Hardcover. NY, Harper, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In this definitive biography, veteran sportswriter Tom Callahan shines a spotlight on one of the greatest golfers ever to play the game, Arnold Palmer. The winner of more than ninety championships, including four Masters Tournaments, Arnold Palmer was a legend in twentieth century sports: a supremely gifted competitor beloved for his powerful hitting, his nerve on the greens, and his great rapport with fans. Perhaps above all others, Palmer was the reason golf's popularity exploded, as the King of the links helped define golf's golden age along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Hardcover. New York, Ticknor & Fields, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 282 pages, illustrated throughout with vintage b&w photos, documenting the Yankee star's career. Small nick to dust jacket along fore-edge, light edgewear, otherwise very good.

Hardcover. NY, Walker Books, 1st, 2012, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 434 pages, b&w photos. William Louis "Bill" Veeck, Jr. (1914-1986) is legendary in many ways-baseball impresario and innovator, independent spirit, champion of civil rights in a time of great change. Paul Dickson has written the first full biography of this towering figure, in the process rewriting many aspects of his life and bringing alive the history of America's pastime. In his late 20s, Veeck bought into his first team, the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. After serving and losing a leg in WWII, he bought the Cleveland Indians in 1946, and a year later broke the color barrier in the American League by signing Larry Doby, a few months after Jackie Robinson-showing the deep commitment he held to integration and equal rights. Cleveland won the World Series in 1948, but Veeck sold the team for financial reasons the next year. He bought a majority of the St. Louis Browns in 1951, sold it three years later, then returned in 1959 to buy the other Chicago team, the White Sox, winning the American League pennant his first year. Ill health led him to sell two years later, only to gain ownership again, 1975-1981. Veeck's promotional spirit-the likes of clown prince Max Patkin and midget Eddie Gaedel are inextricably connected with him-and passion endeared him to fans, while his feel for the game led him to propose innovations way ahead of their time, and his deep sense of morality not only integrated the sport but helped usher in the free agency that broke the stranglehold owners had on players. (Veeck was the only owner to testify in support of Curt Flood during his landmark free agency case). Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick is a deeply insightful, powerful biography of a fascinating figure.

Hardcover. NY, The Dial Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, lightly soiled, price-clipped dust jacket, 308 pages. Bo Belinsky was one of the true characters of the early 1960s - a major league baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, who capitalized on movie star good looks, playing in LA and a no-hitter to achieve a notoriety that, as it turned out, was never justified by his on-the-field baseball accomplishments. This is his story: Read all about the no-hitter, Bo and the actress, Mamie Van Doren, Bo and The Playboy Playmate. Tame now, somewhat scandalous then, the writer Steven Travers calls this one of the best baseball books ever written.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 516 pages includes index, b&w photos. Neil Lanctot's biography of Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella--filled with surprises--is the first life of the Dodger great in decades and the most authoritative ever published. Born to a father of Italian descent and an African- American mother, Campanella wanted to be a ballplayer from childhood but was barred by color from the major leagues. He dropped out of school to play professional ball with the Negro Leagues' Washington (later Baltimore) Elite Giants, where he honed his skills under Hall of Fame catcher Biz Mackey. Campy played eight years in the Negro Leagues until the major leagues integrated. Ironically, he and not Jackie Robinson might have been the player to integrate baseball, as Lanctot reveals. An early recruit to Branch Rickey's "Great Experiment" with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Campy became the first African-American catcher in the twentieth century in the major leagues. As Lanctot discloses, Campanella and Robinson, pioneers of integration, had a contentious relationship, largely as a result of a dispute over postseason barnstorming. 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. 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.

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, 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.

