Players Books

With her sister's critical injury, Tessa Jamison is left with her two year old nephew Joey. However, although she loves the child, she feels the father should be made aware of what happened; but she has no idea who sired Joey.

Her sister's diary mentions the kindness of and much more about Cole Lawry of River Bluff, Texas. Deciding he is the prime suspect, Tessa and Joey travel to the small town. She explains why she came to see him, but he persuades her that though he knew her sister and cared for her when she was in town, he is not Joey's dad. Cole joins Tessa in her search to find Joey's biological father even as she falls in love with her host, who denies he feels the same way as she does.

The lead couple makes BETTING ON SANTA a wonderful holiday romance enhanced by a fine mystery. Tessa knows how she feels about Cole and refuses to accept his insistence that he's not in love. The amateur sleuth investigation adds to the fun as neither knows what they are doing. This contemporary is an entertaining sure bet.

Harriet Klausner

This is a great book telling how many home runs great ball players had throughout baseball history. I liked this book because it taught me new sports facts. I learned new facts when the book compared Mark Mc Gwire to Roger Maris. You need to read this book to find out who had more homeruns! Reviewed by Jack in St. Louis

I was encouraged to read this biography of Carlos Zambrano. He is a truly humble (if unpredictable!) baseball player who loves the Lord with all his heart. It's exciting to think of where the road will lead for The Big Z.

This is the story of Frank Shields, a great tennis star who was ranked as the best tennis player in the whole world in 1933. It was witten by his son.

Shield was a real high liver in the early 20th century running with Barrymores, Clark Gable and other. He was a free liver and a free lover. A passionate Irish fellow, he was wild and irresponsible, and yet irresistable in his own way.

William Shields writes of his father with a warm love, even though he does give notice to all his imperfections.

There is probably no greater man in American history than Bill Walton. His incisive NBC/ABC/ESPN commentary over the years has served as a kind of chorus for the complexities of contemporary life; and his pre-game analysis transcends usual sports babble to become biting satire and social commentary. All of this on top of the fact that he was the most gifted athlete of his generation, tragically hampered by knee injuries. This book deals very little with Walton's modern exodus through the world of Grateful Dead shows and volleyball, into the hallowed halls of sports journalism; but it does provide a good introduction to the post-moves and fundamentals that were, in essence, the early education of a genius. If Naismith is his Hegel; then John Wooden was his Marx; and Walton has become the most subversive philosopher of our generation. Just listen to him the next time he comments on a pair of free throws during the NBA finals. It isn't just mindless chatter. It's a call to arms for every thinking man watching the Nets v. the Spurs. All four of us.

First of all, I am not 9-12 or even 18 and I know it has been stated that this is the recommended age range for this book - I am well into my 40's and in fact was one of those people who watched and held my breath through the entire King/Riggs match. Rooting for Billie Jean as a teenage girl was risking disfavor with any male prospects one might have had...and as alot of us put it on the line in support of her taking the challenge - she vindicated us all with that win and the continuing bravery she has shown in being who she is for all to see. You don't have to be an adolescent to appreciate this book and the life it chronicles - in following her heart and winning she gave the rest of us courage to follow ours. This book is more than a biography - its a reminder to all of us - young and old - that courage and integrity are built a day at a time...this book helps us to look back over Billie Jean's shoulder to mark the path of a hero. Excellent read, indelible memory.

All you want to know about Larry! The Portrait of Bird as an infinite Legend!

A young John B. Holway saw his first NLB game in 1943. And years later, Holway the writer & researcher brought the game back to life in a series of articles and books.

Originally published in 1988, Blackball Stars is a biography of 27 of the greatest players & executives in the history of baseball. It is rich in photographs and statistics, while setting the record straight on the talents of such stars as Bullet Joe Rogan, Chino Smith, Cristobal Torriente, Joe Mendez and Dobie Moore.

Included is a statistical index of all-star teams, Cuban & Mexican league champions, NLB statistical leaders by season and NLB all-time statistical leaders in numerous categories.

Over the years, Holway has personally interviewed more than 70 former players and - with the help of the Society of American Baseball Research - reconstructed batting & pitching stats through a variety of media sources. His outstanding oral history, Voices From the Great Black Baseball Leagues, was published in 1975.

And I need to give a shout to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. It is well worth planning a trip around visiting the facility a couple times.

There is a growing awareness on NLB (and the Cuban and Mexican leagues) & the rich heritage it proudly carried when faced with white hatred. It is authors like Holway who set the foundation for the great books that are now being published.

An excellently researched and written book. One would think that there isn't much new to be said about Jackie Robinson, who is among the two or three most written-about men in the history of baseball, but Lamb tells a story that has previously received little attention, mainly because the mainstream news media didn't think it was worth covering.

Lamb points out that black newspapers covered Robinson from the moment he began spring training with the Montreal Royals in 1946, and he uses many of those papers as his sources. In retelling the story of Branch Rickey's historic decision to sign Robinson and break baseball's color line, he refuses to treat Rickey as a lone, saintly hero; he points out that, for decades before Rickey joined the fray, black newspapers, socialists, and Communists had been agitating for the inclusion of blacks in organized baseball. Lamb shows that Lester Rodney, sportswriter for The Daily Worker, was also instrumental in the struggle to bring integration to the game. His is a name that seems to have been dropped from the record when other authors retell Robinson's story.

The most powerful aspect of the book is the way Lamb portrays the gagging outrageousness of the racial prejudice and discrimination Robinson faced in the Jim Crow-era American south. The vicious, buck-naked bigotry he and other blacks encountered ought to make every white American ashamed.

The final volume of the series, Blacks at the Net: Black Achievement in the History of Tennis, volume two complements and completes the work begun by volume one. Author and Northern Illinois University history teacher Sundiata Djata gives black achievement in the sport of tennis extensive scrutiny on par with previous studies of black achievement in the other sports. Chapters examine both the contributions of individual athletes such as Evonne Goolagong and Ronald Agenor, and aspects of black involvement the sport as a whole, from "Image and Style" to "Advertising and the Black Tennis Professional." "Despite Black Professional players' successes, the issues of race and gender have remained constant. Even with the Williams sisters and James Blake serving as role models, there are fewer black professionals on the tour at the start of the new millennium than in the 1970s." A welcome contribution to sports history shelves.