Books

(Editor) K: The King of Cameron

The Chronicle‘s board produced this book, including original writing from many former Chronicle staff members as well as contributions from Roy Williams, Dick Vitale and several other basketball players, coaches and commentators.

I wrote several pieces for the book, including a lot of the uncredited material that wound up in graphics, and I managed the project with a great deal of help from fellow board members.

The intention was to release it to coincide with his 75th birthday. But just as we were wrapping it up, Mike Krzyzewski announced his intent to retire. We added some content and got it ready to go just in time.

Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer

An oft-cited history of the league’s first 15 years, focusing on interviews with dozens of key figures on and off the field.

The bulk of the research and writing for the book was done while I was on leave from USA TODAY in 2008. The editing process lasted through 2009, and I was able to include some information from early 2010 in time for publication in the summer of 2010.

Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup

Why can’t the U.S. men win it all? Or at least more consistently?

Because we’re way behind. And we’re behind because we’ve long been devoted to “American” things. And we can’t agree on anything, and then we sue each other. (We surely lead the world in soccer lawyers by now.)

And until we face up to those realities, we’ll never make progress. We certainly won’t have any fun.

Read: Excerpt (The Guardian), Table of Contents
Listen: Intro
Watch: Video
Order: Rowman and Littlefield or Amazon

2012: The Year That Saved Women’s Soccer

“I believe that if I did not compete in the WPSL Elite that year, I would have moved on from football.”

In 2012, after the collapse of WPS, professional women’s soccer in the USA was barely alive. But a few ambitious clubs, including a couple that were at least nominally professional, kept going. They kept fans engaged. They solidified or rebuilt the foundations upon which the next pro league, the NWSL, could be built. Best of all, they kept players playing.

This book is the story of that summer told by 35 of the people who experienced it on the sidelines and on the field. Hopefully, the people trying to keep women’s soccer alive in 2020 will be as successful as the people who did it eight years ago.

Order at Amazon

Game descriptions and sources for those games are posted on the Ranting Soccer Dad blog.