Fifty Years Behind the Microphone


Book Description

A sports broadcaster looks back on his life and career and shares memories of fellow broadcasters and famous sports figures.




In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks


Book Description

A couple years back, I was at the Phoenix airport bar. It was empty except for one heavy-set, gray bearded, grizzled guy who looked like he just rode his donkey into town after a long day of panning for silver in them thar hills. He ordered a Jack Daniels straight up, and that's when I overheard the young guy with the earring behind the bar asking him if he had ID. At first the old sea captain just laughed. But the guy with the twinkle in his ear asked again. At this point it became apparent that he was serious. Dan Haggerty's dad fired back, "You've got to be kidding me, son." The bartender replied, "New policy. Everyone has to show their ID." Then I watched Burl Ives reluctantly reach into his dungarees and pull out his military identification card from World War II. It's a sad and eerie harbinger of our times that the Oprah-watching, crystal-rubbing, Whole Foods-shopping moms and their whipped attorney husbands have taken the ability to reason away from the poor schlub who makes the Bloody Marys. What we used to settle with common sense or a fist, we now settle with hand sanitizer and lawyers. Adam Carolla has had enough of this insanity and he's here to help us get our collective balls back. In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks is Adam's comedic gospel of modern America. He rips into the absurdity of the culture that demonized the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, turned the nation's bathrooms into a lawless free-for-all of urine and fecal matter, and put its citizens at the mercy of a bunch of minimum wagers with axes to grind. Peppered between complaints Carolla shares candid anecdotes from his day to day life as well as his past—Sunday football at Jimmy Kimmel's house, his attempts to raise his kids in a society that he mostly disagrees with, his big showbiz break, and much, much more. Brilliantly showcasing Adam's spot-on sense of humor, this book cements his status as a cultural commentator/comedian/complainer extraordinaire.




Fifty Years at the Pit


Book Description

With almost two hundred color photographs, this illustrative explosion shows you the players, the plays, the coaches, and the sold-out crowds dressed in red.




Willie Mays


Book Description

The New York Times bestselling, authorized, “enormously entertaining and wide-ranging” (The Seattle Times) biography of the late, great Willie Mays. Willie Mays (1931–2024) was arguably the greatest player in baseball history, revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball’s bold expansion to California. He was a blend of power, speed, and stylistic bravado that enraptured fans for more than two decades. Author James Hirsch reveals the man behind the player. Mays was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a brilliant portrait of one of America’s most significant cultural icons.




Hawaiian History


Book Description

Hawaii has been referred to as the crossroads of the Pacific. This book illustrates how many world cultures and customs meet in the Hawaiian Islands, providing a chronological overview highlighted by extracts from important works that express Hawaii's unique history. This work starts with chronological chapters on general and ancient Hawaiian history and continues through early Western contact, the 19th century, and Hawaii's annexation to the United States. Topics include politics, religion, social issues, business, ethnic groups, and race relations.




Hawai'i Sports


Book Description

Traces the history of Hawaiian sports and lists local records




Sound and Fury


Book Description

Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell were must-see TV long before that phrase became ubiquitous. Individually interesting, together they were mesmerizing. They were profoundly different -- young and old, black and white, a Muslim and a Jew, Ali barely literate and Cosell an editor of his university's law review. Yet they had in common forces that made them unforgettable: Both were, above all, performers who covered up their deep personal insecurities by demanding -- loudly and often -- public acclaim. Theirs was an extraordinary alliance that produced drama, comedy, controversy, and a mutual respect that helped shape both men's lives. Dave Kindred -- uniquely equipped to tell the Ali-Cosell story after a decades-long intimate working relationship with both men -- re-creates their unlikely connection in ways never before attempted. From their first meeting in 1962 through Ali's controversial conversion to Islam and refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army (the right for him to do both was publicly defended by Cosell), Kindred explores both the heroics that created the men's upward trajectories and the demons that brought them to sadness in their later lives. Kindred draws on his experiences with Ali and Cosell, fresh reporting, and interviews with scores of key personalities -- including the families of both. In the process, Kindred breaks new ground in our understanding of these two unique men. The book presents Ali not as a mythological character but as a man in whole, and it shows Cosell not in caricature but in faithful scale. With vivid scenes, poignant dialogue, and new interpretations of historical events, this is a biography that is novelistically engrossing -- a richly evocative portrait of the friendship that shaped two giants and changed sports and television forever.




Sport, Media, Culture


Book Description

An examination of the central features of the sport-media phenomenon, focusing on Europe and the USA. The book analyses such issues as new media technology; gender, ethnicity and local dimensions of collective identity; women in American basketball advertising; and cult football radio in Scotland.




Get Up, Baby!


Book Description

An unforgettable look at a lifetime of Cardinals baseball packed with Mike Shannon's passion for the game Mike Shannon's voice served as the soundtrack of St. Louis Cardinals baseball for 50 years. Millions of fans have enjoyed his observations, insight, and magical storytelling on radio broadcasts. Now, with the help of Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel, the St. Louis native and lifelong Cards fan takes fans behind the mic, into the clubhouse, and beyond as only he can. Shannon weaves countless unforgettable tales, from childhood memories growing up in south St. Louis to champagne-soaked World Series celebrations as a player in 1964 and 1967, plus encounters with Cardinals legends ranging from Bob Gibson and Ozzie Smith, to Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina. This unmissable autobiography gives fans a rare seat to over six decades of Cardinals history, hijinks, and lore.




Loudmouth


Book Description

From one of radio's former loudest, orneriest, most beloved, and highest-rated sports radio personalities, a bold and hilarious memoir of sports, manhood, and what it is to be a fan. In 1991, fresh from college, Craig Carton drove a crappy 1980 Buick to Buffalo, New York, to interview for a job at WGR radio. The station manager who hired him was the first to recognize his considerable on-air talent, and helped start what has become a legendary radio career. Often compared to Howard Stern, Carton has hosted a series of highly rated shows, and in 2007 he joined WFAN, where he and Boomer Esiason hosted an eponymous show every morning for four hours out of a studio in New York City. In this debut book, Carton invites the reader to join him as he recounts tales from his suburban youth, defends his long-held love affair with the New York Jets, reminisces about the shenanigans of some of the highest paid and most celebrated athletes playing today, and reflects on his work as one of radio’s craftiest, most hilarious personalities ever to get behind the microphone.