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Five sports books to check out
Almost two decades ago, before any of this "writing as a career" business, I started a sports blog called Sporting Madness. Posts there (from 2006-2017, albeit much less frequent in the later years after people started paying me to write elsewhere) covered a whole range of things, but one infrequent series I was particularly happy with was book review posts titled "Scribblings of the Scribes of Sport." (Yes, I've always liked alliteration.)
Since then, I've continued to love sports books (and all sorts of books beyond that), but haven't always had the right forum to write about them. Well, now I do, and it fits right in with one of my goals for this publication: trying to promote creative work in sports and sports-adjacent fields.
I'm planning to cover books here in a couple of different ways, both under that Scribblings of the Scribes of Sport title. The first way, which we'll start with today, will be shorter descriptions of a group of books (mostly upcoming or recently-released, but we might feature some classics as well), while the second way will be full reviews of individual titles. So, without further ado, let's get to some books!
Big Fan, by Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur
Coming May 19, 2026. Preorder page here.
While Posnanski (known for books from The Soul of Baseball to Why We Love Football, plus his time writing for everyone from The Kansas City Star to Sports On Earth to Sports Illustrated and his current excellent newsletter) and Schur (the co-creator of Parks and Recreation and creator of The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and more) have long teamed up on The Poscast, this is their first book-length collaboration, featuring them travelling the world to experience various sports and fandom and how the two interact. As Schur detailed in their (hilarious) co-written newsletter piece on this book, the idea for it came from the World Darts Championship, of all things:
MIKE
“I think we should write a book about fandom,” I said. “I want to go to a whole bunch of sporting events all around the country and maybe the world, like the World Darts Championship in London, and write a book where we think about fandom and try to figure out why lunatics like us are so intense about sports and why our hearts beat so fast when we watch them, about what it means to love something and be passionate about it and live and die with the results of events over which we have no control, and I want to try to figure out if all fans are essentially the same or whether there are differences, and what those differences are, and I want to get to the bottom of why people all over the world have devoted some or all of their lives to loving sports and music and whatever else they love.”
JOE
“Okay,” I said. “Sounds good.”
Travel-based books haven't always worked for me, but there are some good ones (a personal recent favourite is Nick Offerman's Where The Deer and the Antelope Play). And similarly, while I'm an avowed non-fan (except of sports in general, and of good stories), there have been some great books on fandom (my favourite might be Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, which most definitely is not about the Boston Red Sox and does not involve Jimmy Fallon). I'm also intrigued by the idea here of the authors connecting with fans around the world to find what makes them tick rather than just writing about their own experiences. And both Posnanski and Schur are talented and funny writers, so this should be a good read.
Close Call, by Elise Hart Kipness
Out now.
This thriller novel is the third entry in Hart Kipness' Kate Green series, featuring a soccer player turned TV reporter who keeps winding up involved in bizarre events around sports. This one centers on Green trying to do a story on one aging tennis veteran and her up-and-coming rival at the US Open, only for that to be derailed by a kidnapping plot. It's a great read for those of us who like mysteries and sports, and Hart Kipness uses her past work as a sports and news reporter (which she spoke to me about last fall) to terrific effect in describing authentic-feeling details of covering an event like this tournament.
A Big Mess In Texas, by David Fleming
Out now.
Beyond his books (this is his fourth, following Who's Your Founding Father?, Breaker Boys: The NFL’s Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship, and Noah's Rainbow), Fleming's now primarily a correspondent for Meadowlark Media (and Peabody-nominated for his work there), but he's also known for his work at ESPN and Sports Illustrated. This one sees him dive into the history of the 1952 Dallas Texans and "the worst team in the craziest season in NFL history." And the book lives up to that billing, providing a great look at all the insanity around that team. It reminded me of one of my favorite sports books, Ed Willes' End Zones and Border Wars on the bizarre CFL USA era. And it's remarkable that things like this happened in the NFL, even if the NFL of 1952 was a long way from the slick, highly-produced league modern viewers would recognize. At any rate, this continues an excellent run from Fleming, whose Who's Your Founding Father? (an investigation into the remarkable saga of the Mecklenburg Declaration ahead of the Declaration of Independence) was also terrific.
Madness: The Rise And Ruin of Sports Media, by Mark "Hebsy" Hebscher
Out now.
I'm always interested in a good sports media book, and famed Canadian broadcaster Hebscher has delivered one here. This has him looking back on his 45 years in various roles in the sports media world, especially as the co-anchor of Global's Sportsline, but also diving into the wider changes in sports journalism during that time. Plus, any book that has stories about MC Hammer, Youppi, and Doug Flutie is worth a read.
100 Grey Cups: This Is Our Game, by Stephen Brunt
Staying on the Canadian front, it's the 112th Grey Cup Sunday, with the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders facing off in Winnipeg (6 p.m. ET, CTV/TSN/RDS in Canada, CBSSN in the U.S., CFL+ outside those countries). The Grey Cup's always a fascinating sporting event, and this 2012 book from legendary Canadian sportswriter Stephen Brunt (which came out ahead of the 100th edition of the game that year) is a great look at why, covering the game's history as a whole but particularly zooming in on some of the most famous contests and their meaning. Highly recommended. (And here's hoping the Alouettes and Roughriders give us a game as good as their Grey Cup clashes in 2009 and 2010, both of which I was there to cover.)
Have any sports books you'd like to talk about? Post them in the #books channel in the Bucholtz Sports Media Discord server (premium subscribers only), or hit me up on X or Bluesky, or at andrew@andrewbucholtz.com. Thanks for reading!
