Vintage & Collectible Sports Books

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. Yokyo Japan, Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 168 pages. Hardcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Signed letter by Chairman of the Board presenting book to previous owner inserted. Very clean inside and out. Covered by plastic bookcover/sleeve.

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.

Softcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st pbk, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 362 pages. INSCRIBED BY BURGOS on the title page. Although largely ignored by historians of both baseball in general and the Negro leagues in particular, Latinos have been a significant presence in organized baseball from the beginning. In this benchmark study on Latinos and professional baseball from the 1880s to the present, Adrian Burgos tells a compelling story of the men who negotiated the color line at every turn-passing as "Spanish" in the major leagues or seeking respect and acceptance in the Negro leagues. Burgos draws on archival materials from the U.S., Cuba, and Puerto Rico, as well as Spanish- and English-language publications and interviews with Negro league and major league players. He demonstrates how the manipulation of racial distinctions that allowed management to recruit and sign Latino players provided a template for Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager Branch Rickey when he initiated the dismantling of the color line by signing Jackie Robinson in 1947. Burgos's extensive examination of Latino participation before and after Robinson's debut documents the ways in which inclusion did not signify equality and shows how notions of racialized difference have persisted for darker-skinned Latinos like Orestes ("Minnie") Minoso, Roberto Clemente, and Sammy Sosa. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Tempo Books, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback. 206 pages. Minor shelf wear.

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Years of watching the Boston Red Sox baseball team playing at Fenway Park with his father, grandfather, and then his son, allows Higgins to talk about the simple game, so difficult to play.

Hardcover. NY, Praeger Publishers, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Foreword by Wilfrid Sheed. IIlustrated with photographs. Statistics. 274 pages. Biography of one of the greatest baseball player in the game. Roberto Clemente was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. Clean copy.

Softcover. Jefferson NC, McFarland & Company, reprint, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages, b&w illustrations. Harry Ellard's Base Ball in Cincinnati, published in 1907, is an invaluable resource for those interested in the early years of professional baseball and the city that was its hometown. Ellard was uniquely positioned to write the definitive book on this topic: as a Cincinnati journalist, he knew of and consulted the best photographs and documents relating to the Cincinnati Club, and had the cooperation of several Red Stockings players. Readers will find information on stand-out clubs and games, and many of the important men who were instrumental to early baseball in Cincinnati and so to professional baseball in general. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Rockville Centre NY, Freshet Press, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, chipped dust jacket. Profusely illustrated in b&w + 4 pages in color: line drawings, photos, & paintings. viii. + 96pp. + 20 pages of patterns in blue ink folow the text. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR opposite the title page.

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. NY, McGraw-Hill, 2nd pr., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 212 pages. Small notation on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, BC Ed., 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 268 pages. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographs. "In the poised, outspoken style that typifies his career as one of baseball's fiercest competitors and a superstar of the modern era, Frank Robinson recounts in this book his remarkable and dramatic experience as the first black manager in the history of the major leagues. Written in collaboration with Dave Anderson, the renowned sports columnist of The New York Times, Frank is both the essence of baseball and a document that transcends sports: an intimate, superbly detailed record of the business of managing men on the playing field and a revelation of one man on a spot no one ever occupied before him." Copyright page states first edition but lack of price on dust jacket tells us it's a Book Club. Embossed stamp on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

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, Horowitz and Harkness, 1st Ltd. Ed., 1942, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 242 pages, red cloth covers with black and gilt design. SIGNED BY MARSHALL on limitation page, #461 of 500 copies. Marshall was United States Chess Champion from 1909 to 1936. B&W illustrations, clean, tight copy with a few minor scratches to front cover.

Softcover. Australia, David Jones, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Non-Paginated. Spiral bound. Black & white photographs of swimmers involved in the 'Bondi Icebergs' club of Australia. Previous owners inscription on front endpaper. Minor wear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York , Crown Publishers, Inc., 5th printing, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 184 pages. Preface by Joe Brooks. Hundreds of drawings, eight pages in full color. Black cloth cover, oversized, minor wear to edges. Dust jacket has some wear to edges and corners. Clean, unmarked 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. Silver City NM, High-Lonesome Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 219 pages, b&w illustrations. There is abundant information in this book about catfishing and other outdoor sports. But there is much more. There is insight into people met along the way on the author's journey around the country, into the author himself and his family, into our society in the nineties and its apparently weakening ties to all things natural. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 306 pages, b&w photos. Chronicling the season that brought New York its first NBA title, the story of the New York Knicks, its players, general manager Eddie Donovan, and coach Red Holtzman follows their notable winning streak and difficult play-off challenges. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Urbana IL, University of Illinois Press, 2nd pr., 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 327 pages, b&w photos. An extraordinarily gifted athlete, Babe Didrikson Zaharias starred in track and field and won three Olympic medals in 1932. She picked up golf late yet quickly dominated the women's sport. She also competed in baseball, bowling, basketball, and tennis. Interviews with members of Babe's family, peers, and others inform Susan E. Cayleff's story of the athlete and the difficulties she faced as a woman trying to be her own person. The American public was smitten with Babe's wit, frankness, and "unladylike" bravado. But members of the press insinuated that her femininity, even her femaleness, were suspect. Cayleff looks at how Babe used her androgyny and athleticism to promote herself before crafting a more marketable female persona for golf. She also explores Babe's role as a cofounder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA); her marriage to George Zaharias and their partnership in shaping her career; her romantic relationship with fellow golfer Betty Dodd; and her courageous public fight against cancer. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2nd pr., 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Blending biography and social history, this portrait of one of the first Black Americans to win fame and respect in the twentieth century draws on new interview material and translations from German press coverage. 330 pages, b&w illustrations.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. "...identifies the many economic pressures exerted on the game today and measures their effects both on the field and in the ticket office. He presents a detailed and original analysis of traditional baseball performance statistics from slugging to fielding and draws on a wealth of previously unpublished data divulged in recent collusion suits. At the heart of the controversy are the disparate claims of owners, who say they are loosing money and stay on only out of love for the game, and players, who insist they are being exploited by owner reaping huge profits."

