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, 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. Urbana IL, University of Illinois Press, 2nd pr., 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 465 pages, index, biographical essay, b&w photos and illustrations, Biography of Catholic Irish-American boxer John Lawrence Sullivan. Clean, bright copy in a similar dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York , Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, Many B&w photos of Travolta working out. Old ink price "whited out" on front fly leaf, otherwise very good.

Softcover. Bloomington, IN, Author House, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 161 pages. Softcover with light edgewear to paper wrappers. Black and white pictures throughout. Tight and clean copy.

Softcover. Jefferson NC, McFarland & Company, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 157 pages. In late 1922, Judge Emil Fuchs purchased the woebegone Boston Braves--primarily to bring his ailing friend, Christy Mathewson, back into the game he loved so much. A true fan, Judge Fuchs poured his fortune into the team, intent on giving Boston's long-suffering National League fans a winner. He introduced Ladies' Days, contracted to have Braves games broadcast on radio, and successfully campaigned to allow Sunday baseball in Boston. Moreover, he gave the fans a competitive team, climaxed by the Braves' dramatic pennant race with the New York Giants in 1933.

Hardcover. New York , Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 7th printing, 1950, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 306 pages, b&w photos. Light wear, rubbing and sunning to dust jacket. Book itself is very good.

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, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 128 pages illustrated with b&w photos. "Here is the first guide to show jumping designed especially for young riders who are drawn to this fast-growing sport, either as a future profession or as an absorbing hobby. Judy Crago ushers the novice in to the exciting world of show jumping with a complete program of instruction that begins with preparation for that first jump and finishes with advice on competing at the international level. The author schools the young rider in: caring for his or her first jumping horse or pony and the principles of riding him; training onj the flat for position, style, and balance; working with trotting poles and small obstacles; and riding different kinds of fences and courses." Introduction by Bertalan de Nemethy.

Hardcover. Tokyo/NY, Kodansha International, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 256 pages. Nineteen kata ("forms") of karate, the art of self-defense without weapons, are presented here in complete detail. They are the ones selected by the great master and teacher, Gichin Funakoshi, to give comprehensive training in Karate-do, the way of karate. Fully illustrated demonstrations by the translator cover not only every technique of the kata but also the fundamentals and applications: how to make a fist; the correct form of the open hand; preliminary training in blocking, striking and kicking; the seven stances; and sparring. The author presents, besides kata that he himself originated, beginning and advanced kata from both the Shorei school and the Shorin school, the former remarkable for their forcefuless and development of strength, the latter characterized by their gracefulness and lightning swiftness. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Tokyo/NY, Kodansha International, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 119 pages, b&w illustrations. Karate-do Nyumon literally means a passage through the gates of the Karate way--in other words, an introduction to the world of Karate. Karate-do Nyumon is the result of Master Funakoshi's wish to clarify Karate thought and practice for those who know nothing about it. It comprises unpublished writings from the years before his death in 1957, together with simplified kata--sequences of movements--synthesized by Funakoshi from the traditional Okinawa Karate-do kata, for beginners.Master Funakoshi begins by exploding some of the myths of Karate- "Karate-do is a noble martial art, and the reader can rest assured that those who take pride in breaking boards or smashing tiles, or who boast of being able to perform outlandish feats like stripping flesh or plucking out ribs, really know nothing about karate. They are playing around in the leaves and branches of a great tree, without the slightest concept of the trunk." Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 233 pages, b&w photos. The greatest basketball player in history tells the dramatic story of his final seasons in the game. A revealing self-portrait by one of the most intriguing sports heroes. This richly detailed book describes the 1988-89 NBA season (his last).

Hardcover. Washington, D.C., National Rifle Association of America, 1st, 1924, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 124 pages plus 6 page reference index. Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY EDITOR KENDRICK SCOFIELD ON FRONT ENDPAPER. Black & white photographs and illustrations throughout. Gilt title and decoration on blue cover. Corner and edge wear and fray, minor foxing throughout. Rubbing along spine and edges of blue cloth covers. Unmarked pages and text.

