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Sophandros 
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40256 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:25 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
For me, though:
Moneyball
The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship
Summer of '49
The Education of a Coach
Just off the top of my head.
Halberstam was the man. We lost him way too soon.
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LSUBoo 
Bowling Green Fan
My Posting Goes To 11.
Member since Mar 2006
54402 posts
 Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:25 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
Good shite right there.
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Sophandros
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40256 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:26 am to Meursault)
How Soccer Explains the World is also good.
Also, Among the Thugs was a great read.
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JDM1992
In your head
Member since Dec 2011
15141 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:26 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
This post was edited on 2/17 at 6:31 pm
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Sophandros
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40256 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:29 am to Vicks Kennel Club)
quote:
Scorecasting is first for sure.
Great read. As are Mathletics, Stumbling on Wins, and Baseball Between the Numbers.
I need to post on this thread from home where I can stand in my library and pull books off the shelves.
I just remembered Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville, which was by Stephen Jay Gould and forwarded by David Halberstam. Great fricking read.
This post was edited on 12/11 at 8:30 am
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ProjectP2294 
Indiana Fan
NOLA
Member since May 2007
23987 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:32 am to JDM1992)
The ones I can remember off the top of my head that I enjoyed:
Moneyball
Blind Side
Soccernomics
Meat Market
Bruce Feldman's book about Miami
It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium (I knew going in it was melancholy, so I wasn't surprised by the tone that turned most people off)
Chuck Klosterman has a collection of his sports essays available for Kindle, I've read and enjoyed most of them.
One of the worst ones I've ever read was by Mike Lupica. It was fiction, but it was so bad I don't even remember the name. A fake NFL story.
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Kracka 
North Carolina Fan
Laffy Taffy
Member since Aug 2004
26991 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:33 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
Boys Will Be Boys - Dallas Cowboys
When the Game Was Ours - Larry & Magic
Playing for Pizza
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LSU GrandDad 
LSU Fan
houston, texas
Member since Jun 2009
9528 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:35 am to Jcorye1)
quote:
I'll go with the painfully obvious answer, Moneyball.
what is painfully obvious to me is that people view Moneyball as some sort of revelation in MLB. billy bean did not invent statistical evaluation of players as he infers. and scouts are not an inferior way to evaluate talent as he infers. i get that oakland doesn't have enough money to do both but the teams that actually win pennants and stuff do both. as far as taking college pitchers over hi-school kids he was lying. that's right, oakland got lucky with some draft choices as their stud pitchers in years they actually excelled. lastly, as far as valueing outs over the small ball strategem of advancing runners people completely ignore that he is in the american league. any perceived advantage (backed up by his own statistical choices) of that goes away in the NL. a manager in a one run game in the 9th inning with a runner on first with no outs is a fool not to advance that runner. if he hasn't practiced bunting he's fricked. i would be much more impressed with a book written by tony larussa than billy bean. he doesn't own the market on statistical evaluation of players and never has. he propelled a few good years of success (based on lucky pitcher selection) into an expose' of "how he is smarter than all the other gm's" and making big bucks from it. good for him.
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Sophandros
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40256 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:36 am to Tiger n Miami AU83)
quote:
Gonna have to order this now. Did not even know it existed.
I've read most of Conroy's books and most were written decades ago. Last book I read of his was over 10 years ago. He is my favorite southern author and "The Lord's of Discipline" is one of my favorite books of all time.
Ed Conroy, basketball coach at Tulane, is a cousin of Pat Conroy and coached at the Citadel prior to coming to Tulane.
/csb
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Kracka
North Carolina Fan
Laffy Taffy
Member since Aug 2004
26991 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:38 am to dutchtiger)
quote:
John Grisham and his other book called Bleachers
I forgot about this one. I read that too and I loved it, mainly because I could relate to the book.
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Sophandros
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40256 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:38 am to LSU GrandDad)
quote:
LSU GrandDad
What's painfully obvious from your post is that you didn't read Moneyball.
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brgfather129 
Texas Tech Fan
Austin, TX
Member since Jul 2009
3943 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:40 am to LSU GrandDad)
quote:
what is painfully obvious to me is that people view Moneyball as some sort of revelation in MLB. billy bean did not invent statistical evaluation of players as he infers. and scouts are not an inferior way to evaluate talent as he infers. i get that oakland doesn't have enough money to do both but the teams that actually win pennants and stuff do both. as far as taking college pitchers over hi-school kids he was lying. that's right, oakland got lucky with some draft choices as their stud pitchers in years they actually excelled. lastly, as far as valueing outs over the small ball strategem of advancing runners people completely ignore that he is in the american league. any perceived advantage (backed up by his own statistical choices) of that goes away in the NL. a manager in a one run game in the 9th inning with a runner on first with no outs is a fool not to advance that runner. if he hasn't practiced bunting he's fricked. i would be much more impressed with a book written by tony larussa than billy bean. he doesn't own the market on statistical evaluation of players and never has. he propelled a few good years of success (based on lucky pitcher selection) into an expose' of "how he is smarter than all the other gm's" and making big bucks from it. good for him.
lolwut
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Master of Sinanju
Member since Feb 2012
2178 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:41 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
The Glory of Their Times
Ball Four
Distant Replay
The Unforgettable Season
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Baloo
LSU Fan
Formerly MDGeaux
Member since Sep 2003
41101 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:45 am to Sophandros)
The Game by Ken Dryden
Ball Four by Jim Bouton
Those are still the gold standards for athlete memoirs.
Next Time Let's Not East the Bones by Bill James
Scorecasting
Soccernomics
How Soccer Explains the World
Loose Balls
Eight Men Out
Crazy '08s
Fantasyland
The Blind Side
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Baloo
LSU Fan
Formerly MDGeaux
Member since Sep 2003
41101 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:47 am to Baloo)
Oh, and my bible is Earl Weaver on Strategy.
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ProjectP2294
Indiana Fan
NOLA
Member since May 2007
23987 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:50 am to Sophandros)
quote:
What's painfully obvious from your post is that you didn't read Moneyball
He gets his opinions from Joe Morgan.
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corndeaux
LSU Fan
Member since Sep 2009
3012 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 8:56 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
Breaks of the Game
Summer of 49
Seven Seconds or Less
Scorecasting
How Soccer Explains the World
Dream Team
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slackhouse 
USA Fan
Member since Aug 2005
15232 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 9:09 am to Sophandros)
really liked this series as a kid:
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retooc 
Georgia Fan
Chicago
Member since Sep 2012
1230 posts
Online
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 9:23 am to Porter Osborne Jr)
In and out of the rough
John Daley
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BoardReader 
Arkansas Fan
Arkansas
Member since Dec 2007
1788 posts
| re: What's the best sports book you've read? (Posted on 12/11/12 at 9:27 am to slackhouse)
Some very solid recommendations in here, some WTH ones.
I like the history of sports, so titles like 'Let Me Tell You A Story' and 'When Pride Still Mattered' really resonate with me.
If I'm looking for a fun read, the rollicking tales of wild man coaches (Season on the Brink, Bootlegger's Boy) really hit the spot.
If you want an excellent book that will make you think about sports, I recommend 'Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It' -- it's getting hard to find, but it raises real questions about the underlying assumptions involved in race, sports, and how we organize competition.
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