Showing results by publisher "Hachette Audio" in Sports & Outdoors

The New Rochelle High School team in suburban New York is like many across the country: a source of civic pride, a manhood workshop for a revered coach, and an emotional proving ground for boys of widely different backgrounds. In the fall of 2014, New Rochelle's season unfolded alongside watershed NFL head injury revelations and domestic abuse cases (remember Ray Rice?) as well as fatalities on nearby fields. The dramatic story of that season, for players, parents and coaches, underscores fundamental questions.

In Open Net, George Plimpton takes to the ice as goalie for his beloved Boston Bruins. After signing a release holding the Bruins blameless if he should meet with injury or death, he survives a harrowing, seemingly eternal five minutes in an exhibition game against the always-tough Philadelphia Flyers.

On the football field NFL great Jim Kelly was a strong-armed passer, leading his team to victory after victory. In The Playbook for Dads he passes principles instead of footballs, still using his talent to lead men, but now he leads them to greatness as fathers, in his view the world's most important job. With an emphasis on preparation, hard work, and perseverance, Kelly tackles such essential issues as respect, character, accountability, and spiritual discipline.

Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic.

ESPN's rise is one of the most remarkable stories about business and sports in our time, and nobody can tell it better than George Bodenheimer. It may be hard to believe, but not long ago, getting sports updates was difficult and frustrating. ESPN changed everything. George Bodenheimer knows. Initially hired to work in the mailroom, one of Bodenheimer's first jobs was to pick up sportscaster Dick Vitale at the Hartford airport and drive him to ESPN's main campus - a couple of trailers in a dirt parking lot. But as ESPN grew, so did George's status in the company.

Just as no football team can be successful without a solid game plan, you can't be successful without one either. This book is full of Matt's inspirational, motivational, and prescriptive advice, such as: be authentic, create opportunities, power through adversity, reaffirm your goals, rebuild, and many other strategies for developing your own personal game plan to succeed in business and in life.

Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin recently became a New York Knicks phenomenon and he's the NBA's first American-born player of Taiwanese descent. The book will chronicle Lin's high school, college and early career in the NBA with particular emphasis on the media explosion surrounding his success as starting point guard with the Knicks. It will explore how Jeremy's Christian faith, family, education and cultural inheritance have contributed to his success.

For years, Geraint Thomas appeared blessed with extraordinary talent but jinxed at the greatest bike race in the world: twice Olympic gold medalist on the track, Commonwealth champion, yet at the Tour de France a victim of crashes, bad luck, and his willingness to sacrifice himself for his teammates. In the summer of 2018, that curse was blown away in spectacular fashion.

John Tournour, known to his many listeners and fans as JT the Brick, is one of the biggest sports radio personalities in America. Making it as a sports radio host is almost impossible, and JT went about it in a fearless way, leaving a lucrative position as a Merrill Lynch stockbroker to pursue his dream. But Tournour's hardest challenge would come when his best friend and mentor, Andrew Ashwood was diagnosed with cancer.

Twenty-five celebrated writers share the inspiring words and timeless wisdom of the athletic coaches who changed and influenced their lives and pass on the sage advice they received.

Even the most avid football fans don't know what goes on behind the locker room doors. Now, 8-year NFL veteran Tim Green takes you behind the scenes for an insider's view of the game, complete with all of the humor, the pathos, the horror, and the wonder of the NFL experience. He shares some of the day-to-day details of life in the NFL that will captivate any fan and doesn't hesitate to examine the game's troubling problems such as racism, steroids, AIDS, and gambling.

Known to millions as an Emmy Award-winning CBS News commentator, Bill Geist may possibly be the last American male to take up golf. In this memoir of a golfer wannabe, he competes in the Bad Golfers Association Tournament - and loses. Golfers and non-golfers alike will be laughing every step of the fairway.