Enjoyable Sports Books

[tuq]

Seven Seconds Or Less, by Jack McCallum, who is SI's lead NBA writer. Chronicles the 2007-2008 NBA champion Phoenix Suns' 2005-2006 season, when injuries to Amare Stoudemire, Kurt Thomas, and Raja Bell derailed what would have been a sure championship season in most interesting fashion. Good stuff.

[Hobbs.]

JoA beat me to it. Ball Four is my favorite sports book hands down.

[Kramer.]

Education of a Coach, by David Halberstam (RIP)

[Anacardo]

Just go down that SI Top 100 list. I did. You won't regret it.

Their #1, The Sweet Science, is very, very good, though I had to dig a copy out of the University of Texas Archives.

[hyde]

[ QUOTE ]
JoA beat me to it. Ball Four is my favorite sports book hands down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Smoke him inside
Let's go pound some Budwieser
Good hands

I read that book 20+ years ago and still use these quotes. Of course I'm the only one who knows what the hell I'm talking about. But I crack myself up.

[ThaSaltCracka]

The two I have read most recently

Pistol, which is about Pistol Pete Maravich, which for any NBA fan is a must read IMO.

Fever Pitch, which is about one mans obsession with Arsenal Football Club, which is hilarious and very interesting into the physche of male sports fans.

[BretWeir]

[ QUOTE ]
Just go down that SI Top 100 list. I did. You won't regret it.

Their #1, The Sweet Science, is very, very good, though I had to dig a copy out of the University of Texas Archives.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's been reissued and you can get it on Amazon now. I just started reading it, and so far it's very good.

Another vote for "Ball Four." Two other good baseball books in the same vein are "The Bronx Zoo" by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock (about the Billy Martin era Yankees) and "Seasons in Hell" by Mike Shropshire (about the Whitey Herzog/Billy Martin era Rangers).

[Tyler Durden]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Next Man Up by John Feinstein. I read it last week and it is [censored] awesome. It's about the 2004 Ravens from the draft and through training camp all the way to the season's final snap. I hate the Ravens but this book is [censored] great.

Feinstein's A Good Walk Spoiled (about golf) is also a really really great book.

I read some of The GM in a bookstore a couple weeks ago. It's about Ernie Accorsi, the ex-Giants general manager and it was very good.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]

Fever Pitch, which is about one mans obsession with Arsenal Football Club, which is hilarious and very interesting into the physche of male sports fans.

[/ QUOTE ]

I resisted mentioning Hornby's "Fever Pitch" because the OP specifically mentioned sports he was interested in and association football was not one of them, and the But you have to thread is still fresh in the 2+2 memory.

But really, Hornby's book is worthwhile for any fan who has ever lived and died with a team over the course of multiple seasons. As a sports fan, you'll get the book, even if you don't recognize the teams, players, and events.

[GrowingPains]

This is about gambling and sports. I really enjoyed it.