100 Best-ish Nonfiction Titles: Sports

Two categories left in our exploration of Time magazine's 100 Best Nonfiction Titles list: today Sports, next time, War. YAY!*

So here's what Time had to say about the Sports category:

Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
The Sweet Science, by A.J. Liebling

Well, this is another category where Time didn't wear itself out suggesting titles. I've not read either of them, although I do like Liebling and the Ball Four book, first published in 1970 as an "inside story" about baseball, sounds pretty interesting. As long as they were going to have a sports category, I'm surprised they only listed two books, but hey, to each their own. It's a bit tricky to list what I think are the best Sports books--I already mentioned at least one in the Biography section (Pistol, by Mark Kriegel).

Seabiscuit: An American Legend, by Laura Hillenbrand. Yes, I know pretty much everyone has read this book already. But it's that rarest of rare nonfiction books: one that lives up to the hype. Anyone who likes a good underdog story will enjoy Hillenbrand's historical narrative about Seabiscuit, the little knobby-kneed horse that could.

The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw, by Michael Sokolove. A heartbreaking book about baseball players who make it, against all odds, to the big leagues, and then still suffer from things like drug addiction and not knowing how to handle success and money.

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity, by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry. A particularly timely read, in light of the Penn State scandal; this is an eye-opening read about exactly how much violence and criminality people are willing to allow in their college sports program culture (warning: it's a lot, including rape, savage beatings, and shootings). The authors, journalists both, focus primarily on the University of Washington football team.

I thought about listing The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis, but I think Michael Sokolove's book covers much the same ground (impoverished youth making it through sports--spoiler alert: Darryl Strawberry's life story and struggles with drug addiction will make you cry) without as much sentimentality, and is a superior read, although I do feel The Blind Side is a very good book.

*Not yay, war; yay, we're almost done. Although I may still do a couple of lists of Investigative, Travel, and True Crime: three huge categories Time ignored, for whatever reason. I guess I can see leaving out Investigative and True Crime, but Travel? Come on.

Comments

[Robert Burgin]

Roger Kahn's "The Boys of Summer" gets my vote as the best baseball book ever. It's about conflict and change in the sport, a tribute to the Dodgers, a history of Brooklyn, and the tragic story of how the team's move to Los Angeles took the soul of Brooklyn with it.

H.G. Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" is the best book about football and the best about high school sports. He looks at a Texas high school football team as it turns into a dynasty and as the locals lose all sense of proportion.

John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink," about college basketball coach Bobby Knight.

I could go on ...

I too am surprised that "Time" only listed two books. Why bother having a category for just two books?

[Citizen Reader]

Robert,
Excellent choices, all. I've always wanted to read The Boys of Summer. Perhaps next summer.
Yeah, Time really dropped the ball (pun intended) on this one, I agree!

[Sarah]

Please do those extra lists!!

[bybee]

I recently ordered Ball Four. The A.J. Leibling book seems like it would be interesting.

Another enjoyable one is "You Gotta Have Wa", about American players playing over in Japan. Change baseball to teaching English and Japan to Korea and it's my life!

[Jim Staskowski]

Season on the Brink by John Feinstein. A riveting season with basketball legend Bobby Knight; you will come away loving and hating him. A classic case of someones strengths being their weakness.