Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Sports & Outdoors

In the 1980s, editor Lee Eisenberg redefined Esquire magazine and positioned it for its phenomenal popularity. In the '90s, he took on what was perhaps an even more daunting task: to devote 18 months of his life to the mastery of golf. Breaking Eighty is a witty and practical golf guide that resulted from his crash course, told uniquely not from a teacher's point of view, but from a learner's. Millions of weekend hackers will delight in Eisenberg's pursuit of golf's holy grail: the elegant, effective, and repeatable swing.

Defeat and joy, struggle and serenity, fear and confidence, the emotions that arise in the practice of sports make it a fitting paradigm for life as a whole. In this unique work, Bob Mitchell looks at the mysteries and challenges of the Game and what it has to teach us. He makes a compelling comparison between the experience of participating in sports and the effortless action that lies at the heart of the Tao. The result is a highly practical and imaginative work that is part philosophy, part poetry, part common sense.

Larry King was a true-blue baseball fanatic. A lifelong love affair began the night he attended a Dodgers game at Ebbets Field as a kid in 1940s Brooklyn. That was a simpler era in America's history, a time when tickets to a game cost fifty cents and parish priests prayed for Gil Hodges to break out of a slump. In this heartfelt valentine to America's favorite pastime, King recalls the many pleasures the game brought him for more than sixty years. This ode to baseball is a must for all fans and will be treasured by lovers of the game everywhere.

Former Golf Digest editor Don Wade has collected literally hundreds of anecdotes from some of the greatest names in the sport and delivers those stories in a series of captivating volumes. This particular collection assembles not only golf legends like Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Amy Alcott, Lee Trevino, and Jack Nicklaus, but other notables such as Bing Crosby and Jack Lemmon—not to mention Howard Hughes and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Don Wade has indeed proved himself to be golf's master storyteller. And now he returns once again with this truly delightful collection of real-life stories from and about the world's greatest golfers. And Then the Shark Told Justin... brings together past heroes like Ben Hogan and Sam Snead and living legends like Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jack Nicklaus with current stars of today like Tiger Woods and Nick Price.

This collection of anecdotes—from Golf Digest editor Don Wade—brings out of the locker room and onto the green an engaging treasury of more than 100 of the greatest golf stories ever told from the game's legends: Ben Hogan, Nancy Lopez, Fred Couples, and others. From Augusta National to Royal St. George, this entertaining, intimate, and funny audio takes you onto some of the best courses alongside the greatest players in the world.

For Robert Hughes fishing was a lifelong obsession and the pastime that he loved best. In A Jerk on One End he brings the wit and insight that have characterized his art criticism to the subjects of fish and fishing. He traces his love of fishing to his boyhood on Sydney Harbour and recounts the high and low points of his career with rod and reel, from his first catch to hair-raising tales of shark hunts he has picked up from other fishermen.

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, and the youngest man elected to the office. He was assassinated at the age of 46 in 1963. Arthur Ashe was an African American professional tennis player who won more than forty singles titles. He died in 1993 at the age of 49 of AIDS-related pneumonia. But imagine if the lives of JFK and Ashe had not been cut short? In this pair of speculative biographies, two writers suppose what might have been if JFK had lived long enough to serve out his presidency and what Arthur Ashe may have done to enhance his already notable legacy.

For five years Peter Ueberroth spearheaded the committee that oversaw the 23rd Olympiad held in Los Angeles, California. While the athletes trained, competed, and qualified, this future baseball commissioner and his committee—primarily comprised of business leaders and entrepreneurs—tackled the financial, political, and logistical problems they faced. Made in America is a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at what Ueberroth and his colleagues encountered on the road to the 1984 games