Score with books on sports heroes

Can’t pass, punt, throw or pitch? You can still score with books

about sports heroes of today and yesteryear.

New on Newport Beach Public Library shelves is “Jackie Robinson

and the Integration of Baseball” by renowned broadcaster Scott Simon.

“The baseball diamond is not simply a playing field in his story,”

Simon writes of the first African-American major league ballplayer.

“It was the ground on which he was vulnerable to taunts, threats and

sharpened spikes.”

As a sports legend’s biography and a chronicle of segregated

America, this is a thorough and accessible account.

Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Jim Morris reveals how he

became another kind of major league marvel in “The Oldest Rookie.”

For anyone who thinks it’s too late to fulfill a childhood dream,

this true tale about trading a teaching career for professional

baseball at age 35 provides ample motivation.

Morris’ journey from classroom to ball field is also depicted in

Walt Disney’s G-rated “The Rookie,” available on DVD.

Before succumbing to cancer in 1999, NFL great Walter Payton

teamed up with journalist Don Yaeger to tell his story in “Never Die

Easy.” In a tapestry of first-person recollections of growing up poor

but happy in Mississippi, a portrait of a man who lived and died with

grace emerges.

Grace on the soccer field is what Mia Hamm displayed on the U.S.

women’s team, which won the World Cup in 1991 and Olympic gold in

‘96. The five-time National Player of the Year breaks the game down

into essential skills in “Go For the Goal.” Along with coaching

advice, she addresses physical and mental aspects of soccer in a

combination pep talk and game instructional.

From a mother’s perspective, the story of an Olympic gymnast is

told in “Shannon Miller.” Along with what it takes to go from a

jungle gym-climbing toddler to a U.S. women’s gymnastic team leader,

Claudia Miller offers insight into how one child’s triumphs can

affect other children in the family.

For golf fans, David Owen examines how Tiger Woods exemplifies the

best there is in every aspect of the game in “The Chosen One.” From

early training to discipline on the fairways, read how Woods became a

breakthrough athlete in a sport especially resistant to breakthrough

athletes.

Athletes can define eras as well as sports, and there are few

who’ve had as great an effect on American culture as Michael Jordan.

In “Playing for Keeps,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author David

Halberstam focuses on the celebrated hoopster and the Chicago Bulls’

journey to six world championships. With trademark depth, the

legendary journalist filters race, society and history into the story

of an athlete and the country in the Jordan era.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams in

collaboration with Sara Barnicle. All titles may be reserved from

home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

www.newportbeachlibrary.org.