God Save the Fan
In his third book, Leitch, the founding editor of the sports blog Deadspin.com, offers a collection of passionate, original essays about the good (fantasy football; the saga of the once promising pitcher Rick Ankiel) and the bad (ESPN, which he compares to the Imperial Forces from Star Wars; sports reporters' misguided attempts to become patriotic after 9/11) of sports, and how fans can navigate through the mess to enjoy the games and themselves. If we all realized that, hey, we don't need to listen to these idiots on television screaming at us... they'd be out of a job, Leitch writes in the introduction. The book sometimes strays off course from its stated purpose—memories of Leitch's popular blog subjects (Barbaro, Ohio TV reporter Carl Monday) and a host of cheeky sports glossaries are unnecessary and only disrupt the book's fervor. However, Leitch (who has also written for Playboy and New York) nicely balances potent humor with sharp and sometimes vicious insight without lapsing into clichés. He manages to be an astute sports critic while maintaining his enthusiasm as a fan, making his book an entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who roots for the home team a little too hard. (Reed Business Information)
Recommended Selections
A Necessary Spectacle
The book chronicles the intersection of three major players in the Battle of the Sexes (King, Riggs, and Margaret Court) along with many other players who shaped the event and the life of Billie Jean King.
At age five the young Billie Jean looked up at her mother and said, “I am from the Gameops.com Editor's Blog Reviewgoing to to something special with my life.” Indeed. That girl turned into one of the great womens tennis players ever, but along the way became the cause celeb for women’s rights, feminism, equality and more. At each turn she shouldered the burden of being at the forefront of movements and causes, no matter the personal cost to her…and did it while performing at the highest levels of her sport. ()
All Business is Show Business
Create the Ultimate Customer Experience to Differentiate Your Organization, Amaze Your Clients, and Expand Your Profits
Orbiting the Giant Hairball
A must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees, and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work.
Pay Dirt
Pay Dirt scores big with the story behind the complex entrepreneurial side of team sports. Valuable for its historical material and its insight into sports as big business, this book will be a plus for any collection serving sports fans.
Mascot skit idea sources
The Jamie Kennedy Experiment
Jamie Kennedy is the host and multi-personality star of this off-the-wall series where unsuspecting people - and celebrities - are caught off guard with his endless array of pranks and disguises.
Mr. Bean - The Whole Bean (Complete Set)
Rowan Atkinson created a character with universal and multi-generational appeal (the sketches have little dialogue and are driven by often ingenious physical comedy).
Rowan Atkinson Live (1992)
Film on a Boston stage in 1991, this concert film features the British comic in selected sketches from 10 years of performing and creating characters.
The NASCAR Way:
by Robert Hagstrom
An incredibly insightful book on sports marketing focusing on NASCAR, but applicable to all sports. A must read for sports marketing professionals.
Fun is Good by Mike Veeck
Maverick marketing whiz Mike Veeck presents his simple, no-fail formula for business success: make work fun and you'll create a culture where the best people will want to work and customers will want to spend their money. Read Gameops.com in-depth book review on Fun is Good.
First in Thirst
Rovell locates the increasingly wide intersection of sports, business and popular culture, creating an account wide in scope, rich in details and sufficiently varied to keep the pages turning.
The Sponsor's Toolkit
Contains a gold mine of information about the role of sponsorships in your company's marketing mix. True to its name.
The Sponsorship Seeker's Toolkit
The Sponsorship Seeker's Toolkit lives up to its title, compiling a set of practical "tools' for successful sponsorship.
Event Entertainment and Production
A complete guide for producing entertainment for every event. Includes information on assessing the client's need for entertainment at an event, hiring the talent, and coordinating the production details. For event managers. Includes index, glossary of terms, appendices, and references. DLC: Entertaining--Planning.
The Purple Cow
In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer for New Yorker Magazine, in The Tipping Point, writes a fascinating study of human behavior patterns, and shows us where the smallest things can trigger an epidemic of change.
The Pursuit of Wow!
The "unconventional" Peters stimulates corporate thought processes. Along with the best of his columns, Peters includes questions and rebuttals that come from readers and listeners, as well as his own candid responses. A "must" read for every business person.
Ice To The Eskimos
Jon Spoelstra, who pushed sponsorship and fan revenue to unprecedented heights for the lowly New Jersey Nets basketball franchise, shows how to put big-league marketing expertise to use off the court.
Marketing Outrageously
Books by Jon Spoelstra were recommended by Buffy Filippell in a recent Gameops.com Interview and read the August 2004 Interview on Gameops.com with Jon Spoelstra.
All Business Is Show Business
Every day your organization - and you - are in the spotlight. