feinstein

 

I really enjoyed The Long Snapper by Jeffrey Marx, Future Greats and Heartbreaks by Gare Joyce (if you're into the scouting side of sport, great book), and Gretzky's Tears by Stephen Brunt. Those were probably some of the best I've read in recent memory.

Others that weren't necessarily as well crafted, but were also page turners included some of the tell-all stories from people like Phil Esposito, Theo Fleury, and Bob Probert.

 

I look forward to reading a couple more hockey books. Not available in nearby stores at any of my life stops ...

 

The Last Boy
Game of Shadows
Friday Night Lights

 

The Jordan Rules is another favorite.

Leahy's book is much, much better, but Smith's had more of an impact.

 

A Few Seconds of Panic is a tremendous football book and I will second Gare Joyce's Future Greats and Heartbreaks. Haven't read Brunt's Gretzky book but his Searching for Bobby Orr was fantastic. A few pages back someone mentioned Peter Gzowski's The Game of their Lives. Another tremendous read...

 

Read "The League" from the library many years ago, found it for a buck or two at a sale. Will reread it at some point.
Not a big golf fan, but I usually gave my father Feinstein's golf books for Christmas (and I'd sneak-read 'em the month before). Underrated Feinstein book: "A Season Inside," about the '87-88 season, in which he follows several teams, coaches and players (kind of a prototype for his future books). The characters include Rick Barnes in his first year as a head coach at George Mason, Steve Kerr at Arizona (the year after his father was assassinated at American U. in Beirut), Billy King as a senior Dukie who knew he wouldn't be playing in the NBA, and a whole lot more.