Sports Love

New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again. Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’s catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot, and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters.

He's a gifted hockey player who can't get his act together. The moment I heard about Levi Ziegler, I had a bad feeling in my gut. As a seasoned sports agent, I just knew he was going to be trouble. But despite my reservations, as a favor to the GM of the Vancouver Wolves, I agreed to sign this young, wild player as a client. One reckless night, one terrible mistake, and suddenly my entire world and everything I have worked for is on thin ice. Thanks to my rookie.

After all, I'm Graham Scott, son of a football legend and guaranteed a scholarship. But now, I'm so far off the beaten path I barely recognize myself anymore. My father is a cheat. My best friend broke my heart. And I owe ten thousand dollars in gambling debt. The only thing I seem to find solace in anymore is the bottom of a booze bottle.

In order to find love, you have to take a chance. You have to open yourself up to the possibility of being hurt. You have to expose yourself in a way that you usually wouldn't; allow others to see vulnerabilities that you try to hide. Journalist Aria Smith tried that three years ago and it ended in disaster. Now, she's just trying to focus on moving up the ladder in her career. She's just been handed the most coveted interview in sports writing, so it looks like she's well on her way. Basketball star Tory Barker is fresh off of a championship season and is in high demand right now.

According to my best friends, five months is too long to nurse a broken heart. They're determined to push me out of my nest made of sweatpants and sadness. I need to date, they say. They have the perfect plan, they say. Maddox Graves is the star center of the Minnesota Rogues, and he's every woman's fantasy. Tall, dark, and broody, he's the guy you picture when you're home alone enjoying some self-care. And after my friends win a date with him at a charity auction, he's all mine for one night.

Professional quarterback Austin Riley has always been smitten with his childhood "enemy," Sommer Hayes. Having known each other their entire lives, the majority of their relationship exchanges have been sneers, insults, smirks, and jeers. Now, 10 years have passed since he last stepped foot in his hometown. Austin and Sommer run into each other again only to discover that they both share the same secret: their hatred toward one another was merely a cover-up for the true feelings they'd kept hidden.

Tina Webb had given up her dreams of becoming a primo ballerina that pirouetted in front of an audience of hundreds of people long ago. Having a beau to share her life with was a lost cause too. So, she poured her heart and soul into her dance studio. Instructing young girls who still held onto their dreams, in hopes they could see them realized the way she hadn't. When she receives notification that she has to move her studio, and potentially lose all she worked hard for, she doesn't know who else to turn to but attorney Alex Simmons.

Cam DeSantis's life is a mess. How else would you describe losing your husband, your job, and your money all at once? Desperate times call for desperate measures. So when salvation comes in the form of one intolerable jerk, who just happens to be the starting quarterback for the vaunted New York Titans, she has no choice but to accept his offer as a live-in nanny slash teacher for his eight year old nephew. Now all she has to do is find a way to ignore him for the next three months. Which is easier said than done.

From his first sight of her, he knew she'd make him break all the rules. Cody is a college quarterback from a middle-class background with dreams of making it to the big league. Lisa is the daughter of an elite family with an overprotective mother who'd balk at the idea of these two being together. There's someone else lurking behind the scenes who would do anything to come between the two young lovers, but Cody's not about to let anyone stop them, neither is his girl. This story is available on Kindle Vella

I can’t imagine anything worse than running into my hot hockey star ex in Italy. Until a one-night-stand ups the ante with a + pregnancy test. I expected to never see Benton Jeffries again after our messy split. A decade passes before I lay eyes on him again at a friend’s destination wedding. He sure knows how to knock a puck in the hole. Those piercing blue eyes and chiseled jaw should be a hooking penalty. With all willpower officially gone I let him in my hotel room after a day in Sorrento. My walls come down along with my panties. As the sun rises, reality creeps in. I get up and ...

