The Chester County Book & Music Company

*Sports*
	French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, by Tim Moore (St. Martin’s Griffin, $13.95, 0312316127) Not only is it the world's largest and most watched sporting event, but also the most fearsome physical challenge ever conceived by man, demanding every last ounce of will and strength, every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears. If ever there was an athletic exploit specifically not for the faint of heart and feeble of limb, this is it. So you might ask, what is Tim Moore doing cycling it? That’s an extremely good question. Ignoring the pleading dictates of reason and common sense, Moore determined to tackle the Tour de France, all 2,256 miles of it, in the weeks before the professionals entered the stage. This decision was one he would regret for nearly its entire length. But readers – those who now know Moore's name deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Bill Bryson and Calvin Trillin – will feel otherwise. They are in for a side-splitting treat. French Revolutions gives us a hilariously unforgettable account of Moore's attempt to conquer the Tour de France. "Conquer" may not be quite the right word. He cheats when he can, pops the occasional hayfever pill for an ephedrine rush (a fine old Tour tradition), sips cheap wine from his water bottle, and occasionally weeps on the phone to his wife. But along the way he gives readers an account of the race's colorful history and greatest heroes: Eddy Merckx, Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong, and even Firmin Lambot, aka the "Lucky Belgian," who won the race at the age of 36. Fans of the Tour de France will learn why the yellow jersey is yellow, and how cyclists learned to save precious seconds (a race that lasts for three weeks is all about split seconds) by relieving themselves en route. And if that isn't enough, his account of a rural France tarting itself up for its moment in the spotlight leaves popular quaint descriptions of small towns in Provence in the proverbial dust. If you either love or hate the French, or both, this is the book for you. French Revolutions is Tim Moore's funniest book to date. It is also one of the funniest sports books ever written.
	The Sweet Season: A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota’s St. John’s University, by Austin Murphy (Perennial, $13.95, 0060505842) Looking to escape the NFL for a while, sports journalist Austin Murphy spends a sabbatical at St. John's College, a small Benedictine school in rural Minnesota, with the best record in college foot ball history. After fifteen years covering professional sports for Sports Illustrated, Murphy writes, "How unusual to go an entire season without interviewing a felon!" Instead, he spends the season with the winningest coach in football, Coach John Gagliardi, a smiling wiseman who has forgotten more about the game than most of his peers know. But he hasn't forgotten the most important thing: that the coaches a game. In the typically macho world of sports, this is a story about kindness and humility. It's also the story of a family, and what happens when a harried, frazzled couple has an opportunity – however brief – to slow down. Murphy, an immensely funny and appealing writer, brings his considerable charm to this already compelling story. The Sweet Season – more than a book about collegiate football – is a huge staff favorite!
	True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans, by Joe Queenan (Henry Holt, $23.00, 0805069798) For Yankee, Cowboy, and Laker fans the answer is fairly clear: the return on investment is relatively high. But why do people root so passionately for tragically inept teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies? Why do people organize their emotional lives around lackluster franchises such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Diego Padres, and the Phoenix Suns, none of whom have ever won a single championship in their entire history? Is it pure tribalism? An attempt to maintain contact with one's vanished childhood? In True Believers, humorist and lifelong Philly fan Joe Queenan answers these and many other questions, shedding light on – and reveling in – the culture and psychology of his countless fellow fans. Making pilgrimages to such cradles of competition as Notre Dame Stadium, Fenway, and Wrigley Field, Queenan delves into every aspect of fandom in such illuminating chapters as Fans Who Love Too Much (men, like the author, who actually resort to psychotherapy to deal with their unhealthy addiction), Fans Who Run in Front (which meticulously delineates the differences between Retroactive, Municipal, and Vicarious Frontrunners), and Fans Who Misbehave (those who spill beer on women, moon other fans, or throw half-eaten sandwiches at innocent bystanders simply because they look like the current coach of the New York Jets). True Believers is a hilarious but also heartfelt look into the world of those fans who realize that it is, in fact, more than just a game.
	Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (Norton, $24.95, 0393057658) The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought.In major league baseball the biggest wallet is supposed to win: rich teams spend four times as much on talent as poor teams. But over the past four years, the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records. Last year their superstar, Jason Giambi, went to the superrich Yankees. It hasn't made any difference to Oakland: their fabulous season included an American League record for consecutive victories. Billy Beane, general manager of the Athletics, is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles garnered from geek statisticians and college professors. Michael Lewis's brilliant, irreverent reporting takes us from the dugouts and locker rooms – where coaches and players struggle to unlearn most of what they know about pitching and hitting – to the boardrooms, where we meet owners who begin to look like fools at the poker table, spending enormous sums without a clue what they are doing. Combine money, science, entertainment, and egos, and you have a story that Michael Lewis is magnificently suited to tell.
