Great book recommendations for the Game Day Hero Reader Type this Spring
Spring is still here! Despite the heat, as a sports fan you know Spring sports are still in season for a short bit. View our new June book releases.
Get ready to add these amazing new book releases to your TBR! We've done the work for you by finding the top books for your Bookfinity Reader Type. Be sure to add them to your “Read” list so that you can find them later.
These new release books for spring should be right up your alley. Why settle for one book recommendation a month, when you can have 3+?
JUNE RELEASES
Game of Edges: The Analytics Revolution and the Future of Professional Sports
by Bruce Schoenfeld
In the last two decades, innovation, data analysis, and technology have driven a tectonic shift in the sports business. Game of Edges is the story of how sports franchises evolved, on and off the field, from raggedly run small businesses into some of the most systematically productive companies around.
In today's game, everyone from the owners to the marketing staff are using information--data--to give their team an edge. For analysts, an edge is their currency. Figuring out that bunting hurts your offense? That's an edge. So is discovering metrics that can predict the career arc of your free agent shooting guard. Or combing through a decade of ticket-buying data to target persuadable fans.
Cage Kings: How an Unlikely Group of Moguls, Champions & Hustlers Transformed the Ufc Into a $10 Billion Industry
by Michael Thomsen
A cultural and business history of the UFC, tracing the unlikely rise of mixed martial arts from what was derided in the '90s as "human cockfighting"--more violence than sport--to a global pop culture phenomenon.
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. Today, it's spoken of reverentially as a kind of "human chess" played out in real-time between two bodies and the UFC is one of the most valuable franchises in the world, worth more than any team in the NFL, NBA, or MLB and equal to what Disney paid to acquire Marvel Comics. Once banned in thirty-six states and hovering on the edge of bankruptcy, the UFC has evolved into a $10 billion industry. How did cage fighting go so mainstream?
The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us about Work and Life
by Sally Jenkins
The Washington Post sportswriter and New York Times bestselling author of the "fascinating" (The Wall Street Journal) The Real All Americans presents a love letter to the extraordinary coaches and athletes she has covered over the years and the actionable principles of excellence they embody.
Sportswriter Sally Jenkins has spent her entire adult life observing and writing about great coaches and athletes. With her engaging and expert prose, she has helped shape the way we view these talented sports icons. But somewhere along the line, she realized, they had begun to shape her.
Now, she presents the astonishing inner qualities in these same people that pushed them to overcome pressure, elevate their performances, and discover champion identities. Based on years of observing, interviewing, and analyzing elite coaches and playmakers, such as Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning, Michael Phelps, and more, Jenkins reveals the seven principles behind success.
MAY RELEASES
How Golf Can Save Your Life
by Drew Millard
Drew Millard loves golf. We're talking climbing a mountain, jumping over the moon, standing outside golf's window holding a boom box levels of love. As a kid, he'd enjoyed the game, but since college, his clubs had been gathering dust in his parents' basement. And then, a bout with depression led him back home to haul them out of the unfinished storage area under the stairs.
It was what the doctor had ordered. In addition to medication and therapy, Drew needed to exercise. Exercise was not something he did. But golf? Sure, why not? As Drew fumbled his way through his first round in years, he discovered that sucking at golf was his new calling, one that helped him find a sense of balance and rhythm--both on the course and in his own mind.
The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever
by Jack Curry
"The 1998 Yankees were a perfectly constructed team. Jack Curry does an amazing job of telling the tales of that phenomenal group." --David Cone
Discover the inside story of the Yankees' unprecedented talent with this gripping account from a reporter who was there for the team's 125 wins.
The visiting clubhouse in San Diego was soggy, sweaty and sticky after the 1998 Yankees swept the Padres in four games and celebrated winning their 24th World Series title. The players raised bottles of Champagne, sprayed the bubbly on each other and reveled in a baseball season that might have been more memorable than any in history. Jack Curry was part of that unforgettable scene as a reporter, navigating around the clubhouse to ask the same, pertinent question.
Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas
by Jesse Cole
The Savannah Bananas have peeled back the game of baseball and made it fun again.
This is their story.
For his entire childhood, Jesse Cole dreamed of pitching in the Majors. Now, he has a life in baseball that he could have only imagined: he met the love of his life in the industry; they shaped Savannah, Georgia's professional team into the league champion Savannah Bananas; and now the Bananas have restyled baseball itself into something all their own: Banana Ball.
Talk of Champions: Stories of the People Who Made Me: A Memoir
by Kenny Smith
A poignant, humorous, behind-the-scenes memoir from Kenny "The Jet" Smith--superstar basketball commentator, host of top-rated Inside the NBA, and two-time NBA champion. Smith reveals memorable inside stories of his playing and broadcasting careers, focusing on the star players, coaches, and mentors who inspired him along the way.
Kenny Smith was a star at the University of North Carolina before his storied NBA run, in which he won two championships with the Houston Rockets. His tremendous popularity skyrocketed when he joined TNT's new show, Inside the NBA, which has thrived for twenty-four years and won multiple Emmy awards, receiving enormous acclaim for the insight, humor, social commentary, and unrivaled basketball coverage from Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Ernie Johnson, Jr. Kenny is known to fans for his laser-sharp analysis and eloquent observations of the basketball scene and culture.
April Releases
Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time
by McGee, Ryan
A gloriously funny, nostalgic memoir of a popular ESPN reporter who, in the summer of 1994, was a fresh-out-of-college intern for a minor league baseball team. Madness and charm ensue as Ryan McGee spends the season steeped in sweat, fertilizer, nacho cheese sauce, and pure, unadulterated joy in North Carolina with the Asheville Tourists.
"A sweet and funny book that reminds us it's not just the game itself that draws us. It's also the people." --Tom Verducci, MLB Network, Fox & Sports Illustrated, and New York Times bestselling author of The Yankee Years
In the spring of 1994, Ryan McGee (new college graduate) bombed his coveted interview with ESPN--the only place he ever wanted to work. But he did receive one job offer: to work for $100 a week for the Asheville Tourists, a proud minor league baseball team in the heart of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. McCormick Field, home to the Tourists, had once been graced by Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson. What could go wrong?
We Share the Sun: The Incredible Journey of Kenya's Legendary Running Coach Patrick Sang and the Fastest Runners on Earth
by Sarah Gearhart
An enlightening biography and gripping sports narrative that takes us behind the scenes into the lives of some of the world's most elite runners in Kenya and their coach, Patrick Sang.
"I highly recommend this book." --Meb Keflezighi
At a secluded training camp in Kaptagat, Kenya, a small town nearly 8,000 feet above sea level in the Great Rift Valley, three-dozen world-class runners, including Olympic champions, world record holders and the fastest marathoner of all-time, share simple dormitory-style rooms and endure grueling workouts six days a week.
Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction
by Collins, Max Allan
There has never been a full-length biography of Mickey Spillane, the most popular and influential mystery writer of his era--until now.
Beginning in 1947 with I, the Jury, and continuing with his next six novels, Spillane quickly amassed a readership in the tens of millions, becoming the bestselling novelist in the history of American publishing.
Hope you enjoy the Game Day Hero picks this spring! Stay tuned for June's books.
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