Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended t…

Although much has been written about the Nazis, one aspect of their rule has been all but overlooked: gambling. While philosophically opposed to gambling, in practice the Nazis relied on gambling to prop up Germany's economy, earn hard currency, and wage war. In Gambling Under the Swastika: Casinos, Horse Racing, Lotteries, and Other Forms of Betti…

In this edition of the show we will be going back to the European Championships of 1988 with author Steven Scragg who will release his new book detailing the tournament the matches the players and the coaches. Also we will hear from the producer of "Test Match Special " for over 30 years Peter Baxter about the early days of commentary and broadcast…

While the topic of relationships in professional sports teams is gaining greater attention from researchers and practitioners, the role that coach and athlete language plays in shaping these relationships remains largely unexplored. How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams: Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby …

It was 1953, the Korean War in full throttle, when two men—already experts in their fields—crossed the fabled 38th Parallel into Communist airspace aboard matching Panther jets. John Glenn was an ambitious operations officer with fifty-nine World War II combat missions under his belt. His wingman was Ted Williams, the two-time American League Tripl…

Rachel S. Gross's Shopping All the Ways to the Woods (Yale University Press, 2024) tells the fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping No escape to nature is complete without a trip to an outdoor recreational store or a browse through online offerings. This is the irony…

From the best of "Talking Sports Books" where we look back at some of the great stories told over the first 50 editions of the show, in this extract former BBC Radio Head Football Correspondent Mike Ingham remembers his early days and dealing with Brian Clough at Derby County . To listen to the full feature with Mike head to the website or stream f…

Roberto Alomar was not just a five-tool Hall of Famer; he was a magician on the diamond, a generational talent whose defensive wizardry left teammates and opponents breathless. Yet, despite his twelve All-Star selections and ten Gold Glove awards, he has remained one of the most contentious and enigmatic characters in baseball’s history. Roberto Al…

This instalment of the Object Lessons series focuses on the Swimming Pool (Bloomsbury, 2024). The book explores the pool as a place where humans seek to attain the unique union between mind and body. As a former world-ranked swimmer whose journey toward naturalisation and U.S. citizenship began with a swimming fellowship, Piotr Florczyk reflects on…

From the "Best of Talking Sports Books" In this extract from "I'm With The Cosmos" Steve Hunt who left Aston Villa aged just 20 to team up with some of the greatest players ever to play the game including the greatest of them all Pele. Steve remembers what it was like for a precocious young talent in the spotlight of the worlds media and how ignori…

In July 2021, Naomi Osaka—world number 1 women’s tennis player—lit the Olympic Cauldron at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The half-Japanese, half-American, Black athlete was a symbol of a more complicated, more multiethnic Japan—and of the global nature of high-level sports. Osaka is now about to start her comeback, after taking some time off following t…

From "The Best Of Talking Sports Books" with Tim Caple the first 50 editions the incredible tale of Steve Hunt born in Aston Birmingham who was told by then Aston Villa manager Ron Saunders "There's bloke in the canteen who wants to sign you and were letting you go" and that was it off he went to sign up for the New York Cosmos in the same team tha…

In this edition of the "TSB" show we look at "Formula One The Legends Cult Heroes and Their Legacies" with the author and journalist Tony Dodgins we relive some of the most memorable moments over the last 70 plus years of the sport and answer the question who was the greatest and who will win this years championship. Pete Cavill also joins us to ta…

Taken from the "Talking Sports Books Podcast" as we look back at some of the best moments from the first 50 shows and in this clip Mark Bright remembers the day he hit the big time after turning down Howard Wilkinson at Sheffield Wednesday he signed for Leicester City to link up with another hot shot Gary Lineker. Mark remembers the call to Howard …

Welcome to the G League--the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players--Ja…

Pete May has supported West Ham all his life he was there for the FA Cup win over Arsenal when the Hammers were in Division 2 what he didn't think was that he would wait over 4 decades to celebrate another trophy win. In his book "Massive" he relives the journey that concluded with an epic night in Prague. --- Send in a voice message: https://podca…

