Sports

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Profiles the life and career of Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, tracing his rise from the poverty of the inner city to the heights of the sports world. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Baseball, the sport that helped reunify the country in the years after the Civil War, remains the National Pastime. The Library of Congress houses the world's largest baseball collection, documenting the history of the game and providing a unique look at America since the late 1700s. Now Baseball Americana presents the best of the best from that treasure trove. From baseball's biggest stars to street urchins, from its most newsworthy stories to sandlot and Little League games, the book examines baseball's hardscrabble origins, rich cultural heritage, and uniquely American character. The more than 350 fabulous illustrations--many never before published--featured first-generation, vintage photographic and chromolithographic baseball cards; photographs of famous players and ballparks; and newspaper clippings, cartoons, New Deal photographs, and baseball advertisements.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. The author's humorous look at professional golf, it's stars and off-beat personalities. Mild soil to the dust jacket, no markings.

Hardcover. Toronto, Random House Of Canada, 1st Ltd. Ed., 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. This is the Limited Signed Edition (#450 of 500), AUTOGRAPHED BY BOBBY ORR & HENRI RICHARD on the prelim page under a color photo of them squaring off in the 1971 Stanley Cup quarter finals. The book has a bright dust jacket and is housed in a maroon cloth slipcase stamped in gilt. All clean and bright. The Spirit of the Game is the first photo book to organize the story of hockey both chronologically and thematically, cutting across simple time lines or team-by-team organization. It is also a book full of detail about how hockey has changed - from skates to TV cameras, from the rule book to the fans in the seats. Photos span 106 years from the Montreal AAA, Senior Amateur champions of 1889, to the New Jersey Devils, Stanley Cup champions of 1995.

Hardcover. Long Beach CA, Safari Press, reprint, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 294 pages, b&w illustrations. Originally published in 1904, it chronicles a hunting trip to several locations in Alaska, including sheep, bears, moose and more. Captain Radclyffe was an English gentleman-hunter who visited Alaska in 1903. He bagged Dall sheep on the Kenai Peninsula, back then a relatively new destination for sport hunting. He shot excellent brown bear and moose, one a 57-incher on Kussiloff Lake on the Alaska Peninsula. On his final bear hunt, a sow charged him and his native guide abandoned him. He was arrested for game law violations that prematurely ended his hunt for sheep, adding another interesting dimension to this well-written story. The charges against Radclyffe were later dismissed since he had an off-season permit to collect for the British Museum, but the authors partner was not so lucky. Radclyffe writes of how the judge enjoyed rubbing the dismissal into the face of the arresting marshal, and he paints a vivid picture of the interactions of the hunters, guides, and authorities. After all his troubles, he lost most of his trophies because of shipping problems related to the Russo-Japanese War. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, William Morrow, 2nd pr., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 256 pages, b&w illustrations. Hall of Famer Ford was the Yankee pitching ace in the 1950s and early 1960s, when the team frequently won the pennant. Raised in Queens, he was a quintessential New Yorker, and his well-publicized friendship with country boy Mickey Mantle made him seem the archetypal city slicker. Here he and New York Daily News columnist Pepe cover his diamond career, which was pretty much an uninterrupted triumph. Ford's lifetime winning percentage was .690, he played in 11 World Series and set the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in the series. There are also tales of his epoch-making carousing with Mantle and Billy Martin, his doctoring of baseballs and the greats he has known. Additionally, there is a warm introduction by pal Mantle. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Williams Book Store, reprint, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth with gilt lettering, 409 pages, b&w illustrations. A history of American firearms. Begins with a treatise advocating the personal possession of guns and rifles. Then describes hundreds of rifles with their images and technical details from the flint lock to carbines used against us. Also covers present manufacture and manufacturers, rifleman and much more. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Mariner Books, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 374 pages, b&w photos. Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as "Coach K," is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA's all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals. Through unprecedented access to Krzyzewski's best friends, closest advisers, fiercest adversaries, and generations of his players and assistants, three-time New York Times bestselling author Ian O'Connor takes you behind the Blue Devil curtain with a penetrating examination of the great but flawed leader as he closes out his iconic career. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st, 1988, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 406 pages. Angell's absorbing collection traces the highs and lows of major-league baseball in the 1980s. Roger Angell once again journeys through five seasons of America's national pastime -- chronicling the larger-than-life narratives and on-field intricacies of baseball from 1982 to 1987. Angell's collected "New Yorker" essays, written in his unique voice as a fan and baseball aficionado, cover the development of the game both on the diamond and off. While diving into subjects such as Sparky Anderson's '84 Detroit Tigers, the legendary 1986 World Series and the Curse of the Bambino, and the increasingly pervasive issue of player drug use, Angell reveals the craft and technique of the game, and the unforgettable stories of those who played it. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 278 pages, b&w illustrations. From the early days in Brooklyn to the champion Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the Sixties, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Don Drysdale's memoir recalls the great moments and players of Dodgers history. Verdi, Chicago Tribune columnist, has given Drysdale his own voice in this nostalgic look at Drysdale's career with the Dodgers organization, and the nature of the changes in the game. Drysdale's colorful anecdotes and opinions make for an informative, enjoyable book, as he describes his teammates (e.g., Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snyder), his bosses (Buzzie Bavasi, Walter Alston, Walter O'Malley), his style (including his "mean" nature in protecting the plate and his use of the spitball), and his broadcasting career. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY , Warner Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 288 pages, b&w illustrations. In the early 1950s, a rising star flickered across millions of black-and-white TV sets. Nicknamed "The Grey Ghost, " Native Dancer was a blue-blood thoroughbred with a taste for drama, courtesy of his come-from-behind running style, and impressive credits: He finished first in 21 of his 22 career starts, his only loss by a nose in the 1953 Kentucky Derby; was named Horse of the Year--twice; and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. His popularity was so great, Time® magazine put him on its cover, and TV Guide named him one of America's top three TV stars, along with Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Rockville Center, N.Y., Freshet Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 101 pages, with photographs. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf, minor dust jacket edge wear and fade, otherwise, clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Moffat, Yard and Co, 3rd, 1916, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 463 pages. Contains black & white photographs. Light soiling to covers.

