Sports & Recreation audiobooks

Zim

By: Don Zimmer

Narrated by: Dennis McKee

Length: 11 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Don Zimmer had his first taste of baseball glory in 1948 as a member of a national champion American Legion team. He was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers, only to have his career—and life—threatened when he was beaned in a minor league game in 1953.After a miraculous recovery, he went on to play for Brooklyn’s only world championship team in... Read more

The Eternal Summer

By: Curt Sampson

Narrated by: Dennis McKee

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Was there ever a year in golf like 1960? It was the year that the sport and its vivid personalities exploded on the consciousness of the nation, when the past, present, and future of the game collided. Television, still a new medium, provided a fresh window to the show and enabled this "rich man's sport" to win over millions of new fans.Here was... Read more

The Great Chase

By: Harvey Rosenfeld

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 12 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is the longest-standing rivalry in baseball history—a feud that began in the late nineteenth century when both clubs were based in New York City. Then, on October 3, 1951, Bobby Thomson's "shot heard around the world" ended their pennant race—one of the most dramatic ever. Interviews, contemporary newspaper articles,... Read more

Bums

By: Peter Golenbock

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

Length: 19 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. Even today, they remain ingrained in the fabric of our national pastime. In Bums, bestselling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former... Read more

The Masters

By: Curt Sampson

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 10 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

The Masters golf tournament weaves a hypnotic spell. Success at Augusta National breeds legends, while failure can overshadow even the most brilliant of careers. But as Curt Sampson, author of the bestseller Hogan, reveals in The Masters, a cold heart beats behind the warm antebellum façade of this famous Augusta course.The Masters is an... Read more

Rothstein

By: David Pietrusza

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 13 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The model for Meyer Wolfsheim from The Great Gatsby and Guys and Dolls' Nathan Detroit, Arnold Rothstein was an underworld genius, racketeer, rumrunner, political fixer, and criminal mastermind who, as F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, played "with the faith of fifteen million people with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe."David... Read more

Squeeze Play

By: Jane Leavy

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 14 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

Troubles begin for sports reporter A. B. Berkowitz when she is assigned to cover the Washington Senators, who are having a lousy season. When A. B. points out the team’s ineptitude, the players refuse to talk to her, except to attempt to gross her out as often as possible. Into this mix come the team’s televangelist owner, her hardcore editor,... Read more

Come On Seabiscuit!

By: Ralph Moody

Narrated by: Jim Weiss

Length: 4 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Who would have believed that a knobby-kneed little colt named Seabiscuit would become one of the most celebrated racehorses of all time? Although Seabiscuit was the grandson of the legendary Man O' War, he was neither handsome nor graceful. His head was too big, his legs were too short, and his gallop was awkward.During the depths of the Great... Read more

America’s Victory

By: David W. Shaw

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Set against the backdrop of the first world’s fair in London, America’s Victory takes listeners into a world rich in adventure and history in an unforgettable story of skill, daring, and honor at the heart of our national identity.In 1850, a brilliant young boat designer and an unlikely team of humble, hard working men faced the might and... Read more

Simple Steps

By: Lisa Lelas, Linda McClintock & Beverly Zingarella

Narrated by: Lisa Lelas & Celeste Lawson

Length: 6 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Breathe easier. Live happier. All it takes is a few simple steps each week.If you're like most women, you have more worries, wishes, and chores than you can keep track of. You may crave a sense of order and control but have no idea how to attain it and thus find yourself coping with a thousand daily details.Now the women who established the... Read more

The Grand Slam

By: Mark Frost

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 19 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

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 twenty-eight-year-old amateur golfer, mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, this natural, self-taught player conquered the British Amateur Championship, the... Read more

Striking Back

By: Aaron J. Klein

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 7 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

1972. The Munich Olympics. Palestinian members of the Black September group murder eleven Israeli athletes. Nine hundred million people watch the crisis unfold on television, witnessing a tragedy that inaugurates the modern age of terror.Back in Israel, Prime Minister Golda Meir vows to track down those responsible and, in Menachem Begin’s... Read more

Go Long!

By: Jerry Rice

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

Length: 5 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Football hero Jerry Rice grew up in Crawford, Mississippi, the son of a brick mason. He developed his hands by catching the bricks that his brothers threw at him. From these humble beginnings, Rice blazed a path to greatness, becoming the greatest wide receiver in the NFL and winning three super bowl rings for the San Francisco 49ers.In spite of... Read more

Full Throttle

By: Robert Edelstein

Narrated by: Rex Linn

Length: 11 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Motor racing and mayhem, the non-stop pursuit of outrageous dreams, high-speed thrills and a really good time: these are the raw materials of Full Throttle.Curtis Turner was the most dynamic stock-car racer of all time; he wrote the book on living fast and dying young. The first NASCAR celebrity, his life embodied all that made NASCAR a hit... Read more

The Sweet Science

By: A. J. Liebling

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

This collection of A. J. Liebling's classic New Yorker pieces on the "sweet science of bruising" brings vividly to life the boxing world as it once was. It depicts the great events of boxing's American heyday, including Sugar Ray Robinson's dramatic comeback, Rocky Marciano's rise to prominence, and Joe Louis's unfortunate decline. Liebling... Read more

Eddie Rickenbacker

By: Kathryn Cleven Sisson

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 1 hour 50 minutes

Abridged: No

World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker’s first attempt at flight was riding his bicycle off the roof while holding an umbrella! Growing up in the Midwest in the early 1900s, young Eddie, whose parents were Swiss immigrants, worked hard to help support his family but found time to build a “pushmobile,” experience a thrilling ride in a... Read more

Shattered Air

By: Bob Madgic

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Length: 8 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

On the evening of July 27, 1985, five hikers made a fateful choice to climb Yosemite's fabled Half Dome, even as the sky darkened and thunder rolled. By night's end, two would be dead from a lightning strike, three gravely wounded, and desperate EMTs would be overseeing a harrowing midnight helicopter rescue.Shattered Airis a haunting account of... Read more

What I Talk about When I Talk about Running

By: Haruki Murakami

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 4 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore comes this rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running and the integral impact both have made on his life. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers Murakami’s four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Settings range from... Read more

Pull Up a Chair

By: Curt Smith

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 11 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC Television’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing... Read more

Missing Links

By: Rick Reilly

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

From Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly comes this spoof of all things golf and country club. Missing Links is the story of four middle-class buddies who live outside Boston and play golf together at Ponkaquoque Municipal Course and Deli, not so fondly known as Ponky. An eighteen-hole garbage dump with hazards that include a concrete river... Read more

Tiger

By: Steve Helling

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

He was born to a father who described him as the "chosen one," a boy who would grow into a man with the power to impact nations. His mother called him the "universal child," blessed with the ability to hold the races together. Choosing the unlikely avenue of golf, they groomed their son for the fame and influence that they always believed was... Read more

The Empire Strikes Out

By: Robert Elias

Narrated by: William Hughes

Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

"It's our game…America's game: it has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere—belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly as our Constitution's laws, [and] is just as important in the sum total of our historic life."—Walt Whitman on baseballIs the face of American baseball throughout the world that of goodwill... Read more

The Baseball Codes

By: Jason Turbow

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 10 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Everyone knows that baseball is a game of intricate regulations, but it turns out to be even more complicated than we realize. What truly governs the Major League game is a set of unwritten rules—some of which are openly discussed, and some of which only a minority of players are aware. In The Baseball Codes, old-timers and all-time greats share... Read more

The Bullpen Gospels

By: Dirk Hayhurst

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career—a raw and unflinching account of his life in the minor leagues. Whether training tarantulas to protect his room from... Read more