New from award-winning book publisher Octane Press, Trophies and Scars is the profoundly personal and remarkably revealing story of the life and times of NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham, as told to New York Times bestselling author Joe Garner. With forewords by motorsport legends Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick, and Roger Penske, the book launched in March. Trophies and Scars traces all the twists and turns of Ray Evernham's fascinating life. A son of the Jersey Shore, he was dedicated to fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a professional race car driver, and by age eighteen, he was banging fenders with good success on the Northeast short track circuit. When his dreams of becoming an Indy car sensation literally crashed and burned, he turned to Roger Penske's International Race of Champions (IROC), before another brutal crash forced him to give up his Indy dream for good. It was time to change careers. As a technical crew leader rather than driver, he developed new skills and strategies critical to building successful racing organizations. A brief, ill-fated, and downright volatile stint on Alan Kulwicki's crew, turned into a "right place at the right time" scenario, sparking a seminal partnership with racing phenomenon Jeff Gordon. They would prove to be one of the most potent racing duos in history. Evernham shares previously untold tales of how the pair led the No. 24 team to three championships in four seasons (1995, 1997, 1998) and an astounding forty-seven wins in just 216 starts, revealing in candid detail how and why their storied relationship came to an end. 

This compelling and deeply personal memoir from WWE superstar Rebecca Quin-a.k.a. The Man, a.k.a. Becky Lynch-delves into her earliest wrestling days, her scrappy beginnings, and her meteoric rise to fame. By age seven, Rebecca Quin, now known in the ring as Becky Lynch, was already defying what the world expected of her. Raised in Dublin, Ireland in a devoutly Catholic family, Rebecca constantly invented new ways to make her mother worry-roughhousing with the neighborhood kids, hosting secret parties while her parents were away, enrolling in a warehouse wrestling school, nearly breaking her neck and almost kneecapping a WWE star before her own wrestling career even began-and she was always in search of a thrilling escape from the ordinary. Rebecca's deep love of wrestling as a child set her on an unlikely path. With few female wrestlers to look to for guidance, Rebecca pursued a wrestling career hoping to change the culture and move away from the antiquated disrespect so often directed at the elite female athletes that grace the ring. Even as a teenager, she knew that she would stop at nothing to earn a space among the greatest wrestlers of our time, and to pave a new path for female fighters. Culled from decades of journal entries, Rebecca's memoir offers a raw, personal, and honest depiction of the complex woman behind the character Rebecca Quin plays on TV.

Filled with custom vehicle builds and challenging mud courses, the series dives into the complex social dynamics, deep-rooted rivalries, and wild social party scene of mud racing. Ride along with a loud and talented group of racers who are disrupting the hierarchy, challenging the status quo and bringing viewers on one hell of a wild ride. This dangerous, intense, and dirty, motorsport is filled with unforgettable personalities including a divisive and highly successful racer, a chiropractor turned Mudder, a self-proclaimed “tomboy” and one of the best female mud racers on the circuit; a racer out to prove herself after recovering from a horrifying accident, a family man willing to do what it takes to provide for his daughters, and an up-and-coming racer who is trying to stay out of trouble after his rocky past.

From the bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture-professional wrestling-starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF of the 1980s. In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri), to write his biography. Things quickly went south, culminating in the Sheik threatening Balukjian's life. Now seventeen years later, Balukjian returns to the road in search of not only a reunion with the Sheik, but something much bigger: truth in a world built on illusion. Balukjian seeks out six of the Sheik's contemporaries, fellow witnesses to the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) explosion in the mid-'80s, to unearth their true identities. As Balukjian drives 12,525 miles around the country, we revisit the heady days when these avatars of strength, villainy, and heroism first found fame and see where their journeys took them. From working out with Tony Atlas (Tony White) to visiting Hulk Hogan's (Terry Bollea) karaoke bar, we see where these men are now and how they have navigated the cliffs of fame. The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater-often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.

The 2019 Masters golf tournament became the defining moment of just what a comeback is - both in sports and in life. Over two-and-a-half decades ago the sports world in general, and the golf establishment in particular, was struck by a bolt of lightning, the likes of which they never dreamed. Twenty-one-year-old wunderkind Tiger Woods won the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, The Masters, by a record twelve strokes and breaking the course http://record.in/ his first time playing the tournament.and in his first appearance in a major tournament. He was the youngest golfer to win The Masters, and the first African-American or Asian-American player to win a major. As Bob Harig reports in his new book, DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods (St. Martin's Press, on sale date March 26, 2024; $30), history wasn't just made that day, rather, it was only just beginning. Over the next 15+ years Woods transformed the game, setting course records and winning majors at a record pace. What he was doing, though, was more than just winning on the golf course. He was winning fans over like no one had ever done before in golf. In doing so, ratings were never higher, marketing the game was never more so successful. He is tied for the most wins in PGA history, second in major tournament victories, and according to Forbes magazine, he is a billionaire who amassed over $110 million dollars in tour winnings along with over a billion dollars in endorsement money. Winnings and notoriety aside, as Harig points out, Woods is a complicated figure, and has been throughout his entire career in the spotlight.

On the fourth season of THE CHALLENGE: ALL STARS, old-school legends, modern power players, redemption-seekers and ex-lovers reunite in Cape Town, South Africa to compete for $300,000. In this game, anyone can win, relationships matter, and only one All Star will claim the title champion.  

