Biography & Autobiography : Sports

At the Sydney Games, Marion Jones strove to become the first person ever to win five gold medals in track and field at a single Olympics, making headlines for simply believeing she could do it. Get the full story of this amazing runner's race for the record, from her childhood dreams of gold medals to her tough choice between two sports and her determined drive to become the fastest woman in the world. more...

Price: $3.99

Follow the life of basketball legend Michael Jordan, one of the world's most recognizable athletes and living brands, inside this engaging and balanced biography. more...

Price: $38.50

Molly O'Neill's father believed that baseball was his family's destiny. He wanted to spawn enough sons for an infield, so he married the tallest woman in Columbus, Ohio. Molly came out first, but eventually her father's plan prevailed. Five boys followed in rapid succession and the youngest, Paul O'Neill, did, in fact, grow up to be the star right fielder for the New York Yankees. In Mostly True, celebrated food critic and writer O'Neill tells the story of her quintessentially American family and the places where they come together -- around the table and on the ball field. more...

Price: $17.99

A new superstar appeared on the American sports landscape in the spring of 2006: Barbaro, a three-year-old racehorse, won the Kentucky Derby by six and a half lengths, the largest margin of victory in sixty years. Barbaro's impressive performance immediately stirred talk of a possible Triple Crown. But in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, the horse suffered a catastrophic leg injury that ended his undefeated career and left him fighting for his life. Edgar Prado, a native of Peru and one of the world's top jockeys, rode Barbaro to glory and then stood beside him for months as the horse valiantly struggled to survive and millions of fans held their breath. Having ridden in more than twenty-five thousand races over the previous two decades, Prado thought he had been around too long to fall for any one horse, but Barbaro—intelligent, charismatic, and resourceful in sickness as well as in health—stole his heart. In My Guy Barbaro , Prado recounts his own story, a tale of grit and dreams that moves from his impoverished childhood in Lima, Peru, to the winner's circles of the greatest racetracks in the world, and memorably chronicles his emotional time with Barbaro before, during, and after the horse's breakdown. Their bond was special and immeasurable. With Prado still reeling from a wrenching personal loss, Barbaro lifted his spirits by giving him “the ride of a lifetime” in the Derby. When the tables turned and the horse needed support two weeks later, Prado was there, going out of his way to make a succession of visits to the New Bolton Center, the animal hospital in Pennsylvania where Barbaro underwent more than two dozen surgeries and was ultimately put down. Barbaro made worldwide headlines for eight months, and now Prado's poignant, clear-eyed narrative takes us where no reader has gone before—onto Barbaro's back in the heat of a race and into the intensive care suite where Barbaro's more...

Price: $19.95

This book details the story of Paul Tracy and his rise through racing's minor leagues, setting and breaking records as he went. At 17 he was racing cars with twice the horsepower of the family cars his friends were just learning to drive. Veteran team managers and drivers knew they were seeing someone special on the track: a quiet kid with the looks of a boy scout and the desire of a champion. Soon Tracy dominated kart racing, won at Can-Am racing, and ruled Indy Lights. He then stormed into the Championship Auto Racing Team circuit, racing wheel to wheel with Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. In those early races, even driving an underpowered car, Tracy proved he could run with the big boys. But Paul Tracy's success has come with its share of hardships. His aggressive driving style on the cart circuit has made almost as many enemies as fans. He's been criticized, penalized, and vilified both on and off the track. Nevertheless, two things remain consistent--his desire to drive fast, and his desire to win. more...

Price: $10.95