Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Heaven


Book Description

Photographer Walter Iooss describes sixteen of his favorite locations to shoot the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue," discusses his experiences and the models from various assignments, and provides samples of his work since 1972.




Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times


Book Description

One of the most recognisable, respected and inspirational men on earth, Muhammad Ali is the world's most famous boxing hero. Ali brought unprecedented speed and grace to the sport, and his charm and wit changed forever what the world expects of a champion athlete. In the words of over two hundred of Ali's family members, associates, opponents, friends and enemies, this comprehensive and honest portrait relates his legendary sporting accomplishments, as well as the high drama of life outside the boxing ring. From Olympic gold in Rome, to stunning victory over George Foreman in Zaire, every historic victory and defeat of Ali's career is covered. His controversial embrace of the Nation of Islam - with the renunciation of his 'slave name', Cassius Clay - and the historic refusal to be inducted into the US Army makes for compelling reading. Ali became America's first national conscientious objector, and with a willingness to stage his fights in Third World locales, he continued his advocacy for people in need which was honoured in 2000 when he became a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Charismatic, dedicated and a skilful self-publicist, Ali is the living embodiment of the American Dream. This is the biography to match his achievements.




Skimpy Coverage


Book Description

Skimpy Coverage explores Sports Illustrated’s treatment of female athletes since the iconic magazine’s founding in 1954. The first book-length study of its kind, this accessible account charts the ways in which Sports Illustrated—arguably the leading sports publication in postwar America—engaged with the social and cultural changes affecting women’s athletics and the conversations about gender and identity they spawned. Bonnie Hagerman examines the emergence of the magazine’s archetypal female athlete—good-looking, straight, and white—and argues that such qualities were the same ones the magazine prized in the women who appeared in its wildly successful Swimsuit Issue. As Hagerman shows, the female athlete and the swimsuit model, at least for the magazine, were essentially one and the same. Despite this conflation, and the challenges it poses, Hagerman also tracks the distance that sportswomen—including Wilma Rudolph, Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, and Megan Rapinoe—have traveled both within Sports Illustrated’s pages and without. Blending sports with gender history, Skimpy Coverage profiles numerous sportswomen who have used athletics and the platform sport offers to push for empowerment, freedom, equality, and acceptance in ways that have complemented and inspired broader feminist agendas.




Frantic Frank Lane


Book Description

The book follows the colorful career of Frank Lane, who as baseball's busiest general manager during the 1950s made the deals that turned the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians from losers into pennant contenders almost overnight. He also worked--or tried to--as general manager of the Kansas City A's (Lane lasted eight months in 1961 under first-year owner Charlie Finley) and for the Milwaukee Brewers, where his boss was Bud Selig. He is best known for having traded 1959 American League home run champion Rocky Colavito to Detroit for the AL's 1959 batting champ, Harvey Kuenn, and for trading Indians manager Joe Gordon to Detroit for Tigers manager Jimmy Dykes. During his brief absence from baseball (1962-1964), he signed on as general manager of the National Basketball Association's second-year expansion team, the Chicago Zephyrs. He became a "superscout" for the Baltimore Orioles for several years and, after leaving Milwaukee, had the same job with the Texas Rangers and, finally, the California Angels. He completed well over 500 major- and minor-league transactions in his career. Joe Garagiola put it best: "They used to say that the toughest job on any club Frank Lane was running belonged to the guy who had to take the team picture."




Extra Innings


Book Description

In 1996, a brassy young team of fansproduced a guide to baseball statistics.Printed on a photocopier, its distribution,which was in the low hundreds, was limited tofriends, family, and die-hard stat heads. Sixteenyears later, the Baseball Prospectus annualregularly hits best-seller lists and has becomean indispensable guide for the serious fan. In Extra Innings, the team at Baseball Prospectusintegrates statistics, interviews, and analysis todeliver twenty arguments about today's game.In the tradition of their seminal book, BaseballBetween the Numbers, they take on everything fromsteroids to the amateur draft. They probe theimpact of managers on the game. They explainthe critical art of building a bullpen. In an erawhen statistics matter more than ever, Extra Inningsis an essential volume for every baseball fan.




Pooling Talent


Book Description

Swimming is primarily an individual endeavor, yet certain accomplishments, even by some of the most illustrious names in the sport, can only be fully appreciated when considered alongside the contributions of their teammates. After all, Michael Phelps would never have earned a record eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics were it not for his teammates’ world record-setting efforts in the 400 freestyle relay. In Pooling Talent: Swimming’s Greatest Teams, Matthew De George highlights the top relay teams, squads, and programs in the history of competitive swimming. Each chapter describes in detail the history surrounding the team, the crucial races, and the key swimmers. Part I examines relay teams—such as the 1976 U.S. Women’s 400 Freestyle, the 2000 Australian Men’s Freestyle, and the 2004 U.S. Men’s Medley—showcasing how four opponents in the individual events can mesh seamlessly into a team. Part II explores the national squads, spanning from the 1924 U.S. Olympians to the 2001 World’s Australians, revealing the interplay between team and individual success. In Part III, the top developmental programs around the world are featured, including the 1930 Japanese Men’s program and the North Baltimore Aquatic Club. Together, the relay teams, squads, and programs provide constant motivation, pushing individuals to achieve much more than they ever could in isolation. Extensively researched and rich in detail, Pooling Talent takes a novel look at swimming accomplishments old and new, casting the accolades of individuals in a fresh light. Fans, coaches, athletes, and researchers alike will find this a unique and refreshing history of swimming’s greatest teams.