Hardcover. New York, Villard, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 368 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Century Co., 2nd, 1911, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 453 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. A unique record of a sportsman's year among the northern most tribe. A rousing account of hunting bears, walrus, narwhals, and more in the Polar region of Alaska.. (C) 1910, b&w photos by author. Light stain to bottom front cover, otherwise VG.

Hardcover. Kansas City, Andrew McMeel Publishing, 2nd, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 159 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY SCOTT HAMILTON ON BOOKPLATE OPPOSITE Title Page. Dust jacket shows light rubbing and edge wear, internally tight and crisp. Color photographs throughout.

Hardcover. Spanish Fork UT, Hillcrest Publications, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 199 pages including an index of illustrations, appendices, text and extensive black and white photographs by Richard M. Grave as well as a section of 15 pages of color photographs. With an introduction by Raymond E. Baldwin. Edited by Ruth Wolfe. SIGNED BY MERKT on front fly leaf. "The first biography to document the life and work of the remarkable Charles E. "Shang" Wheeler (1872-1949), whose prize winning decoys set a standard of excellence equaled by few and surpassed by none." In a dust jacket that has light sun fading to spine.

Hardcover. NY, Sterling Publishing, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 274 pages. A brilliant array of major league baseball uniforms from 1900-1991 crowds the pages of this unique sports history. With its high proportion of full-color photographs, it's an invaluable resource for long-standing veterans of the game as well as recently converted devotees. The evolution of uniforms is fascinating to peruse. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In a stunning feat of meticulous reportage, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ben Cramer ultimately puts to rest the "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?" question with iconoclastic bravura. In Cramer's evaluation, the hero America held onto so desperately for so long was really a creation of a nation's communal imagination. The Joe DiMaggio that America tried so hard to believe in was never really here at all. There was, of course, a Joe DiMaggio, and he had a splendid career in Yankee pinstripes--once hitting safely in an unimaginable 56 consecutive games--and a troubled marriage with Marilyn Monroe, each augmenting the other in our national mythology. But myths tend to be skin-deep, and Cramer's biography thrives in an internal geography well below the surface. The map he charts is of a cold, small, often nasty, uncaring, resentful, self-centered man, a man of public grace and private misery who broke friendships, shunned family, and chased money with the same focused energies he once harnessed to run down fly balls.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant is recognized nationwide as one of the greatest coaches ever. So why did he always cite his 1-9 A&M team of 1954 as his favorite? This is the story of a remarkable team - and the beginning of the legend. The Junction Boys tells the story of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's legendary training camp in the small town of Junction, Texas. In a move that many consider the salvation of the Texas A&M football program, Coach Bryant put 115 players through the most grueling practices ever imagined. Only a handful of players survived the entire 10 days, but they braved the intense heat of the Texas sun and the burning passion of their coach, and turned a floundering team into one of the nation's best. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 307 pages, 16 page photo section. Veteran sportswriter Bill Reynolds reveals the man often called 'the Babe Ruth of basketball, ' the dazzling athlete who brought 'showtime basketball' to the NBA and changed the game forever. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 2nd pr., 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a edgeworn, chipped dust jacket. A spectator's guide. Illustrated with 62 black and white photographs. Second printing of the second American edition (revised and enlarged). Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Julian Messner, 1st, 1952, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly chipped dust jacket. 186 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Ballantine Books, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Daughter Vernona Gomez honors her late father with a well-researched biography of Yankee great Vernon "Lefty" Gomez. From the time he was a child Lefty wanted to be a baseball player. His strength was in his determination to achieve his goal while at the same time being a willing learner from those who had knowledge to pass on to him. In other words he was coachable and aware of his limitations. Gomez played during the heyday of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and later Joe DiMaggio. Lefty was The Yankee Clipper's roommate for several years, and taught the quiet DiMaggio life in the big leagues. The book provides numerous anecdotes of the Yankee greats of this time period which enrich the book a great deal. Gomez was there when Ruth supposedly called his "shot" in Wrigley Field during the 1932 World Series. He was also there when Gehrig was stricken with illness and had to prematurely retire from the game. