Sports of the Times: A Day-By-Day Selection of the Most Important, Thrilling and Inspired Events of the Past 150 Years [Hardcover]

The New York Times (Author), William Taaffe (Editor), David Fischer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2003

From the pages of The New York Times come 365 unforgettable moments in sports-to relive, argue about, and enjoy, including:

* June 22, 1938-Joe Louis beats Max Schmeling for the heavyweight boxing championship
* May 29, 1953-Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norkay become the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest
* January 12, 1969-Joe Namath promises a Super Bowl victory and delivers
* August 3, 1984-Mary Lou Retton becomes the first American gymnast to win the gold medal
* July 10, 1999-In front of the largest crowd to ever watch a woman's sporting event, the U.S. women's soccer team defeats China for the World Championship
* August 20, 2000-Winning his third straight major and second consecutive P.G.A. Championship, Tiger Woods defeats Bob May in a three-hole playoff

Every sports fan has a personal memory book, a treasury of unforgettable achievements, moments in which a game was spectacularly won (or lost) against all odds, a hero was crowned or an unspeakable human error cost an athlete a championship or a team the entire season.

Sometimes it's a scandal, a rule change, or even technology that changes a sport dramatically. Sports of the Times draws from the archives of Times reporting to re-create and select the most important event of each calendar day, from any sport-horse racing to boxing, soccer to the Olympics and more.

With three runners-up for each day, five-star selections of the most significant events in history and exclusive photos throughout, this book makes a wonderful gift, and is sure to start many conversations and debates.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Here's a nifty variation on the page-per-day book. Turn to June 9, and read a story (originally published in the New York Times on June 9, 1973) about Secretariat's victory in the Belmont Stakes. Or turn to January 5 and read the Times' 1920 report on the Yankees' buying Babe Ruth's contract from the Boston Red Sox for the then-astronomical sum of $125,000. It's a very clever concept, one year's worth of stories from the Times representing the biggest sporting news to have occurred on each day of the calendar over an entire century. There is something here for nearly every sports fan: baseball, hockey, horseracing, running, basketball, golf, tennis, even skateboarding. The stories appear in their original form, unembellished by contemporary commentary and with their original photographs. There are only two problems with the book: it's an oversize hardcover, which makes it less than ideal for bedtime reading, and it's hard to imagine any sports fan portioning the book out to one page a day. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

William Taaffe was a staff editor for The New York Times, with more than seven years' deadline experience on the paper's sports desk. For almost a decade he wrote a critically acclaimed biweekly TV sports column for Sports Illustrated, winning a National Headliners Award for best national magazine column of any category. He was also a columnist for The Washington Post and The Washington Star, and wrote Gimme a Break, the autobiography of the TV sportscaster Warner Wolf.

David Fischer is the author of A Thing or Two About Baseball, Do Curve Balls Really Curve? and The 50 Coolest Jobs in Sports. His freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and Yankee Magazine, and he has worked for Sports Illustrated, and NBC Sports.

BRAD SMITH is a sports photo editor at The New York Times, formerly with Sports Illustrated.

PANCHO BERNASCONI, a former sports photo editor at The New York Times, is now the national photo editor for The Times.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (November 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312312326
• ISBN-13: 978-0312312329
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,626,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great idea!, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sports of the Times: A Day-By-Day Selection of the Most Important, Thrilling and Inspired Events of the Past 150 Years (Hardcover)

Pick any day of the year, and you can read the New York Times story of what the authors select as the most important sports event of that day in history. The photographs that go along with each story are terrfic as well.

While the authors got most of the sports events correct, i.e.Broadway Joe's guarantee of a Super Bowl victory, The Brooklyn Dodgers winning their first and only World Series, Roger Maris surpassing the Babe, they missed a few i.e, selecting Steve Carlton's 19 strikeouts in a loss to the Mets over Muhammad Ali becoming the first boxer in history to win the heavy weight title 3 times,and overlooking Jackie Robinson's first game with the Dodgers in favor of John Havlicek's steal to help the Celtics win the 1965 NBA Championship. In a move that will ensure ongoing discussion and controversy, the editors provide descriptions of the three runner up events for each day as well. This has already provoked a few friendly arguments around here.

This book is great, and I plan on giving it as a gift to many of my sports loving friends and family members.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have For Any True Sports Fan, February 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Sports of the Times: A Day-By-Day Selection of the Most Important, Thrilling and Inspired Events of the Past 150 Years (Hardcover)

This is a great book. Well researched and very well written by one of the best sports writers of all time. It's enlightening, informative and entertaining. Inspires the reader to excell in daily life! Enjoyable to anyone with an interest in the history of human accomplishments as well as factual accounts and fascinating information on our greatest sports legends and heroes. Lavishly illustrated with memorable photographic images from the archives of the New York Times. Enjoyable from Page One.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, December 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Sports of the Times: A Day-By-Day Selection of the Most Important, Thrilling and Inspired Events of the Past 150 Years (Hardcover)

This is a fabulous read. The authors have selected the most important sporting events of each day of the year and tossed out runners up so that sports nuts can argue endlessly about the choices. Amazing photos, too.