Sports, Media, and Society


Book Description

Whether espoused by sports leagues, teams, or individual athletes, social issues are part of the sporting world fabric. The sports media often plays the gatekeeper, deciding how messages are presented and to what extent they’re covered—if at all. Sports, Media, and Society investigates the impact of societal issues in sports and how the media reports those stories. Why does the sports media operate in the manner that it does, and what’s the impact of its decisions on the audience? With Sports, Media, and Society, there is now a resource that combines mainstay class discussion points, current case studies, and theoretical and historical foundations in one comprehensive text. The book’s 34 chapters are each short and concise—a format preferred by instructors—covering a wide range of topics and easily digestible for students. Part I covers sports media history and the media’s role as gatekeeper. Chapters explore the history and evolution of various media—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and social media—and the business of and competition between sports media entities. Case studies examine NBC’s Olympics coverage and the nimbleness of Sports Illustrated in the digital space. Part II showcases television’s impact on how fans follow sports. Discussions include ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which exposed viewers to events around the globe; ESPN’s foray into 24/7 sports coverage; and Fox Sports’ shocking NFL deal, which marked a new era in media rights negotiations and sports broadcasting technologies. The intersection of sports and social issues is the focus of part III. Numerous issues are addressed, punctuated by case studies involving key players and events related to each topic. Cases concerning Colin Kaepernick, USWNT (and coverage of women’s sports generally), LGBTQ+ issues, and obstacles faced by women working in sports media are highlights, while examinations of social identity theory and framing provide context on how people identify with specific groups and how the media influences opinions. Athletes and sport entities are constantly in the news—not always in a positive light. Part IV addresses crisis management and communication, featuring case studies about Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, LeBron James (The Decision), Kobe Bryant (his death and the misreporting of facts surrounding it), and the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal. The text concludes with part V, which explores emerging trends in sports media and society. Through social media, virtually anyone can become a thought leader (wresting control from traditional outlets), and teams and athletes can dialogue directly with fans, effectively sidelining sports journalists. Chapters on the formerly taboo subjects of athlete mental health and sports wagering, as well as the exploding popularity of esports, round out the text. Sports shape our culture in numerous ways, and the sports media plays a transformative role in how it occurs. Sports, Media, and Society prepares tomorrow’s sports journalists and communicators to venture beyond the how-tos of developing content to understanding the whys behind it.




Sports Illustrated: The College Football Book


Book Description

Continuing its series of spectacular coffee-table books for the holiday season, Sports Illustrated presents The College Football Book, the ultimate gift for America's most passionate fans. SI launched this series in 2005 with The Football Book, devoted to the professional game. A New York Times best-seller that year, the book has taken root as a perennial, selling more than 200,000 copies to date. Now the editors of Sports Illustrated return to the gridiron, this time to serve the most avid football fans of all. With the best words and pictures SI has to offer, The College Football Book, brings to life the game's unparalleled excitement and pageantry, its legendary players, historic teams and epic rivalries. In 288 pages of the greatest photography and writing available anywhere, The College Football Book spans the sport's history, from its infancy in the 1800s right up to the postseason showdowns of 2008. The book is packed with stunning pictures, award-winning stories, original stats, decade-by-decade all-star teams and iconic artifacts photographed exclusively for this book at the College Football Hall of Fame--the same exciting mix of elements that makes each book in the SI series a must-have for sports fan.




Sports and Their Fans


Book Description

Though Americans spend more than $25 billion a year on sports and sporting events, this book argues that the influence of sports on our lives is even more profound than this huge figure would seem to suggest. Exploring such topics as the role of sports in the creation of mass culture, cheating, the abuse of illegal drugs, the strange and fascinating role that numbers play in sporting events, and the future of spectator sport, this book surveys the outsized impact that sports have on American culture. The author draws from new work in such fields as history, economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and ethics to support his claims. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.




Burleigh Grimes


Book Description

Burleigh Grimes--forever to be remembered as the ill-tempered spitballer with the perpetual five o'clock shadow. For nearly two decades, he brought his surly disposition to the pitcher's mound. His life-or-death mentality resulted in a reputation as one of the game's great competitors and a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Along the way he suited up for eight different ball clubs and played alongside a record 36 Hall of Famers. Grimes spent more than half a century in professional baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout. This biography covers all aspects of his life, from his childhood in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, to his twilight years in that same town. In between are World Series highs and lows, brawls, five marriages, a near-death experience and 270 major league victories.