Football fans will love this insight into the life and mind of Big Sam. With nearly 20 years as a player - plus almost 25 years as a coach and manager - under his belt, Sam Allardyce is one of the most recognisable figures in British football. 'Big Sam' has been a robust defensive general throughout the seventies and eighties, and an imposing touchline presence as a gaffer since 1994. Over the last four decades, Allardyce has seen it all. The game he so loves is radically different to that in which he made his debut back in 1973, and in telling his wonderfully colourful story for the very first time, Allardyce talks intriguingly about the changing face of players and managers. His autobiography positively crackles with characteristic insight, honesty and hard-hitting opinions.
A teen idol of the 1950s who virtually invented the singer/songwriter/heartthrob combination that still tops pop music today, Paul Anka rocketed to fame with a slew of hits-from "Diana" to "Put Your Head on my Shoulder"-that earned him a place touring with the major stars of his era, including Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly. He wrote Holly's last hit, and just missed joining the rocker on his final, fatal plane flight. Anka also stepped in front of the camera in the teen beach-party movie era, scoring the movies and romancing their starlets, including Annette Funicello. When the British invasion made his fans swoon for a new style of music-and musician--Anka made sure he wasn't conquered. A rapier-canny businessman and image-builder who took his career into his own hands-just as he had from the very beginning, swiping his mother's car at fourteen to drive himself, underage, to his first gigs in Quebec-Anka toured the world until he could return home in triumph. A charter member of the Rat Pack, he wrote the theme music for The Tonight Show as well as his friend Frank Sinatra's anthem "My Way". By the 1970s, a multi-decade string of pop chart-toppers, including "Puppy Love" and "(You're) Having My Baby", cemented his status as an icon. My Way is bursting with rich, rollicking stories of the business and the people in Anka's life: Elizabeth Taylor, Dodi Fayed, Tom Jones, Michael Jackson, Adnan Khashoggi, Little Richard, Brooke Shields, Johnny Roselli, Sammy Davis, Jr., Brigitte Bardot, Barnum & Bailey Circus acrobats, and many more. Anka is forthcoming, funny and smart as a whip about the business he's been in for almost six decades. My Way moves from New York to Vegas, from the casino stage to backstages all over the world. It's the most entertaining autobiography of the year.
El libro es una autobiograffa de uno de los jugadores mßs exitosos de bTisbol de AmTrica. La historia apunta a todas las cosas mßs importantes de la vida de este personaje, que si bien no fue acomodada, gracias a su empe±o y perseverancia, ha logrado tener Txitos que le han permitido mejorar su calidad de vida y a la vez darse a conocer por la actividad que practica con tanta dedicaci=n. A pesar de enfrentar la muerte de su padre, Sammy Sosa, tuvo que trabajar duro para ayudar en el hogar, y ademßs de responder con los estudios. En esa Tpoca, le regalan su primer guante de bTisbol con el que comienza a incursionar en este deporte que lo llevarß a la gloria. Con un lenguaje muy simple pero lleno de sentimiento, la historia de este hombre nos ense±arß que el trabajo duro puede dar hermosos frutos.
A journalist presents an intimate assessment of the mythology, experience, and psyche of the Asian-American male that traces his own experiences as an immigrant under the constraints of American cultural stereotypes.
For the first time, music legend and humanitarian activist Dionne Warwick reflects on 50 years in showbusiness and the lessons she has learned from being an artist, a mother and a global icon. From her rise to superstardom to raising millions of dollars for AIDS research, she gives readers a glimpse into her dazzling, inspiring life. 'If you think you can do it, you can do it' was the advice she got from her grandfather as a young girl - words she has never forgotten. Like her music and humanitarian work, her story is guaranteed to give hope and inspiration to people across the world.
As Pep Guardiola shatters records and confounds the norms of English football and players such as David De Gea and David Silva light up the national game, Spanish stars are transforming the way English football is conceived. But the origins of this particular Spanish invasion date back to 1937, when the Spanish Civil War led to a stream of refugees fleeing their country for the safe haven of England. Their families reveal how the refugees learned the game here, before returning to Spain where one would score Real Madrid’s first goal in the Bernabeu stadium and another would be the first man to conceive of Barcelona’s vaunted La Masia academy that would later launch stars such as Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas and Xavi Hernandez. In recent years the reputation of Spain’s footballers has grown, and every club craves a sprinkling of tiki-taka magic. Through dozens of exclusive interviews, Adam Crafton has spoken to many of the key Spanish figures who have come to England and he creates a compelling portrait of their impact on the English game. We discover how and why it is that some players, such as Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina and Juan Mata, have had great success here, while others have toiled so painfully. But this is not just a footballing story, pure and simple. Crafton provides the historical and social context that helps to explain how the relationship between the two nations is constantly changing, yet always close. For anyone who enjoyed Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid or Sid Lowe’s Fear and Loathing in La Liga, this book is a revealing and brilliant insight into this most benign of Spanish invasions.
Sam McCoy (1855-1941) was a descendant of William McCoy (1750-1820), who was an early pioneer in Pike County, Kentucky. "Big Sam" or "Squirrel huntin' Sam" was involved in the Hatfield-McCoy feud. He married three or four times. Descentants lived in Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Montana and elsewhere.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Great Britain ranked thirty-sixth in the medals table, finishing below countries like Algeria, Belgium and Kazakhstan. It was their worst ever record, a dismal performance labelled a national disgrace. But then something happened. In Sydney in 2000 and then Athens in 2004, Team GB achieved a much more respectable tenth place. By 2016, in Rio, they finished second, above China and Russia, with sixty-seven medals. How have they so convincingly reversed their fortunes? In Game Changers we meet the coaches and sports scientists who rethink how sport is analysed and understood, how athletes train and perform under pressure. In Liverpool in the 1980s, a motley group - a mathematician, a physiologist, a psychologist and a former Olympic basketball player - began to pioneer new ways of tracking performance. Over the decades that followed, performance analysis came of age, becoming an essential component of any elite team, from English Premier League title winners Manchester City to America's Cup high-performance sailing teams. Using a hybrid of scientific method and trial-and-error, scientists have uncovered the tenets of accelerated learning, the mechanics of physiological adaptation, the organisational principles behind elite teams, the understanding of how hormones and environment affect performance. These discoveries are not confined to athletic endeavours - they are universal and reveal what it takes to win not only in sports, but are applicable across a wide range of disciplines, including business, leadership and education.
What Sport and Psychology Teach Us About Parenting ‘It’s no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature.’ Andre Agassi Dr. Paul Gaffney has used his experience of working as a clinical and counselling psychologist with children, adults and families experiencing a wide range of problems, and with athletes and coaches striving for excellence, to write this book which will outline practical strategies for living better lives together. The book takes its lead from the stories of inspirational sportspeople and teams. These are supported by, and linked to, psychological knowledge and practice. Sport can reflect all that is good and bad in people. We have seen fabulous success achieved following great dedication, world class performances reflecting incredible skill and a win at all costs attitude leading to, in some cases, cheating and doping. In sport as in life, we can experience the entire rollercoaster of emotions: elation, heartbreak, exhaustion, vindication, hopefulness or helplessness. This book aims to help parents and families face up to and deal with 20 difficult questions, and provide clear advice, direction and resources. It will show you practical things you can try and idea for further reading and information to help you and your family.
