The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach | 
Calico Joe
by John Grisham | 
Miracle on 49th Street
by Mike Lupica | 
The Last Shot
by Darcy Frey | 
This Love Is Not For Cowards
by Robert Andrew Powell | 
Levels of the Game
by John McPhee | 
The Lords of the Realm
by John Helyar | 
The Damned Utd
by David Peace | 
Bringing the Heat
by Mark Bowden | 
Baseball When The Grass Was Real
by Donald Honig | 
The Celebrant
by Eric Rolfe Greenberg | 
Free Baseball
by Sue Corbett | 
The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan
by John Coyne | 
Collision Low Crossers
by Nicholas Dawidoff | 
The Legend of Bagger Vance
by Steven Pressfield | 
Past Time
by Jules Tygiel | 
The Final Four
by Paul Volponi | 
Paper Lion
by George Plimpton | 
Seasons in Hell
by Mike Shropshire | 
The Caddie Who Played with Hickory
by John Coyne |
Originally published in 1958, The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown's quest for the middleweight championship of the world. But it is so much more. W. C. Heinz not only serves up a realistic depiction of the circus-like atmosphere around boxing with its assorted hangers-on, crooked promoters, and jaded journalists, but he gives us two memorable characters in Eddie Brown and in Brown's crusty trainer, Doc Carroll. They are at the heart of this poignant story as they bond together with their eye on the only prize that matters'??the middleweight championship. The Professional is W. C. Heinz at the top of his game'??the writer who covered the fights better than anyone else of his era, whose lean sentences, rough-and-ready dialogue, dry wit, and you-are-there style helped lay the foundation for the New Journalism of Jimmy Breslin, Gay Talese, and Tom Wolfe. And all the trademark qualities of W. C. Heinz are on ample display in this novel that Pete Hamill described as "one of the five best sports novels ever written."