William Meiners is a writer, editor, and teacher living in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He created Sport Literate as a graduate student at Columbia College Chicago in 1995. By day, he works as a reporter for the Gratiot County Herald, a family-owned weekly newspaper, and by night, he teaches academic writing courses at Mid Michigan College For the 25t…

Today we are joined by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Professor of History at The New School, and author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). In our conversation, we discussed the beginnings of fitness in the United States, how fitness both offered the state a way to shape bodies and lib…

Continuing our look at some of the best moments from the first 50 editions of "Talking Sports Books" Podcast in this selection Mark Bright joins me to look back at his very early days when he was looking to forge a career as a pro beginning at Port Vale the moments of self doubt and the joy of a contract that paid less than the factory job he had a…

Four historic teams. Four legendary players. One unforgettable season. The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987–88 se…

Women’s college basketball is big business—top teams bring in millions of dollars in revenue for their schools. Women’s NCAA games are broadcast regularly on sports networks, and many of the top players and coaches are household names. Yet these athletes face immense pressure to be more than successful at their sport. They must also conform to expe…

Continuing our look back at some of the best stories from the first 50 editions of the podcast. In this clip we are talking with Fleet St veteran Rob Beasley who recounts the Saturday evening he was sat at home waiting for his big exclusive to break, Jose Mourinho was to be unveiled as the new England coach, until that is Rob's phone rang... You ca…

Today we are joined by Dr. Lindsay Krasnoff, who is an historian, specializing in global sport, communications and diplomacy. She is also the Director of FranceandUS, and she lectures on sports diplomacy at New York University Tisch Institute of Global Sport. We met to talk about her most recent book: Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a G…

Welcome back as we continue to look back at the best moments from the first 50 editions of "Talking Sports Books" the podcast, in this clip Fleet St veteran Rob Beasley talks about his book "Jose Mourinho Up Close and Personal" and the moment Jennifer Aniston left the entire Chelsea entourage speechless.To listen to the full edition head to the web…

A story for every football fan who had a dream that one day their team would be competing with the elite this is the story of how Elton John and Graham Taylor took a team on the brink of financial ruin turned it around and took it on a journey from Division 4 to Division 1 onward to a Cup Final and competing in Europe and all on a budget of under o…

Today we are joined by the sports journalist David Steele, who has written for the Sporting News, AOL, the Baltimore Sun and the San Francisco Chronicle, and won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association of Black Media Workers, the Associated Press Sports Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a…

For close to half a century after World War II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and especially on the radio, garnered for him legions of fans who would not miss his play-by-play accounts. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he was as iconic a sports figure in town as the Yankees’ M…

More from the "Best of Talking Sports Books" as we look back at some of the best moments from the first 50 editions of the show. Remember the full editions of these podcasts are all available on the website www.talkingsportsbooks.com or on any streaming provider. In this extract some hilarious recollections from Rob Beasley who was with Jose from d…

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch’s ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, acc…

As we pass the 50th edition of "Talking Sports Books" we are going to look back at some of the best moments from the last 4 years picking some of the great stories that have been shared by the authors and personalities that have been on the show. In this edition former Tottenham Hotspur youth prodigy Anthony Potts looks back at some of the high jin…

Today we are joined by Stephanie Convery, inequality editor at Guardian Australia, and author of After the Count: The Death of Davey Browne (Penguin Australia, 2020). In our conversation, we discussed the history of boxing in Australia, the failures that explain Davey Browne’s death in Sydney in 2015, the nature of violence in sport, and the future…

On this episode, J. Daniel takes readers back more than forty years, telling a story that is part baseball history, part urban history, and part U.S. cultural history, with a narrative weaving together the develop­ment of the Midwestern cities of St. Louis and Milwaukee through their engagement with beer and baseball. In Suds Series: Baseball, Beer…

Here is an extract from the new show with Carl Frampton who talks about his life from growing up in "Tigers Bay" and onward to becoming a World Champion. In this extract Carl remembers that very first night sat in the back of a blue Mondeo on his way to making his competitive debut aged 7. The full edition is online now --- Send in a voice message:…

Extract from the new show with Gary Newbon talking about his book "Newbon Bloody Hell" and in this extract we look at the beginnings of one of Football's most loved shows "Saint and Greavsie" and it nearly didn't happen as when Greavsie was first called his response "to be honest i don't really fancy it" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcast…

