Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Sports

"It's one hell of a sledgehammer to the chest when your baseball career comes to an end. It's like you finally realize that baseball never loved you back. All the sleepless nights, the hours spent at the gym trying to stay fit, the conditioning, the training, the mental preparation, the holidays missed, the birthdays passed, the memories you didn't get to make with your family...all for what? It's not like baseball lost any sleep over you."

Jude Sinclair here, hockey player for the Bellevue Bullies and lover of all ladies. Hockey's in my blood, and not to sound full of myself, but I'm good at it...really good. The draft is within my reach - it's mine to take - but that's not the only reason people know my name. They know me because of my way with women. They know the score, and I aim to please. I just tend to stay away from repeat performances. In other words I don't do relationships beyond my family and friends.

Japan faces Korea in the World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium, and curmudgeonly gardener Mas Arai finds himself embroiled in a murder. A Japanese tabloid writer drops dead on the field, and Mas gave the victim his last drink. It turns out there's more at stake than a baseball championship - international diplomacy depends upon uncovering secrets buried decades ago.

Sure, I'd heard the stories of the groupies before. Who hasn't? I've just been more sheltered than my teammates. So what? I didn't expect her to be smart. Witty. Kind. She brings me to my knees in every way - except one. That part? I'm saving until the time is right. So how in the hell did I end up falling for a groupie like Tiffany? And how in the hell is this going to work when everyone at my job has had a piece of the one thing I haven't?

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first - and some would say still the best - novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material - the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era - and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work.

Gavin Grey is everyone's All-American. A star running back at the University of North Carolina in the late 1950s, he graces the covers of Time and LIFE magazines and appears on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Everyone wants a piece of him or to be around him to bask in his glory, including his nephew Donny, who narrates the story and is Gavin's only real confidant.After college, Gavin goes on to the NFL where he has a solid career. As his playing days wind down and the cheering stops, however, he finds the adjustment to life as an ex-athlete difficult to accept.

Vernon Rand is a charismatic figure whose great love - whose life, in fact - is climbing. He lives alone in California, where he combats the drudgery of a roofing job with the thrill of climbing in the nearby mountain ranges. Sure of only his talent and nerve, Rand decides to test himself in the French Alps, with their true mountaineering and famed, fearsome peaks. He soon learns that the most perilous moments are, for him, the moments when he feels truly alive.

Quincy has baggage, and lots of it. After a tragic accident spins her world on its axis, she finds herself as a single mother, raising a newborn nephew she never knew she had. Between parenthood, her full-time job, and dealing with the suffocating grief of losing her sister, every day is a struggle. When they begin to cross paths unexpectedly and often, an unlikely friendship starts to evolve. Feelings change. Lines get crossed. What happens next surprises them both....

He was my best friend since we were little. Even though he was off-limits, as we grew up, he became my forever, my everything. But I couldn’t let my selfish dreams hold him back. They say that if you love someone, you should let them go. I did. He became the world’s greatest soccer player. Money. Fame. Beautiful women. He had it all. One thing I never expected was for him to walk back into my life again.

Some people get tattoos - pieces of art that enhance or reveal something about them that they like. Other people, like me, are branded by something - actions or words. "No one will ever love you, Rowan, you're not worthy." Those are the words that created my blemish, my scar, my mark upon my soul. They were words whispered by the woman who should have loved me most.

All choices have consequences, only sometimes they're...delayed. Cortland Nash fled Dartmouth to avoid being arrested for murder, but his best friend, Ford Delgado, is in danger. Cort returns, prepared to keep his head down, and do whatever it takes to keep Ford breathing, but when he finds a beautiful young woman out in the snow, frozen in fear, his plans change. He needs to make sure she's safe - even if the greatest danger is him.

After a two-year struggle to conceive ends with her husband getting another woman pregnant, Grace "Britches Get Stitches" Evans is taking out her frustrations on the roller-derby track. Full-contact violence and absolutely no cheating men? Best divorce-support group ever. Grace is reclaiming one piece of her broken heart at a time - starting with the family dog, which she lost in the divorce. When the dognapping ends with a call to the police, the best revenge shows up at her door in the form of Officer Jason Bradley. He's hot. He loves animals. And he's her ex-husband's best friend.

After overcoming a potentially career-ending concussion, Tyler Vanek, Dartmouth Cobras' first line forward, couldn't be happier with his life. Until his boyhood hero worship for Raif Zovko, a newly acquired player, develops into more. His mistress, "Chicklet", encourages him to explore his feelings, and with her enjoyment of toying with the powerful Dom, Tyler figures it might be fun.

A pace ahead of the play can send you back to the start. And put everything you've worked for at risk. Single mother and submissive Rebecca Bower abandoned her career as a sports reporter to become a media consultant with her brother's hockey team. A failed marriage to a selfish man makes her wary of getting involved with another. Unfortunately, chemistry is hard to deny, and all her hormones are dancing when she gets close to the Cobras' sniper, Scott Demyan.

When hockey phenom Billie-Jo Barker returns home and decides to play in the local Friday night hockey league, all hell breaks loose. Not because Billie's talent is in question but because Billie is a woman. And though these are modern times, some of the local guys still have a problem letting a girl into their "men's club".

To a jockey, losing his license is the equivalent of being struck off, or disbarred, or cashiered. When steeplechase rider Kelly Hughes lost his license his first feelings were of bewilderment and disbelief, for he was not guilty of the charges. Nor, to the best of his knowledge, was the trainer he had ridden for, who lost his livelihood as well. When his first stunned state of shock subsided, Kelly began to wonder why he had been framed, who had done it, and how it had been achieved.

India Harris didn't have the best start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she and her twin brother, Kit, spent their lives in foster care, only having each other to rely on. Then, at a young age, a relationship with the wrong man left India pregnant. Wanting to give her son the life she never had, she put herself through school and graduated with honors. Now, at the age of 30, she's a highly respected therapist.

Pol, una joven promesa del fútbol internacional, está pasando por horas bajas. De pronto descubre a través de sus diálogos con el capitán del equipo los cambios necesarios en su mentalidad para convertirse en un deportista campeón. Gracias a una tarea que debe realizar, Pol anota en una libreta roja todos los aprendizajes que extrae de los intercambios con su mentor. La lectura y la reflexión constantes de esta libreta harán que Pol desarrolle los diez hábitos que crean a las personas extraordinarias.

Ryder "Playboy" King is what everyone calls me, in and out of the octagon. I'm fine with being known as a Playboy. I've turned it into an art form. A big smile, charm, and a little flattery - and my needs are easily met. Besides, giving a shit can get a man hurt - I'd rather get in and out in one piece. Enter Tessa Jameson. One fiery lust filled moment with her is not enough. If anything, it leaves me wanting more, but she's not interested. Me? I know I've met my match - I want more. She thinks men only want sex.

Against some attacks, the only hope is to come out and meet the play. Last year, Jami Richter had no plans, no goals, no future. But that's all changed. First step, make up for putting her father through hell by supporting the hockey team he manages and becoming an Ice Girl. But a photo shoot puts her right in the arms of Sebastian Ramos, a Dartmouth Cobra defenseman with a reputation for getting any woman - or, as the rumors imply, man - he desires.