New Books in SportsThe NBS Summer Seminar: Sports Books for Children

June 4, 2013

What did you read as a young sports fan?  Maybe the sports pages in the local newspaper, or a glossy illustrated magazine?  Did your school’s library carry biographies of famous athletes written for children, or did you go straight to the books for adults to satisfy the desire for more knowledge about your favorite sport? […]

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Ron Kaplan501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die

May 17, 2013

WorldCat is the largest online catalog in the world, accessing the collections of more than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories.  Using the catalog, a subject search of particular sports turns up the following tally of book titles in the world’s libraries: Boxing: 5164, Hockey: 7083, Cricket: 10,881, Horse Racing: 11,933, Basketball: 12,875, Golf: 16,660, […]

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Martin KelnerSit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV

April 15, 2013

I have never been to the Super Bowl, and I will probably never will.  I’ve never been to a World Cup match or an Olympic event.  I’ve never been to the Final Four or the Rose Bowl.  I’ve never been to the Stanley Cup playoffs or the Champions League, the Kentucky Derby or the Masters.  […]

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Simon MartinSport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport

March 29, 2013

Azzurri, cyclists, boxers, Berlusconi, Balotelli, strapping Fascist men preparing to bear arms, strapping Fascist women preparing to bear children, the shirtless Duce, Ferraris, Vespas, doping scandals, World Cup celebrations, Serie A officials on the take, Il Grande Torino, and the barefoot marathoner Abebe Bikila.  You find all this and more in Simon Martin’s history of […]

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Andrew ZimbalistIn the Best Interests of Baseball: Governing the National Pastime

March 15, 2013

In 2008, when entertainment magnate Lalit Modi launched the Indian Premier League, he took a title that was new to the world of cricket: Commissioner. Modi’s idea for the structure of the IPL had American origins.  He had studied in the United States in the mid-1980s, where he encountered the model of professional teams not […]

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Dennis DeningerSports on Television: The How and Why Behind What You See

February 19, 2013

Did you watch the game last night? No matter if you live in Australia, England, India, Ontario, or the US, chances are you’ve heard that question today.  Televised sports are a constant presence in contemporary culture, providing a common set of experiences and references for people in the workplace, the airport terminal, the dormitory, and […]

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Steven RiessThe Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime: Horse Racing, Politics, and Organized Crime in New York, 1865-1913

January 31, 2013

In the classic 1973 film The Sting, Robert Redford and Paul Newman lead a team of con men in an elaborate scam to take revenge on a dangerous crime boss and a corrupt cop.  The final play takes place in a high-stakes poolroom, an illegal parlor for the wealthy to bet on horse races, set […]

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David George SurdamThe Rise of the National Basketball Association

January 8, 2013

This past October, David Stern announced that he would step down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association in February 2014.  In Stern’s three decades at the helm, the NBA has seen its domestic fortunes rise and ebb.  Television ratings for regular-season and playoff games have declined steadily since their peak in the late 1990s.  […]

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The 2012 Year-End Book List Episode

December 19, 2012

The sports pages, websites, and television channels are running their annual reviews of the year in sports.  The 10 Best Photos! The 10 Biggest Plays!  The Top 10 Athletes!  Whatever your sporting taste, there’s a year-end list for you. New Books in Sports offers a different take on the end-of-the-year review.  This episode features a […]

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Brett BebberViolence and Racism in Football: Politics and Cultural Conflict in British Society, 1968-1998

November 29, 2012

This past September an independent panel commissioned in 2009 by the British government released its 395-page report on the Hillsborough Stadium disaster of April 1989.  The published findings and the accompanying release of documents confirmed what had long been charged: the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the grounds in Sheffield were the result of […]

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