Books about Shropshire from Amazon.com

The legendary Charles C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle, considered by most to be the first sports agent, negotiated a $3,000-per-game contract for Red Grange to play professional football for the Chicago Bears in 1933. Today, salaries in the tens of millions of dollars are commonplace, and instead of theatrical promoters and impresarios, professionally trained businessmen and lawyers dominate the business. But whereas rules and penalties govern the playing field, there are far fewer restrictions on agents. Incidents of agents' manipulating athletes, ranging from investment scams to outright theft of a player's money, are far too frequent, and there is growing consensus for reform

In The Business of Sports Agents, Kenneth L. Shropshire and Timothy Davis, experts in the fields of sports business and law, examine the history of the sports agent business and the rules and laws developed to regulate the profession. They also consider recommendations for reform, including uniform laws that would apply to all agents, redefining amateurism in college sports, and stiffening requirements for licensing agents. This revised and expanded second edition brings the volume up-to-date on recent changes in the industry, including:

- the closing of one of the largest agencies
- high-profile personnel moves
- passage of the federal Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act
- the National Football League's aggressive and high-profile efforts to regulate agents

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Price: $23.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, 'If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we're in deep trouble ' When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, 'Whitey, obviously, has seen me play.'"

In early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire agreed to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, not realizing that the Rangers were arguably the worst team in baseball history. Seasons in Hell is a riotous, candid, irreverent behind-the-scenes account in the tradition of The Bronx Zoo and Ball Four, following the Texas Rangers from Whitey Herzog's reign in 1973 through Billy Martin's tumultuous tenure. Offering wonderful perspectives on dozens of unique (and likely never-to-be-seen-again) baseball personalities, Seasons in Hell recounts some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game and brings to life the no-holds-barred culture of major league baseball in the mid-seventies.

Mike Shropshire is a longtime journalist who has written for numerous newspapers and magazines such as Sports Illustrated and is the author of several books, including When the Tuna Went down to Texas: How Bill Parcells Led the Cowboys Back to the Promised Land. He lives in Dallas, Texas..
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The Business of Sports is the first comprehensive collection of readings to focus on the multibillion-dollar sports industry and the dilemmas faced by today’s sports business leaders. This valuable resource provides a complete overview of major sports business issues and is designed for current and future sports business leaders as well as those interested in the inner-workings of the industry. The book covers professional, Olympic, and collegiate sports, and highlights the major issues that impact each of these broad categories.

The readings in The Business of Sports provide insight from a variety of stakeholders in the industry and cover the major business disciplines of management, marketing, finance, information technology, accounting, ethics and law. In addition, the book features concise introductions, a broad range of focused readings and targeted discussion questions, as well as graphs and tables that are used to convey relevant financial data and other statistics.

This first-of-its-kind book makes accessible, in a single location, book excerpts, articles and other materials that students and professionals interested in "the business of sports" will find both useful and compelling..
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There are baseball books and there are baseball books.

But for the baseball cognoscenti, there are just a few "must-have" classics: BALL FOUR by Jim Bouton. THE LONG SEASON by Jim Brosnan WILLIE'S TIME by Charles Einstein. And SEASONS IN HELL by Mike Shropshire, which was a hilarous first-person account of Mike's travails serving as a daily beat writer covering the hapless 1972 Texas Rangers.

Now, in The Last Real Season, Shropshire captures the essence of a different time and different place in baseball, when the average salary for major leaguers was only $27,600...when the ballplayers' drug of choice was alcohol, not steroids...when major leaguers sported tight doubleknit uniforms over their long-hair and Afros...and on July 28th, 1975, the day that famed Detroit resident Jimmy Hoffa went missing, the Detroit Tigers started a losing streak of 19 games in a row. On the day that the Tigers blew a 4-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Shropshire recalls: "I drank three bottles of Stroh's beer in less than a minute and wrote that 'Jimmy Hoffa will show up in the left field stands with Amelia Earhart as his date before the Tigers will win another game.'"

