“Charles once told me he would write his autobiography as soon as he could figure out who the main character would be.” – Pat Williams on Charles Barkley

“I couldn’t put it down.” – Pat Williams on why ‘The Miracle of Helium’ was his favorite book of the year

By Kim J. Harmon

If you’re not in the mood for the latest Dan Brown-esque thriller (The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) why not settle down at the beach around the pool with something a little lighter … a sports book?

If you haven’t already plumbed the depths of these erstwhile tomes then read about Phil Jackson, Lance Armstrong, Lou Gehrig, The Cage, NASCAR, Phil Michelson, Chris Evert and Martina Navratrilova, Bobby Jones and Jose Canseco.

For instance …

It may have been the greatest soap opera in professional sports – a somewhat arrogant and dogmatic coach coming to loggerheads with a pair of childish superstars – and the sequel is just around the corner.

Any fan of professional basketball who hasn’t read Phil Jackson’s The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul (©2004 by Phil Jackson and Michael Arkush, Penguin Publishing, 288 pages, $24.95) should pick this tome up right away now that Jackson is on his way back to Los Angeles.

How Jackson can return to his old La-La Land haunt may be beyond some people considering the things he had written about Kobe Bryant …

A conversation with Kobe often reveals one of his many narcissistic tendencies. After I told him I believed he and Shaquille have proven they can play effectively together, he brought up Sunday’s All-Star game, captured by the Western Conference squad 136-132. Shaq led the way with twenty-four points and eleven rebounds. “I got Shaq the most valuable player award last night,” Kobe said. “I know how to make Shaq the best player on the floor.” No doubt he was right. Nobody, when he is committed, can deliver the ball to Shaq more consistently, in a better spot, than Kobe. Yet if I were to acknowledge this point, I would betray Shaquille and arm Kobe with ammunition he might later exploit for their one-on-one battle that although camouflaged, always simmers under the surface. Kobe then expressed his disapproval of Shaquille’s failure to show up for practice today. “That just shows you what kind of a leader he is,” he said. “The conversation is about you and me, not Shaq,” I said. He was angry about the allowances the Lakers afford Shaq, failing to note the hypocrisy in his accusation. Nobody this year, or in any year I’ve coached, has received more “allowances” than Kobe Bryant. At times the pettiness between the two of them can be unbelievably juvenile.

It could not have been easy coaching the Lakers … especially for Jackson, who – some say – never really had to coach before because he was always in a situation where his team had the best player in the sport on the floor.

How will it go this time around?

Lance Armstrong knows about soap operas; that’s what his life has become with his quest for one last Tour de France championship and the almost constant accusations of doping. All of that is examined in Lance Armstrong’s War: One Man’s Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France (©2005 by Daniel Coyle, HarperCollins, 336 pages, $25.95).

According to the editors at HarperCollins, “Bicyclist Lance Armstrong is viewed a modern-day superhero. He survived testicular cancer and returned to win the Tour de France five times. But, as Jack Kerouac once quipped, ‘Walking on water wasn’t built in a day.’ In Armstrong’s case, his race to triumph requires an almost pathological fervent commitment and a large supportive cast that, according to author Daniel Coyle, includes ‘Belgian tough-guys, controversial Italian sports doctors, New Age healers, attack-dog lawyer, obsessed fans, and jittery corporations; not to mention his girlfriend, the rock star Sheryl Crow.’

To a lot of people, bicycling is not a glamour sport; heck, it’s not even interesting. But Armstrong could considered one of the most accomplished athletes of this era and the story of his quest for another Tour de France title – along with all the challenges he faces day in and day out (not the least of which was testicular cancer) – should interest any sports fan.

Now, there are two kinds of sports fans – those who think baseball is unbelievably stultifying and boring and those who don’t, those who still score the games at home and could dissect for hours a manager’s decision to bunt with a runner on second and one out in a game in early April. The latter are the fans that should read Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy: Inside the Mind of a Manager: (©2005 by Buzz Bissinger, HG Bissinger and Tony LaRussa, Houghton Mifflin Company, 256 pages, $25).

