John Feinstein

The definitive biography of enigmatic golfer, commentator, and performer David Feherty-one of the most universally beloved figures in the game. John Feinstein, who has spent four decades finding intriguing sports characters and narratives and turning them into classic books, chronicles the life and career of David Feherty. The two have known each other for years, beginning with Feinstein's work on A Good Walk Spoiled, researched and written at a time when Feherty was an excellent player, who won five times in Europe and was on the '91 Ryder Cup team, but also a functioning alcoholic. In retirement from the game, Feherty has sobered up, while his golf world persona has only grown in stature. Feherty is now a grand ambassador for golf, a man who is feted by US Presidents and respected by every big name in the game. Feinstein tells hilarious true tales about Feherty's time in the limelight and interactions with stars such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Payne Stewart, and Seve Ballesteros. He also details Feherty's struggles with alcoholism, the death of his son who was lost to addiction, and the highs and lows of Feherty's marriages. Feinstein captures the human being behind the athlete, and his triumphant rebound as a golf commentator after his athletic career fell apart. Feherty is fall-down-funny, self-deprecating, and a lifelong underdog who has thrived as a commentator and television interview host, and most recently as a touring stand-up comic, using the difficult experiences of his life as a source for humour and understanding, which Feinstein mines with an expert's touch.

The definitive biography of enigmatic golfer, commentator, and performer David Feherty-one of the most universally beloved figures in the game. John Feinstein, who has spent four decades finding intriguing sports characters and narratives and turning them into classic books, chronicles the life and career of David Feherty. The two have known each other for years, beginning with Feinstein's work on A Good Walk Spoiled, researched and written at a time when Feherty was an excellent player, who won five times in Europe and was on the '91 Ryder Cup team, but also a functioning alcoholic. In retirement from the game, Feherty has sobered up, while his golf world persona has only grown in stature. Feherty is now a grand ambassador for golf, a man who is feted by US Presidents and respected by every big name in the game. Feinstein tells hilarious true tales about Feherty's time in the limelight and interactions with stars such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Payne Stewart, and Seve Ballesteros. He also details Feherty's struggles with alcoholism, the death of his son who was lost to addiction, and the highs and lows of Feherty's marriages. Feinstein captures the human being behind the athlete, and his triumphant rebound as a golf commentator after his athletic career fell apart. Feherty is fall-down-funny, self-deprecating, and a lifelong underdog who has thrived as a commentator and television interview host, and most recently as a touring standup comic, using the difficult experiences of his life as a source for humour and understanding, which Feinstein mines with an expert's touch.

Jeff and Andi return to serve up trouble in tennis season, in this standalone third middle-grade book in the Benchwarmers series by #1 New York Times-bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein. Andi Carillo may have been a soccer prodigy and a basketball superstar, but tennis is where she really shines--she's eleven years old and nationally ranked. For her, the sport is just for fun, but suddenly agents are crawling out of the woodwork to offer her deals. Her best friend, Jeff Michaels, is a pretty talented player himself, but he's been dropped into the number-two slot in spite of a perfect record--and he's getting a little jealous of Andi's star potential. These teammates will have to lean on each other more than ever if they're going to handle new emotions, face tough competition, and close out this challenging season with a win. Mixed Doubles is the exhilarating final volume of this popular middle-grade series by a #1 New York Times-bestselling sportswriter.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The riveting inside story of college basketball's fiercest rivalry among three coaching legends--University of North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and North Carolina State's Jim Valvano--by the king of college basketball writers. "One of Feinstein's best."--Chicago Tribune On March 18, 1980, the Duke basketball program announced the hiring of Mike Krzyzewski, the man who would restore glory to the team. The only problem: no one knew who Krzyzewski was. Nine days later, Jim Valvano was hired by North Carolina State to be their new head coach. The hiring didn't raise as many eyebrows, but the two new coaches had a similar goal: to unseat North Carolina's Dean Smith as the king of college basketball. And just like that, the most sensational competitive decade in history was about to unfold. In the skillful hands of John Feinstein, The Legends Club captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition. Feinstein pulls back the curtain on the recruiting wars, the intensely personal competition that wasn't always friendly, the enormous pressure and national stakes, and the battle for the very soul of college basketball.

Decades after it spent weeks at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, A Season on the Brink remains the most celebrated basketball book ever written--an unforgettable chronicle of his year spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach Bob Knight. Granted unprecedented access to legendary coach Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers during the 1985-86 season, John Feinstein saw and heard it all--practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and midgame huddles--as the team worked to return to championship form. The result is an unforgettable chronicle that not only captures the drama and pressure of big-time college basketball but also paints a vivid portrait of a complex, brilliant coach as he walks the fine line between genius and madness. This anniversary edition features an updated Introduction by Feinstein.

