“And whenever I pass the ball to Lido–fully aware that it is going to be miskicked and wasted–I have a pleasant, tingling sensation of being connected with something bigger and better than me, the sensation wholly inaccessible to those who think soccer is about exercise.”

I’m so glad I decided to–finally–start reading my copy of Granta 108: Chicago last night.  Aleksandar Hemon’s essay, “If God Existed, He’d be a Solid Midfielder” really put me in the mood for my Sunday morning soccer league; even at 8:00 a.m.

ike North, well-known Chicago sports critic has written Settling the Score:  Talkin’ Chicago Sports, a book that raises a crtitical eye to the Chicago sports industry.  The Sun-Times review of the book, published by Chicago sports publisher Triumph Books, gives the impression that the book is, largely, a compliation of North’s opinions on various Chicago sports.  If you’re curious about his writing style, you can find him all over the web, and he has he written for the Sun-Times.  While I find the book intriguing, I find it frustrating that he obviously has a bias toward talking about the Bears–he spends a much larger portion of the book on them than on any other team.  He also completely leaves out the Chicago Fire.  While soccer may not be as popular as other sports in the Windy City, I think the recent matches between team U.S.A. and Spain and Brazil prove that soccer is not a sport to be forgotten about anywhere the United States.

“Nobody knows the game of golf like a caddie. The long-shot dreams, jaw-dropping victories, and soul-crushing defeats—the caddie sees it all. Rarely receiving credit when things go right and frequently taking the blame when things go wrong, caddies are the invisible backbone of the game. Behind every top 10 finish, every Tour championship, and every missed cut, there is a guy pulling clubs for his pro. For decades, these ‘loopers’ were viewed as second-class citizens, often staying five (or more) to a room in dive motels. It was a job reserved for alcoholics, drug addicts, and high school dropouts. Not anymore.

¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly is a series of books featuring highlights from the history of various major league baseball teams from Triumph Books, a Chicago area publisher specializing in books about sports. This book, authored by Mark Gonzales, features the Chicago White Sox, and it was recently featured on our March 2009 list of the best books published in Chicago.

The book is somewhat of a crash course in the history of the White Sox, featuring players, managers and owners, draft highlights, and even a few scandals. The book goes through the Sox’s history, but doesn’t move chronologically, rather it has sections featuring various aspects of the team’s history. Each section includes a lot of anecdotes and information from primary sources, rather than simply citing information from newspapers. It’s a book that can teach a casual fan of the White Sox new things about their team. For example, speaking off the record about current Manage Ozzie Guillen before he was added to the team, scout Jerry Krause said, “You can’t quote me on a guy who is as good as Aparisio…he’ll be our short stop next year and for the next ten years afterward. This sucker is going to play” (36). ¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

“What fans don’t love to relive the good times of their favorite team? Likewise, in a twisted sort of way, what fans can really resist a self-pitying look back on some of those times that tested their allegiance? Those disastrous games, seasons, and plays that made the good times even better?

¶ View In Entirety… ⇒

“Welcome to the Baseball Forecaster, the industry’s longest running publication for baseball analysts and fantasy leaguers since 1986. The Baseball Forecaster was the first book to approach prognostication by breaking performance down into its component parts. Rather than predicting batting average, for instance, we look at the elements of skill that make up that stat—a batter’s ability to distinguish between balls and strikes, his propensity to make contact with the ball, what happens when he makes contact—and reverse engineer those skill back into batting average.

“The source used by Major League GMs, the media, and other fantasy services, Baseball Forecaster’s predictions have earned 14 national experts league titles, plus five second- and eight third-place finishes since 1997. And free projection updates are available online, so you can always make informed choices.”

-From the publisher’s website

“What would induce hundreds of people from all over the world to spend thousands of dollars each and two weeks of their lives just to run a marathon in Antarctica? Especially one with a reputation as the toughest marathon on Earth?

“John Hanc may have the answer. When he turned 50 he gave himself the birthday present to end all others–a trip to the end of the Earth to run his most unforgettable race.

“The Coolest Race on Earth is both Hanc’s story and the story of the Antarctica Marathon, first held in 1995 and now an annual event that sells out years in advance. It’s full of humor, adventure, and inspiring characters–including a wheelchair-bound competitor, three record-breaking grandmothers, and an ex-Marine who described the race as ‘the hardest thing I ever did in my life, next to Vietnam.’

“Muddy, cold, hilly, the race is by all accounts horrible–up and down a melting glacier twice, past curious penguins and hostile skuas, and finally to a bleak finish line. Even the best runners take longer to run the Antarctica Marathon than any other.

“Yet the allure of marathon running combined with the fascinating reputation of the Last Continent has persuaded runners to brave a trip across the world’s most turbulent body of water, the Drake Passage, to a land of extinct volcanoes and craggy mountain peaks, lost explorers and isolated scientists, penguin rookeries and whale sightings, all for a chance to run those crazy 26.2 miles. The Coolest Race on Earth brings the world’s most difficult marathon to life in a book that’s not only a ripping read, but also a deeply funny meditation on what makes people run.”

-From the publisher’s website

Chicago Review Press also publishes the book as an e-book, available on their website.