The hisory of sports is full af bizarre stories. Games sometimes have totally unexpected finishes. Athletes occasionally get into oddball situations on-and off-the field. Even fanatical fans have joined in the action, with very peculiar results.
Sports Illustrated, the most respected voice in sports journalism, has covered Major League Baseball for over seven decades, documenting its heroes, villains, great characters, and iconic moments. A wide-ranging portrait of America's pastime, this anthology features the best baseball writing from the SI archives by nationally renowned journalists including Frank Deford, Mark Kram, George Plimpton, Peter Gammons, and Tom Verducci.
When Sports Illustrated was launched in 1954, baseball was, indisputable, the national pastime, its stars America's epic heroes, its rivalries the era's mythology. As baseballs fortunes rose and fell over the next 50 years - and then rose again to new heights, drawing more than 65 million fans to ballparks in 2004 - the game never failed to produce great drama and inspired storytelling. This collection is a virtual Hall of Fame from the pages of SI, bringing together the stories of baseball's greatest heroes (Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax) and villains (Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, Denny McLain) and characters (Casey Stengel, Max Patkin, Yogi Berra); its legendary quests (the home run chases of Roger Maris, Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds; the thrilling pennant races, from the Dodgers - Giants in 1951 to the Yankees-Red Sox in 1978); its world-class writers (Frank Deford, Mark Kram, George Plimpton, Peter Gammons, and Tom Verducci) and its own players writing from the inside about their game (Ted Williams, Jim Brosnan, and Jim Bouton). In the wake of SI's acclaimed Fifty Years of Great Writing comes this baseball anthology worthy of Cooperstown.
In the half-century since its birth, as Sports Illustrated grew from a struggling start-up to America's preeminent sports magazine, one thing has remained constant: the commitment to great storytelling. That part of the magazine's mission has always been easy to define: Identify the most compelling sports stories of our time and get the best writers in the business to tell them. This book brings together a lineup of writing talent worthy of the Hall of Fame and the classic stories they produced for Sports Illustrated over the past 50 years. Many of the writers whose work is collected here are longtime favorites of SI readers (Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Steve Rushin, Gary Smith). Others are former SI staffers or contributors who left the fold, but not before making an indelible mark on SI's history (Dan Jenkins, Rick Telander, Mark Kram, Roy Blount Jr., William Nack). There are celebrated journalists (A.J. Liebling, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton), screenwriters (Budd Schulberg and Kenny Moore), renowned novelists (Thomas McGuane, Pete Dexter, Wallace Stegner, Don DeLillo) and even a couple of Nobel Prize winners in literature (William Faulkner and John Steinbeck). The stories themselves are a mirror of our times. Included in this volume are accounts of some of the most memorable athletic feats of our era (Secretariat's Belmont victory, the Thrilla in Manila, and Bobby Thomson's shot heard round the world). Profiles of the towering athletic figures of our time (Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Ted Williams and Johnny Unitas). Good guys (Yogi Berra and Harry Caray) and bad guys (Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson). The fast (Roger Bannister) and the furious (Dick Butkus). The ridiculous (Howard Cosell) and the sublime (Josh Gibson). And the stories that simply touch our hearts and inspire us (Frank Deford's masterpiece on light heavyweight champ Billy Conn). This is the very best of the world's best sports magazine ¾ and it just doesn't get any better than that.
Sports Illustrated, the most respected voice in sports journalism, has covered the National Football League for over seven decades, documenting its heroes, villains, great characters, and iconic moments. A wide-ranging portrait of America's game, this anthology features the best pro football writing from the SI archives by nationally renowned journalists including George Plimpton, Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, and Paul Zimmerman.
Celebrating a New Orleans icon and one of football's most beloved superstars Drew Brees describes his arrival in New Orleans as "a calling." Following a catastrophic shoulder injury and a handful of years with the San Diego Chargers, Brees hit the ground running with the Saints, leading the team to the playoffs in his very first season and building toward the ultimate prize: the franchise's first ever Super Bowl title. By the time he hung up his cleats in 2021, the Saints QB had won 172 games as a starting quarterback, led the NFL in passing yards seven times, and fashioned more than 50 game-winning drives. He won the 2004 Comeback Player of the Year award and was named to 13 Pro Bowls. These moments and memories are collected in Drew Brees: A Tribute to the Saint of New Orleans, a fully illustrated gift book commemorating the 20-year career of one of the most beloved Saints players in history. Featuring more than 100 photographs and unparalleled written coverage from the pages of Sports Illustrated™, this new volume provides readers a complete portrait of the ultimate team player whose impact on the Saints franchise cannot be overstated—from his earliest days in New Orleans to the euphoria of Super Bowl XLIV and beyond. This commemorative book also features SI's best written coverage of Brees's career, including pieces by Tim Layden, Greg Bishop, and more.
