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Profiles the lives and careers of Charles Barkley, Elvin Hayes, Dennis Rodman, and seven other legendary power forwards. ... Read more

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Profiles ten celebrated college football coaches, including Paul "Bear" Bryant, Knute Rockne, and Bud Wilkinson. ... Read more

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Profiles the lives and careers of Evelyn Ashford, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Gail Devers, and seven other Olympic gold medalists who won the 100, 200, or 400 meter dash. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Informative! Interesting! Easy to Read!
It's about time women are recognized for their outstanding sports achievements. This book hightlights the top women sprinters in history. It describes the hardships and triumphs these magnificent athletes endured.The author does an excellent job of keeping the readers interest.

Great book enjoyed by my students!
This book not only tells about sprinters, buttells about the obstacles which these sprinters overcame to reach their goals.Many important lessons about perseverance are learned by the readers. ... Read more

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Presents profiles of ten players, including Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Fred McGriff, Babe Ruth, and Roger Maris, whose home run percentages and "slugging percentages" were among the highest in baseball's history. ... Read more

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Profiles the lives and careers of Eddie Belfour, Tony Esposito, Terry Sawchuk, and seven other legendary hockey goalies. ... Read more

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Elo rating system. Chess engine, Hubbert curve, Chess rating systems, Sports rating system, Chess, Go (game), Internet Chess Club, Professional Chess Association, United States Chess Federation ... Read more

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Performance Appraisal for Sport and Recreation Managers is the first book specifically designed to help sport management personnel use Management by Objective principles to conduct performance appraisals and set goals. Author Joanne MacLean explains procedures for developing job assessments, descriptions, and evaluation criteria.

The book includes
-case studies that put the reader in the manager's shoes,

-23 sample job descriptions,

-11 sample appraisal forms and checklists,

-step-by-step instructions for implementing a performance appraisal process,

-explanation of the Management by Objectives goal-setting process, and

-comprehensive examples of performance appraisal issues for sport managers in all settings.
Performance Appraisal for Sport and Recreation Managers provides step-by-step instructions for analyzing a wide range of jobs in sport and recreation, giving management personnel a firm foundation to create solid job descriptions and performance appraisals.

By working through the case studies, sample forms, and checklists, managers can practice dealing with potential performance appraisal problems before they arise. Performance Appraisal for Sport and Recreation Managers also allows managers to work with staff to create specific goals that lead to continuous improvement in performance.

Now, management personnel in the sport and recreation industry have access to the popular Management by Objectives system for performance appraisal.

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Profiles the lives and careers of Nate Archibald, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and seven other legendary point guards. ... Read more

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Examines the lives and careers of ten outstanding three-point shooters in professional basketball history, including Michael Adams, Danny Ainge, and Larry Bird. ... Read more

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Profiles the lives and careers of Paul Brown, Joe Gibbs, Bud Grant, George Halas, Jimmy Johnson, Curly Lambeau, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, and Bill Walsh. ... Read more

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Now, with this book fans can find out whos on top as a team of blue ribbon athletes, coaches, and journalists in the field come together to choose their favourites. With the tremendous increasing popularity of college football a devoted and large audience of college football lovers are sure to embrace this book for themselves and give as a gift to friends and family alike.Amazon.com Review
As the leaves turn to gold, so do thoughts turn from summer games to--you guessed it--football. Perhaps Chris Schenkel said it best: "What a way to spend an autumn afternoon!"

ABC Sports began covering a full season of college football in 1966. Since then many Americans have spent autumn Saturdays gathered around the television listening to Schenkel, Keith Jackson, Bob Griese, Brent Musberger, and more as they call the play-by-play. These broadcasters--along with 25 of their colleagues--made up a blue-ribbon panel to select the greatest college players from 1966 to 1999. The result is ABC Sports College Football All Time All-America Team, a visually stunning, lavishly illustrated book. It opens with two chapters on the history of the game, from the afternoon at Rutgers where football was born to the rise, demise, and resurgence of the two-platoon system and the effect World War II had upon college ball (for example, 31 players took the oath of enlistment into the Naval Air Corps at halftime of the 1942 Cotton Bowl). Then comes the heart of the matter: their picks for the All-America Team, first string, second string, and third string. Number one QB? John Elway. First team RBs? O.J. Simpson, Herschel Walker, and Archie Griffin. Wanna fight about it? Good--debate is welcomed.