The book gets into the real strategy of a baseball game, examining in during a three-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. Cardinals’ manager Tony LaRussa is widely considered one of the best bench managers in the sports and readers will get right inside his head as the authors, in the words of the publisher, “uncover delicious surprises about the psychology of the clutch, the eccentricities of pitchers, the rise of video, and the complex art of retaliation when a batter is hit by a pitch.”

Motivating players, the decline of the stolen base, the art of the double switch – it’s all there, along with a number of scintillating questions like, what does it feel like to have to close your first game in Yankee Stadium? Who knew about players using steroids before the current scandal hit? Do managers tell their pitchers to throw at hitters?

Now, one of the best hitters in the history of baseball was Lou Gehrig … and yet most people only know of him because his name is linked with one of the most debilitating and devastating illnesses in the history of mankind.

Yes, Lou Gehrig was a GREAT baseball player. In 1927 he hit .373 with 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 homers and 175 RBI and the only reason that isn’t considered one of the greatest single seasons ever is because that was the year that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs.

Gehrig was the Iron Horse and readers can learn all about him in Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (©2005 by Jonathan Eig, Simon & Schuster Publishing, 432 pages, $26). New interviews as well as previously unreleased letters will give readers a new insight into the man also known as Biscuit Pants. According to the publishers, “Lou Gehrig is regarded as the greatest first baseman in baseball history. A muscular but clumsy athlete, he grew up in New York City, the sole survivor among four siblings. Shy and socially awkward, especially around women, Gehrig was a misfit on a Yankee team that included drinkers and hell-raisers, most notably Babe Ruth.”

Misfit or not, socially awkward or not, Gehrig gave a farewell speech at Yankee Stadium (included in the book) that may be one of the most moving, emotional speeches ever given. Eig examines Gehrig not only as a tragic baseball figure but also as a man and takes a look at the game in the era of the 1920s and ‘30s

Having trouble with your golf game? Who isn’t? Well, if you don’t subscribe to any one of the dozens of golf magazines that make a living off their monthly tips on how to shave strokes off your game then pick up Plane Truth for Golfers: Breaking Down the One-Plane Swing and the Two-Plane Swing and Finding the One That’s Right for You (©2005 by Jim Hardy and John Andrisani, McGraw-Hill Companies, 157 pages, $18.95).

Jim Hardy has been fixing the swings of professional and amateur golfers for the past 30 years and recently was voted one of the top 50 instructors in America by Golf Digest. He has his own way of teaching the proper swing and in Plane Truth he reveals those concepts. His whole theory is that there are two sets of fundamentals to the swing – not one.

Well illustrated with photos, these concepts are broken down in easy-to-follow steps and – who knows – could go a long way in helping the average golfer take come strokes off his or her game.

One won’t take any strokes of his or her tennis game with The Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship (©2005 by Johnette Howard, Broadway Books, 304 pages, $24.95) but one will get a chance to examine of the fiercest rivalries in sports, a 16-year duel between two of the greatest tennis players ever.

From 1973 to 1988 they met on the court 80 times, 60 times in a championship final, and somehow managed to keep together an off-the-court friendship. According to the publishers, this is “the first book to examine the intertwined lives of these extraordinary athletes, based on extensive interviews with both. Taking readers on and off the courts with never-before-published material, award-winning sportswriter Johnette Howard shows how Evert and Navratilova redefined women’s tennis against a backdrop of volcanic change in sports and society, from the fight for Title IX to the gay rights movement and women’s movement to the fall of the Iron Curtain. But she also shows how enmeshed the two players’ personal lives became: Evert was one of the few who knew of Navratilova’s plans to defect during the 1975 U.S. Open, and Navratilova introduced Evert to her husband, Andy Mill. It was their very superiority over the rest of the tour that brought them together, for who else could really, truly relate?”

With players like Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport out on the court women’s tennis is a captivating as it has ever been … but that might not have been the case without Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.

Auto racing – maybe the No. 1 spectator sport in America – can sure be captivating and for anyone willing to smell (figuratively) the burning rubber can pick up Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death!: A Hot Lap Around American With NASCAR (©2005 by Jeff MacGregor, HarperCollins Publishers, 370 pages, $25.95). With the constant bickering between drivers and the rise of a new female star the sport is reaching into segments of the population that never before cared about auto racing.

