Sports Books,

I agree. The first thing I always look at in a sports book is the acknowledgments/bibliography.

 

Just thought of another one, especially if you like college football:

Michael Rosenberg's book:

War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America In A Time Of Unrest

 

I'll reiterate Open by Andre Agassi (it was on a list from one of the links). I was never a huge Agassi fan, but the book is a good read, one of the best autobiographies I've read.

The Game of our lives by Peter Gzowski is always good. Gzowski follows the Edmonton Oilers for a season during their glory years, just a good book whether you are an Oilers fan or not.

Zamboni Rodeo by Jason Cohen -- kind of like The Game of our Lives, but instead it follows a team from the Central Hockey League in the mid 90s, this is when the league was mainly Texas and Louisiana. Kind of obscure, but a good look at life in the low minor leagues and really it could be any sport.

Game Misconduct by Russ Conway I seem to remember was a good read as well, it was an in depth look into the Alan Eagleson scandal.

I also enjoyed The Last Season, by Phil Jackson. Believe as much of it as you want to, but it was a fairly entertaining read.

Just off the top of my head.

 

I'll second both of these. Zamboni Rodeo is obscure but a great read. As a guy who rides the buses with a hockey team I could really relate to a lot of what he talked about. And I even knew a player or two that was mentioned.

Mark Bowden's book on the Eagles, mentioned on one of the links, is a tremendous read.

 

You Gotta Have Wa - Baseball in Japan (think Mr. Baseball with Selleck, much better)

Love the Plimpton books (Paper Lion, etc)

Season on the Brink - You get even more respect for what Steve Alford went through.

Halberstam book on Blazers and the one on Jordan; great combo, Halberstam plus sports.

Summer of '64 too. Eye opening on why end of Yankees dynasty and rise of Cards.

 

Sunday Money was a pretty good read but in some ways came off as a Margaret Mead anthropological study of the south. I know many NASCAR fans were insulted by the highbrow tone of book- an eastern liberal looking down at the hicks from the south.
I did not see it that way but I could see where some could.

 

I'll second the book on Woody and Bo as well as Zamboni Rodeo. The Woody and Bo book gets into more than just the football; it also gets into what was happening in America culture at the time. And as somebody who has also taken plenty of minor-league bus trips, Zamboni Rodeo is dead on about what happens in that world. I know several of the players who are mentioned in the book and all said Jason was spot on with his reporting. It's kind of old but a very good read.

 

The Big Bam:The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville.

Terrific book about his life and playing career. Starts from his orphanage till his death. Very well written.

 

Two others I'd recommend:

1. Michael Sokolove's "The Ticket Out": about the 1980 Crenshaw High School (South Central L.A.) baseball team that featured Darryl Strawberry and Chris Brown and had something like 10 players selected in the major-league draft. Also includes a lot of interesting socio-economic history of Los Angeles in general.

2. Jonathan Mahler's "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning": The book that the ESPN miniseries was based on. Interesting character study of not just the 1977 Yankees, but also NYC as a whole, including the Son of Sam murders, the blackout and the mayoral election between Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo and Abe Beame.

 

Anyone read The Last Great Fight, about the Tyson-Douglas scrap? Picked it up the other day.

 

I agree with many of the selections made here so far, and I'll throw in another.

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It, by Neal Bascomb. Fantastic research and writing. It was absolutely a huge inspiration for me as I worked on my own book.

 

I'll read any bio Montville writes -- and have.