Old-schoolers may be put off by the graphically heavy layout (the ESPN generation will love it), but there's plenty of substance behind the style. This book is a handsome addition to the football fan's coffee table. --M. Stein ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The pictures are the only good thing.
I love Keith Jackson. He's one of the top play by play guys to ever do it if not the best. He should have looked around and done some more homework because he is wrong in a lot of places in this book.

I couldn't believe Keith kept with the media favorite Big 10 and Pac 10. Over half of the people on their three all american teams are from this confrence. The favortism is ridiculos. There are also some guys on this team because they were popular with the media. It's a shame they put a lot of guys on this team because of it.

This really is a hard book to try to right because of the favorites people have. It's also a hard book to write because of all the players and all the players from the different decades. There are no way guys from the 50's and 60's could stay with the young men who play in college football today. It's hard to make comparisons.

The pictures in the book are fantastic. It's pretty easy to find this book cheap and pick it up for the pictures alone. There are some great shots and a lot of the quotes in the book are great. They are the only thing that made me able to stomach this.

This book play favorites a lot. It's worth buying for the pictures. Don't buy it to read it. Buy it look at it.

Great walk down memory lane for college football fans
This book is a must-have for the die-hard college football fan.Very well laid-out, lots of good information; and something to interest anyone with an interest in college football.Lots of lists, stories, and pictures.

Younger fans will appreciate the perspective from some of the all-time great players, coaches, and broadcasters; and older fans will appreciate the historical soundness of this book.My only nit to pick with this book is that they insisted on mis-spelling ABC analyst Tim Brant's last name (it's not "Brandt")

All in all, very well done.

All-Time Football Team After 1966
A listing of great football players and teams from 1966 onward is just the tip of the iceberg.The reviewers have to eliminate such greats as Red Grange, Tom Harmon, Knute Rockne, Jim Thorpe, Don Hutson, Dixie Howell, Johnny Mack Brown, Doc Blanchard, Glenn Davis, Bobby Layne, Harry Gilmer, Vaughn Mancha, Shorty McWilliams,Barney Poole and hundreds more football greats who played the game merely for the love of it.The book is fine for those who think football began in 1966, but for those of us who remember the real greats it leaves a lot to be desired.

i love the game
if you like diversity this is the thingits a great book for people whoenjoy the historyand present of the sport

Outstanding!Keith Jackson does not disappoint!
Although not deep in terms of specific stats, games, etc., the context ofthe book, and the overall selection of all-stars from years past are areminder of the true legends of the game.With the growingcommmercialization of the college game, it's refreshing to look back to theguys who played because they loved the game. ... Read more

Product Description
The definitive reference of women's athletic achievement

Today, women of all ages are participating in and watching sports in record numbers. Making Her Mark meticulously charts the heretofore largely undocumented rise of women's athletic achievement over the past two centuries. This engaging book is an unrivaled source of information on key events, records, and significant accomplishments in women's sports from the 1880s to the present day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Marvelous Women's Book!
Making Her Mark is well thought-out and thoroughly researched.As a life long sports fan and athlete, I was inspired by the entries and enoromous amount of information about women's sports. This is a great book for young girls and women of all ages.It was amazing to read about so many unsung women heroes.

Plagued with mistakes... and that's only in the Basketball
section: A quick perusal reveals:

The author misspells Luisa Harris' name twice, Kara Wolters name once. Says Tennessee's Michelle Snow broke a Final Four record with 7 blocks in the 2000 game against Rutgers. True, but that record was quickly destroyed by UConn's Kelly Schumacher as she blocked 10 (no, 9, thank you sally bell) in the 2000 Finals against Snow's Tennessee team. Also says that that Tennessee went undefeated in 1988 (try '98), and that the WNBA Sparks defeated the Sting 3-0 in the playoffs in 2001. The Sparks swept Charlotte in two straight games.

