Female sideline reporters are the fastest-growing trend in broadcasts of professional and college football: names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth. But even more has been going on. In recent years women have garnered spots as sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, and even coaches and team administrators. Yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this gap with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting, as well as in the business of sports. The book features interviews with the legendary women’s sports activist Billie Jean King, as well as Women’s Professional Soccer League leader Tonya Antonucci and ESPN College Basketball Analyst Rebecca Lobo. Prominent women working in the media are also featured in the book, including WFAN’s Ann Ligouri, CBS’ Lesley Visser, ESPN’s Pam Ward, USA Today’s Christine Brennan and Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts. Playing Ball with the Boys delivers firsthand accounts of the struggles and triumphs of women succeeding in what has long been a man's game.

The use of female sideline reporters is the fastest-growing new aspect of televised broadcasts of professional and college football. Names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth. In recent years women have been sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, even coaches and team administrators. And yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this void with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting as well as in the business of sports. Ross interviews a number of the biggest names--from Kolber and Kremer to USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and Lesley Visser and many others--who offer first-hand accounts of the struggles and the triumphs of women playing what has always been a man's game. She provides a history of this unique facet of the sports world, from pioneering female newspaper sports reporters to the celebrated breakthrough into televised sports by former Miss America Phyllis George, who is interviewed in the book. Ross covers the controversial moments, from locker room confrontations between players and female reporters to the infamous sideline interview in which Joe Namath attempted to kiss Suzy Kolber during a live broadcast. Readers also learn of women who played pro sports on male teams or coached men's teams. They meet a woman who runs a professional baseball team and another who is a team doctor. Through this tale, Ross weaves her own story, recalling how she went from a small town in Indiana to the anchor's chair at the largest sports network in the world, ESPN. She explains what it's like for a woman to succeed in the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting.

This is a story about a small town, big oil, an undersized high school basketball team, a coach with a huge heart, and how a season was nearly undone by well-intentioned corporate interference and racism. Big oil and basketball both grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in the first half of the twentieth century. The eleven-time national AAU champion Phillips 66er and their corporate sponsor gained international fame together in the 1940s and 50s. Due in large part to Phillips Petroleum Company, Bartlesville had a highly educated and affluent population. Thanks also to Phillips, there was a stockpile of All-American basketball stars who lived there and served as coaches and mentors to youth throughout the community. In the late fall of 1966, just as the high school basketball season was getting underway, one of those former players was dispatched by Phillips to "assist" the local team, only to learn that the help was unwelcome. What Phillips failed to understand was the loyalty between the coach and his team. In an exceptional and unexpected show of unity, as well as fierce loyalty, the players rallied around their coach and commenced their season, playing against the state's largest schools. This is a heartwarming story of that coach, his team and the lasting impact of their remarkable relationship. This story reminds me of 'Hoosiers.' It combines high school basketball with timely social issues. Well researched and a great read. --Jay Bilas, ESPN Debut author Carl McCullough has captured not only a great sports story, but provides food for thought on current issues. His treatment of racism is sensitive and timely. --Former Oklahoma Sooners and Dallas Cowboys Head Coach, Barry Switzer This is a classic story of an undersized high school basketball team from a big oil town in Northeast Oklahoma that finds a way to make a run at a state championship while fighting systemic racism at the height of the civil rights movement and attempts by corporate business to control who coaches and plays on the team. A sociologist's dream that turns into a fairy tale finish. --Dick Weiss, Hall of Fame Sports Columnist.

The bestselling novel based on the true story of a boy in Brooklyn who became neighbors and friends with his hero, Jackie Robinson. Stephen Satlow is an eight-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York, which means he only cares about one thing-the Dodgers. Steve and his father spend hours reading the sports pages and listening to games on the radio. Aside from an occasional run-in with his teacher, life is pretty simple for Steve. But then Steve hears a rumor that an African American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood. It's 1948 and some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before. Then it happens--Steve's new neighbor is none other than Jackie Robinson! Steve is beyond excited about living two doors down from the Robinson family. He can't wait to meet Jackie. This is going to be the best baseball season yet! How many kids ever get to become friends with their hero?

On April 15, 1947, Matt Romano and his father watch the Brooklyn Dodgers season-opener, during which Jackie Robinson, a twenty-eight-year-old rookie, breaks the "color line" that had kept black men out of Major League baseball. Includes facts about Jackie Robinson's life and career.

""Playing with the Big Boys" traces the development of basketball in the Philippines from an educational tool during the early period of American colonial rule in the early twentieth century to a ubiquitous national pastime"--