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Library of America, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 594 pages. W. C. Heinz (1915-2008) was one of the most distinctive and influential sportswriters of the last century. Though he began his career as a newspaper reporter, Heinz soon moved beyond the confines of the daily column, turning freelance and becoming the first sportwriter to make his living writing for magazines. In doing so he effectively invented the long-form sports story, perfecting a style that paved the way for the New Journalism of the 1960s. His profiles of the top athletes of his day still feel remarkably current, written with a freshness of perception, a gift for characterization, and a finely tuned ear for dialogue. Jimmy Breslin named Heinz's 'Brownsville Bum"a brief life of Al 'Bummy" Davis, Brooklyn street tough and onetime welterweight champion of the world'the greatest magazine sports story I've ever read, bar none." His spare and powerful 1949 column, 'Death of a Race Horse," has been called a literary classic, a work of clarity and precision comparable to Hemingway at his best. Remainder dot to bottom edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 316 pages. "A manager's-eye view of the agonies and ecstasies of the '85 Mets--from way inside!. 'Bats,' written with bestselling coauthor Peter Golenbock, reveals Johnson's stinging opinions on the state of the game, on umpires, opposing players, other managers, and the press." Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Flatiron Books, 2nd pr., 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 389 pages. Traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants-all members of Baseball's Hall of Fame. They were Bill Veeck, the eccentric and visionary owner of the team; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken hard-hitting pioneer who shattered stereotypes that many Americans had of black ballplayers; ace pitcher Bob Feller who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues too long excluded from professional baseball because of his skin color. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Chicago, Follett Publishing, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 305 pages, b&w illustrations. In this edition, Honig interviews player-managers Ossie Bluege, Roger Peckinpaugh, and Hall of Famers Burleigh Grimes and Al Lopez, among others. This time, you read the stories of a manager's point of view as well, which is very interesting. This book is about a rookie third baseman coming up the line to tag out a lumbering Ty Cobb. About Early Wynn just walking into a tryout camp and announcing himself. About how the Chicago White Sox didn't always play to win in 1919-20. One of the more memorable parts is Roger Peckinpaugh reflecting on how the illiterate Shoeless Joe Jackson had to listen to what his teammates ordered for dinner first because he could not read the menu. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Chapel Hill NC, Algonquin Books, 2nd pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 436 pages, b&w photos. The author offers the reader a fascinating window into the Georgia Peach's life and times when the then, dying Cobb, hired him in 1960, to ghost write his autobiography. It was from those months that came "My Life in Baseball," a carefully sanitized justification for Cobb's life and career. This book, however, includes the darker side of Cobb's life in an authoritative and compelling account of this sports legend. Remainder X on bottom edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday and Co., 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, chipped dust jacket, $4.95 on the flap. 315 pages with b&w illustrations. Informal profiles by this former sportswriter of some of the stars of the "Golden Decade" of the 1920s - in boxing, tennis, baseball, football, golf - including Bobby Jones, Babe Ruth, Gertrude Ederle, Gene Tunney, Helen Wills, Ty Cobb, Jack Dempsey, Knute Rockne and many more. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan , 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Account of major league baseball during World War II when all its talent had been stripped by the armed forces. Illustrated with 101 photographs. 290 pages. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light gray cloth stamped in black. 144 pages, b&w drawings by Paul Brown. Clean, tight copy. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, Reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 302 pages. Hardcover. Black & white illustrations throughout. Dust jacket with only minor shelf wear. Clean, unmarked text.

