Buffalo Sports Headliners and Insights


Book Description

Buffalo's Sports Headliners and Insights by Al Bruno is a scholastic sports publication, an anthology, presenting 23 of my best sports stories and insights about Buffalo sports headliners. It is a refreshing look at Buffalo sports headliners through a time tunnel, remembering and honoring Buffalo sports heroes and winning coaches from 1965 to the present date.What makes them special, great, and worthy of their accomplishments? They became the Buffalo sports headliners, and they earned it with hard work and determination. In fact, Buffalo sports headliners often achieved the unimaginable, beating the odds against them. They won, fairly and squarely, to the crowd's delight and enthusiasm: Winning necessarily defines the Buffalo sports headliners, and they stand out, in front of the rest, the best, and are included in the city's annals; some deservingly arrive for induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.Winning makes them memorable, entertaining, and ultimately Buffalo sports heroes, our Buffalo icons, like Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame Wrestler Ilio DiPaolo did for me as a thrilled youngster in the early 1960s. We cheered on DiPaolo at the top of our lungs, our version of the "Italian Hercules," while we anxiously awaited his much-anticipated, twirling, signature move, "the airplane spin" on Saturday nights, in front of a packed house at the old Memorial Auditorium in downtown Buffalo.




Pitching Around Fidel


Book Description

In an artful pastiche of observation, personal narrative, interviews, and investigative reporting, S.L. Price, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, describes sports and athletes in today's Cuba. On his journeys to the island, Price finds a country that celebrates sports like no other and a regime that uses games as both symbol and weapon in its dying revolution. He finds Olympic and world champion boxers, track stars, volleyball and baseball players, but he also finds that with Castro's revolution staggering beneath the weight of a great depression, Cuba's famed sports system is imploding. Athletes are defecting by plane and raft. Superstars bike to games and legends like boxer Teofilo Stevenson are forced to lost themselves in a bottle of rum. Beyond an examination of sports in the hothouse of revolution, Pitching Around Fidel presents a vibrant and realistic portrait of Cuba today, complete with sex-happy tourists, blackouts, Fidel's famous former lover, and a black-power fugitive wanted in the U.S. for murder and hijacking. At once a biting travelogue and a meditation on sports in both America and Cuba, Pitching Around Fidel is a valuable document about a time and place that is close to fading away.




Sports Analytics and Data Science


Book Description

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. This up-to-the-minute reference will help you master all three facets of sports analytics — and use it to win! Sports Analytics and Data Science is the most accessible and practical guide to sports analytics for everyone who cares about winning and everyone who is interested in data science. You’ll discover how successful sports analytics blends business and sports savvy, modern information technology, and sophisticated modeling techniques. You’ll master the discipline through realistic sports vignettes and intuitive data visualizations–not complex math. Every chapter focuses on one key sports analytics application. Miller guides you through assessing players and teams, predicting scores and making game-day decisions, crafting brands and marketing messages, increasing revenue and profitability, and much more. Step by step, you’ll learn how analysts transform raw data and analytical models into wins: both on the field and in any sports business.




One Way Out


Book Description

A portrait of the legendary American rock-and-roll band draws on exclusive interviews to track their career from 1969 to the present and is complemented by previously unpublished photographs and memorabilia.




Leading Teams


Book Description

Important new insights on team leadership and motivation, along with powerful tools and techniques taken from the world of sports How do the sports world's most successful coaches instill their teams with esprit de corps, a collaborative mindset, and an unbeatable desire to win? More importantly, what can business leaders and managers learn from their example? This book answers these and a host of key questions about what it takes to be a successful leader in business or in sports. Drawing upon their unique experiences working with top sports coaches, as well as some of the world's leading corporate executives, authors Dino Ruta and Paolo Guenzi offer important new insights into team leadership and motivation, as well as new tools for optimizing teamwork and inspiring teams to reach for and achieve new heights of glory. Develops a bold new team leadership model for managers at all levels, team leaders, project managers and facilitators, as well as sport coaches Arms you with powerful tools and techniques adapted from the world of sport for optimizing teamwork, driving motivating and instilling an unstoppable desire to win An indispensable source of insight and ideas for executives and managers in companies of all sizes, and an important supplement for postgraduate management programs




Juke Box Hero


Book Description

Lou Gramm rose from humble, working-class roots in Rochester, New York, to become one of rock's most popular and distinctive voices in the 1970s and '80s, singing and cowriting more than a dozen hits with the band Foreigner. Songs such as "Cold As Ice," "I Want to Know What Love Is," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Double Vision," "Urgent," and "Midnight Blue" are among 20 Gramm songs that achieved Top 40 status on the Billboard charts and became rock classics still played often, nearly three decades after they first hit the airwaves and the record store shelves. "Juke Box Hero: The My Five Decades in Rock 'n' Roll" chronicles, with remarkable candor, the ups and downs of this popular rocker's amazing life--a life which saw him achieve worldwide fame and fortune, then succumb to its trappings before summoning the courage and faith to overcome his drug addiction and a life-threatening brain tumor. Gramm takes the reader behind the scenes--into the recording studio, back stage, on the bus trips and beyond--to give an insider's look into the life of the man "Rolling Stone" magazine referred to as "the Pavarotti of rock."




