In both cases, there’s the icky suspicion that actual events have been squeezed into a pre-cooked narrative—about triumph over adversity, the glories of white patronage, and the invaluable life lessons taught on the gridiron. While Undefeated doesn’t...

Odds." In the morning, Oher spoke not only with Prince Street students but students from Pinehurst Elementary and Salisbury Middle schools. The 2011 book, which was co-written by Oher and Don Yaeger, is not the only publication that has profiled his life.

We go back to 1985, he and I got here at the same time. He was a number one draft choice as a linebacker and I was a defensive line coach just hoping at some point that he would drift my way and be a defensive lineman, and he did. I read a book by...

Lewis describes the thinking: The A’s front office had broken down Giambi into his obvious offensive statistics – walks, singles, doubles, home runs – along with his less obvious ones – pitches seen per plate appearance, walk to strikeout ratio – and...

But statistics are only a numerical representation of success; they do not explain how it comes about. This task is much more difficult. It involves what used to be known as “intangibles.” That was until there was a book by Michael Lewis called...

That’s why, after calling your bookie and laying in your store of chips and beer, you might want to finish your preparations for the big game by revisiting Michael Lewis’s article for Play magazine in October 2007, “The Kick Is Up and It’s. Here’s...