In 2003, after winning six of the twelve majors from 2000 to 2002, Tiger Woods struggled with his swing, leaving him lagging behind the field at both the U. S. Open and the PGA Championship. With Woods out of the picture, the stage was set for a newcomer to claim the top position. Nobody expected that four virtually unknown players would rise to become first-time champions. In his debut appearance in a major, Ben Curtis became the only player since Francis Ouimet in 1913 to prevail on his first time out. Mike Weir--who was considered a good player but not a great one--triumphed in The Masters, becoming the first Canadian to win a major. In the U. S. Open, Jim Furyk was victorious, and the PGA Championship was claimed by the unknown Shawn Micheel. But after each player's history-making season, the four have had little further success. 2008 is the first year since that unexpected year, when it will be possible for the four golfers to qualify for the tour. In MOMENT OF GLORY, John Feinstein returns to the unlikely year of 2003 and chronicle the personal and professional struggles of these four players. With great affection for the underdog and extraordinary access to the players, he then looks to the 2008 season, giving readers an insider's look into to how winning (and losing) major championships changes players' lives.

From the author of Raise a Fist, Take a Knee and A Good Walk Spoiled, this "must-read" national bestseller takes you inside the dramatic world of the highest-pressure golf tournament in the world (Tampa Tribune). It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying for the 30 slots available. The grim reality: If you don't make it through Q school, you're not on the PGA tour. You're out. And those who make it to the six-day finals are the lucky ones: hundreds more players fail to get through the equally grueling first two stages of the event. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. With arresting accounts from the players, established winners, rising stars, the defeated, and the endlessly hopeful, America's favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour's brutal all-or-nothing competition.

Pitchers are the heart of baseball, and John Feinstein tells the story of the game today through one season and two great pitchers working in the crucible of the New York media market. Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina have seen it all in the Major Leagues and both entered 2007 in search of individual milestones and one more shot at The World Series-Glavine with the Mets, Mussina five miles away with the Yankees. The two veterans experience very different seasons--one on a team dealing with the pressure to get to a World Series for the first time in seven years, the other with a team expected to be there every year. Taking the reader through contract negotiations, spring training, the ups of wins and losses, and the people in their lives-family, managers, pitching coaches, agents, catchers, other pitchers--John Feinstein provides a true insider's look at the pressure cooker of sports at the highest level.

A behind-the-scenes tour of the ups and downs of an NFL season focuses on the Baltimore Ravens and reveals the lesser-known aspects of the professional league, from the dangerous conditions under which athletes are expected to train to the unrelenting pressures faced by coaches and players. Reprint.

Beyond golf's polished surface there lies a world not often seen by the average fan. The caddy sees everything - the ambition, the strategy, the rivalries, the jealousies - that occurs behind the scenes. Award-winning John Feinstein, America's favourite sportswriter, got one of golf's legendary caddies to reveal the secrets behind the most popular sport of our time. Bruce Edwards was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in January 2003, a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, but he dominated coverage of the 2003 US Open. This is a position not usually bestowed on a caddy, but Edwards was no ordinary caddy. In 1973, after forgoing college, Edwards walked on the course behind a young Tom Watson and never looked back. Watson would go on to win eight major titles with Bruce Edwards by his side. Edwards continued to do the job he had dedicated more than half his life to right up to his death in April 2004, aged 49. This is a moving, dramatic and thoughtful book about a life devoted to sports.

On an early morning in 1983, after the worst loss of his career (109-66 against Virginia) and amid the cries of powerful athletics boosters calling for him to be fired, Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski went to breakfast at 2:00 a.m. to vent with friends. Sports journalist and Duke alumnus John Feinstein was at the table. For Coach K, "the night at Denny’s” would mark a turning point in his career and for the team, and eight years later, the Blue Devils would win their first NCAA national championship. In Five Banners, Feinstein tells the inside history of Coach K’s forty-two-year career at Duke and its five NCAA championships, from the first, against Kansas in 1991, to the most recent, in 2015 against Wisconsin. With unparalleled access to Coach K, the team, and its staff, Feinstein takes readers on a mesmerizing ride into the locker room and onto the court. Full of intimate details, personal memories, and previously untold on- and off-court stories, it is a book that only Feinstein could write. Feinstein explores a basketball legacy that begins with his days as an undergrad Duke Chronicle reporter covering coaches Bucky Waters and Neill McGeachy (who went 10-16 in one year as head coach), includes the “drought years” of the 1980s and the glory of the teams of the 1990s, and moves into the present day with Jon Scheyer’s succession. Drawing on new interviews, Feinstein highlights the voices of Grant Hill, Nolan Smith, Christian Laettner, Tommy Amaker, and Bobby Hurley, who each bring new insights on the championship years. Throughout, Feinstein unveils the momentous force of college basketball as a game of intense relationships and intimate conversations. Candid, revelatory, and engrossing, Five Banners is an essential book for all Duke fans and anyone who loves the college game.