Softcover. Amherst MA, University of Massachusetts Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 323 pages, b&w illustrations. Award-winning sportswriter Marty Dobrow examines the lives of six minor leaguers-Brad Baker, Doug Clark, Manny Delcarmen, Randy Ruiz, Matt Torra, and Charlie Zink-all struggling to make their way to "The Show." What links them together, aside from their common goal, is that they are all represented by the same team of agents-Jim and Lisa Masteralexis and their partner Steve McKelvey-whose own aspirations parallel those of the players they represent. The story begins during spring training in 2005 and ends in the fall of 2008, followed by a brief epilogue that updates each player's fortunes through the 2009 season. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Grosset & Dunlap, 1st, 1931, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a unclipped dust jacket with fading to spine. "Here is Rock as his players knew him, the builder of men and the builder of teams. Here are the methods he used, the wizardry that made Notre Dame the outstanding name in football. Here are the inside stories of the hardest games, the greatest victories, the astounding upsets of the Fighting Irish. And here are the secrets of the Rockne system which produced not only great teams not only at Notre dame but from coast to coast as his men and others carried on." Clean copy.

Hardcover. Los Angeles, World Hapkido Federation, 2nd pr., 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 300 pages, b&w illustrations. First published in 1976. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Pussan Korea, World Kuk Sool Won Association , reprint, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 96 pages illustrated in b&w. Clean copy.

Hardcover. East Petersburg PA, Fox Chapel Publishing, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Cigar box labels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were not only amusing and beautiful to admire, they were a testament to the printing process of chromolithography and an important precursor to today's methods of product advertising. Labeling America: Popular Culture on Cigar Box Labels showcases the unique collection of John Grossman which covers 90 years of cigar box labels and bands printed by four generations of George Schlegel Lithographers. What makes this archive unique is that the Schlegel Company kept meticulous sample albums and files showing an unbroken record of American graphic style evolution. The work of many other lithographers of that era either destroyed or irreversibly dispersed their work.Now housed at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, the carefully cataloged Grossman collection gives a glimpse into life at the turn of the century, when over 5 billion cigars were being sold in the United States via boxes with colorful labels depicting everything from women, animals, and sports icons to actors, heroes, and political figures. This book takes these beautifully printed slices of American culture and combines them with the history of chromolithography into an interesting story of America's changing tastes. 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. Chicago, Masters Press, 3rd pr., 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 328 pages, b&w photos. Even without his masterful debut as coach of the 1997-1998 Indiana Pacers, Larry Bird's brilliant, gutsy career with the Boston Celtics--three NBA championship rings and a trio of Most Valuable Player trophies--cries out for celebration and reassessment. He was a dominant player, a thinking player who controlled the game as much with his leadership as his keen passing, tough "D," and the soft touch of his jumper. In Larry Legend, Shaw interweaves chapters of Bird's biography with chapters chronicling his Coach of the Year season to create a hybrid volume; rather than do both well, he does both adequately. Everything is here--Bird's French Lick, Indiana, childhood; why he left Bobby Knight and the Indiana University pressure cooker for lower profile Indiana State; the glory years with the Celtics; the rivalry with Magic Johnson; the back problems; and the ways he re-created the Pacers in his own court-burned image. Clean copy.

Hardcover. US, Good Morning Publishing Co., na, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 320 pages, numerous b&w photos. INSCRIBED by author on front end paper. Clean, tight copy. You may have seen "Hoosiers" ... But you've never hear the real story!. It was a shot that changed the game of basketball, captivated people from all walks of life, and inspired one of the most beloved films of the 20th century. It was the shot made by Bobby Plump in the 1954 Indiana High School Athletic Association boys' basketball championship. And it's the centerpiece of one of the greatest sports stories of all time.

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, Harcourt, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 302 pages. Celebrated Author Roger Angell has warmly Inscribed to an friend and signed on the title page ("For Carl - All best, Roger Angell ". The book contains the childhood baseball recollections from America's premier observer of the world of baseball and life. Angell was the long time contributor to The New Yorker. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. US, Tafnews Press, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 182 pages. B&w illustrations throughout. Includes appendix of race statistics. Clean, tight copy.