Chicago, Triumph Books, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 388 pages illustrated with b&w and color photos. The autobiography of one of hockey's first rebels and a beloved member of the "Big Bad Bruins," this book shares how Derek Sanderson's ferocious style helped lead the team to two Stanley Cup victories in the early 1970s. Living life in the fast lane, Sanderson grew his hair long, developed a serious drinking problem, and eventually found himself out of the league and prowling the streets for his next drink. In this autobiography, Sanderson comes clean on his life in hockey, the demons that threatened to consume him, and the strength and courage it took to fight his way back. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, First Edition, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 266 pages. Hardcover. Black cloth boards with silver titles to spine. Black and white illustrations. Dust jacket in cream & white with photograph & only light marginal wear. Clean & unmarked. A biography of the controversial fighter follows Liston from the mean streets, where he was a petty criminal, to the heavyweight championship and his life as a pawn of organized crime. By the author of Power on Earth.

Hardcover. NY, Harper, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 431 pages, b&w and color illustrations. For most of his life, Julius Erving has been two men in one. There is Julius, the bright, inquisitive son of a Long Island domestic worker who has always wanted to be respected for more than just his athletic ability, and there is Dr. J, the cool, acrobatic showman whose flamboyant dunks sent him to the Hall of Fame and turned the act of jamming a basketball through a hoop into an art form. In many ways, Erving's life has been about the push and pull of Julius and The Doctor. It is Dr. J who has stories to tell of the wild days and nights of the ABA in the 1970s, and of being the seminal figure who transformed basketball from an earthbound and rigid game into the creative, free-flowing aerial display it is today. He has a long list of signature plays - he's famous for winning the first dunk contest in 1976 with a jam on which he lifted off from the foul line, and he made a miraculous layup against the Lakers on which he soared behind the backboard before reaching back in to flip the ball in on the other side, with one hand. He inspired a generation of dunkers, including Michael Jordan, to express their improvisational talents. But Julius wasn't always as graceful and in control as Dr. J. Erving had a pristine image throughout his career and early retirement, but he was far from a perfect man. Here he gives detailed accounts of some of the personal problems he faced -- or created -- behind the scenes, including the adulterous affair with sports writer Samantha Stephenson, which led to the birth of his daughter, professional tennis player Alexandra Stephenson.Though his marriage survived that infidelity, the death of Erving's 20-year-old son Cory in 2000 in a tragic accident proved too much for the union to bear. Erving paints a raw, heartbreaking picture of the dissolution of his marriage, as his wife Turquoise began to blame him for his refusal to be paralyzed by grief for as long as she was. Their intense arguments came to a head when Erving stepped out of the shower one day to find his wife holding a lamp in one hand and a vase in the other, ready for a physical confrontation. "I knew somebody was going to get hurt, and it wasn't going to be me," he says. He packed a suitcase and he and Turquoise never lived under the same roof again.

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. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 474 pages, b&w illustrations. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Boulder CO, Velo Press, 1st, 2005, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictoeial wraps. Little-known Graeme Obree became international cycling's most unlikely star, capturing the public's imagination with his innovative engineering and design skills and unique training regiments. When he broke world records and won championships, the cycling authorities outlawed both his bike and his tucked riding position. He invented the "Superman" riding style and triumphed again. But while battling authorities and other cyclists, Obree was also battling a much more serious threat: bipolar disorder. In "The Flying Scotsman, Obree tells his remarkable story with brutal honesty and unexpected humor. Beginning with his troubled childhood in Ayrshire, where the bike was his only escape, Obree recounts his turbulent life and career, describing what drove him to not only break records, but to attempt suicide on three separate occasions. Long known for his courage on the track, here Obree demonstrates a different kind of courage as he movingly lays bare his struggle with manic depression.

