Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time

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In the early 1900s editor Maxwell Perkins told anyone who would listen that Chicago sports columnist Ring Lardner was the most talented writer he knew, high praise given that Perkins’ stable included Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. It shouldn’t have come as a shock, though. Many of the country’s best writers have long been fascinated with sports, and that passion shows up in their prose. After all, when done right, sportswriting transcends bats and balls to display all the traits of great literature: incision, wit, force and vision, suffused with style and substance. Herewith the editors of Sports Illustrated’s favorite sports books, compiled with love and reason, out of intense and sometimes unruly discussions.

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  1. 51.
    Laughing in the Hills (Hungry Mind Find)
    by Bill Barich

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  2. 52.
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    Dollar sign on the muscle: The world of baseball scouting
    by Kevin Kerrane

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  3. 53.
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    The Bronx Zoo
    by Sparky Lyle

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  4. 54.
    The Professional
    by W. C. Heinz

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  5. 56.
    A Savage Business: The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson
    by Richard Hoffer

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  6. 57.
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    GLORY OF THEIR TIMES
    by Lawrence S. Ritter

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  7. 59.
    Among the Thugs
    by Bill Buford

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  8. 60.
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    Lords of the Realm: : The Real History of Baseball
    by John Helyar

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  9. 61.

  10. 62.
    Days of Grace
    by Arthur Ashe

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  11. 63.
    ?
    Out of their league
    by Dave Meggyesy

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  12. 64.
    Golf Dreams
    by John Updike

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  13. 65.
    In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
    by Madeleine Blais

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  14. 66.
    They Call Me Coach
    by John R. Wooden

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  15. 67.
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    Cosell
    by Howard Cosell

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  16. 68.
    Down the Fairway
    by Robert T. Jones

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  17. 69.
    Big Game, Small World : A Basketball Adventure
    by Alexander Wolff

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  18. 70.
    Last Shot : City Streets, Basketball Dreams
    by Darcy Frey

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  19. 71.
    Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder
    by Arnold Schwarzenegger

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  20. 72.
    ?

  21. 73.
    The Fight
    by Norman Mailer

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  22. 74.
    Only the Ball Was White
    by Robert W. Peterson

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  23. 76.
    ?
    Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George
    by Joe Jares

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  24. 77.
    Annapurna: A Woman's Place (20th Anniversary Edition)
    by Arlene Blum

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  25. 78.
    The Great American Novel
    by Philip Roth

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  26. 79.
    Soccer in Sun and Shadow, New Edition
    by Eduardo Galeano

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  27. 80.
    ?
    The story of American golf;: Its champions and its championships
    by Herbert Warren Wind

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  28. 82.
    ?
    Farewell to Sport
    by Paul Gallico

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  29. 83.
    Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
    by Thomas Hauser

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  30. 85.
    The Complete Book of Running
    by James Fixx

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  31. 86.
    Science of Hitting
    by Ted Williams

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  32. 87.
    ?
    Only a game
    by Robert Daley

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  33. 91.
    Golf in the Kingdom (An Esalen Book)
    by Michael Murphy

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  34. 92.
    ?
    Game Misconduct

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  35. 93.
    ?
    No Cheering in the Press Box

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  36. 95.
    The Harder They Fall
    by Budd Schulberg

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  37. 96.
    ?
    The tumult and the shouting; my life in sport
    by Grantland Rice

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  38. 97.
    ?
    Sportsworld: An American dreamland
    by Robert Lipsyte

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  39. 98.
    The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings: A NOVEL
    by William Brashler

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Created by Robot Co-op on Nov 30, 2005.
 

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