Extract from the current show with guest Gary Newbon talking about his 50 years in sports tv. In this clip Gary remembers falling out with Fergie on the day he first interviewed him before making a brisk recovery as they became friends over 22 years. Listen in to the full show with Gary which is out now it's full of memorable tales with sporting gr…

Taken from the new edition of the "Talking Sports Books" with Gary Newbon and more tales of Brian Clough great quotes and ancecdotes from a vintage time of great characters. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tim-caple3/message

The new podcast is out now with iconic broadcaster Gary Newbon looking back over 50 years in sports media the book is full of great stories and anecdotes quite a few involving the legendary Brian Clough here is a clip from the show with Gary reacting to the moment Brian Clough kissed him live on prime time television. The full version of the show i…

This book provides a rigorously researched introduction to the relationship between Christianity, race, and sport in the United States. Christianity, Race, and Sport (Routledge, 2021) examines how Protestant Christianity and race have interacted, often to the detriment of Black bodies, throughout the sporting world over the last century. Important …

In this edition, we are joined by legendary sports broadcaster Gary Newbon as he looks back on his 50 years as a broadcaster his book "Gary Newbon Bloody Hell" which is out this week so coming up then a show filled with great sporting memories anecdotes and stories as Gary recounts life a life working with some of sports greatest names from Brian C…

Israel has one of the most extensive and highly developed hiking trail systems of any country in the world. Millions of hikers use the trails every year during holiday breaks, on mandatory school trips, and for recreational hikes. Shay Rabineau's Walking the Land: A History of Israeli Hiking Trails (Indiana UP, 2023) offers the first scholarly expl…

Today we are joined by Corry Cropper, a Professor of French at Brigham Young University, and one of two authors, alongside Seth Whidden, of Velocipedomania: A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France (Bucknell University Press, 2023). In our conversation we discussed the origin of the velocipede and how it illuminated the paradoxes of cultural …

When the 1997 college football season began, the once-mighty Michigan Wolverines were dismissed nationally as a relic of a bygone era. Michigan had posted four straight four-loss seasons and started out No. 14 in the polls for the third straight year, its worst preseason rankings since 1985. Michigan was led by an accidental third-year coach, Lloyd…

The year 1972 is often hailed as an inflection point in the evolution of women's rights. Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a law that outlawed sex-based discrimination in education. Many Americans celebrate Title IX for having ushered in an era of expanded opportunity for women's athletics; yet fifty years after its pass…

On this edition of the show I am joined by legendary Irish boxer Carl Frampton to discuss his brand new autobiography. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tim-caple3/message

Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) explores the history of organized baseball during the middle of the twentieth century, examining the sport on and off the field and contextualizing its development as both sport and business within the broader contours of American history. Steven P. Gietschier begins with…

Baseball lore and history is filled with many valuable players, and not all of them are the Hall of Famers you know. In The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History (Artemesia Publishing, 2023) Lincoln A. Mitchell highlights the one hundred players who have had the biggest impact on baseball, popular culture, and history through their…

Today we are joined by Dr. Karen Carr, Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of History at Portland State University and the author of Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming (Reaktion Books, 2022). Shifting Currents is the winner of the 2023 North American Society for Sports History Monograph Book Award. In our conversation, we disc…

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has already raised more than $27,000,000. In this interview, Andy Hunter, founder and CEO discusses his journey to creating one of the most revolutionary new organizations in the book world. Bookshop has found …

Fernando Valenzuela was only twenty years old when Tom Lasorda chose him as the Dodgers' opening-day starting pitcher in 1981. Born in the remote Mexican town of Etchohuaquila, the left-hander had moved to the United States less than two years before. He became an instant icon, and his superlative rookie season produced Cy Young and Rookie of the Y…

Welcome back to the "Talking Sports Books" podcast for the new series and coming up today award winning writer Harry Pearson joins me to talk about his just released book "No Pie No Priest" which looks at the history of some of the great "Folk Sports" and this includes everything from Cheese Rolling to Aunt Sally. And as we look forward to Carl Fra…