First Shot 1st Series{Mystery at the World Cup}This books is the right one for you where Football meets Love in a gripping tale of discovery and determination. Written by Micheal Nelson, this book isn't just about the thrill of the game-it's a journey that shows the depths of human ambition and the pursuit of truth. Perfect for fans of sports fiction and mystery thrillers, "First Shot" offers not only a captivating story but also insights into the complexities of human nature and the bonds that unite us. Whether you're a football enthusiast or simply love a compelling narrative, this book promises an unforgettable adventure that will keep you turning pages until the final whistle.------------ Author: Michael Nelson ------------ Contributor: John Feinstein

Trouble is about to tip off for Jeff and Andi's sixth-grade basketball teams in Game Changers, a standalone second book in the middle-grade Benchwarmers series by #1 New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein. After a controversial season playing on the boys' soccer team, Andi Carillo is ready to kick butt and take names on the girls' basketball team. Jeff Michaels, her best friend, is raring to drop his benchwarmer status from soccer and play a leading role on the boys' basketball squad. But between a coach's coded racism and a teammate's endless sabotage, neither Andi nor Jeff is in for a layup of a season. To make matters worse, the local media smells more than one juicy story. Will Andi and Jeff be able to power through and find a way to help both their teams rebound? From sportswriting legend John Feinstein comes this fast-paced novel about two friends who are willing to risk it all to change the game--on and off the court.

Based on dozens of shocking interviews with some of the most influential names in sports, this is the urgent and revelatory examination of racial inequality in professional athletics America has been waiting for. Commentators, coaches, and fans alike have long touted the diverse rosters of leagues like the NFL and MLB as sterling examples of a post-racial America. Yet decades after Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a display of Black power and pride, and years after Colin Kaepernick shocked the world by kneeling for the national anthem, the role Black athletes and coaches are expected to perform--both on and off the field--still can be determined as much by stereotype and old-fashion ideology as ability and performance. Whether it's the pre-game moments of resistance, the lack of diversity among coaching and managerial staff, or the consistent undervaluation of Black quarterbacks, racial politics impact every aspect of every sport being played--yet the gigantic salaries and glitzy lifestyles of pro athletes often disguise the ugly truths of how minority players are treated and discarded by their White bosses. John Feinstein crisscrossed the country to secure personal interviews with quarterbacks, coaches, and more, revealing the stories none of us have heard (but all of us should know). Seventy-five years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line, race is still a central and defining factor of America's professional sports leagues. With an encyclopedic knowledge of professional sports, and shrewd cultural criticism, bestselling and award-winning author John Feinstein uncovers not just why, but how, pro sports continue to perpetuate racial inequality. "None of us are trying to make race an issue. Race IS an issue." (From the Foreword by Doug Williams)

Trouble is about to tip off for Jeff and Andi's sixth-grade basketball teams in Game Changers, a standalone second book in the middle-grade Benchwarmers series by #1 New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein. After a controversial season playing on the boys' soccer team, Andi Carillo is ready to kick butt and take names on the girls' basketball team. Jeff Michaels, her best friend, is raring to drop his benchwarmer status from soccer and play a leading role on the boys' basketball squad. But between a coach's coded racism and a teammate's endless sabotage, neither Andi nor Jeff is in for a layup of a season. To make matters worse, the local media smells more than one juicy story. Will Andi and Jeff be able to power through and find a way to help both their teams rebound? From sportswriting legend John Feinstein comes this fast-paced novel about two friends who are willing to risk it all to change the game--on and off the court.

From award-winning sportswriter John Feinstein, The Prodigy is a YA novel about a teen golfer poised to blaze his way into Masters Tournament history--and he'll face secrecy, sacrifice, and the decision of a lifetime to get there. Seventeen-year-old Frank Baker is a golfing sensation. He's set to earn a full-ride scholarship to play at the university of his choice, but his single dad wants him to skip college and turn pro--golf has taken its toll on the family bank account, and his dad is eager to start cashing in on his son's prowess. Frank knows he isn't ready for life on the pro tour--regardless of the potential riches--so his swing coach enlists a professional golfer turned journalist to be Frank's secret adviser. Pressure mounts when, after reaching the final of the U. S. Amateur tournament, Frank wins an automatic invite to the Masters. And when the prodigy, against all odds, starts tearing up the course at Augusta National, sponsors are lined up to throw money at him--and his father. But Frank's entry in the Masters hinges on maintaining his standing as an amateur. Can he and his secret adviser--who has his own conflicts--keep Frank's dad at bay long enough to bring home the legendary green jacket?

The rivalry between the U. S. and European teams was at an all-time high even before the first swing of the 2016 Ryder Cup. The Americans had lost an astounding six out of the last seven matches. With the U. S. team out for revenge and the Europeans determined to keep the Cup out of American hands, the showdown took place in Hazeltine, Minnesota--just days after the death of golf legend Arnold Palmer. It became one of the most raucous and heated face-offs in the Cup's history. Award-winning author John Feinstein takes readers behind the scenes, providing an inside view of the dramatic stories as they unfolded, including the assembly of veteran Phil Mickelson's superb team, the intense match between European superstar Rory McIlroy and American Patrick Reed that almost came to blows, and the return of Tiger Woods. Throughout, Feinstein vividly illustrates why the Ryder Cup has become golf's most intense and emotional event.