Audiobooks Books

NPR Driveway Moments Baseball: Radio Stories That Won't Let You Go

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Radio -> General AAS
Subjects -> Sports -> Baseball -> Essays & Writings

Editorial Review:

Stories from the National Public Radio archives honor America's national pastime.

Stories so compelling you'll stay in your car to hear them through—even if you're sitting in your own driveway. Peabody-winning Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan presents tales about the big leagues and the little, the fans in the stands, the players, the history, and the lore.

Highlights include commentaries from some of the game's most recognized authorities, a look back at some of baseball's most important figures (Jackie Robinson, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio), and colorful segments about the game's unexpected delights, from the Hidden Ball Trick to the "All You Can Eat" option at Dodger Stadium.

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life

Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 213 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Different Type Of NFL Head Coach 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Whether it be at the high school, college, or professional levels of football, the common image of a football head coach is a big, tough, ruffian of a man who lives and dies by his team each week and forsakes such things as God and family in order to focus all his energies on his team's performance. Tony Dungy, current Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts, is a living example to the contrary, proving that football coaches can be humble, sincere, and gracious and still put together a successful football team.

While this book does give pretty much a season-by-season account of Dungy's career in college and the NFL (great for the history buffs), the content also focuses on how Dungy stayed true to his Godly principles in the rough-and-tumble environment of the NFL. In a culture that prides itself in violence and radical devotion to a single cause, Dungy preaches a different sort of NFL culture, one in which each player and coach can be a respectable individual (not a ruffian) and uphold the principles of the Lord. In essence, Dungy's message is that "even football players" can be witnesses to the Lord's almighty power.

After reading this book, I have the utmost respect for Dungy and the way he runs his teams. He works himself and his players hard, but at the same time professes a family-first environment, where when the day's work is done the other aspects of family life can be enjoyed (unlike, say, John Gruden, who often sleeps in his office for prolonged periods in preparation for the next week's game). Dungy figures that if he treats his players like human beings and not immature children, they will return the favor and work hard for him.

While reading this book, I was reminded of an example of Dungy's philosophy in my own hometown. Our high school football team used to have a coach who would eat, sleep, and breathe football. He was a former NFL castoff who, while respected for his toughness by his players, was not a pleasing man to be around, as his arrogance was stifling. His teams were always decent, but lacked that extra something that makes a team a champion. When he was replaced a few years ago, a new coach was brought in who (much like Tony Dungy, just at a high school level) preached accountability, respect, and good academics. Within a single season, this new coach turned the entire program around and is now playing for the Conference Championship with an undefeated record. More important than the wins, however, is the fact that this new team is one that the community can better rally around due to the integrity of its players and coaches.

To conclude, I highly recommend this book to football fans of all ages and philosophies, as it gives a stirring example of how a football team can succeed using Godly principles.

Editorial Review:

2008 Retailer's Choice Award winner!
Tony Dungy's words and example have intrigued millions of people, particularly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI, the first for an African American coach. How is it possible for a coach--especially a football coach--to win the respect of his players and lead them to the Super Bowl without the screaming histrionics, the profanities, the demand that the sport come before anything else? How is it possible for anyone to be successful without compromising faith and family? In this inspiring and reflective memoir, Coach Dungy tells the story of a life lived for God and family--and challenges us all to redefine our ideas of what it means to succeed. Includes a foreword by Denzel Washington and a 16-page color photo insert.

Selected Shorts: Baseball (Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story)

W. P. Kinsella, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Roger Angell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

wonderful stories of baseball and americana! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

What more can I say but excellent! I encourage any fan of baseball but more generally, those interested in American history and culture, to purchase this CD collection. It's insightful, humorous, and informative about America's pastime.

Selected Shorts: Baseball (Selected Shorts series) 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This was absolutely wonderful! I have purchased several as gifts also and have heard rave reviews from all.

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed actors from stage and screen perform tales from the baseball diamond in this newest, three-CD collection of stories from Selected Shorts. Both classic and contemporary works are featured, including a heartwarming piece on some fan habits during a players' strike, by W.P. Kinsella, and a sidesplitting account from T. Coraghessan Boyle of the longest game ever. Many of the readings were recorded during a historic broadcast of the show hosted by the late, beloved baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti. From the first pitch to the final out, these short stories are a lively listening experience.

The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It

Lawrence S. Ritter

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Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Baseball's Old Testament 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Statistically, baseball back then couldn't be more at variance with the game now. Cy Young threw 511 career victories, and 750 complete games. In 1909, Ty Cobb led the majors both in batting average (.377) and home runs (9). Cobb's teammate Sam Crawford hit over 300 triples in his career.

What to make of such numbers? Lawrence S. Ritter's "The Glory Of Their Times" strips away the statistical confusion by getting to the heart of Major League Baseball's early days, the players themselves. An economics professor, Ritter invested his downtime from 1962-66 in interviewing elderly men, baseball players all who knew what it was like to face a Walter Johnson fastball, or have Ty Cobb slide into the base they were covering.

"People were more unique then, more unusual, more different from each other," says Davy Jones, who played on the Tigers with Cobb and Crawford. "Now people are all more or less alike, company men, security minded, conformity - that sort of stuff. In everything, not just baseball."

