Excerpt: The Closer by Jason Smith
Bawdy and brawling, comical and crude, The Closer offers a gritty, uncensored glimpse into the grind of professional baseball.
Bawdy and brawling, comical and crude, The Closer offers a gritty, uncensored glimpse into the grind of professional baseball.
Before Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis, before Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Johnson, before Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, before all the great Black boxing champions of every age and every weight class, there was George Dixon. He was the first. He was the greatest. And this is his story.
Combining tales of personal triumph with sports history and social commentary, On Account of Darkness examines systemic racism and ambivalent attitudes that persist to this day.
Skiing With Henry Knox represents a bit of a departure for Islandport Press of Maine. …
No Girls Allowed, by Natalie Corbett Sampson, follows ten-year-old Tina Marie Forbes and her family as they fight for her right to play hockey. The Forbes family moves from Toronto to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and are excited to get settled in the town. Early on, Tina reflects, “all you need to do to make friends is play sports. Join a team and there’s a bunch of them ready to meet . . . That’s been true wherever we’ve lived.” Sport is an essential part of who Tina is, and forms the basis from which she builds community.
NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond investigates the intersection of the global rise of anti-Olympics activism and the declining popularity of hosting of the Games.
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] don’t consider myself much of a sports fan these days. I grew up on …