Rebounders


Book Description

"U.S. News & World Report" journalist Newman examines the rise and fall--and rise again--of some of our most prolific and productive figures in order to demystify the anatomy of resilience.




If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Bears


Book Description

Led by stars like Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, Mike Singletary, William "Refrigerator" Perry, head coach Mike Ditka, and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, the Chicago Bears in the 1980s were an NFL powerhouse. As anyone who's seen "The Super Bowl Shuffle" surely knows, they were also an unforgettable group of characters. Otis Wilson, the Bears starting outside linebacker, was right in the center of the action, and in this book, Wilson provides a closer look at the great moments and personalities that made this era legendary. Readers will meet the players, coaches, and management and share in their moments of triumph and defeat. Be a fly on the wall as Wilson recounts stories from those days in Chicago, including the 1985 Super Bowl-winning season. If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Bears will make fans a part of the team's storied history.




Warren Sharp's 2019 Football Preview


Book Description

*Simply the best analytical 2019 football preview you can buy* Welcome to previewing the NFL through a lens you've never witnessed before. Warren Sharp's 259-page full color 2019 Football Preview is unlike anything you have seen before. Stunning visualizations built with the reader in mind and innovative, next level thought process abound in every team chapter and article. This book shares insights into the players, coaches, teams and philosophies with one goal in mind: to get you prepared for the 2019 season by delivering the smartest information in the fastest, most direct way possible for optimal reviewing and retention. "There are so many preseason NFL previews available that offer fans insight into the season, however, few dig as deep as Warren's, with a unique view of what really matters during the season. Sharp's detailed approach is a must read for any football fan--and it's one of my main summer reads."- Michael Lombardi, 3-time Super Bowl Champion, working with Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh & Al Davis "Warren's preview exemplifies the use of analytics and information in a way that should be interesting to any fan. It is more in depth than many teams in the NFL are using today. Every GM and coach would serve themselves well to read the analysis of their team. They would both learn something and immediately appreciate the benefit of the information. No one presents it better, and breaks down what it means better than Warren."- Joe Banner, Longtime Philadelphia Eagles President "This book breaks down each team by every category imaginable and describes exactly what they did in every situation. If you coach any level of football, from youth to the NFL, you will assuredly receive valuable information. You won't want to put it down."- Kevin Kelley, Head Football Coach & 7-time State Champion at Pulaski Academy Every key element you would want to study is included, such as Fantasy Football (player profiles, ranks & visualizations), Vegas Odds (forecast team wins, division rankings, lines for all 2018 games), Coaching (strategic advice for teams, real vs optimal play calling analysis & uncovering team tendencies) and Front Office Analysis (positional spending, roster construction & cap analysis). Team chapters are detailed and intelligently organized for a massive revolution in reader understanding and information retention. Features embedded audio and video. Warren believes the best way to be successful in fantasy football or betting is to do the opposite of most other publications. There is an industry rush to dive head first into player rankings & projections. Warren starts with fundamental discussion of the game, the teams, their coaching strategy and the players. He then analyzes their strengths and weaknesses with visualizations and data to support the narrative. Using that framework, Warren constructs projections and outlook. By previewing the NFL season in this manner, the reader walks away with much more than ever envisioned or delivered in a season preview. Find out why pro bettors, linemakers and pro-DFS players view this season preview as indispensable. It's a must have if you want to bet on the 2019 Pro Football season. This preview incredibly combines evergreen philosophical "football" analysis you would find in a reference book with immediate, relevant predictions for the 2019 season. "Warren's dedication and acumen for analyzing football is clearly evident. This book is completely unlike anything I've read in a preview before. His ability to approach the game logically, analytically and in a predictive manner sets him apart from the crowd. I have no doubt after reading this preview you will be far more prepared for your fantasy drafts and just football in general. If you're a NFL fan of any kind, I cannot recommend this preview enough."Evan Silva




Last Stand


Book Description

Entrepreneur and media mogul Ted Turner has commanded global attention for his dramatic personality, his founding of CNN, his marriage to Jane Fonda, and his company’s merger with Time Warner. But his green resume has gone largely ignored, even while his role as a pioneering eco-capitalist means more to Turner than any other aspect of his legacy. He currently owns more than two million acres of private land (more than any other individual in America), and his bison herd exceeds 50,000 head, the largest in history. He donated $1 billion to help save the UN, and has recorded dozens of other firsts with regard to wildlife conservation, fighting nukes, and assisting the poor. He calls global warming the most dire threat facing humanity, and says that the tycoons of the future will be minted in the development of green, alternative renewable energy. Last Stand goes behind the scenes into Turner’s private life, exploring the man’s accomplishments and his motivations, showing the world a fascinating and flawed, fully three-dimensional character. From barnstorming the country with T. Boone Pickens on behalf of green energy to a pivotal night when he considered suicide, Turner is not the man the public believes him to be. Through Turner’s eyes, the reader is asked to consider another way of thinking about the environment, our obligations to help others in need, and the grave challenges threatening the survival of civilization.