Showing titles in Sports

In 2014, the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine began - and top football club Shakhtar Donetsk has since been in exile. This book tells their story; inevitably a story of the conflict and the recent Russian invasion but also a testament to the power of the game and the will of the players. It is ultimately a footballing story, exploring the experience and meaning of being a Shakhtar player through the lens of a country in the shadow of a huge aggressive neighbour.

Superman. Diesel. The Big Aristotle. Shaq Fu. The Big Daddy. The Big Shaqtus. Wilt Chamberneezy. The Real Deal. The Big Shamrock. Shaq....From growing up in difficult circumstances and getting cut from his high-school basketball team to his larger-than-life basketball career, Shaquille O'Neal lays it all out in Shaq Uncut: My Story.

Senator John McCain once decried mixed martial arts as "human cockfighting," while the New York Times despaired that the sport offered a "pay-per-view prism" onto the decline of western civilization. But the violent spectacle of cage fighting no longer feels nearly as scandalous as it did when the sport debuted in 1993.

With characteristic devil-may care attitude and determination, Zach writes candidly about his experiences in Australia, recounting the good, the bad and the downright hilarious. He has plenty to say about the relationships between the indigenous codes of GAA and the AFL, and what needs to change secure the future of Irish and Australian footballers alike.

The fascinating life story of professional cricketer Kevin Pietersen, MBE, from his childhood in South Africa to his recent experiences as one of the leading lights in the world of international cricket.

Growing up in a small village in Ayrshire, Scotland, Drew dreamed of becoming WWE Champion and following in the footsteps of heroes Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker. With his parents' support, he trained and paid his dues, proving himself to tiny crowds in the Butlin's circuit. At age 22, McIntyre made his WWE debut and was touted by none other than WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as 'The Chosen One' who would lead WWE into the future. With his destiny in the palm of his hands, Drew watched it all slip through his fingers.

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at 11 years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. This is Reilly's valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.

Originally published in 1994, this book was a fly-fishing phenomenon in the way Howell Raines' Fly Fishing Through the Mid-Life Crisis was. Taking his fishing hobby to near metaphysical levels, Ted Leeson tells about his passions: rivers, trout, and fly fishing. With wry humor and rare insight, he explores questions that engage most fishermen: What is it about rivers that draws us so irresistibly, and why does fly fishing seem such an aptly suited response?

CrossFit superstar Sam Briggs, a.k.a. ‘The Engine’, is a true hero in the sport. This is the story of how she got to the top and battled with everything she had to stay there. Despite the numerous setbacks and debilitating injuries that have plagued her in the years that followed, when most other athletes would have thrown in the towel, Sam has fought and continues to fight, to be the very best that she can be.

In the early 1990s, Tommy Morrison, a young roughneck from Jay, Oklahoma, burst onto the boxing scene to become one of the most controversial fighters of his era. Handsome, eloquent, and dynamic, Morrison parlayed destructive knockout power and a homespun personality into celebrity status throughout middle America, where boxing rarely prospered. But it was his starring role in Rocky V alongside Sylvester Stallone that propelled him to stardom—and ultimately led to his tragic downfall.

Babe Ruth was more than baseball's original superstar. For 85 years, he has remained the sport's reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century...more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? In The Big Bam, Leigh Montville brings his trademark touch to this groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the Babe.

Following his passing in 2019, tributes to Bob came flooding in in every major news outlet and from every major figure in the industry - and outside of it. His career spanned decades, from his days as a cricketer for England to his time as a pundit on Sky TV. This autobiography includes never-before-seen writing from Bob alongside contributions from key figures as well as a detailed account of the great England victory over Australia at Headingly in 1981.

In the modern era of highly professional cricket, with coaches for every aspect of the game and a support staff that outnumbers the players, it often seems that everything should run smoothly. But we all know that life doesn't work that way. Based on his own experiences of embarrassing misunderstandings, awkward mistakes and amusing escapades, Tuffers recalls some of the moments from his career that are more likely to find their way to the blooper reel than to any coaching manual.

In 1992, when Michael Rutter was just 20 years old, he followed in his dad’s footsteps and began a career as a professional motorcycle racer. He has been racing ever since. This is his story of highs and lows, survival, luck, and persistence, set against the raw, infectious atmosphere of the racing paddock.

In August 2015 Guy Martin crashed out of the lead of an Ulster Grand Prix superbike race held on the world’s fastest racetrack. He had invasive surgery to bolt his broken spine and hand back together, and within days he decided he needed some time away from road racing. But he wasn’t about to take it easy.

Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix... Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him.

Sharp, resourceful and a permanent outsider; for nearly 20 years Steve Cummings determinedly blazed his own winning trail in international cycling. A maverick who defied the dominant teams, to record a sequence of gloriously improbable victories, he has lived and raced with legends of the sport—Cavendish, Wiggins, Froome, Thomas and others—about whom he has strong views and untold stories.

First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC’s hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades. Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report.

Rewind to 1971, and Sue Barker's coach is sending his 15-year-old tennis protégé to a junior championship in France, alone, with a one-way ticket, telling her she'd have to win the money to pay for her return fare. Sue hides in the grounds of the hosting tennis club overnight, to avoid paying for a hotel. The next day, she walks onto court and smashes it. Five years later, and she's Britain's No 1. And now, after four decades on camera encouraging other legends to share their stories, she is telling her own.

Mark Clattenburg found himself in the centre circle, whistle in hand, at the start of 450 Premier League matches during a highly eventful 13-year career in football's top flight. He has shaken hands with, issued red and yellow cards to, and been sworn at by hundreds of players. He has been screamed at and shared jokes with dozens and dozens of managers. And he's felt the wrath of thousands upon thousands of irate fans. His autobiography is the ultimate guide to what it's really like to be in the referee's spotlight.