Sports Revolution

Most people who resist logical thought in baseball preach "tradition" and "respecting the game". But many of baseball's traditions go back to the 19th century, when the pitcher's job was to provide the batter with a ball he could hit and fielders played without gloves. Instead of fearing change, Brian Kenny wants fans to think critically, reject outmoded groupthink, and embrace the changes that have come with the "sabermetric era".

In the late '80s, our Rachel was having a boss time as a podium dancer at the Pleasuredrome, Birkenhead. Fast forward several years, and she's married, with the kids she's always dreamed of, but the body she's always dreaded. To make things worse, her husband, Trevor, begins to show his true controlling colours and Rachel blames herself, spiralling into depression. Until she discovers running.

This in-depth examination of soccer takes listeners on a tour across the world and throughout history, introducing the many people who have attempted to shine a light onto and innovate a sport that, in many ways, is still stuck in the Dark Ages. This deep dive into the rise of analytics in soccer—a sport where tradition reigns supreme—shows how revolutionary tactics and underexplored metrics are breaking the beautiful game wide open.

Sharing his experiences and learnings from his journeys across the UK, the USA and the African continent, Moncrieffe brings together the voices of Black cycling cultures. He speaks to Black elite and professional riders, members of national cycling bodies, commentators, grassroots riders, community leaders, teachers and activists, discovering how they are disrupting the sport’s white-led norms of power.

Featuring contributions from: Emma O'Reilly, the soigneur for the US Postal Service Team and one of the people responsible for bringing Lance Armstrong down as part of David Walsh's investigation; Betsy Andreu, wife of ex-professional cyclist Frankie Andreu and another Lance Armstrong nemesis; and Jen See, who interviews Marianne Vos, arguably the greatest cyclist in the world right now.

We are in a historic era for the home run. The 2019 season saw the most homers ever, obliterating a record set just two years before. It is a shift that has transformed the way the game is played, contributing to more strikeouts, longer games, and what feels like the logical conclusion of the analytics era. In Swing Kings, Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond reveals that the secret behind this unprecedented shift isn’t steroids or the stitching of the baseballs, it’s the most elemental explanation of all: the swing.

When Billie Jean King trounced Bobby Riggs in tennis's Battle of the Sexes in 1973, she placed sports squarely at the center of a national debate about gender equity. In this winning combination of biography and history, Susan Ware argues that King's challenge to sexism, the supportive climate of second-wave feminism, and the legislative clout of Title IX sparked a women's sports revolution in the 1970s that fundamentally reshaped American society.

Cinque uomini, un quintetto ideale di rivoluzionari del gioco made in USA: l'allenatore-uomo d'affari, il giocatore all'avanguardia, lo scommettitore incallito, l'arbitro tutto d'un pezzo e il coach visionario. Storie vere che raccontano come il cambiamento, dentro e fuori dal campo, ha più a che fare con la forza di volontà e la capacità di cogliere delle opportunità che con la tecnica e il talento.

Nobody had heard of Arsène Wenger when he took charge of Arsenal in October 1996. 'Arsène Who?' was the headline. Yet within less than two full seasons, he transformed an underperforming side into league and FA Cup winners. Built around over 150 exclusive interviews with key players, coaches, staff and opponents, and rich in behind-the-scenes stories, personal accounts of triumph, tragedy, hilarity and heartbreak, Arsène Who? relives Arsenal's rocky road to the 1998 Double and the inception of the Wenger revolution.

When James Montague first began covering football in the Middle East two decades ago, people asked him what future there could possibly be for the beautiful game in one of the most volatile regions in the world. In the years that followed, it would become one of the biggest stories in global sport, from the from revolutionary ultras of the Arab Spring and the takeover of some of the world's biggest clubs by the Emirati super rich, to Qatar's controversial journey towards hosting the 2022 World Cup finals.

From 1976 to 1978, the Cornell men's lacrosse team went on a tear. Winning two national championships and posting an overall record of 42-1, the Big Red, coached by Richie Moran, were the class of the NCAA game. Christian Swezey tells the story of the rise of this dominant lacrosse program. Pulling from interviews with more than ninety former coaches and players from Cornell and its rivals, We Showed Baltimore paints a vivid picture of lacrosse in the 1970s and how Moran and the Big Red helped create the game of today.

In the early years of Adams Golf, entrepreneur Barney Adams labored in obscurity. He collected six patents for his golf products, manufacturing fine equipment but enjoying no sales. Everything changed for him and his company in 1996, though, when he invented the Tight Lies fairway wood. Working as a custom fitter, his customers repeatedly asked for a club they could play from "long iron" distance, from 180 to 220 yards to the green. Adams knew the technical secret was to lower the club's center of gravity.

In 1968, perhaps the finest US Olympic men’s track-and-field team ever stirred the world in unprecedented ways, among them the victory stand black rights protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos in Mexico City. But in competition no single athlete mirrored the free-thinking 1960s better than Dick Fosbury, a failed prep high jumper who invented an offbeat style that ultimately won him a gold medal and revolutionized the event. No jumpers today use any other style than his.

Emmeline Escot knows that she was born to ride in Seren's cutthroat velocipede races. The only problem: She's female in a world where women lead tightly laced lives. Emmeline watches her twin brother gain success as a professional racing jockey while her own life grows increasingly narrow. Ever more stifled by rules, corsets, and her upcoming marriage of convenience to a brusque stranger, Emmy rebels - with stunning consequences. Can her dream to race survive scandal, scrutiny, and heartbreak?

Embark on a running revolution like never before with the "Running Revolution Bundle" – an inspiring duo of audiobooks that will reshape your running journey and guide you toward your fitness and weight loss goals.