Hardcover. Fairfax, VA, National Rifle Association, reprint, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 306 pages, illustrated throughout in b/w. Red embossed faux leather with gilt title and decor, all edges gilt, red ribbon marker. Clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Paris, Arthaud, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 111 pages, illustrated with b&w and color gravure photos. SIGNED BY BOTH HERZOG AND ICHAC on front fly leaf. With a double-page map laid in. Softcover very good with a color illustrated dust jacket with light edgewear.

Hardcover. Exton PA, Schiffer Publishing, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 271 pages. Black and white and color photos throughout. A history and study of the making and use of duck decoys along the Mississippi flyway, looking at makers in regions such as Canada, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Hardcover. NY, Random House , 2nd pr., 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 421 pages. Taylor offers a vivid account of the fledgling days of the National Basketball Association and the intense competition between two of its biggest early stars: Bill Russell (of the Boston Celtics) and Wilt Chamberlain (of the Philadelphia 76ers). While both players were dominant men who anchored their respective teams, their personalities differed greatly. The quiet, reflective Russell turned a serendipitous showing in front of a scout into a legendary career largely through willpower and hard work, while the outgoing Chamberlain was a much more naturally gifted athlete whose skills drew attention and offers while he was barely a teenager. Taylor highlights this distinction, asking, "[C]ould determination trump talent?" Along with examining the physical and psychological battles between the two, Taylor depicts the NBA's raucous nature in the 1950s and '60s, when fights between players were frequent, and the brash Celtics coach Red Auerbach was routinely pelted with rotten tomatoes, lit cigars and eggs. Looking at everything, from each player's private demons to the racially charged era in which they competed, Taylor's book is by turns an intimate profile and a spirited look at the foundation of modern professional basketball. Mild soiling to text block, no markings.

Hardcover. NY, Warner Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with mild fading to spine.

Hardcover. Chicago, Adams Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Black and white photos. Text illustrations. An excellent guide to fishing the lakes and river using a variety of methods. The book is bound in green cloth with black titles. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Crown, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. 302 pages, b&w illustrations. Foreword by Larry Bird. A vivid, true-to-life portrait of a living legend whose career spaned the history of the NBA. He molded the most successful franchise in the history of American sport, and through the stars he acquired and nurtured he changed the face of professional basketball.

Hardcover. NY, Random House , 2nd pr., 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. "An irreverent, roguish account of Karras's and Gordy's lives as football players, full of reminiscence and nostalgia, often tempered by frievance, but always with an underlying humor- "as if their occupations were only acceptable in that light." The result is a vivid look at a brutal world, peppered with Karras's fantasies, Gordy's anecdotes and badinage, and the acute visual and aural observations of the author, a reporter whose effortless style makes comedy out of a world of violence and pain."Clean copy.

Cleveland, World Publishing Company, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 240 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean, tight copy of this history of the professional football team from it's founding by taxicab magnet Arther McBride to the championship season of 1964.