Celebrating a legendary quarterback and one of football's most iconic superstars Famously selected as the 199th pick, in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, Tom Brady's career trajectory is nothing short of legendary. By the time he hung up his cleats in 2023, Brady held nearly every major quarterback record, including career passing yards, career touchdown passes, and quarterback wins. He won seven Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was named Super Bowl MVP five times. These moments and memories are collected in Sports Illustrated Tom Brady, a fully illustrated gift book commemorating the career of the NFL's greatest player of all time. Featuring more than 100 photographs and unparalleled written coverage from the pages of Sports Illustrated™, this new volume provides readers a complete portrait of the player whose impact on football history cannot be overstated— from his earliest days in New England to Super Bowl euphoria and beyond.
From the leader in sports writing comes a collection of stories that examine just about every aspect of the game: the players, the league and what it means to the fans. For true hockey fans, there is no sport as great, as fast, as competitive, or as important as their beloved hockey game. The teams, the organizations, and the players are a part of their family and Saturday night is better known as hockey night. As children, we hockey fans would wake at 6am, jump into the back of a cold station wagon and head off with Dad or Mom at the wheel to our hockey games. Sleep deprived, cold and tired - it didn't matter how low we felt because as soon as those skates were laced, it was game-on! We traded the cards, we followed the players, and we watched as our team fought through the regular season to earn their rightful place in the post season. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing your team go all the way, seeing them hoist that cherished Cup that Lord Stanley so kindly gifted to the Dominion of Canada, seeing the tears in the eyes of these grown men, these ice warriors. We love this game of ours, and we can't get enough, so thank you Sports Illustrated for bringing us more. In this book, Sports Illustrated's most prolific hockey writers give us the honest goods on hockey. They tell us about the players, the infractions, the best series, the most contentious of battles and the most glorious of victories. This is hockey in its truest form. This is hockey writing for hockey lovers and with an array of Sports Illustrated photos throw in for added benefit. This is just about the best damn book available on hockey, anywhere, period.
From its inception, Sports Illustrated has chronicled baseball's greatest spectacle: the World Series. Now, SI celebrates the grandeur and spirit of the Fall Classic with a deluxe commemorative book featuring the magazine's iconic photography alongside classic stories from legendary writers. Along with overviews of notable teams and championships, this new volume includes stats, facts, and anecdotes spanning World Series history. The nostalgic past meets the electric present in this ultimate examination of baseball's storied event. Bringing MLB history to life by diving into the legendary SI archives, Sports Illustrated The World Series is essential for every baseball fan's collection.
Hockey: Then to WOW! shows readers how the cool sport has evolved from the early days of its 19th century origins to the game as it is today. Using NHL action photographs, illustrations, stories, and trivia, the book is a journey through time both for hockey fans and those new to the game. Kids will learn how basic equipment has changed from a ball to a puck and how the evolution of game strategy has transformed the sport, players, and equipment. Players throughout history are stacked up against each other in every position so fans can dream up the perfect fantasy team with Wayne Gretzky playing alongside Patrick Roy and Stan Mikita. A fun-filled section of the book explores everything fan culture-from the best ice rinks, to the iconic hockey sweater and the hockey haircut along with key aspects of the toughest sport around.
