{"title":"Ron Rapoport","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"immortal-bobby-book-ron-rapoport-9780471473725","title":"The Immortal Bobby","description":"Acclaim for The Immortal Bobby \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJust when you think there is nothing new to be said or written on the subject of Bob Jones, Ron Rapoport comes along and proves that theory completely untrue. The Immortal Bobby is wonderfully reported and superbly written.\u003cbr\u003e--John Feinstein, author of A Good Walk Spoiled and Caddy for Life \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe story of Bobby Jones's singular life is one of the most fascinating in sports history. Ron Rapoport's thoughtful, graceful style is well suited to telling that story.\u003cbr\u003e--Bob Costas, broadcaster, NBC Sports and HBO Sports \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeyond the grainy newsreels and the confetti falling on Broadway and Peachtree Street, there was an essential Bobby Jones, and Ron Rapoport reveals him splendidly in a portrait as graceful as the man. There's more here than Grand Slam 1930--the jangling nerves and self-doubt, the towering modesty in response to fame, the complexity of an Atlanta patrician, a life richly lived.\u003cbr\u003e--Gary M. Pomerantz, author of Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe skills of writing and reporting that fans of Ron Rapoport, like me, have come to expect from him over the years--candor, thoughtfulness, insight, perspective, humor--are once again demonstrated and illuminated in The Immortal Bobby. It is an important book about an important sports figure that, typically for Rapoport, goes beyond the confines of sports and fits firmly in the context of our culture.\u003cbr\u003e--Ira Berkow, sports columnist and author of Red: A Biography of Red Smith \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHere is Bobby Jones as you've never seen him, almost fearful in the fires of competition, and Ron Rapoport shows us how that man became a legend.\u003cbr\u003e--Dave Kindred, coauthor (with Tom Callahan) of Around the World in 18 Holes","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580516671761,"sku":"GOR007894982","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50352371794193,"sku":"CIN0471473723G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51002763378961,"sku":"NIN9780471473725","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415907172625,"sku":"CIN0471473723VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0471473723.jpg?v=1751260933"},{"product_id":"let-s-play-two-book-ron-rapoport-9780316318631","title":"Let's Play Two","description":"The definitive and revealing biography of Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks, one of America's most iconic, beloved, and misunderstood baseball players, by acclaimed journalist Ron Rapoport.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601413021969,"sku":"GOR012992176","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49789258596625,"sku":"CIN0316318639G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50919220969745,"sku":"CIN0316318639VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52636196307217,"sku":"CIN0316318639A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0316318639.jpg?v=1750738945"},{"product_id":"kind-of-grace-book-ron-rapoport-9781571430137","title":"A Kind of Grace","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49936474308881,"sku":"CIN157143013XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53362078155025,"sku":"CIN157143013XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/157143013X.jpg?v=1750798646"},{"product_id":"see-how-she-runs-book-r-rapoport-9780060935924","title":"See How She Runs","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50190870085905,"sku":"CIN0060935928G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50266095026449,"sku":"CIN0060935928VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060935928.jpg?v=1751388579"},{"product_id":"let-s-play-two-book-ron-rapoport-9780316318624","title":"Let's Play Two","description":"Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs and a Gold Glove Award, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and runs batted in. His signature phrase, \"Let's play two,\" has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies an enthusiasm and optimism that endeared him to fans everywhere.  But Banks's public display of good cheer was also a mask that hid a deeply conflicted and complex man. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs, who fielded some of baseball's worst teams, and became one of the greatest players never to reach the World Series. He endured poverty and racism as a young man, and the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher as an aging superstar. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never complaining and never saying a negative word about his circumstances or the people around him.  Based on numerous conversations with Banks, and on more than a hundred interviews with family, teammates, friends, and associates--as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources--Let's Play Two tells Banks's story along with that of the woebegone Cubs teams he played for. This fascinating chronicle features Buck O'Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long lost baseball era.