Hardcover. Boston, Waverly House, 1st, 1948, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in an edgeworn and chipped dust jacket. Excellent history of the Boston Braves written after their '48 Pennant Year. 224 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. Baltimore, Racquet Sports Information Service, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth stamped in gold color in a matching slipcase. Number 550 out of 750. The second English edition of the work. Originally published in French in 1767 and translated into English by Catherine W. Leftwich in 1938. With a frontispiece and 5 plates to the rear. This work discusses how to make tennis rackets and talks about the sport itself. At the time of it's original creation, this work was considered to be one of the most detailed works on the game of tennis. Inscription on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw's New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe's life was a struggle against the odds. As a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he encountered duplicitous authorities who turned away from him when their reputations were at risk. At Carlisle, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth. Clean, like new.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Potomac Books, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 270 pages, b&w illustrations. As the first great Jewish player in the major leagues and the first African American to play major-league baseball during the twentieth century, respectively, Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson are forever linked because of the barriers they encountered, the discrimination they endured, the athletic gifts they exhibited, and especially the courage and dignity they displayed. Both suffered ridicule and abuse as they participated in the national pastime. Nevertheless, each excelled. Greenberg became one of the preeminent sluggers of the 1930s and 1940s who took a break from baseball to serve in the war. Robinson, from the mid-1940s into the following decade, helped bring back speed and a thinking man's approach to the game, both of which had largely been discarded for a generation. Two Pioneers presents these remarkable players' experiences while competing in a nation that was deeply divided on social issues such as anti-Semitism and racism. Both men earned nearly as much attention off the field as they did on it. Greenberg called into question the idea of a "master race" as Adolf Hitler rose to power and gained supporters all over the world. Likewise, Robinson contested racial notions regarding the supposed inferiority of people of African ancestry, even though segregationists proved determined to maintain social barriers separating blacks and whites. It is only fitting that when Robinson finally crossed baseball's color line, Greenberg was one of the first players to welcome him publicly. Robert Cottrell's well-researched work shows how two baseball superstars became important figures in the civil rights crusade to ensure that all Americans, no matter their religion or race, are given equal opportunity. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, BC Ed., 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 349 pages, b&w photos. One of the most endearing of American heroes, Casey Stengel guided the New York Yankees to ten pennants in twelve seasons. Here is the brilliant manager stripped naked--the person underneath all the clowning, mugging, and double-talking. Robert Creamer shows us Casey at twenty-two, famous from his very first day in the big leagues. We see Casey's playing career fall apart as he is traded, shunted to last-place teams, hampered by injuries, considered finished--until he bats a glorious home run in the 1923 World Series. Here are Casey's managing successes and failures--dismissed by the Yankees, he returns to the limelight with his new and inept New York Mets, the team he single-handedly lifts into the nation's consciousness. Clean copy, like new.

Hardcover. UK, Sutton Publishing, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 244 pages, b&w photos. In 1908 talented black US fighter Jack Johnson won the heavyweight championship of the world from the Canadian Tommy Burns. There was an immediate storm of protest. Writers, including Jack London, and politicians feared the accession of the fearless and outspoken Johnson would threaten white supremacy. It was predicted that his reign would lead to civic unrest and race riots. Over the next seven years, more than 30 white fighters tried to beat Jackson, lured by the prospect of fame and a quick buck. It was not until 1915 that Jackson lost his crown, and during the years in between an extraordinary human drama was played out on the boxing world stage. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Library of America , 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 560 pages. Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was the most widely read sports writer of the last century and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. From the 1940s to the 1980s, his nationally syndicated columns for the New York Herald Tribune and later for The New York Times traversed the world of sports with literary panache and wry humor. "I've always had the notion," Smith once said, "that people go to spectator sports to have fun and then they grab the paper to read about it and have fun again." Now, writer and editor (and inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball) Daniel Okrent presents the best of Smith's inimitable columns--miniature masterpieces that remain the gold standard in sports writing. Clean copy.

Softcover. Boston, Appalachian Mountain Club, 1st, 1926, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pages 420-567. Bulletin for December, 1926.Articles on mountain climbing, b&w photos and 2 fold out maps,(Glacier Bay and The Fairweather Range, A Guide to Asnebumsket Hill), Winter Climbing in the Alps, Mt. Everest, others. Covers with light soil otherwise clean.