Transcriptions of Ritter's interviews with Jones and 21 other former players, including Crawford and two others then in the Hall of Fame, makes up the whole of "The Glory Of Their Times," published in 1966 and later extended with four more interviews in 1984. Nearly all the interviews offer both testimony and color for the game as it was then.

Bill Wambsganss tells us about his unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series, and how Ring Lardner once used his last name to rhyme with "clam's chance" and "Ray Chapman's pants". Fred Snodgrass tells us about his famous muffed fly in the 1911 World Series, and how his New York Giants tried to psyche out the Philadelphia Athletics by sitting on the dugout bench, ostentatiously sharpening their spikes.

You hear so much about another famous World Series moment, the Merkle "boner" of 1908, that you feel like you were there on the field, too. There's a Rashomon-like quality to hearing various interviewees give their different takes on such things as the character of John McGraw and whether "Giant Killer" Harry Coveleski was run out of the league when he was caught chewing on bologna. (Snodgrass says so, while Harry's brother Stanley, a major-league pitcher himself, calls it "a lot of bull".

Not all the interviews are riveting. One wishes Ritter could have pushed some of the old players more, like the rumors that swirled around Smoky Joe Wood involving fixes. But allowing the subjects the reins probably drew more color out of them than a Grand Jury could have. I love how Crawford keeps telling Ritter he hasn't much time to talk, while giving Ritter one of the longest and most entertaining interviews in the book, describing how players would allow themselves to be rubbed down with "Go Fast," a noxious combination of Vaseline and Tabasco sauce that made them sweat like a sauna.

"I hope I haven't said anything I shouldn't," Crawford says at the end. "There are a lot of the old-timers still left,you know, and they're liable to say, 'That fathead, who the hell does he think he is, anyway, popping off like that!'"

If you like baseball even a little, you will enjoy "The Glory Of Their Times" quite a lot.

Editorial Review:

The voices of the game's distant past continue to reverberate with a distinct freshness in Lawrence S. Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. An oral history of the game in the first two decades of the century, Glory sends out its impressive roster of players to tell their own stories, and what stories they tell--the story of their times as well as of their game; the scorecard includes Rube Marquard, Babe Herman, Stan Coveleski, Smoky Joe Wood, and Wahoo Sam Crawford. A delight from cover to cover, Glory is the next best thing to having been there in the days when the ball may have been dead, but the personalities were anything but.

Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Dozen

Arthur Conan Doyle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It’s elementary that any Conan Doyle fan will want this splendid set of Sherlock Holmes mysteries—twelve timeless classics performed as radio theater, linked by violin music interludes.

The great Sir John Gielgud stars as the sleuth of Baker Street, with Ralph Richardson as his venerable companion, Dr. Watson, and Orson Welles as the nefarious Professor Moriarty. With three giants of the theater in such colorful roles, it’s no mystery why this collection was so popular on cassette.

Includes:
“The Blue Carbuncle”
“A Case of Identity”
“Charles August Milverton”
“The Dying Detective”
“The Final Problem”
“The Golden Pince-Nez”
“The Norwood Builder”
“A Scandal in Bohemia”
“The Second Stain”
“The Six Napoleons”
“The Solitary Cyclist”
“The Speckled Band”

The Dr. Bob Rotella CD Collection

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Subjects -> Sports -> Golf -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

GOLF IS A GAME OF CONFIDENCE

Dr. Bob Rotella, whose clients include Nick Price, Davis Love III, Tom Kite and Pat Bradley, is firmly established as the premier performance enhancement specialist in the golf world. In Golf Is a Game of Confidence, "Doc" Rotella focuses on the most important skill a golfer can have: the ability to think confidently.

GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT

In Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, Rotella goes beyond the usual mental aspects of the game and creates a mindset about all aspects of a golfer's game, from mental preparation to competition. With a dynamic blend of anecdote and lesson, Rotella helps golfers improve their game and have more fun playing.

PUTTING OUT OF YOUR MIND

In Putting Out of Your Mind, Rotella offers entertaining putting. He reveals the unique mental approach that great putting requires and helps golfers of all levels master this essential skill.

THE GOLF OF YOUR DREAMS

The Golf of Your Dreams offers a programmatic guide for the golfer who is determined to get better but hasn't figured out how to go about it. It is an approach that Dr. Rotella and his clients have tested for over twenty years, one that has been proven to work consistently with all levels of golfers.

Playing for Pizza: A Novel

John Grisham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 324 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Playing for Pizza: A Q&A with John Grisham

Q: American football in Italy seems like an unlikely subject for a John Grisham novel. What was the inspiration for Playing for Pizza?

A: Three years ago when I was in Bologna researching "The Broker", I discovered American football. One of my guides in the area played football for the Bologna Warriors for 10 years. I couldn't believe that American football actually existed there, but the more I heard about it the more intrigued I became.

Q: There is some great football writing in this novel. What kind of research was involved in capturing how this American institution is played in small town Italy?