Starting with his jump from the Oshawa Generals to the NHL's Boston Bruins, Sports Illustrated began in-depth coverage of the career of Bobby Orr, a player who remains, over thirty years after his retirement, one of the greatest hockey players of all time. Orr completely changed the way hockey was played, taking it from a game of grinding defence to a rushing, high-scoring affair. Along the way, Orr set scoring records, won individual awards, and led his Bruins to two Stanley Cups before a bad knee began costing him games. He tried two major comebacks in the late seventies, showing a perseverance and dedication unmatched in the game, but ultimately was forced into an early retirement at the age of thirty. Number Four, Bobby Orr brings together the stories and photographs behind the career. The media-shy Orr rarely opened up to reporters, hiding his charitable works and his loyalty to his friends and teammates and letting his play speak for itself. This anthology brings together all SI's reporting on Orr, from the 1960s to his new career as a player agent in the 2000s, to form a comprehensive biography of one of the greats of the game.
Bringing together a lineup of writing talent worthy of the Hall of Fame, this anthology of classic stories represents the best work of sports writers over the past 50 years, including contributions from A.J. Liebling, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton, Wallace Stegner, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck.
The editors of Sports Illustrated Kids have mined their amazing archive and transformed spectacular sports pics into mind-bending puzzles. Every spread in the Sports Illustrated Kids All-star Picture Puzzles features two versions of a super sports photo--from football fields to fairways, from stadiums to skate parks to ski slopes! For each pair of pictures, the puzzler must find the differences between one photo and the next.
Now available as a board book for budding basketball fans!My First Book of Basketball introduces young kids to the game of basketball with a visual retelling of a professional basketball game— from the jump ball to the game-winning basket! Dribbling, passing, traveling, shooting, dunks, and more are all explained using a fun mix of Sports Illustrated action photography, simple text, and awesome graphics. Illustrated "Rookie" characters provide fun facts and simple explanations to help kids better understand the game. Perfect for the youngest hoopers, My First Book of Basketball is meant to be a shared reading experience between parents and their little rookies before, during, and after the game.
Everything You Need to Become a Gridiron Know-it-All So you’re a football fan and now you want to take your passion for the game to the next level? The Football Fanbook from Sports Illustrated Kids is just what you need. A key addition to every young sports fanatic’s library, The Football Fanbook is filled with fun trivia and unique lingo to impress friends, illustrated behind-the-skills how-to’s, important game-winning strategies, and much more. Readers will sound like experts in no time.
So you've become a football fan and now you want to take your passion for the game to the next level? Then The Ultimate Football Fan Handbook is just what you need. Filled with fun facts to dazzle your friends, important numbers and milestones, the unique lingo of the game, the strategies that teams employ, and much, much more, this book will have its readers sounding like experts and dazzling their friends with their knowledge.
The hisory of sports is full af bizarre stories. Games sometimes have totally unexpected finishes. Athletes occasionally get into oddball situations on-and off-the field. Even fanatical fans have joined in the action, with very peculiar results.
Now available as a board book for budding football fans! My First Book of Football coaches young kids through the game of football with a visual retelling of an actual NFL game--from the nail-biting coin toss to the exhilarating winning touchdown! Rules, plays, and basics of the game are all explained using a fun mix of Sports Illustrated action photography, simple text with engaging graphics, and a full glossary of essential terms and phrases including punt, tackle, kickoff, end zone and more. An illustrated rookie player character also appears on every page, providing fun facts to help the next generation of fans better understand the game. Perfect for the youngest fans, My First Book of Football is meant to be a shared reading experience between parents and their rookies before, during, and after game day.
Covering individual teams (Hello, 1972 Miami Dolphins!) but also the best eras in famous teams’ history, such as the Patriots of the ’00s and the Steelers of the late 1970s, the editors at Sports Illustrated Kids dissect the best of the gridiron to show the whys and hows of team building, brilliant strategy, player combinations, and that special magic that the greatest teams have and which owners can’t buy—even if there weren’t a salary cap. Player profiles, stats and records, and thrilling narratives show the march to the Super Bowl and into history of America’s favorite spectator sport. Amazing photos, insider stories, and fun facts capture the cultural phenomenon that is football in the U.S.! The SI Kids editors won’t forget college ball! Picture the 2001 Miami Hurricanes cruising to the national title with a perfect season that was fun and full of swagger, displaying an absurd level of talent with six first-team All-Americans leading the way.