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50277745918225,"sku":"GOR013909606","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50558795186449,"sku":"CIN0316318620VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50928112173329,"sku":"CIN0316318620G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001005867281,"sku":"NIN9780316318624","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53349643911441,"sku":"NLS9780316318624","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0316318620.jpg?v=1750844787"},{"product_id":"frank-chance-s-diamond-book-ron-rapoport-9781493080991","title":"Frank Chance's Diamond","description":"At one time Ring Lardner’s baseball articles reached millions of readers through hundreds of newspapers throughout America, and admirers of his writing included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmond Wilson. He was as familiar to Americans in the 1920s as Charles Lindbergh, Calvin Coolidge, and Babe Ruth. His articles about the players he knew, his World Series coverage, his poems, parodies, and jokes were unlike any other baseball reporting ever written, both in his time and since. Even a hundred years later, Lardner’s baseball journalism makes for delightful, often wildly funny, reading and offers a glimpse of where his ground-breaking baseball fiction came from. This book contain Lardner’s columns about Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel, and Three-Finger Mordecai Brown as well as some fabulous lesser-known characters like Frank Schulte, Heine Zimmerman, Jim Schekard, Johnny Kling, Rollie Zeider, and Peaches Graham, as well as examples of Lardner’s coverage of a number of World Series—including the notorious 1919 Black Sox Series. Ron Rapoport’s introduction puts Lardner in his time and place and explains how his writing about baseball developed over the years.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386510643473,"sku":"CIN1493080997G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50954636165393,"sku":"CIN1493080997VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030103326993,"sku":"NIN9781493080991","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51104732905745,"sku":"GOR014177434","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52450913550609,"sku":"NLS9781493080991","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1493080997.jpg?v=1751243172"},{"product_id":"see-how-she-runs-book-ron-rapoport-9781565122673","title":"See How She Runs","description":"Rapoport followed Marion Jones, the sprinter and basketball player, from meet to meet at the 1999 world championships, tracking her progress and meeting the key players in her life. The profile of the potential first ever winner of five gold medals in track at the Olympics?.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50971495268625,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50971495366929,"sku":"GOR001292358","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51845995299089,"sku":"CIN1565122674G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565122674.jpg?v=1751023126"},{"product_id":"immortal-bobby-book-ron-rapoport-9781496224958","title":"The Immortal Bobby","description":"Of all the giants of golf’s Golden Age, Bobby Jones was the most revered. His intelligence, modesty, eloquence, and charm—and the fact he remained an amateur throughout his career—so completely captivated the public that at times it seemed almost beside the point that he was also the best golfer in the world. Jones’s fame reached its peak in 1930 when he became the only golfer to ever win the Grand Slam and the only person in history to receive a second ticker-tape parade on Broadway.   Yet beneath the easy grace he exhibited on and off the golf course, there was another Bobby Jones—one who through the years battled his volatile temper; the pressure of competition that grew so unbearable he was often left near tears and unable to take any pleasure in winning; and, in the final decades of his life, an agonizing physical decline that robbed him of everything but his dignity.   Drawing on scores of interviews, a careful reconstruction of contemporary accounts, and Jones’s voluminous correspondence, award-winning sportswriter Ron Rapoport reveals the man behind the legend and provides a moving depiction of a long-gone sporting age.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030448374033,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030450798865,"sku":"NIN9781496224958","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52779891753233,"sku":"CIN1496224957VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496224957.jpg?v=1761391229"},{"product_id":"from-black-sox-to-three-peats-book-ron-rapoport-9780226036601","title":"From Black Sox to Three-Peats","description":"Bears, Bulls, Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks - there's no city like Chicago when it comes to sports. Generation after generation, Chicagoans pass down their almost religious allegiances to teams, stadiums, and players and their never-say-die attitude, along with the stories of the city's best (and worst) sports moments. And every one of those moments - every come-from-behind victory or crushing defeat - has been chronicled by Chicago's unparalleled sportswriters. In From Black Sox to Three-Peats, veteran Chicago sports columnist Ron Rapoport assembles one hundred of the best pieces from the Tribune, Sun-Times, Daily News, Defender, and other papers to tell the unforgettable story of a century of Chicago sports. From Ring Lardner to Rick Telander, Westbrook Pegler to Bob Verdi, Mike Royko to Wendell Smith, Melissa Isaacson to Brent Musburger, and on, this collection reminds us that Chicago sports fans have enjoyed a wealth of talent not just on the field, but in the press box as well. Through their stories we relive the betrayal of the Black Sox, the cocksure power of the '85 Bears, the assassin's efficiency of Jordan's Bulls, the Blackhawks' stunning reclamation of the Stanley Cup, and the Cubs' century of futility. Sports are the most ephemeral of news events: once you know the outcome, the drama is gone. But every once in a while, there are those games, those teams, those players that make it into something more-and great writers can transform those fleeting moments into lasting stories that become part of the very identity of a city. From Black Sox to Three-Peats is Chicago history at its most exciting and celebratory. No sports fan should be without it.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52745212789009,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52745213182225,"sku":"CIN022603660XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780226036601.jpg?v=1763512035"},{"product_id":"chicago-book-ron-rapoport-9781881096955","title":"Chicago","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53042545885457,"sku":"CIN1881096955VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53117576773905,"sku":"CIN1881096955G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781881096955.jpg?v=1768883255"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-ron-rapoport.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}