	Who’s Your Caddy? Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf, by Rick Reilly (Doubleday, $24.95, 0385488858) Who knows a golfer best? Who’s with them every minute of every round, hears their muttering, knows whether they cheat? Their caddies, of course. So sportswriter Rick Reilly figured that he could learn a lot about the players and their games by caddying, even though he had absolutely no idea how to do it. Amazingly, some of the best golfers in the world – including Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Tom Lehman, John Daly, Casey Martin, and Jill McGill – agreed to let Reilly carry their bags at actual PGA and LPGA Tour events. To round out his portrait of the golfing life, Reilly also caddied at the Masters, persuaded Deepak Chopra and Donald Trump to use him as a caddy, accompanied high-rolling golf hustlers in Las Vegas around the course, and carried the bag for a blind golfer. In Who’s Your Caddy?, Reilly chronicles his experiences in the same inimitable style that makes his back-page column for Sports Illustrated a must-read for more than twenty million people every week. From his laugh-out-loud portrait of Deepak Chopra decomposing on the green, to his portraits of good ol’ boys who bet $100,000 a round, to his hilarious descriptions of his own ineptitude as a caddy, to his insights into what makes the greats of golf so great, Reilly combines a wicked wit with an expert’s eye in a most original and entertaining look at golf. Who’s Your Caddy? is the next best thing to a great round of golf. It is sure to delight low-handicappers, high-handicappers, and everyone in between.
	The Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time, by Christopher Russo with Allen St. John (Doubleday, $22.95, 0385508980) Which was the greater achievement, Ted Williams’s .406 season or Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak? Who’d be left standing in a battle between Joe Louis and Mohammed Ali? Which NBA team was the greatest of all time – the ’66–’67 Celtics? The ’71–’72 Lakers? What about the ’95–’96 Bulls? Who would dominate the ultimate Pebble Beach showdown – Ben Hogan or Tiger Woods? Who was the most important athlete of the twentieth century? You’re a sports fan. You love a good argument and you’ll defend your position as fervently as Michael Jordan at crunch time. You’ll analyze games and terrible calls, throw out stats to prove a point, and heatedly debate whether a player is an overachiever – or merely overpaid. Now, in his long-awaited and completely original book, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo sets up and breaks down the one hundred greatest sports arguments of all time. In classic Mad Dog style, each chapter tackles a classic sports debate and takes sides with the clear, step-by-step opinions that have made Russo one of the top radio personalities in the country. The Mad Dog 100 covers it all: from baseball (Who really should go to Cooperstown?), to basketball (Chamberlain, Russell, or Shaq: who’s the NBA’s most dominant center ever?), to football (Who is the greatest NFL quarterback ever?), to hockey (What are the greatest hockey dynasties of all time?) – and is a catch-all of other crucial modern-day sports questions like: Is instant replay really worth it? What’s the true role of performance-enhancing drugs? Are salary caps really necessary? Whether you’re reading The Mad Dog 100 or debating these sports arguments with friends, this is the definitive companion for any self-respecting sports fan.
	Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate, by Ken Kaiser and David Fisher (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95, 0312304161) After calling balls, strikes, and outs for thirty-six baseball seasons and more than three thousand major-league games, umpire Ken Kaiser finally called it a career. From the first day he hit a minor-league catcher with a pool table to the fateful day baseball called him out on a strike, Kaiser was one of the game's most popular and colorful characters. And in this autobiography – written with the co-author of Ron Luciano's classic bestseller, The Umpire Strikes Back – Kaiser brings to life his wild adventures from the pro-wrestling arena to the baseball diamond. This is the hysterically true story of four decades of baseball as lived and loved on the playing field, from Ted Williams and Billy Martin to Derek Jeter and Mark McGwire, from one-eyed umpires to space-age technology. As he did throughout his long and sometimes controversial career, the larger-than-his-chest-protector Kaiser calls 'em as he saw 'em.