And this is only the stuff I absolutely KNOW - as opposed to double checking the material. Shoddy editing does a disservice to the women she intends to celelbrate.

A must have!!!
This book is a must have book for every sports lover. It is an inspirational and educational work that is in a class of its own. As a young athlete understanding the struggles of the women in the early years of sports was an amzing experince that should be shared by all.

Women In Sports
The Los Angeles Times recently ran an Op Ed piece on the negative legacy of Title Nine. Enestine Miller 's book should be in every school , college and university in America. Title Nine, and the benefits of sports for girls and women, need to be acknowledged and lauded in the print media. More attention, to how far women's sports have come is necessary in order to encourage more participation in them. Girl's that learn the joy of competition and working as part of a team become capable of using those skills in all other aspects of their lives. I am giving this book to my daughter and each of her friends as graduation presents this year, so they can see that they are part of a great institution. How else can we expect Title Nine stay strong, unless the girls that have already befitted from it see their own place in the history of sports. This book does that. I hope Ms. Miller will continue writing with the histories of these sports individually. ... Read more

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Front Page Sports Football captures the fun, excitement, and coaching challenges of the real gridiron sport. This book provides players with hints, tips, tricks, and cheats for everything from controlling a single player on the field to manipulating college drafts, talent pools, training camps, and injured reserve lists. ... Read more

Product Description
In Baseballs Complete Players, Michael Hoban shifts the criterion for greatness from the rate at which a player succeeds to the tally of actual successes. It is, the author asserts, one thing to know that when the season ended, Jim Rices batting average was hovering at the .325 mark and that he could boast a .596 slugging average, but its quite another to know that despite the ups and downs of a six-month season, the All-Star actually contributed 369 total bases, 117 runs scored, 57 walks, and 130 RBIs to the teams offensive production. Averages, after all, reveal nothing of actual achievement: A player who hits .400 seems the obvious MVP for his teamuntil you discover that he broke his leg 45 at-bats into the season and that a light-hitting reserve filled in for four-fifths of the campaign.Shunning the indecipherable formulas so much in vogue over recent years, Michael Hoban presents a mathematically valid yet comprehensible method for ranking the games best players and, in the process, makes it fun and productive once again for the average fan to argue baseball. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Superficial, weak analysis
How seriously can you take a book that concludes Earl Averill was a better player than Mickey Mantle? You can't. The book is very flawed. Hoban simply chooses to disregard park effects and league context, and you cannot correctly evaluate players without adjusting for context. To take one obvious example: Chuck Klein's 1930 season was not the seventh best offensive season in history. I seriously doubt it was one of the top 50 seasons. Klein compiled these statistics in the best offensive season in the century, and in the best hitter's park in baseball. He hit .443 with 26 HR's at home, and .329 with 14 HR's on the road. Mickey Mantle's 1956 season, which did not make the top 25, was far better (to mention one of many possible examples).

It would be easy to keep pointing out more absurd statements the author makes, for instance: despite the HEQ score,Ellis Burks in 1996 did not have the 32nd best season of history; Coors Field grossly inflated his stats. One last point: of Hoban's top 20 offensive seasons, all but one was during the big hitting era of 1920-39. I would ask those readers who gave this book a good review: Is it really plausible that 95% of the greatest seasons in baseball history just happened to be in this era? This is simply not believable . This book is not worth the time of a serious fan of baseball. If you want a real analysis of baseball greatness, read Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract.

Not very good
The system detailed in this book is not very impressive.It ignores much of the groundbreaking work done in the field over the past 25 years.Adding up counting stats, while ignoring the value of these stats and what context these stats were accomplished in, does not make for a very convincing way to rank players.Another problem is the book's insistence on ignoring performance rates, ewhich are vital to understanding any player's production.Overall, there's just very little interesting material here.

Outs Don't Count In This System
Outs don't count; no league adjustments; no park adjustments. These are"counting stats"amalgamated. As such, this might be one of the better counting systems around. You know, in a counting system, longevity is everything. So if you have a lot of hits and runs for many years you do well. I imagine Harold Baines will do very well in this system.

