A one–of–kind collection of letters from many of golf's past and present masters––from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods––describing their most amazing shot and its impact on their career.
 While listening to so–called golf–experts debate the greatest golf shots of all time, Ron Cherney, a golf memorabilia collector, was struck by an idea––what do the players themselves think? So for the next three years, he sent off letters to all the best players to find out. Amazingly, many players actually wrote back with stories about their most memorable shots.
 Ron, with sports writer Michael Arkush, have melded the resulting letters into a captivating book that also includes a short background on each player and other interesting quotes and anecdotes from their careers. An irresistible gift for any golf fan, My Greatest Shot goes behind the scenes and into the minds of the sport's greatest players.

My Greatest Shot: The Top Players Share Their Defining Golf Moments

Sports & Outdoors

Arkush, Michael

Cherney, Ron

Golf

William Morrow

Collins

A refreshing and thought-provoking look at athletes whose legacies have been reduced to one defining moment of defeat—those on the flip side of an epic triumph—and what their experiences can teach us about competition, life, and the human spirit.
Every sports fan recalls with amazing accuracy a pivotal winning moment involving a favorite team or player—Henry Aaron hitting his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth; Christian Laettner’s famous buzzer beating shot in the NCAA tournament for Duke. Yet lost are the stories on the other side of these history-making moments, the athletes who experienced not transcendent glory but crushing disappointment: the cornerback who missed the tackle on the big touchdown; the relief pitcher who lost the series; the world-record holding Olympian who fell on the ice.
In Losing Isn’t Everything, famed sportscaster Curt Menefee, joined by bestselling writer Michael Arkush, examines a range of signature "disappointments" from the wide world of sports, interviewing the subject at the heart of each loss and uncovering what it means—months, years, or decades later—to be associated with failure. While history is written by the victorious, Menefee argues that these moments when an athlete has fallen short are equally valuable to sports history, offering deep insights into the individuals who suffered them and about humanity itself.
Telling the losing stories behind such famous moments as the Patriots’ Rodney Harrison guarding the Giants' David Tyree during the "Helmet Catch" in Super Bowl XLII, Mary Decker’s fall in the 1984 Olympic 1500m, and Craig Ehlo who gave up "The Shot" to Michael Jordan in the 1989 NBA playoffs, Menefee examines the legacy of the hardest loses, revealing the unique path that athletes have to walk after they lose on their sport’s biggest stage. Shedding new light some of the most accepted scapegoat stories in the sports cannon, he also revisits both the Baltimore Colts' loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III, as well as the Red Sox loss in the 1986 World Series, showing why, despite years of humiliation, it might not be all Bill Buckner's fault.
Illustrated with sixteen pages of color photos, this considered and compassionate study offers invaluable lessons about pain, resilience, disappointment, remorse, and acceptance that can help us look at our lives and ourselves in a profound new way.

Losing Isn't Everything: The Untold Stories and Hidden Lessons Behind the Toughest Losses in Sports History

Biographies & Memoirs

Menefee, Curt

Leaders & Notable People

Dey Street Books

New York Times Bestseller
The record-holding two-time NBA champion and recently inducted hall-of-famer reflects on his work ethic, his on-the-court friendships and rivalries, the great teams he's played for, and what it takes to have a long and successful career in this thoughtful, in-depth memoir.
Playing in the NBA for eighteen years, Ray Allen won championships with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat and entered the record books as the original king of the three-point shot. Known as one of the hardest-working and highest-achieving players in NBA history, this most dedicated competitor was legendary for his sharp shooting. From the Outside, complete with a foreword by Spike Lee, is his story in his words: a no-holds-barred look at his life and career, filled with behind-the-scenes stories and surprising revelations about the game he has always cherished.
Allen talks openly about his fellow players, coaches, owners, and friends, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. He reveals how, as a kid growing up in a military family, he learned about responsibility and respect—the key to making those perfect free throws and critical three-point shots.
From the Outside is the portrait of a gifted athlete and a serious man with a strongly defined philosophy about the game and the right way it should be played—a philosophy that, at times, set him apart from colleagues and coaches, while inspiring so many others, and lead to the most pivotal shot of his career: the unforgettable 3-pointer in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Throughout, Allen makes clear that success in basketball is as much about what happens off the court as on, that devotion and commitment are the true essence of the game—and of life itself.

