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True Believers
- The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans
- Narrated by: Joe Queenan
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
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True Believers
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Publisher's summary
A lifelong Phillies fan, Queenan addresses these other questions, shedding light on the culture and psychology of his fellow fans. "Fans Who Love Too Much" illuminates the plight of men who, like the author, actually resort to psychotherapy to deal with their unhealthy addiction. "Fans Who Misbehave" attempts to deconstruct otherwise solid citizens who, once they enter a stadium, spill beer on women or moon other fans. True Believers is a hilarious but also heartfelt look into the world of those fans who realize that it is, in fact, more than just a game.
Critic reviews
"Yes!!! Every sports fan in America will enjoy Joe Queenan's wild and wacky take on the world of sports." (Marv Albert)
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Ken "The Snake" Stabler was the embodiment of the original Men in Black - the freewheeling, hard-hitting Oakland Raiders. The league's first swashbuckling pass thrower, the mythical southpaw Southerner famous for come-from-behind drives late in the game, Stabler led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl championship in 1977.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story about a childhood legend!!!
- By David Warnock on 07-18-19
By: Mike Freeman
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Sweetness
- The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
At five feet ten inches tall, running back Walter Payton was not the largest player in the NFL, but he developed a larger-than-life reputation for his strength, speed, and grit. Nicknamed “Sweetness” during his college football days, he became the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing and all-purpose yards, capturing the hearts of fans in his adopted Chicago.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Honest Accounting Of A Fascinating Life
- By RevInTampa on 08-19-15
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Bloody Confused!
- A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer
- By: Chuck Culpepper
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
After covering the American sports scene for 15 years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world - the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, “It was like childhood, with beer.”
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not for americans
- By Bernie Sepponan on 09-12-14
By: Chuck Culpepper
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Madden
- A Biography
- By: Bryan Burwell
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story5 out of 5 stars 165
Several years after his playing career was cut short by injury before it had a chance to really begin, John Madden was hired as an assistant coach by the Oakland Raiders, one of professional football's most iconoclastic franchises. Two years later he was named the team's head coach and proceeded to lead the Raiders to five championship games in his first seven seasons. Following years of heartbreaking losses in some of history's most memorable games.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Essential For Raider And Madden Fans
- By MovieGuy on 03-08-16
By: Bryan Burwell
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,007
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 890
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Story5 out of 5 stars 887
Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 414
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica
- A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America's "Sport of the Future" Since 1972
- By: Michael Davies, Roger Bennett
- Narrated by: Roger Bennett, Michael Davies
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 135
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
Soccer has been America's Sport of the Future since 1972. The Men in Blazers are two English-born, soccer-obsessed broadcasters who have savored the dizzying growth of the game along with millions of Americans, as if it was a rollicking, sporting telenovela playing out in real life. Written in such a way that fully immerses Americans in the history and culture of the world's game, their Encyclopedia Blazertannica relives the careers of such greats such as George Best, Maradona, Beckham...and Alexi Lalas.
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1 out of 5 stars
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complete horsecrap
- By Jordan on 06-07-18
By: Michael Davies, and others
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Paterno
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: Joe Mantegna
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 139
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 132
Joe Posnanski's biography of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno follows in the tradition of works by Richard Ben Cramer on Joe DiMaggio and David Maraniss on Vince Lombardi. Having gained unprecedented access to Paterno, as well as the coach's personal notes and files, Posnanski spent the last two years of Paterno's life covering the coach, on (and off) the field and through the scandal that ended Paterno's legendary career.
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5 out of 5 stars
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WoWoWoWoW
- By JA Hartman on 08-27-12
By: Joe Posnanski
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Scribe
- My Life in Sports
- By: Bob Ryan
- Narrated by: Bob Ryan
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4 out of 5 stars 74
Ever since he joined the sports department of the Boston Globe in 1968, sports enthusiasts have been blessed with the writing and reporting of Bob Ryan. Tony Kornheiser calls him the "quintessential American sportswriter". For the past 25 years, he has also been a regular on various ESPN shows, especially The Sports Reporters, spreading his knowledge and enthusiasm for sports of all kinds.
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2 out of 5 stars
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No my idea of a memoir
- By Michael Friedman on 12-19-14
By: Bob Ryan
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Why Soccer Matters
- By: Pele, Brian Winter
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 139
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 126
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 128
Soccer. Football. The beautiful game. The world’s most popular sport goes by many names, but for decades, fans have agreed on one thing: the greatest player of all time was Pelé. Now the legendary star, ambassador, and humanitarian shares a global vision for what soccer can accomplish. Now he shares his story, his experience, and his insights on the game for the very first time. Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, there was Edson Arantes do Nascimento - known simply as Pelé.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Pele that will win your heart.
- By Montholon on 12-24-20
By: Pele, and others
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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Their Life's Work
- The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers
- By: Gary M. Pomerantz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and three decades later their names echo in popular memory: "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, and John Stallworth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book
- By cap on 07-18-18
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When the Game Was Ours
- By: Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jackie MacMullan, Larry Bird
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 661
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 506
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 505
From the moment these two players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most compelling rivalry in the NBA. These were the basketball epics of the 1980s - Celtics vs Lakers, East vs West, physical vs finesse, Old School vs Showtime, even white vs black. Each pushed the other to greatness - together Bird and Johnson collected eight NBA Championships and six MVP awards.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great story; stilted delivery
- By Amazon Customer on 08-07-15
By: Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and others
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Hey Rube
- Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 115
New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson is known for such groundbreaking works as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A provocative collection of rants and reflections from Thompson’s columns at ESPN.com, Hey Rube offers outrageously brilliant insight on topics ranging from the 2000 election to his unconventional take on professional sports (“eliminate the pitcher” to improve Major League Baseball).
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3 out of 5 stars
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A bit of the best, a bit of the... not best.
- By m.w. on 08-03-12
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Badasses
- The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders
- By: Peter Richmond
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
A book that explores the enduring legends of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders, Badasses is the definitive biography of arguably the last team to play old-fashioned tough-guy football. Peter Richmond, co-author of the New York Times best seller The Glory Game, offers a fascinating look at the 1970s Oakland Raiders, led by colorful greats from another era.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Silver and Black
- By Kevin on 03-11-23
By: Peter Richmond
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4 out of 5 stars 122
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
What listeners say about True Believers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Hubert
- 03-05-06
Hits the nail on the head
Joe Queenan has a unique perspective and he may not appeal to all, but I find him hysterical and dead on the point.
Queenan is a Philly native who has also lived in France, the UK and NYC. He loves his Philly sports teams. This book explores the relationship between the die hard fan and his team, and why men are defined by the teams they root for.
It will have special significance for anyone who roots for Philly or New York teams, in particular the Phillies, Eagles, Mets and Jets. His insight is perfect and humor substantial.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- James J. Dumont
- 12-19-04
Just not funny...
I love David Sedaris and after reading on SWA's inflight mag that Joe Queenlan was their comedy writer of the year I jumped on this one. I'm crazy about baseball so I started listening expecting the best. I tried twice and simply could not finish it. Maybe all the laughs were packed in the second half, but for now this ranks as the only audible.com book I have not finished. Please jump in and tell me I'm wrong and I'll try a third time!
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3 people found this helpful