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A Look at the Season's Best Sports Books

by Harvey Frommer

Harvey Frommer - Click to Enlarge

It's the time of year when sports fans are in reading heaven, with Web sites and stores loaded with all types of new sports books. There are literally dozens to choose from. With apologies to the rest, here is a look at some of the best.

And the Crowd Goes Wild by Joe Garner (Sourcebooks, Inc., $49.95) is more than just a sports book. This is a terrific package that includes two audio CDs narrated by Bob Costas and inspirational, exciting and poignant playbacks of 47 of the most celebrated sporting events ever broadcast.

The book's foreword is by Hank Aaron, its after-word by Wayne Gretzky and in between we are there with the great Babe Ruth calling his shot on October 1, 1932 up to the U.S. women's soccer team winning the World Cup on July 10, 1999. This book that belongs at the top of your "must have, must give" list.
From Total/Sports Illustrated publishers, 20th Century Sports—Images of Greatness by Mike Meserole ($26.95) is a trade paperback feast for the eyes of any and all sports fans.

Show on words but long on visual images, the book takes you through the decades and gives up-close and striking looks at groundbreaking times in sports history. Using rare and evocative photographs from photo archives including Sports Illustrated, the book, as the author describes it, "is a family album of the twentieth century, the great extended family of sports."

ESPN Sports Century, edited by Michael MacCambridge (Hyperion, $40) offers reference, nostalgia, time machine and entertainment all in one. It presents a decade-by-decade look at the century's highlights of sports and culture in lavish color and appealing black and white images.

While the images are fantastic, some of the hype-prose could certainly be toned down. For example, this passage from the book's segment on the 1960s, "Caught in the quagmire of a feudal war abroad and fulfilled promise at home, the nation spent the decade in a schizophrenic spasm of pleasure and revulsion," lays it on a little thick.

Pro football fans should check out Best Shots (DK Publishing, $30). The book showcases the greatest National Football League photography of the century. You'll witness 80 seasons of NFL action, including Randall Cunningham flying to victory over the New York Giants, Joe Montana in solitude before Super Bowl XXIII, Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle's look of disbelief after a crushing defeat and Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway exultant in triumph after Super Bowl XXXIII. It's a book filled with defining moments.

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You can reach Harvey Frommer at:   

Email:  harvey.frommer@Dartmouth.EDU 

I am at work on my newest effort -  - REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY, a companion book to REMEMBERING YANKEE  STADIUM  (The Definitive Book) Fall 2008 (Abrams, STC). If you or those you know have specific stories and memories of times (first game, marker moments, oddity) at the Fens - please get in touch with me and hopefully we can set up a date and time for me to interview you. I would appreciate that.

All best,
Harvey

About the Author: 

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,"  his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published  September 1, 2008 as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.". 

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time. 
 

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer.

Other Frommer sports related articles can be found at:   

Harvey Frommer along with his wife, Myrna Katz  Frommer are the authors of five critically acclaimed oral/cultural histories, professors at Dartmouth  College, and travel writers who specialize in cultural history, food, wine, and Jewish history and heritage in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. 

This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2008 by Harvey Frommer.  All rights reserved worldwide.

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