The best-selling book in Sports Illustrated Kids' Top 10 Lists series is newly revised and updated to include the best players of today! Presented in a fun format of Top 10 lists, 1st and 10 is a comprehensive look at how football players, old and new, stack up against each other with trivia and rankings of more than 30 different topics from the gridiron. Young sports fans are guaranteed to love the vibrant NFL action photos from the Sports Illustrated collection and the insider knowledge of Sports Illustrated Kids. Top 10 rankings include Greatest Rushers, Hardest Hitters, Trick Plays, Best Comebacks, Best Fans, and Touchdown Celebrations.
Big Book of WHO is a book your young sports fans will return to again and again! Football is a game of stars. From gridiron greats such as Joe Montana and Jim Brown to Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, this newly revised and updated edition of The Big Book of Who: Football is a collection of the 101 football stars every fan needs to know, past and present. Featuring the latest NFL photography and the most current information about football's best players, this Sports Illustrated Kids reference book for young sports fans is written in a fun and easy-to-navigate question and answer format. Player profiles, facts, and stats are organized into five comprehensive categories: Champions, Personalities, Record Breakers, Super Scorers and Yardage Kings.Completely redesigned to match the modern look of Sports Illustrated Kids, this fun collection of questions and answers will have kids stumping their friends and adult sports fans with their expert knowledge of football's brightest stars.
See how all aspects of football have evolved in this highly visual book filled with history and trivia about the game. You'll see a football transform before your eyes from a melon-like ball crudely stitched together to the aerodynamic pigskin it is today; or watch as a quarterback evolves from a scrawny helmetless player of the 1930s to a hulking play caller of the modern era. From rules to equipment to the all-time greats, this book is a journey through the game spanning the years
Introducing the Rookie Book series from the #1 sports brand for kids--featuring pro-sports action photography! SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS kicks off the football season with a brand-new series to help young readers learn the rules, plays, and basics about popular sports. In the first Rookie Book, My First Book of Football, an illustrated rookie player character introduces the next generation of fans to the world of football and guides kids through a visual retelling of an actual NFL game--from the nail-biting coin toss to the exhilarating winning touchdown. Simple text with engaging action photography and a glossary of essential football terms throughout, including punt, tackle, kickoff, end zone and more, reinforce the message on each page with humor and fun. A perfect book for beginning readers, My First Book of Football is meant to be a shared reading experience between parents and their young football rookies before, during, and after game day.
In the half-century since its birth, as Sports Illustrated grew from a struggling start-up to America's preeminent sports magazine, one thing has remained constant: the commitment to great storytelling. That part of the magazine's mission has always been easy to define: Identify the most compelling sports stories of our time and get the best writers in the business to tell them. This book brings together a lineup of writing talent worthy of the Hall of Fame and the classic stories they produced for Sports Illustrated over the past 50 years. Many of the writers whose work is collected here are longtime favorites of SI readers (Frank Deford, Rick Reilly, Steve Rushin, Gary Smith). Others are former SI staffers or contributors who left the fold, but not before making an indelible mark on SI's history (Dan Jenkins, Rick Telander, Mark Kram, Roy Blount Jr., William Nack). There are celebrated journalists (A.J. Liebling, Jimmy Breslin, George Plimpton), screenwriters (Budd Schulberg and Kenny Moore), renowned novelists (Thomas McGuane, Pete Dexter, Wallace Stegner, Don DeLillo) and even a couple of Nobel Prize winners in literature (William Faulkner and John Steinbeck). The stories themselves are a mirror of our times. Included in this volume are accounts of some of the most memorable athletic feats of our era (Secretariat's Belmont victory, the Thrilla in Manila, and Bobby Thomson's shot heard round the world). Profiles of the towering athletic figures of our time (Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Ted Williams and Johnny Unitas). Good guys (Yogi Berra and Harry Caray) and bad guys (Sonny Liston and Mike Tyson). The fast (Roger Bannister) and the furious (Dick Butkus). The ridiculous (Howard Cosell) and the sublime (Josh Gibson). And the stories that simply touch our hearts and inspire us (Frank Deford's masterpiece on light heavyweight champ Billy Conn). This is the very best of the world's best sports magazine ¾ and it just doesn't get any better than that.
- Stunning photography chronicles the sports world's most unforgettable game moments and the eccentric personalities that keep us entertained.- For the first time ever, Sports Illustrated gathers together all the craziest, weirdest and wildest photographs ever taken on a playing field.
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