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.

Softcover. Fairbanks AK, Pristine Publishing, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 205 pages, b&w illustrations, maps. A powerful collection of field data backed up by 17 years of hunting experience. This book is a well-organized, extensive reference overflowing with impressive hunting techniques and insights to wildlife behavior which are essential to your success as a float hunter. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Harrisburg PA, The Stackpole Company, 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 287 pages. Pictorial endpapers. Maroon cover with gilt lettering and affixed picture of a hunter in bright color. Black-and-white illustrations throughout by Fred Everett and four color illustrations in addition to the frontispiece. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Guilford,CT, The Lyons Press, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 492 pages. Here for the baseball fan, in one comprehensive volume, are Lardner's finest writings about baseball during its golden age. Out of a column written for The Saturday Evening Post evolved his most famous work, You Know Me, Al, which introduced the world to the bush-league pitcher Jack Keefe. Lardner's skills as the finest American humorist since Mark Twain are on full display in the stories "My Roomy," "Horseshoes," "Alibi Ike," and "The Yellow Kid." Also included are his outstanding journalistic pieces about the Chicago Black Sox World Series scandal of 1919 that chronicle his struggle to come to grips with a national betrayal, the memory of which still scars the sport to this day. LARDNER ON BASEBALL is a full, diverse, and exciting collection of works from a legendary writer who transformed a simple game into the stuff of great literature. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Halberstam, a lifeling fan of the game, explores the world of professional basketball as he spends the 1979-80 season travelling with the Portland Trail Blazers. Light fading to dj spine, remainder stamp to bottom edge.

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.

Hardcover. Portsmouth NH, Dartmouth Outing Club/Peter Randall, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 253 pages, illustrated with b&w photographs. Foreword by David Bradley. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR on the half title page.

Hardcover. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2nd pr., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. SIGNED BY BILL SMITH on title page. 194 pages. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. Greenwich, CT, New York Graphic Society Ltd. & Wallynn, Inc., 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcovers, 2 volumes in slipcase, 224 pages (each volume), illustrated in b&w and color. Green covers with gilt lettering. Small tear to slipcase. Very clean, tight copies.

Hardcover. West Chester, PA, Schiffer Publishing, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 168 pages. Hardcover with light edgewear to dust jacket. Red leather boards with gilt illustration of duck and lettering on front. light foxing to underneath dust jacket rear. Color pictures throughout. Tight copy. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf.

Hardcover. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1st Edition, 1892, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 248 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Light brown cloth cover boards, with 3 color plus gilt illustration on front cover, title in gilt on spine (slightly faded). Original owner's name on front flyleaf with date of acquisition (1893). Split at gutter at page after flyleaf. Binding still very good. Pages unmarked, with some slight tanning.

Softcover. Barre MA, National Ski Association of America, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 256 pages. First Edition Original pictorial staple-bound wrappers. Light cover wear, no writing or marks on pages, solid binding, b&w illustrations, many great period ads. Book has a mild musty odor. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Workman Publishing, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 288 pages, b&w illustrations and photos throughout. INSCRIBED BY PHILLIPS on the front fly leaf. Covers show light wear, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in "Clemente", a book destined to become a modern classic. 401 pages, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Putnam, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. Describes how an unheralded New York horse--trained by a journeyman, ridden by a hard-luck jockey, and owned by a tiny stable founded by a group of high-school buddies from Sackets Harbor--beat the champions and their multimillionaire owners to sweep to the brink of the Triple Crown.

Brattleboro VT, Stephen Greene Press, 2nd pr., 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. Essays on Boston's favorite athletes: Ted Williams, Bob Cousy, Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Hull and others. 248 pages, b&w illustrations. Short inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Simon and Schuster , 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 256 pages, b&w photos. This is the book that launched Phil Berger's career. Controversial upon its publication 30 years ago, it freezes in time that great Knicks team. Willis Reed in his glory, Holzman at his best, Bradley struggling with his own popularity. The nerdy young Phil Jackson envious of that popularity. There's enough wry humor, revelation and wisdom to qualify "Miracle" as a treasure. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, McGraw Hill, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 270 pages, b&w illustrations. This work has been prepared as a loving remembrance by the Brown Bomber's son. Joe Louis is known in history as the legend who knocked out Max Schmelling in round one of their fight in 1938. Joe's son gives full character to the man of myth and history with many details and recollections from the champ's contemporaries. There is a complete boxing record, list of contributors, bibliography, plus photographs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly chipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY CO-AUTHOR AL HIRSHBERG on front fly leaf. The autobiography of the great sports announcer who went from the Boston Red Sox to become a national television sports announcer and commentator.

Softcover. Laurel MD, Den's Collector's Den, 1st, 1979, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 156 pages illustrated in b&w and color. Paper spine reinforced with clear tape. Otherwise clean copy.