The first rule of handling PR for a hockey team? Never hook up with a player. That shouldn’t be a problem since the last man on earth I want to give an image makeover to is our goalie. He’s infuriatingly hot, famously grumpy and lives to spar with me after every game. But shining up his rough edges is my path to landing the promotion I desperately need, so I grit my teeth and do my job. No matter how hard he makes it (especially with that sexy smirk and cool blue eyes.)

*This is a kisses-only sweet romantic comedy.* The day Brodie Kent kissed me was the beginning but also the end. Heartbroken and angry doesn’t come close to how I felt when he left town, and me, to pursue his football dreams. Fine. Good. He has his life. And I have mine. Except, Brodie’s mega-star, hard-partying player’s flirty love-life is all over the news and social media channels. He’s pretty hard to ignore. Annoyingly, his boyish good looks are on every screen and other people’s phones. Then, years after Our Kiss, and out of the blue, Brodie is back in Oak River. Cool. I can ...

In my defense, I had no idea the tattooed, glasses-wearing, soulful hottie I spent one perfect day—and one unforgettable night—with was a hockey star on my father’s team. And Miles didn’t know I was the coach’s daughter. That’s the point of a “no-work-talk” date. But now? He's as forbidden to me as I am to him. When I land a new gig as the team photographer, we vow to keep it professional. We mostly succeed…except for that time after a game when he couldn’t keep his talented hands off me. But I swear, it won’t happen again.

Madeleine Becker's parents died when she was ten years old. Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can't get hurt if she doesn't fall in love.That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious.

Shane Wilder: pro surfer, dream chaser, thief of my heart—and completely off-limits. It was infatuation at first sight. On our first date, he took me to watch the fireworks. It was a magical night of stolen kisses and whispered confessions under the stars. But it all came to a screeching halt when he asked the one question I’d been dreading: "How old are you, Remy?" Right guy, wrong time.

She was my first love. She was my everything. We were college sweethearts, the All-American couple. Until the big time came calling. Misunderstandings and miscommunications lead to broken hearts and broken trust. But fate throws me a second chance when our paths cross again. Now Poppy has to decide if she's ready to take another try at forever with me, or if the past is better left behind us. I know this is my final down. My last opportunity to make it right, but Poppy's going to need a little more convincing. Throwing out a Hail Mary, I'll give it all I've got.

Reiner Strickland had led his team to three national championships, and playing a knight in shining armor was all in a day's work for the NFL star quarterback. Only his damsel in distress had no idea who he was, and it threw him off his game. He was the face of his organization and was used to everyone recognizing him. Her innocence, charm, and beauty captivated him. It wasn't until after they parted ways that he realized that he never got her number or even her last name.

I was eight when Nathan moved away. He was my best friend. My only friend. My safe space. And then he was gone. And my life turned into Hell. But I survived. I broke free and made a life for myself. And I tried to forget about the boy who grew up to be Nate Waller, the famous retired football player. I really did try to forget. But then I opened the door, while working at a client’s house, and he was there. Standing before me. My old friend. My unwitting confidant. My Nathan. Except… he doesn’t recognize me.

They were never meant to be together, so they do everything to push each other away. Chloe has to watch Chase sleep his way through hundreds of women while she secretly harbors her crush on the hot ex-Marine. She could never have him, so why can’t she just move on? Chase can run away from the truth all he wants, but when the rest of the world is telling him he can’t have the one woman he has ever truly wanted, that’s all he can think about now. He’ll break all the rules just to get what he wants. But now he is on the run from his long time enemy, and when he learns that Chloe is ...

I fell in love with Rhodes Archer the night we met thirteen years ago. We made a pact that night to never cross the just-friends zone. However, Rhodes crossed that line by kissing me recently, and I can’t get over it. I’ve loved him, ached for him, craved him for years, but I've never wanted to ruin what we have. And now, when I’m a cheerleader for the Colorado Mustangs and he’s their superstar tight end, we’re not even supposed to be in the same room, let alone be together.