When in 1911 Phillies pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander set the National League record for wins by a rookie (28), it was a sign of things to come. Alexander went on to win 373 games over his 20-year career, the third highest total in major league history, and he would lead the league in ERA four times, shutouts seven times, complete games six times, and wins six times. But he also became a deeply troubled man. After the Shell-Shocked pitcher returned from World War I, he would battle alcoholism, epilepsy, and personal demons that damaged his reputation and proved disastrous for his life outside of baseball. This biography sheds new light on the pitcher and the man, focusing on Alexander's personal life, especially his complex relationship with his wife, Aimee, as well as their marriages and divorces. His Hall of Fame career, wartime service, and long decline are also documented.
The six books in Cool Science explore the amazing advances science has made in artificial intelligence, crime solving, physical and mental diseases, and even in sports.
It’s game on in uncovering the many sports-inspired terms, expressions, sayings and images that populate our everyday language! That’s the challenge that this book takes on, using a playbook for each sport. It kicks off with an opening run through the game of football, then it’s out of the gate with wire-to-wire coverage of horse racing. After going for the fences and covering all the bases in the sport of baseball, the ball is kept rolling, despite many a sticky wicket, through the long-running game of cricket. A blow-by-blow account of the sweet science of boxing is followed by play-by-play accounts of 35 more sports that have been added to the roster. At the finish line, the top three sports, are scored on their relative contributions to everyday language, and declared win, place and show. The discussion is enlivened by lots of sports humour and anecdotes along with quotations from sports personalities some of which may sound quite familiar, much like déjà vu all over again.
Herb Hicks is an artist who understands the fear behind painting a self-portrait but who also appreciates that a candid recounting of events in life can provide an emotional catharsis. It is with this theory in mind that he shares his fascinating personal experiences and insight into his views as he recalls a unique journey through a creative life filled with adventures and misadventures. In his memoir, Hicks begins with remembrances from his childhood growing up in North Dakota, where he emulated his cowboy heroes by riding a pretend horse, wearing real bearskin chaps, and firing a Red Ryder BB gun at imaginary desperadoes. As he matured, he found a passion for music, formed his own combo, and began traveling to and from gigs that took him from North Dakota to Montana and beyond. Motivated by his love for music, Hicks eventually landed in California, where he began playing professionally and found a new passion as a visual artist a discovery that leads him down an unforgettable path, questioning his challenges, choices, chances, and changes. To and from Gigs is the intimate memoir of a musician, artist, and teacher who embarked on a lifelong search to find his better self.
The author of Searching for Bobby Fischer tackles his own childhood in this “remarkably ambitious and satisfying memoir” (The New York Times Book Review). Fred Waitzkin depicted the joys and trials of parenthood with remarkable perception in Searching for Bobby Fischer, the inspiration for the beloved major motion picture. A New York Times Notable Book, The Last Marlin is another sweeping family saga, the tale of an adolescence spent navigating between two very different parents and the discovery of a lifelong passion for deep-sea fishing. Waitzkin’s father, Abe, is both a prolific salesman—the “Beethoven of fluorescent lighting” in the fifties—and a frail man, driven to succeed despite his declining health, while his mother, Stella, is an eccentric abstract artist, once a student of de Kooning and Hans Hoffman, and a free spirit who resents her husband’s dirty business tactics and conventional notions of success. As their relationship disintegrates, Waitzkin is torn between them. But soon he finds solace on the ocean. At first, fishing is a way to bond with Abe—and irritate Stella—but over the years it becomes a way of life. From the Long Island Sound to the drug-infested coastline of Bimini and the marlin-rich waters of the Gulf Stream, Waitzkin comes to believe that fishing is the answer to all his problems, even as he starts his own family. Hailed by Outside magazine as “a graceful father–son memoir that artfully braids rich, disparate strands,” The Last Marlin is a tribute to the open sea, the solitude it provides, and the connections it fosters.
Architects Alison and Peter Smithson kept a visual diary of a drive from their London office to their Wiltshire cottage. The contrast of their sleek Citroen DS 19 with the verdant landscape links the urban and the rural in a sensible continuum. It was originally published as A Sensibility Primer in 1983.
Best Books of 2022 —Kirkus Reviews "(A) rousing sports time-travel epic." —Booklife by Publishers Weekly “Riveting…lyrical…Readers will stick with this riotous page-turner to the last out.”—Kirkus (starred review) An earthquake decimates San Francisco’s baseball stadium. Two players and their manager are trapped. With water rising, the trio crawls through a gash in the wall. Naked and penniless, they climb through the muck onto shore. Downtown San Francisco is on fire. They can not find their stadium, or any new buildings, or the parking lot with their fancy cars. No one has a cell phone to call for help. André Velez, the self-absorbed superstar; Johnny Blent, the faithful-to-his-wife rookie infielder; and their baseball-is-life manager, Bucky Martin, have been transported through time into the 1906 earthquake. Can they figure out what happened? Or how to get back to their 21st-century lives? In a world without television cameras, social media, or Sabermetrics, the players make money the only way they know how. But the 1906 they’re inhabiting isn’t one from our history books. Soon, the three find themselves part of an international baseball challenge against the rump remnant of the Confederacy and its all-star team, featuring Walter Johnson, Martín Dihigo, Ty Cobb, and Ty’s murderous, menacing baseball brothers.
The year is 1979. America is in a funk. And Pittsburgh was no exception. Double-digit inflation, a near disaster at nearby Three Mile Island, and the decline of downtown businesses all placed over the city of Pittsburgh a cloud that grew darker than the smoke that rose from the Homestead Works 25 years earlier. Into this atmosphere of doom and gloom came a cause to celebrate. The 1979 Pirates, under the baton of manager Chuck Tanner, included a cast of characters known as “Scrap Iron,” “Cobra,” “Teke,” “The Candy Man,” and, of course, “Pops.” The team became a cardiologist’s nightmare as the Bucs compiled a 98-64 regular season record, winning 25 of those games in their last at-bats. Down three games to one, the Bucs rose from the ashes to defeat Baltimore and become World Series champions. Thousands of Pittsburgh faithful marched along Smithfield Street and Fifth Avenue. They cheered, danced, and sang over and over again the team’s theme song—“We Are Fam-a-Lee.” That upbeat song remains linked with the ’79 Bucs to this day. Relive those glory days in Tales from the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. Celebrate the turnaround of shortstop Tim Foli as a player and as a man. Laugh with Chuck Tanner when he heard Pirate fans, including his own wife, actually boo him for what they thought was a poor decision. You might even shed a tear when you read about the untimely passing of the legendary Willie Stargell. These and the other tales about the 1979 Pirates will bring back a heap of fond memories about one of baseball’s most colorful teams. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
David Driver isn't the only one buried in his grave. Kay's friend Olive has a family feud on her hands over who should have inherited the only remaining plot in their family section of the cemetery. When a cousin finally gives in and agrees to relocate her son's casket the cemetery staff discover there's an extra body in the plot. Was the mysterious woman murdered by an ex-boyfriend? A family member seeking revenge? Was David's grave just a convenient spot to dispose of a body, or were the two connected in some way? When Olive asks for her help in solving the mystery Kay jumps in to assist, and in her quest to find the killer uncovers some long buried family secrets.
