Kirjahaku

Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs and a Gold Glove Award, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and runs batted in. His signature phrase, "Let's play two," has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies an enthusiasm and optimism that endeared him to fans everywhere.But Banks's public display of good cheer was also a mask that hid a deeply conflicted and complex man. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs, who fielded some of baseball's worst teams, and became one of the greatest players never to reach the World Series. He endured poverty and racism as a young man, and the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher as an aging superstar. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never complaining and never saying a negative word about his circumstances or the people around him.Based on numerous conversations with Banks, and on more than a hundred interviews with family, teammates, friends, and associates--as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources--Let's Play Two tells Banks's story along with that of the woebegone Cubs teams he played for. This fascinating chronicle features Buck O'Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long lost baseball era.

Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs and a Gold Glove Award, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and runs batted in. His signature phrase, "Let's play two," has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies an enthusiasm and optimism that endeared him to fans everywhere.But Banks's public display of good cheer was also a mask that hid a deeply conflicted and complex man. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs, who fielded some of baseball's worst teams, and became one of the greatest players never to reach the World Series. He endured poverty and racism as a young man, and the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher as an aging superstar. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never complaining and never saying a negative word about his circumstances or the people around him.Based on numerous conversations with Banks, and on more than a hundred interviews with family, teammates, friends, and associates--as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources--Let's Play Two tells Banks's story along with that of the woebegone Cubs teams he played for. This fascinating chronicle features Buck O'Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long lost baseball era.

Acclaim for The Immortal Bobby ""Just when you think there is nothing new to be said or written on the subject of Bob Jones, Ron Rapoport comes along and proves that theory completely untrue. The Immortal Bobby is wonderfully reported and superbly written.""--John Feinstein, author of A Good Walk Spoiled and Caddy for Life ""The story of Bobby Jones's singular life is one of the most fascinating in sports history. Ron Rapoport's thoughtful, graceful style is well suited to telling that story.""--Bob Costas, broadcaster, NBC Sports and HBO Sports ""Beyond the grainy newsreels and the confetti falling on Broadway and Peachtree Street, there was an essential Bobby Jones, and Ron Rapoport reveals him splendidly in a portrait as graceful as the man. There's more here than Grand Slam 1930--the jangling nerves and self-doubt, the towering modesty in response to fame, the complexity of an Atlanta patrician, a life richly lived.""--Gary M. Pomerantz, author of Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn ""The skills of writing and reporting that fans of Ron Rapoport, like me, have come to expect from him over the years--candor, thoughtfulness, insight, perspective, humor--are once again demonstrated and illuminated in The Immortal Bobby. It is an important book about an important sports figure that, typically for Rapoport, goes beyond the confines of sports and fits firmly in the context of our culture.""--Ira Berkow, sports columnist and author of Red: A Biography of Red Smith ""Here is Bobby Jones as you've never seen him, almost fearful in the fires of competition, and Ron Rapoport shows us how that man became a legend.""--Dave Kindred, coauthor (with Tom Callahan) of Around the World in 18 Holes

At one time Ring Lardner’s baseball articles reached millions of readers through hundreds of newspapers throughout America, and admirers of his writing included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmond Wilson. He was as familiar to Americans in the 1920s as Charles Lindbergh, Calvin Coolidge, and Babe Ruth. His articles about the players he knew, his World Series coverage, his poems, parodies, and jokes were unlike any other baseball reporting ever written, both in his time and since. Even a hundred years later, Lardner’s baseball journalism makes for delightful, often wildly funny, reading and offers a glimpse of where his ground-breaking baseball fiction came from. This book contain Lardner’s columns about Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel, and Three-Finger Mordecai Brown as well as some fabulous lesser-known characters like Frank Schulte, Heine Zimmerman, Jim Schekard, Johnny Kling, Rollie Zeider, and Peaches Graham, as well as examples of Lardner’s coverage of a number of World Series—including the notorious 1919 Black Sox Series. Ron Rapoport’s introduction puts Lardner in his time and place and explains how his writing about baseball developed over the years.

Of all the giants of golf’s Golden Age, Bobby Jones was the most revered. His intelligence, modesty, eloquence, and charm-and the fact he remained an amateur throughout his career-so completely captivated the public that at times it seemed almost beside the point that he was also the best golfer in the world. Jones’s fame reached its peak in 1930 when he became the only golfer to ever win the Grand Slam and the only person in history to receive a second ticker-tape parade on Broadway. Yet beneath the easy grace he exhibited on and off the golf course, there was another Bobby Jones-one who through the years battled his volatile temper; the pressure of competition that grew so unbearable he was often left near tears and unable to take any pleasure in winning; and, in the final decades of his life, an agonizing physical decline that robbed him of everything but his dignity. Drawing on scores of interviews, a careful reconstruction of contemporary accounts, and Jones’s voluminous correspondence, award-winning sportswriter Ron Rapoport reveals the man behind the legend and provides a moving depiction of a long-gone sporting age.

Named aBest Sports Book of 2024 Pick by Sports Illustrated When Vin Scully passed away in 2022, the city of Los Angeles lost its soundtrack. If you were able to deliver a eulogy for him, what might it include? What impact did he have on you? What do you carry forward from his legacy? Sixty-seven essayists-one representing each season of his career calling games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1950 through 2016-reflect on the ways his professional and private life influenced them. The contributions include a range of stories and remembrances from those who knew and followed him. The consensus of the contributions is that Scully’s actions spoke louder than his well-recognized words. This collection includes fellow broadcasters as well as historians, players, journalists, celebrities, and others connected to the game of baseball, with each piece introduced by sports journalist Tom Hoffarth. Readers can consider Scully’s life through common themes: his sincerity, his humility, his professionalism, his passion for his faith, his devotion to his family, his insistence on remembering and giving context to important moments in the history of not just the game but the world in general, all wrapped up in a gift for weaving storytelling with accurate reporting, fellowship with performance art, humor, and connection.