According to the publishers, “Sunday Money is the kaleidoscopic account of an entire season on the NASCAR circuit. Driving 48,000 miles in a tiny motor home, writer Jeff MacGregor and his wife, an award-winning photographer, covered 36 races at 23 tracks in 18 states, from Daytona to Darlington, New Hampshire to California, from the Wal-Mart to the Waldorf, profiling the lives of superstar drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart, their crews, and their fans, across the grinding reach of a 40-week season.”

Auto racing is loud, but LOUD is what former NBA superstar Charles Barkley is all about and you can find that out in Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man (©2005 by Charles Barkley and Michael Wilbon (editor), Penguin Publishing, 256 pages, $24.95). Once known as the ‘Round Mound of Rebound,’ Barkley has an opinion on just about everything and isn’t afraid to express it. But, for once, he isn’t talking about himself.

Publishers Weekly says about the book, “Don’t let the cheeky title, the byline or the picture on the cover fool you: this is a serious book that’s not about Charles Barkley. Instead, this work, edited by the Washington Post and ESPN’s Wilbon, is a candid collection of 13 interviews by Barkley with prominent Americans like Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods, Morgan Freeman and comedian George Lopez on the oft-avoided subject of race. Barkley wisely keeps his opinions brief, letting his dynamic counterparts take center stage.”

A guy who never toots his own horn but has developed a rabid following around the country is professional golfer Phil Michelson, who pleased millions of fans – not to mention himself – with a thrilling win at The Masters at Augusta National last year. Get inside Michelson and inside the PGA Tour with One Magical Sunday: But Winning Isn’t Everything (©2005 by Phil Michelson and Donald T. Phillips, Warner Books, 224 pages, $22.95).

According to the publishers, “Phil Mickelson takes us on a magical journey inside a life few have seen up close, but a life whose lessons can be cherished forever. As we travel hole-by-hole through the triumphant Sunday at the Masters, Phil looks back at the influences that made him the man he is today: his mom and dad, who mentored him on the balance between family and golf; his wife, Amy, who has given him so much happiness and fulfillment; and their three children, who remain their top priority.”

Phil Michelson may be one of the most best golfers in the world today, but maybe the best ever was Bobby Jones, who in 1930 won the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur championships before abruptly retiring at the age of 28. Read about the famous slam in The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America and the Story of Golf (©2004 by Mark Frost, Hyperion, 512 pages, $30).

According to the publishers, “In the wake of the stock market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, a ray of light emerged from the world of sports in the summer of 1930. Bobby Jones, a 28-year-old amateur golfer who had already won nine of the seventeen major championships he’d entered during the previous seven years, mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, he conquered the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the United States Open, and finally the United States Amateur Championship, an achievement so extraordinary that writers dubbed it the Grand Slam. No one has ever repeated it.”

Get a rare glimpse at a man who shunned the spotlight and, yet, became a legend.

A legend perhaps in his own mind was Jose Canseco, who turned the game of baseball upside down with his Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big (©2005 by Jose Canseco, HarperCollins Publishers, 290 pages, $25.95). Once a prodigious slugger, Canseco became a caricature of himself and a laughingstock (remember the ball that bounced off his head for a homerun?) and he doesn’t do himself, or baseball, any favors in this book. He chronicles his own steroid use and the steroid use of many of his teammates through accounts that have been widely regarded as falsified or outright fantasy.

Judge for yourself.

Then take a look at something purer than greed-infested major league baseball … take a look Inside the Cage: A Season at West 4th Street’s Legendary Tournament (©2005 by Wight Martindale, Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $22.95). The Cage is a small court and the tournament – featuring intense, rough basketball – on West 4th Street in New York opened its 25th season last month

According to the publishers, “The most popular outdoor basketball court in New York City is half the regulation size, offers no seating, and has sidelines bounded by a chain-link fence. The summer league on West 4th Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village, has developed its share of stars. But it has become known throughout the world for another reason: In the age of commercialized sports, West 4th Street stands out as a last bastion of true sportsmanship, a rare place where the only thing that matters is the game.”

The book chronicles a single season, from start to finish, and takes a close look at a tournament that attracts some 30,000 spectators a year. Remember Fly Williams? Remember Anthony Mason? How about Smush Parker of the Phoenix Suns?

They all played inside The Cage.

Take a look.