And so it goes. Filled with just the kind of wonderful baseball stories that real fans crave, this is the funniest baseball book of the year..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

If you're looking to build your deal-making chops, there is no better school than the world of professional sports. Few authors are as qualified to guide you through that rough-and-tumble terrain as Ken Shropshire.

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From the Fortune 500 to the NFL, from Don King to big city mayors, Ken has negotiated major sports deals across the country and around the world. He's also one of today's most sought-after negotiating coaches, with clients ranging from the National Collegiate Athletic Association to IBM.

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In Negotiate Like the Pros, Ken tells the stories behind some of the most sensational sports deals of all time and extracts powerful lessons from them on the skills you need to master to become a top-notch dealmaker. You'll learn how to:

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• Prepare and Set Agendas: Peter Ueberroth's negotiation with Fidel Castro during the Soviet boycott of the '84 Olympics.
• Know Your Negotiating Style and Play to Your Strengths: Why NFL coach Bill Walsh stresses sticking with your style.
• Set Goals: the $60 million deal Daiuske �Dice-K� Matsuzaka cut with the Boston Red Sox in 2006.
• Leverage: from the astonishing three-way negotiation between Muhammed Ali, George Foreman and the President of Zaire that Don King used to pull off �The Rumble in the Jungle�.
• Build Relationships: Yao Ming's move from China and David Beckham's $250 million deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

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You also get a wealth of insider tips, tricks, and skill-building tools to help you develop a highly-effective, systematic approach to deal making. Whether you're a fanatic who sees the world through sports-colored glasses, or a casual observer who wants to learn from some of the toughest, shrewdest dealmakers in any industry, this book will teach you how to Negotiate Like the Pros.

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Authoritative edition of one of the enduring classics of English poetry—63 poems on the nature of friendship, the passing of youth, the vanity of dreams, other human concerns Long prized by literary scholars for their perfection of form and feeling, and loved by generations of readers for simplicity, sensitivity, direct emotional appeal.
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Raucous, raw, and reliably remarkable, the century–old football riavlry between the state universities of Texas and Oklahoma stands as testimony that hate–based relationships are the most enduring. Texas and Oklahoma have been top–level programs for a long time, but in the last few years the rivalry has garnered ever more national attention. Mike Shropshire, an observer of this football war for more than 40 years, chronicles the long and colorful history of this fierce rivalry that has endured for more than a century.

The teams have been playing at the Texas State fair since 1929–just a three–hour drive from each campus. This is the only football game in the country that is louder than a NASCAR race, because there's no place in the country that's more football–mad than Texas. Animosity runs deep in this relationship–but beyond the emotional urgency that the Texas–OU followers expend on this event, this is a union of like–minded spirits. They were brought up amid the simple mantra of the Red State road to success: "Get up early. Work hard. Find oil." Football would naturally become the spectator sports of preference in these parts.

RUNNIN' WITH THE BIG DOGS is an account of that game and of the game and the events that lead up to the three–and–one–half hours when, deep in the heart of the heartland, it's the day the earth stands still. It will also chronicle the long and colorful history of this fiercest of football rivalries, and inundate the reader in the craziness of the week preceding the game. Year in, year out, the Texas–OU celebration equals or trumps any other rivalry in sheer excitement and entertainment value–and presently, these two teams more than any other pairing are consistently in the hunt for a national championship. The excitement is due in large part to the raw and dynamic history of the two states involved, from the Indian wars to the oil boom. Before statehood Oklahoma was known as Indian Territory, so this Red River Shootout is Cowboys and Indians all over again.

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Price: $3.83 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Let the multitude of my thoughts toward you comfort you and

cause your thoughts to turn more and more to me.

As you walk close to me you will be able to draw quickly from my strength

In Touch with God (more than 150,000 copies sold) now with a new cover, leads readers to a relationship with the Creator that will sustain and guide them.

Personal, easy–to–read devotions share the peace and strength of Scripture for daily living. This walk through heartfelt reflections and illustrations reveals the fulfillment that comes from a vibrant faith.

Longtime Christians and those seeking a new understanding of God’s love during difficult times will be renewed by this source of encouragement and inspiration.

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