San Francisco Bay Area Sports brings together fifteen essays covering the issues, controversies, and personalities that have emerged as northern Californians recreated and competed over the last 150 years. The area’s diversity, anti-establishment leanings, and unique and beautiful natural surroundings are explored in the context of a dynamic sporting past that includes events broadcast to millions or activities engaged in by just a few. Professional and college events are covered along with lesser-known entities such as Oakland’s public parks, tennis player and Bay Area native Rosie Casals, environmentalism and hiking in Marin County, and the origins of the Gay Games. Taken as a whole, this book clarifies how sport is connected to identities based on sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity. Just as crucial, the stories here illuminate how sport and recreation can potentially create transgressive spaces, particularity in a place known for its nonconformity.

After World War II the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) in San Francisco hired renowned photographer Ansel Adams to establish one of the first fine art photography departments in the United States. The caliber of teachers and guest instructors assembled there under the new directorship of Douglas McAgy was unmatched, and the school was one of the most avant-garde art schools of its time. On hand were photographers Adams and Minor White, along with Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, Lisette Model, Nancy and Beaumont Newhall, and Homer Page. Three former students of Adams and White - William Heick, Ira H. Latour and C. Cameron Macauley, later known as the "Three Musketeers" - began planning a book that would focus on CSFA's photography department, covering the years between 1945 and 1955, the period known as "The Golden Decade." It was a lucky coincidence when Ken Ball and his wife Victoria Whyte Ball (whose father, Don Whyte, had bequeathed them an abundance of negatives and contact prints from his student years at CSFA) joined them. Together this team has embarked on an important journey into photography's past that is embodied in this book.

Celebrate the championship glory, Hall of Fame personalities, and passionate fans that make the San Francisco 49ers one of the most beloved franchises in football The oldest professional sports team in the Bay Area, the San Francisco 49ers have thrilled their loyal fans for seven and a half decades. Founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference, the 49ers joined the NFL when the leagues merged in 1949. Playing in old Kezar Stadium at in Golden Gate Park, the 49ers found fleeting success in their early years, reaching the playoffs just once in the 1950s and '60s. From those humble beginnings emerged one of the NFL's most successful franchises. Seven Super Bowl appearances, five Super Bowl victories. A head coach in Bill Walsh who forever changed the sport. And a roster of Hall of Famers: Y.A. Tittle, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, and more. Sports Illustrated™ celebrates the franchise with The San Francisco 49ers at 75, an extraordinary collection of classic stories and photographs from the pages of SI. This commemorative book also solutes, in words and pictures, the 49ers' dedicated fans. From Kezar to Candlestick to Levi's, fans will unearth golden nuggets from the 49ers's past on each page of this diamond celebration.

The Bay Area is home to multiple popular franchises in all four major sports - the 49ers and Raiders (NFL), Giants and A's (MLB), Kings and Warriors (NBA), and Sharks (NHL). With such diversity in rooting interest, area fans have much to debate all year long, and prominent Bay Area sports-radio host Damon Bruce is just the man to get the debate going with this entertaining book of original sports and entertainment lists. Bruce also enlists the help of such notable local stars to contribute their own lists, including Orlando Cepeda, Brent Jones, Gary Radnich, Drew Remeda, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, and more.

Roller Derby found a home in the San Francisco Bay Area following its Depression-era Chicago origins. An early television sensation, it faded to a modest existence in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Creator Leo Seltzer turned the game over to his son Jerry, who repositioned the traveling Bay Bombers from their home terrain of San Francisco to Fresno and everywhere in-between...However, economic and cultural changes closed the Roller Derby in 1973. Passionate fans clung tenaciously to its memory. In the 21st century, the game made an astonishing return not only in Northern California but also worldwide -- Publisher's description.

The Bay Area is home to multiple popular franchises in all four major sports -- the 49ers and Raiders (NFL), Giants and A's (MLB), Kings and Warriors (NBA), and Sharks (NHL). With such diversity in rooting interest, area fans have much to debate all year long, and prominent Bay Area sports-radio host Damon Bruce is just the man to get the debate going with this entertaining book of original sports and entertainment lists. Bruce also enlists the help of such notable local stars to contribute their own lists, including Orlando Cepeda, Brent Jones, Gary Radnich, Drew Remeda, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, and more.

From baseball to biology, an award-winning journalist highlights the power of team chemistry in this "terrific" data-driven investigation of human relationships (Billie Jean King). Does team chemistry actually exist? Is there scientific or mathematical proof? Is team chemistry as real and relevant as on-base percentages and wins above replacement? In Joan Ryan's groundbreaking book we discover that the answer to all of the above is a resounding yes. As Ryan puts it, team chemistry, or the combination of biological and social forces that boosts selfless effort among more players over more days of a season, is what drives sports teams toward a common goal, encouraging the players to be the best versions of themselves. These are the elements of teams that make them "click," the ones that foster trust and respect, and push players to exceed their own potential when they work well together. Team chemistry alone won't win a World Series, but talent alone won't win it, either. And by interviewing more than 100 players, coaches, managers, and statisticians, as well as over five years of extensive research in neuroscience, biology, physiology, and psychology, Ryan proves that the social and emotional state of a team does affect performance. Grit, passion, selflessness, and effort matter -- but never underestimate the power of chemistry.