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. Chicago, IL, NTC Publishing Group, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 256 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. A unique collection of photographs offers an intimate, behind-the-scenes visual chronicle of baseball players from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s

Hardcover. Hoboken NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The biography of one of the most controversial figures in sports: New York Yankees owner George SteinbrennerFor 34 years, he berated his players and tormented Yankees managers and employees. He played fast and loose with the rules, and twice could have gone to jail. He was banned from baseball for life--but was allowed back in the game. Yet George Steinbrenner also built the New York Yankees from a mediocre team into the greatest sports franchise in America. The Yankees won ten pennants and six World Series during his tenure. Now acclaimed sportswriter and New York Times bestselling author Peter Golenbock tells the fascinating story of "The Boss," from his Midwestern childhood through his decades-long ownership of the Yankees-the longest in the team's history. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Fleming H,. Revell, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. The story of boxer Henry Armstrong's rise to fame and the spiritual experience which led him from the prize ring to the pulpit. Armstrong was one of the few fighters to win in three or more different divisions: featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight. He defended his welterweight title a total of nineteen times. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Kansas City MO, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A portrait of one of the world's most famous boxers chronicles the life and career of Oscar de la Hoya, from his poverty-stricken childhood, to his Olympic glory, to his celebrity world of multimillion-dollar contracts, spicy romances, and turbulent personal life and professional career. 313 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean.

Softcover. Culture House , 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wraps, 279 pages. An historical novel based on the true life story of Frank Gotch, world heavyweight wrestling champion from 1908 to 1915. Gotch was the number one athlete of his era and as well known then as Michael Jordan is today. This book takes the reader on a nostalgic tour of the United States and professional athletics at the turn of the century and shortly thereafter.

Hardcover. Charlotte Harbor FL, Tabby House Books, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, pictorial glazed boards with matching dust jacket. 301 pages, Illustrated with color and b&w photos. The career of the international rally race champion, as told by his navigator and co-driver. Scarce. Small repaired tear to edge of dust jacket, otherwise clean.

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 , 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, 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. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 420 pages, b&w illustrations. Draws on hundreds of new interviews and previously unpublished letters to present a comprehensive account of the life of the Hall of Fame ballplayer whose career was cut short by the disease now named for him, in a portrait that shares background details about his rivalry with Babe Ruth, the onset of his illness, and the final years of his life. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Maryland, Scarecrow Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 167 pages. Hardcover with laminate covers. Clean, tight copy. Black and white photographs throughout.

Hardcover. NY, Bloomsbury USA, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 317 pages. Schumacher explores the on-court life and legacy of George Mikan, the big man who revolutionized both college and professional basketball as a dominant center in the '40s and '50s and as the American Basketball Association's first commissioner in the 1960s. Several rules in the modern game were enacted to offset 6'10 Mikan's uncommon height advantage at the time: his shot-blocking ability for DePaul University led to the goaltending rule in college basketball in 1943, and his rebounding and scoring for the Minneapolis Lakers prompted the nascent NBA to widen the free-throw lane from six feet to 12 feet in 1951. Wilt Chamberlain described Mikan as the first true superstar of the league, and Shaquille O'Neal, who paid for Mikan's funeral when he died in 2005 in dire financial straits due to the expenses of his health problems, said, Without George Mikan, there is no me. A native of Joliet, Ill., Mikan was from a Croatian family and remained a true Midwesterner to the end, Schumacher writes. Schumacher's narrative sometimes gets bogged down with tedious, almost box score-like itemizing of the numerous games from Mikan's college and pro careers. Recounting these games in such specifics will be of interest to hardcore fans of the early pro game.

Hardcover. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, First Edition, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 241 pages. Hardcover. Full color & bw illustrations throughout. Dust jacket in very good condition. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Westport CT, Meckler Books, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light edgewear. 253 pages, b&w photos. An autobiographical account of his 50-year career in baseball, from his first game as a rookie in the minors to his final game as a manager in the majors. MacPhail discusses his experiences as a player, coach, and manager, as well as his views on the game and his interactions with other players and coaches.