From the Outside: My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love

Allen, Ray

Community & Culture

An inside look at the season that proved to be the final ride of a truly great dynasty — Kobe Bryant, Shaq, and the LA Lakers For the countless basketball fans who were spellbound by the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2003–2004 high-wire act, this book is a rare and phenomenal treat. In The Last Season, Lakers coach Phil Jackson draws on his trademark honesty and insight to tell the whole story of the season that proved to be the final ride of a truly great dynasty. From the signing of future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to the Kobe Bryant rape case/media circus, this is a riveting tale of clashing egos, public feuds, contract disputes, and team meltdowns that only a coach, and a writer, of Jackson’s candor, experience, and ability could tell. Full of tremendous human drama and offering lessons on coaching and on life, this is a book that no sports fan can possibly pass up.

The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul

Jackson, Phil

Penguin??Books

Interviews with neighbors, family, friends, and coworkers trace the early life and career of the popular conservative radio talk show host from Missouri, recounting his struggle to build a national audience

Rush!

Avon/Books

Discusses Tim Allen's carefree youth, actions as a drug dealer that led to his twenty-eight-month prison term, his devotion to his family, early achievements as a stand-up comedian, and his success with Home Improvement. Original.

Tim Allen Laid Bare: Una

Arts & Literature

AVON.

The Golf 100: A Spirited Ranking of the Greatest Players of All Time

DOUBLEDAY

In his New York Times bestselling memoir, one of America’s greatest boxing legends faces his single greatest competitor: himself “Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world. Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest. He would never stop fighting.”—Muhammad Ali In Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, a black man could get into the newspapers in one of two ways: crime—or boxing. “Sugar” Ray Leonard chose to fight. After winning a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, Ray wanted to call it quits and go to college, but his family’s financial needs made him go pro. Boxing history was made. All the while, another, darker Ray—one overwhelmed by depression, rage, drug addiction, sexual abuse, and greed—battled for dominance. In The Big Fight, Ray comes to terms with both these men and shares a brutally honest and remarkably inspiring portrait of the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of a true fighter—inside and outside the ring.

The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring

Leonard, Sugar Ray

Penguin Publishing Group

Advance Praise ""The Fight of the Century brings back memories of a different and troubled time both in sports and in our country. It is vividly reported and a perfect example of the old saying that the genius is in the details."" --John Feinstein ""The Fight of the Century just floats like a butterfly and sings like a canary. Arkush recaptures the period of the late '60s when America was in a quandary about Vietnam, Ali's refusal to be drafted, about Smokin' Joe Frazier's claim on the heavyweight title, and the amazing build-up to this great fight. I saw the fight and remember the intensity in Madison Square Garden; people were fainting in the aisles. The electricity of that fight buzzes through this book."" --Phil Jackson ""Ali-Frazier I was the greatest sports event I ever saw or ever expect to see. With his landscape portrait of the men and their times, Michael Arkush takes us again to that historic moment in Madison Square Garden when two of boxing's proudest warriors began their blood feud."" --Dave Kindred, author of Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship ""Arkush not only gives us the inside story on one of the century's signature sporting events, he frames it politically and socially. I was there, and now I know much more about what happened. This is flesh and blood and history."" --Robert Lipsyte ""The Fight of the Century transcends the mere sports story. In Michael Arkush's capable hands, this classic duel and its surrounding pressures and personalities show us where we have been as a society and where we are going. It is a story that truly stands for a place and time. It is a fully engrossing read."" --Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author ""Never is a long time, but there'll never be another cosmic boxing event like Ali-Frazier I. Michael Arkush brings alive that melodrama with all its political-social implications, wheeling and dealing, hyping and hitting."" --Larry Merchant, author and boxing commentator ""A richly detailed history of Ali and Frazier's first big fight and the social and political forces at play. A great read."" --Ron Shelton, director of Bull Durham and Tin Cup

The Fight of the Century: Ali vs. Frazier March 8, 1971

Individual Sports

Trade Paper Press

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