Trending on social media is her nightmare. Beth Evans, former Olympic golden girl, known for a national scandal and daughter of a rising political star, is more than happy to stay out of the spotlight, living life as a normal single mom in a small Jersey town. The last thing Beth needs is Twitter's favorite bad boy-Marc Demoda-walking into her life to stir things up. Marc lives for the three b's; baseball, bars, and ball bunnies, until the unthinkable happened. An accident destroys his shoulder and his career, leaving him desperate to get back in the game. Too bad no one hires notorious bad boys to coach. With his reputation on life support, Marc finds his saving grace might be the feisty blonde he can't get out of his head. When pictures of Beth and Marc's chance encounter blow up on Twitter, they strike a deal to avoid further scandals and fix their image. But even in the harsh public spotlight, their fake relationship begins to feel real. Beth's growing feelings for Marc have her questioning if she can permanently handle the limelight, just as Marc wonders if Beth might mean more than the game.

To most Americans, baseball is just a sport; but to those who own baseball teams--and those who play on them--our national pastime is much more than a game. In this book, Robert Burk traces the turbulent labor history of American baseball since 1921. His comprehensive, readable account details the many battles between owners and players that irrevocably altered the business of baseball. During what Burk calls baseball's "paternalistic era," from 1921 to the early 1960s, the sport's management rigidly maintained a system of racial segregation, established a network of southern-based farm teams that served as a captive source of cheap replacement labor, and crushed any attempts by players to create collective bargaining institutions. In the 1960s, however, the paternal order crumbled, eroded in part by the civil rights movement and the competition of television. As a consequence, in the "inflationary era" that followed, both players and umpires established effective unions that successfully pressed for higher pay, pensions, and greater occupational mobility--and then fought increasingly bitter struggles to hold on to these hard-won gains.

"More than the Game: Building Relationships for a Winning Culture" is a fictionalized memoir in which Coach Warrington finds himself struggling. At the end of another long season, he's lost the locker room after several defeats. Worried about his team's record, he vents at his players, saying that they should "commit to getting bigger, stronger, and faster, or they might as well quit." When the Titans lose their final game, the school's athletic director suggests that Coach Warrington meet with a mentor to improve the program's culture. At first, Warrington is offended-he can't admit to needing help, but he also can't resist the opportunity to regain his edge, so he agrees to meet once a week with Mitchell McClellen, a retired teacher and ball coach. Mitchell shares his three-phase formula for winning: The Process of the 'Ship. Coach Warrington learns to view success as more about legacy than just winning. Can Coach Warrington heed his mentor's advice and change his program forever?

More than a Game covers the years that follow the one featured in the ESPN documentary series "The Last Dance." After leaving the Bulls at the end of the 1997-1998 season—the year featured in the new ESPN documentary series "The Last Dance"—Phil Jackson had one year off and started to write this book—together with his old friend, fellow player and coach, the basketball novelist Charley Rosen. Then Phil took the LA Lakers coaching job, Rosen followed him there, and by the time they finished writing this book it was 2000 and Phil had won yet another NBA championship, the first of five he would win with his new team. In More than a Game, Jackson and Rosen look backward to their origins as players and coaches, forward to the future of the game of basketball, and linger in the moving target of the present—lavishing page after page on the Triangle Offense and all the ways it reveals the essence of the game of basketball they both love so much. This is Jackson in his prime, transitioning from the Bulls to the Lakers, a master of the art of winning, who would go on to claim more NBA championships, eleven, than any other coach in NBA history. As he writes in More than a Game of his newest championship team: "We won because our fundamentals were sound, because Shaq was so dominant and Kobe was so creative, but we also won because we developed a certain confidence in our ability to win."

Timed perfectly for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Chuck Korr and Marvin Close's More Than Just a Game tells the timeless true story of how political prisoners under apartheid found hope and dignity through soccer. In the hell that was Robben Island, inmates united courageously in an act of protest. Beginning in 1964, they requested the right to play soccer during their exercise periods. Denied repeatedly, they risked beatings and food deprivation by repeating their request for three years. Finally granted this right, the prisoners banded together to form a multi-tiered, pro-level league that ran for more than two decades and served as an impassioned symbol of resistance against apartheid. Former Robben Island inmate Nelson Mandela noted in the documentary FIFA: 90 Minutes for Mandela, "Soccer is more than just a game.... The energy, passion, and dedication this game created made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in."

A look at how Black players came to shine on the basketball court.

Dear Friends,Many of our employees and company leaders were high school athletes. Several of us are today coaches, referees, and boosters. The spirit of competition instilled in us as young athletes lives on, and is a driving force in our business. As much as competition drives us, integrity centers us. Those early lessons from coaches and teachers who taught us that winning isn't everything - but that competing fairly and with integrity is - continue to resonate within our halls. Integrity is one of our core values.Our company has a long history of providing innovative solutions to industries that have been underserved or overlooked. In 2008 we revolutionized tourist rail. In 2010 we liberated dance studio operators. But in October 2015, when we launched StateChamps, it felt a little different. It felt like we finally built something that could give back to the coaches who have given us so much. Our goal with StateChamps is to provide a service to enable these coaches to grow their programs and connect with more fans, while simultaneously giving them more time to focus on what's important: investing in the hearts and minds of young athletes.We delight in building community through our ticketing services to celebrate athletics with those who encourage, coach, and compete. StateChamps is proud to support school activities on the local level by contributing a portion of book sales to booster clubs, with other proceeds supporting the mission of our partner, Athletes for a Better World. Highest Regards,Jeff GaleCEO, StateChamps