Hardcover. Emmaus PA, Rodale, 2nd pr., 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 322 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY ROSE on half title page. Minor rubbing and edgewear to dust jacket. Bright and clean; a tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Coward-McCann, 1st, 1962, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket with mild edgewear. Scarce copy of this classic account by Hall of Fame baseballer Rogers Hornsby. 253 pages, b&w illustrations. Foreword by Casey Stengel. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Ann Arbor MI, Sports Media Group, 1st, 2005, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 200 pages illustrated with 150 rarely seen photographs. Although it has been more than 75 years since he last laced up his spikes, Ty Cobb remains arguably the greatest player in the long history of baseball. Certainly the Detroit Tigers outfielder remains the most controversial. He hit .367 over 24 seasons (1905-1928), won a dozen batting titles, and was the first man elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. "Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours" takes readers into the cauldron that was his life - the spikings and assaults, the rivalries and petty jealousies, the never-ending spring of battles on the diamond, in the stands, and at home. Clean copy.

Softcover. Sheffield UK, Vertebrate Publishing Ltd , 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 425 pages, color photos. In 1965 Tony Howard made the first British ascent of Norway's Troll Wall. He went on to found Troll Climbing Equipment but never stopped exploring. Quest into the Unknown, his autobiography, covers his extensive travels in North Africa, the Middle East, Scandinavia, Canada and much more. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, Eclipse Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Patrick Smithwick has written an unusually moving memoir about growing up in the hell-bent-for-leather world of Thoroughbred racing as the son of Hall of Fame steeplechase jockey A.P. "Paddy" Smithwick. Racing My Father is the story of a son working alongside his father throughout summer mornings, and then hopping in a "hot car," windows up, heater blasting - so his father can sweat off a few more pounds - and driving his father to the track where the races will be held in the afternoon. Paddy Smithwick was a natural. He was a charismatic figure. He was the greatest steeplechase rider in America in the 1950s and '60s, winning all the big races, leading the country in raes won four times, dominating the sport with his style, ability, heart, and gentlemanly demeanor. Patrick Smithwick is also a natural. As a jockey, he won steeplechase races. As a writer, he's won awards. There are hints of the innocence of Huck Finn as Smithwick starts off his account of serving his apprenticeship with his father. The innocence ends when his father is paralyzed in a bad fall. Yet, the youthful Smithwick helps his father work his way back into racing, and the father-son, trainer-rider team ends up in the winner's circle at Saratoga Springs. Smithwick has recreated his own Yoknapatawpha County - with its gritty backsides and polished clubhouses, its knotty characters and sleek racehorses. 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.

Toronto, Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclippws dust jacket. Road Games is a passionate, engrossing and authoritative chronicle of the extraordinary 1992-93 NHL season, one that ended with an inquiry into whether or not the Ottawa Senators deliverately "tanked it" to secure their first overall draft pick of hockey's newest sensation, Alexandre Daigle. This was the season that Mario Lemieux's involvement in a sordid scandal was forgotten when he overcame cancer to win the scoring title; Doug Gilmour emerged as one of the game's finest players; and European stars Selanne, Bure, Mogilny and Fedorov rose to preeminence, while the North American hockey heroes-Gretzky, Lemieux, and Lindros-endured a season marked by injury, sickness, disturbing controversy and moving comeback. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Sydney Australia , Macmillan, reprint, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 398 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY ROD LAVER on title page. 32 pages of b&w and color photography. Light edge wear to dust jacket, otherwise clean, tight 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. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 268 pages, b&w illustrations. At the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith and his teammate John Carlos came in first and third in the 200-metre sprint. In this text, Smith explains why, as they received their medals, both men raised a black-gloved fist, creating an image that has symbolized the conflicts of race, politics, and sports. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Stein and Day, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 260 pages, b&w photographs. INSCRIBED BY GRAZIANO on front fly leaf, dated 1987. Very good in a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 273 pages, oblong hardcover illustrated in color and b&w. Frank Benson, a pivotal artist of the American Impressionist movement had three great loves in his long and productive life: his family, his art, and the sporting life. As a boy, Benson dreamed of being an ornithological illustrator. In mid-life, after an extremely successful career as a portraitist, he returned to the wildfowl and sporting subjects that were his lifelong passion. Over the next forty years, in etching, lithography, watercolor, and oil and wash, he portrayed birds beloved since childhood, scenes of his hunting and fishing expeditions, and still lives of incomparable delicacy. Whether painting a hunter setting out decoys, a wash of geese by moonlight, a watercolor of a companion poised to gaff a salmon, or an etching of a group of ducks silently gliding in for a landing, Benson conveyed the joy and beauty of a sportsman's life.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 2nd pr, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 461 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. Biography of boxing legend. Mild fading along spine of dust jacket cover. Black-and-white photographs throughout. Rough-cut edges. Unmarked. A bright and tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Robert M. McBride & Company, First Thus, 1946, 162 pages. Hardcover. Green cloth covers with gilt titles to spine, light scuffing to boards, toning throughout. Previous owner's bookplate to preliminary pages. Black & white illustrations and photographs. Clean unmarked copy.