A: The only way to research the book was to go to Parma and watch a game. The coach is an American who played at Illinois State, and he proved to be extremely valuable. I met many of the Italian players and the story simply unfolded.

Q: Speaking of research, you write lovingly of Italian food and wine in this book. What's your idea of the perfect Italian meal?

A: First course: prosicutto and melon; second course: stuffed tortellini; third course: roasted stuffed capon, all served with a great Barolo wine.

Q: Without giving away too much of the plot, your protagonist falls in love by the novel's end. Did you know when you started writing that Rick would get the girl?

A: Of course.

Q: You have a new legal thriller coming in January 2008. Can you give us any hints about what to expect?

A: I really don't like to talk about a book until it's finished. Sorry. But it will not be another work of non-fiction, nor will it be about football. Lots of lawyers in the next one.

---

The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life

Jim Tressel, Chris Fabry

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Fan of John Wooden's Pyramid of Success Would Appreciate This Book 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The SEC is my favorite football conference, but I wanted to read this book. Jim Tressel shows readers that there is more to his life than football after reading this book. Chris Fabry collaborated well with Tressel. I own 10 different books about John Wooden's Pyramid of Success and the Block O had its genesis from Tressel's interest in the pyramid. This is not a stereotypical coaches book that centers on four yards and a cloud of dust. This expands to real life. John Maxwell writing the forward is indicative of that.

I was impressed with his mentioning of hearing Bobby Richardson and being impacting by hs quote, "If the game of life ended tonight, would you be a winner?" The influence of his parents, especially his father was interesting. I especially saw insights about his thoughts about his dad when he mentioned his dad coaching at Baldwin Wallace University.

I like the anecdote about James Laurinaitis visiting the boy in the hospital who was wearing his jersey when injured in a lawn-mower accident. The by cried when they cut his jersey. I appreciated Tressel mentioning the impact of the American soldiers who are fans of The Ohio State University.

Tressel is an interesting person as a subject for a sports fan. Even though in a short span he went from coaching Youngstown State University to coaching The Ohio State University to a national championship, he considers being more important than doing. That was expressed by his contrition for telling a YSU after he committed a personal foul, "You are not worth 15 yards."

I feel better as a person for reading this book. There are some things I would have liked to have seen in the book. I wished Tressel would have mentioned what he learned as a person from dealing with Maurice Clarett. It would have been nice it book were bigger to include more about The Winners Manual as long as he did not give away information that would be harmful to his team or helpful to his opponent.

I would recommend a coach reading this book and making sure their players read the book for personal development for the whole person.

Editorial Review:

The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life shares Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel's "Big Ten" fundamentals for success: Attitude, Discipline, Faith, Handling Adversity & Success, Excellence, Love, Toughness, Responsibility, Team, and Hope. Peppered with personal stories from Tressel's storied coaching career, the book shares the fundamental lessons that he has been imparting to his players for the past 20 years. A perfect blend of football stories, spiritual insights, motivational reading, and practical application, The Winners Manual provides an inside look at the core philosophy that has served as the foundation for one of the most successful college football programs of all time. Includes 8 pages of color photos and a foreword from NYT best-selling author John Maxwell.

Kerplunk!: Stories

Patrick F McManus

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

my husband read it 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Laughed the whole time. Loved the book. He says it was great. Buy it if you like the outdoors and the mishaps that can happen.

You just must read this book for getting your sides split. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

These books by McManus are the best for making you remember what it was like growing up when kids were real kids. As you read, the world melts away and entertains you as if you were really there.

Not what I expected. 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I am sorry I bought it. I couldn't get past the first 2 stories. I was expecting something on the order of Bill Heavey's "If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?" Heavey's book at least has plausible content.

laugh out loud funny 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is the first audio book I have gotten from this author. I made a deal with my self to listen to audio books only while driving. I started laughing so hard I had to pull the car over so I wouldn't wreck the car. It should come with a warning DANGER LAUGHING AND DRIVING COULD WRECK THE CAR.
surprisingly, My husband listened to this one and liked it. Kerplunk may of been my first book but it won't be my last. I'll just have to learn how to drive and laugh out loud.

Editorial Review:

This is the latest hilarious collection of folksy, humorous, and wonderfully wise stories about country life from the bestselling author of The Blight Way.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why

Laurence Gonzales

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 149 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Deep Survival 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Probably one of the most engaging books I've read this year. Gonzales is an amazing story-teller, bringing together harrowing stories from the headlines with the latest in brain and psychology research to make a highly entertaining book. As an avid outdoorsman myself with a few close calls, every word rings true to the real world. I savored the last few chapters, not wanting the book to come to an end.

Deep Survival is Awesome! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Once you start reading this book you won't be able to stop! Mr. Gonzales writing is very engaging and his story's will keep you locked into the book that you find yourself wanting to make the chapters last. Highly recommend this book to anyone who loves adventure and strives to understand the human element in nature.

Editorial Review:

After a plane crash, a 17 year old girl spends 11 days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter or equipment, she gets out. A better-equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash gave up and died. Laurence Gonzales delves into the science, psychology and art of wilderness survival. Examining stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death, he takes us to the top of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans, to the workings of the brain that control our behaviour.