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What: ESPN SportsCentury

Editor: Michael MacCambridge

Publisher: Hyperion ($40)

If you’ve enjoyed the “SportsCentury” profiles and specials on ESPN, you should enjoy this 288-page, hard-bound slick book. The photos alone make make it the sports fan’s coffee table gift of the century.

The book begins with an array of memorable sports photos that includes Ebbets Field, Johnny Unitas, UCLA’s Lew Alcindor jumping center against Houston’s Elvin Hayes, an airborne Bobby Orr and Nebraska’s Johnny Rogers scoring a touchdown. Then comes a one-page foreword by Chris Berman and 10 pages of introduction by David Halberstam, followed by 10 chapters, each addressing a decade of the century.

Writers include Gerald Early on Jack Johnson, Nicholas Lemann on Jim Thorpe, Robert Creamer on Babe Ruth, Wilfrid Sheed on Joe Louis and Babe Didrikson, Roy Blount Jr. on Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, and Nelson George on Michael Jordan.

The editor, Michael MacCambridge, is a former staff reporter for Daily Variety who has also been a columnist and critic at the Austin American Statesman.

Each chapter concludes with a “Playbook” section that looks at classic games, dynasties, coaches, influential writers and broadcasters, and a “Time Capsule” that provides an overview of the decade.

The final page, called “The Final Score,” offers an amusing look at number associations, beginning with 100 and concluding with No. 1. No. 100, for instance, is Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game; No. 99 is Wayne Gretzky, No. 98 is John Elway’s drive. Many aren’t so easy. No. 37 is the 37-foot high Green Monster at Fenway Park. No. 1 is “We’re No. 1.”

No. 1 could also be where this book would rank among others like it.