Hardcover. NY, Total Sports, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 296 pages, Foreword by Hank Aaron. In the crisp, evocative prose of Lawrence S. Ritter and in Mark Rucker's glorious selection of 350 rare photographs, this lavish gift book celebrates George Herman Ruth and the big-bang game he invented. Originally issued in 1988, this book created a new form of sports biography that has been widely imitated since, but never with such commercial success or critical acclaim. Includes unopened CD Rom game for Windows 95. (Will work on later Windows). DUE TO SIZE & WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Rodale, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. While The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game will not disappoint basketball purists longing for Oscar Robertson's play-by-play of favorite games, the attraction of this autobiography is Robertson's perspective on the evolution of the sport and on the racial struggles that were the context of his formative years. Called by many basketball experts the greatest all-around player ever, Robertson earned an astonishing array of honors including an Olympic gold medal, 12 NBA All-Star appearances, the NBA Rookie of the Year award, and the 1964 NBA MVP award. Most remarkably, Robertson remains the only player in basketball history with a triple-double season (double-digit averages for scoring, rebounds, and assists).While Robertson could have easily candy-coated this impressive record for his retrospective, he devotes large sections of his book to the racial battles he faced off court, and his final chapters recount his controversial efforts as an NBA union leader to create free agency, a pension plan, and disability protection for players. In telling his life story, he lays bare the racism and mistreatment he suffered at the hands of individuals and institutions throughout his career, from the Mayor of Indianapolis and Cincinnati University to the NBA and CBS Sports. At times, his critiques can seem excessive (e.g. his discussions of the distortions in the film Hoosiers, while interesting, are repeated a bit too often), and some sections (like his attempts to compare himself to contemporary players) border on self-indulgence. Yet, he seems justified in arguing that his achievements--largely accomplished on second-rate teams, against a back-drop of unprecedented racial strife, and before the modern era of sports-media saturation--are easily underrepresented. In the end, The Big O offers a complex, human portrait to complement a spectacular sports career.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams Press, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 352 pages, b&w illustrations. The first full biography of the star Negro Leaguer and Hall of Famer James 'Cool Papa" Bell (1903-1991) was a legend in black baseball, a lightning fast switch hitter elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Bell's speed was extraordinary; as Satchel Paige famously quipped, he was so fast he could flip a light switch and be in bed before the room got dark. Wheeler recounts the life of this extraordinary player, a key member of some of the greatest Negro League teams in history. Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Bell was part of the Great Migration, and in St. Louis, baseball saved Bell from a life working in slaughterhouses. Wheeler charts Bell's ups and downs in life and in baseball, in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, where he went to escape American racism and MLB's color line.

NY, Paul S. Eriksson, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light edgewear. 174 pages, b&w photos. One of the NBA's great all-time guards tells his life story from the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant to coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Clean copy.