Byline: Bud Armstrong; Staff Writer
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If you're still scratching your head about what to get the sports fan on your Christmas list, don't panic. There are no guarantees, of course, but here are a number of books that might fill your needs.
Photography
One of the most impressive gift books this season is more than just a sports book. 'The Best of Leifer,' introduction by George Plimpton (Abbeville Press, 256 pages, $75) offers a selection of the work of Neil Leifer, one of the greatest photographers - sports or otherwise - of our time. He's photographed popes and princesses, presidents and prisoners. But it's as a sports photographer that we know him best. He worked for Sports Illustrated for 18 years beginning in 1960 and produced 160 covers for the magazine. The book's cover photo - Muhammad Ali standing over a fallen Sonny Liston in their 1965 fight - might be the most famous photo of Ali ever taken.
Leifer covered World Cups, World Series, the Winter and Summer Olympics, Final Fours, Triple Crown races, Super Bowls. The first 157 pages are devoted to his sports photography.
'Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?' by Jane Gottesman (Random House, 223 pages, $35) records the enormous advances women have made in sports this century, especially since the passage of Title IX in 1972. The book was published to accompany an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington that will travel around the country for the next five years. Everyday girls and women are covered, as well as some of the icons - Wilma Rudolph, Brandi Chastain, Janet Evans, Kathy Switzer - of women's sports.
Basketball
'At the Buzzer! Havlicek steals, Erving soars, Magic deals, Michael scores: The Greatest Moments in NBA History,' by Bryan Burwell (Doubleday, 216 pages, $50), is a multimedia collection of NBA highlights. Two compact discs, narrated by Bill Walton, of radio broadcasts of significant events in the league's history accompany the photographic record of each event. Among them are Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point games in 1962, Michael Jordan's change-of-direction layup in the 1991 finals, Julius Erving's eye-popping baseline, under-the-basket layup in the 1980 finals, and Teresa Weatherspoon's 50-foot buzzer beater in Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals.
The Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett contributes a foreword.
'Hardwood Heroes: Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Basketball,' by Ross Bernstein (Nodding Press, 216 pages, $24.95), records basketball around the state on every level, from high school and small college through the NBA and WNBA. Bernstein now has a book on every major sport in Minnesota and follows the same recipe for each one. He packs them with hundreds of team and individual period photographs, brief essays and statistical charts.
Golf
'How I Play Golf,' by Tiger Woods (Warner Books, 306 pages, $34.95), is a handsome, beautifully illustrated guide to the game by the man who has captured our imagination since he first appeared on the scene as a teenager. With the help of the editors of Golf Digest, Woods offers instructions on grip, stance, swing, iron play, spin trajectory ... every facet of the game.
Baseball
'The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract' (The Free Press, 998 pages, $45) is a completely revised version of the original published 15 years ago. It's so many things under one cover and so comprehensive one hardly knows where to begin. James is to baseball what Robert Parker is to wine - authority.
His book, first of all, is a history, covering each decade, from the 1870s through the 1990s. Each decade includes highlights listing such esoteria as ugliest player, heaviest player, worst hitting pitcher, drinking men, and best unrecognized player. But it's James' player ratings, the top 100 by position and the top 100 of all time, plus a new statistic called 'win shares' to rate individual performance, that will create the most conversation.
Consider this: James rates Barry Bonds the third-best left fielder of all time and calls him the most unappreciated superstar of his time. Oscar Charleston, a Negro League player, is rated the fourth-best player of all time. George Sisler doesn't make the top 100; neither does Nolan Ryan.
James is fascinating even if you don't agree with him.
- Bud Armstrong is at rharmstrong@startribune.com.
