Spend your Coronavirus quarantine with a great sports book

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, there are literally no sporting events going on at this time. Some sports fans have taken to the woods to chase turkeys while others have taken up fishing to fill the time. Other sports fans are left twiddling their thumbs until this whole thing blows over.

One good way to fill the time is by reading, and there are lots of great sports books out there. Even though the library is closed, you can still order books through Amazon. Nowadays, you can even read the book almost instantly if you have a Kindle or smartphone.

One of my favorite all-time sports books is “Friday Night Lights” by H.G. Bissinger. This book came out in the early 90s and made Permian High School in Odessa, Texas even more famous than it already was in high school football circles. Bissinger sought out the most dominant high school program in the nation at that time, spent a year there and wrote a best-seller about it.

My favorite baseball book is “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton. This book, which gives the reader an inside view of a professional team, is hilarious. This book was somewhat controversial when it came out because many of Bouton’s teammates were not thrilled by the contents of this expose. For years afterwards, Bouton wasn’t invited to any old timers day events because many of his old teammates were still sore over the book.

Another great sports book is “The Sweet Science” by A.J. Liebling. “The Sweet Science” is all about professional boxing and even if you aren’t interested in boxing, this book is fascinating. Some critics go so far as to say that this is the greatest sports book ever written and once you finish it, you’ll know why. It’s pretty dang good.

“The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn is another great baseball book that I highly recommend. It’s all about the Brooklyn Dodgers and their quest to win the 1955 World Series. If you’re interested in the career of Jackie Robinson, this is one of the best books you can read. I first read this book when I was in junior high school, and I’ve read it a couple of other times since then. It never disappoints.

For fishermen out there, I highly recommend “A River Runs Through It’ by Norman Maclean. This about the most poetic book you’ll ever read on fishing as it details Montana fly-fishing in the early 1900s. If you like the book, check out the 1992 movie adaptation of the book, which was directed by Robert Redford and starred Brad Pitt.

Speaking of Robert Redford, I also highly recommend the novel, “The Natural” by Bernard Malamud. This fictional story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy who plays for the New York Knights and hits dingers with his famous bat, “Wonderboy.” Robert Redford played Hobbs in the now-famous movie version of this tale, which came out in 1984.

In the end, there are tons of other great sports books out there, so turn the negative created by the Coronavirus into a positive by broadening your horizons with a good sports-related book.