	Return To Glory: Inside Tyrone Willingham’s Amazing First Season at Notre Dame, by Alan Grant (Little, Brown, $24.95, 0316607657) Notre Dame's football program, for decades the most celebrated in the nation, was in disarray. After a lamentable five wins in 2001, the team was dispirited and desperately in need of leadership. Facing one of their toughest schedules ever in 2002, the players had little to look forward to – until Tyrone Willingham showed up. This stoic and mysterious new coach, who shunned the glare of media attention, wasted no time in reclaiming the national spotlight for his team. Set on recapturing the glory of earlier eras in his very first season at Notre Dame, Willingham proved from the very first game that he had transformed a struggling group of players into the most exciting team in the country. By the season's end, he had doubled the team's victories from the year before and earned himself the distinction of winning more games in his first year than any other coach in Irish history. And it wasn't just the Notre Dame record books that took note. As one of only four black coaches in all of Division I-A football, and Notre Dame's first black coach, Willingham caught the attention of sports fans nationwide. Earning the titles "Coach of the Year" from ESPN and "Sportsman of the Year" from Sporting News, he staked his claim as one of the major forces in college football. In Return to Glory, Alan Grant takes readers inside Notre Dame's program. Given exclusive access to the players and coaching staff, he masterfully re-creates, week by week, the drama of a team playing above all expectations and the maneuverings of a master strategist facing the biggest challenge of his life. Most of all, he takes readers behind the famously stone-faced persona of Ty Willingham and shows the warmth, intelligence, and originality that inspired the players and fans. From sweltering summer practices to tense coaches meetings to the sidelines of the Gator Bowl, Grant shows how a single season transformed one of the nation's most renowned sports programs-and how an unlikely pairing of coach and university proved to be the beginning of something huge.
	We Own This Game: The Little Kids, Big Dreams, and High Stakes of Pop Warner Football, by Robert Andrew Powell (Atlantic Monthly Press, $23.00, 0871139057) Although its participants are still in grade school, Pop Warner football is serious business in Miami, where local teams routinely advance to the national championships. Games draw thousands of fans; recruiters vie for nascent talent; drug dealers and rap stars bankroll teams; and the stakes are so high that games sometimes end in gunshots. In Miami's poorest neighborhood, troubled parents dream of NFL stardom for children who long only for a week in Disney World at the Pop Warner Super Bowl. In 2001, award-winning journalist Robert Andrew Powell spent a year following two young teams through roller-coaster seasons. The Liberty City Warriors, former national champs, will suffer their first-ever losing season. The inner-city kids of the Palmetto Raiders, undefeated for two straight years, will be rewarded for good play with limo rides and steak dinners. But their flamboyant coach (the "Darth Vader of youth football") will face defeat in a down-to-the-wire play-off game. We Own This Game is an inside-the-huddle look into a world of innocence and corruption, where every kickoff bares political, social, and racial implications. It is an unforgettable drama that shows us just what it means to win and to lose in America.
	The Ascent of Rum Doodle, by W.E. Bowman (Trafalgar Square, $13.95, 071266808X) First published in 1956, The Ascent of Rum Doodle quickly became a mountaineering classic. As an outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a peak in the Himalayas, many thought it was inspired by the 1953 conquest of Everest. But Bowman had drawn on the flavor and tone of earlier adventures, particularly of Bill Tilman and his 1937 account of the Nandi Devi expedition. The book’s central and unforgettable character, Binder, is one of the finest creations in comic literature. Trust us – you will be left giddy and light-headed – not from the height but the humor – by this rollicking great spoof of mountaineering adventure. The Ascent of Rum Doodle is both a rediscovered classic and big staff favorite!
	101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent, by Joel Fish (Simon & Schuster, $14.00, 0743227026) The determining factor in whether a child between the ages of six and seventeen enjoys athletics is his or her parents – not the sport, coach, or team. Yet, parents are often unaware of how their behavior and expectations impact their child's experience. In 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent, Dr. Joel Fish, a sport psychologist who is also the dad of three young athletes, shares both his clinical expertise and practical experience to help parents develop a deeper understanding of the many issues that surround the young athlete. For athletes of all skill levels, from Little League to high school, Dr. Fish discusses how to: Help your child reach his or her full athletic potential; Develop strategies to deal with competitive pressure; Know if you're too involved or not involved enough; Interact successfully with your child's coach, and more. With insights into the different developmental and self-esteem issues facing girls and boys, information on parenting a superstar athlete, and special tips for single parents, 101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent will help any parent make sports a memorable and happy experience for their child.