Featuring Field of Dreams, The Bad News Bears, A League of Their Own and more: a probing and entertaining work at the intersection of pop culture and sportsBaseball has always been a symbol as much as a sport. With a blend of individual confrontation and team play, a luxurious pace, and an immaculate urban parkland setting, it offers a sunny rendering of the American Dream, both the hard work that underpins it and the rewards it promises. Film, America's other national pastime, which magnifies and mythologizes all it touches, has long been the ideal medium to canonize this aspirational idea.Baseball: The Movie is the first definitive history of this film genre that was born in 1915 and remains artistically and culturally vital more than a century later. Writer and critic Noah Gittell sheds light on well-known classics and overlooked gems, exploring how baseball cinema creates a stage upon which the American ideal is born, performed, and repeatedly redefined. Traversing history and mythmaking, cynicism and nostalgia, this thoroughly researched book takes readers on a multifaceted tour of baseball on film.

Some of the most influential women in sports tell their stories of courage, adversity, and triumph to trailblazer Bonnie-Jill Laflin, the first and only female NBA scout with the Los Angeles Lakers, in her new book, In A League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports. A half-century after Title IX legislation leveled the playing field for women and girls, the time has come to celebrate the lives and careers of some of the most notable groundbreaking women in sports, while also encouraging future generations to make history of their own. In a League of Her Own: Celebrating Female Firsts in Sports shares the stories of nineteen impactful women, including Billie Jean King, Rachel Balkovec, Danica Patrick, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Laila Ali, Jeanie Buss, and Mary Lou Retton and gives them a voice to share their experiences across the sports industry. These iconic women open up to Bonnie-Jill Laflin, herself a trailblazer as the first and only female NBA scout, about the sobering realities females face in the sports world and the many obstacles they had to overcome. But they also celebrate the amazing support they received from colleagues, friends, family, and the women who came before them, and impart their own desires to inspire young women through their stories. They discuss such issues as the pressures of social media, the sexism that still exists in boardrooms and locker rooms, and their hopes for closer equality in the sports space. Their journeys are each unique, but together, they have changed the face of sports and culture forever. She is also the founder of Hounds and Heroes and Horses, a non-profit that pairs rescue dogs as service and therapy dogs with wounded warriors and veterans, as well as rescue horses as equine therapy for our recuperating service members. Working to improve the lives of veterans, she has traveled to military bases across the country and abroad on 19 USO tours, including visits to bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A recent installment of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, “The Minister of Defense” (now streaming on ESPN+), chronicled the extraordinary career, complicated life, and profound spiritual journey of NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion Reggie White. Now, ESPN introduces a new podcast – Through the Flames: Reggie’s Church – which focuses on one unfortunate in White’s life – the mysterious 1996 burning of his church in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the midst of a rash of mid-1990s church burnings across the United States, White’s Inner City Church boasts a growing interracial congregation, and after the building is firebombed and reduced to ashes, White believes the attack is the work of racists. The NFL legend and pastor uses his platform to maintain public pressure on the investigation, even as the sensitive nature of the crime causes government officials to tread carefully. As the story unfolds, questions are raised about the church’s financial status, along with the possibility of arson. The podcast brings the story to life through the voices of those involved with the church and the investigation – and in the process, draws a powerful parallel between these ugly incidents and the deeper challenges the nation still faces. A three-time Emmy Award winner, Courtland Bragg is a Director and Producer at NFL Films, the film/television production company of the National Football League. In addition to co-directing the ESPN 30 for 30 “The Minister of Defense” and producing /hosting the Through the Flames podcast, Courtland was a director on multiple seasons of Hard Knocks for HBO, All or Nothing for Amazon and A Football Life for NFL Network.

Prime Video introduces the new documentary Giannis: The Marvelous Journey, the definitive first-person account of NBA mega-star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s odyssey from an impoverished childhood in Greece as the son of Nigerian immigrants to the very top of the basketball world. Before becoming one of the NBA’s most dominating performers (a two-time league MVP who led the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship in 2021), Giannis’ path began on the streets of Athens, where he was raised on the margins of society, by parents who immigrated from Nigeria in search of a better life. After finding images of NBA stars in an Internet café, Giannis picked up a basketball. From there unfolded an epic journey, ultimately landing him in his adopted home of Milwaukee, where he emerged as “The Greek Freak,” a superstar who transformed the game with his athleticism and versatility, all the while striving to use the memory of the loss he endured along the way to spearhead an impact far beyond the court. Giannis: The Marvelous Journey features interviews with Giannis and his entire family as well as basketball luminaries Jason Kidd, Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, Kenny Smith, Vin Baker Ernie Johnson and more. It marks the first time the family has given first-person accounts on their collective journey. Of Greek descent herself, Emmy Award-winning director Kristen Lappas visited Greece many times in the making of this film, getting back to her own family roots. The daughter of Steve Lappas (former basketball coach at both Villanova and Manhattan College, and now an analyst for CBS Sports in New York), Kristen produced eight installments of ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series, and directed the 30 for 30 multi-part series Dream On about the 1996 gold-medal-winning U.S. women’s basketball team. She won Emmys for her short sports docs Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible and A Mountain to Climb and her short film Arthur was adapted into a movie starring Mark Wahlberg and premieres in 2024.