Who wouldn't do comparatively well? A productive player who didn't have a lot of longevity and who didn't make a lot of outs while playing in the Astrodome or Dodger Stadium in a strong pitching era.

You can bet Jim Wynn, who does well in Bill James' Runs Created system, will rank comparatively low in HEQ.

Readers should be aware that this book was roundly skewered on the listserve of the Society for American Baseball Research.

My suggestion:don't waste your money.Check it out of the library.

This book does not offer any insight for most baseball fans.
This is one of the most frustrating books on baseball ratings I have ever read.The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is that the author raises some good points about effectiveness versus potential.

I have several problems with the methods used in this book and I will site just a few.First of all, the rating explained in the book claims to be the "first objective total-season statistic."This claim is countered by the author in the initial explanation of his system when he states "it is important to realize that some of these decisions were somewhat arbitrary on my part."I hate to nitpick, but when the author goes on ad infinitum about what a brilliant system he has devised, this bothers me.

Many reviewers have stated that the author clearly defines his rationale for his rating.This is simply not true.For instance, why does he multiply walks by .5?Why are RBI weighted as much as stolen bases?He never states these reasons, and those are just a couple of examples.When the author poses a question about how he came up with his system, he doesn't provide a very scientific answer.For instance, when he raises the question of whether adding in runs and RBI is in essence adding home runs two more times, he defends this by saying "I finally determined that the home run is the ultimate offensive weapon and ought to be very special."I agree with that statement, but it says nothing about his reasons that substantiate this claim.This seems very sloppy to me.

His work with defensive statistics, while admirable, is far from perfect.His attitude is exemplified in a statement he makes in his chapter on Hall of Fame Numbers.Regarding his system he says, "No one sat down ahead of time and said, 'Now how much weight should we give to hitting and how much to fielding?'"Doesn't this seem like an important question to ask when adding these two elements together to create an all-encompassing statistic?

As stated by a couple of other reviewers he does not add in any park or yearly effects to his system.He justifies this by stating that park factors are "essentially a subjective notion."Subjective notion?We have many statistics that prove that certain parks have effects on statistics.Road vs. Home hitting.The fact that the outfield fences are different distances in most parks should be some clue that this might effect statistics.Is there a perfect way to figure this out?Probably not, but you can't just ignore it.

I have many other problems with the system he has created, but I want to touch on a few of the other issues that bother me.One sentence he writes sums up one these issues.The author states, "The HEQ study lays no claim to being the definitive comparison of players.It is essentially a simpler and more complete approach... than any existing system."In one sentence he says it isn't the definitive system, but it is the best system ever developed.Although not exactly the exact same things, it seems to me he wants to set the system up so that it won't be challenged either way.

The final problem that I have is a little frivolous, but another reviewer mentioned it so I feel it is legitimate.The fact that author mentions that he his a mathematician so many times and the fact that he names the system after himself, just seems way too self-aggrandizing to me.

In closing I just want to mention that according to the author's system, the greatest season by a baseball player ever was Chuck Klein's in 1930.

Very Impressive
My brother, who knows what a baseball statistics nut I am, gave me this book as a birthday present.I have to admit that I am very impressed by the research that the book reflects and the fact that it is written for the average fan - not just for those like myself for whom baseball is a passion.

Rating and ranking the great players is always a tricky business.But, Prof. Hoban has done his homework very well and the result is a pleasure for all fans.

A great book! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Book
I totally enjoyed reading this book.It gave me great insight into the lives of sports athletes and people who changed the game.I like to thank Mr Wilner and Mr Rappoport for all their great research. ... Read more

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Football is one of the most followed sports in the United Kingdom and Europe and these fans will love to read about the greatest stars on the football pitch and the trivia surrounding them. This book contains full colour photographs and facts about players from many countries. ... Read more

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Highlights the lives and careers of ten great American sprinters, including Henry Carr, Bob Hayes, Jim Hines, Michael Johnson, Carl Lewis, Bobby Joe Morrow, Jesse Owens, Charlie Paddock, Tommie Smith, and Eddie Tolan. ... Read more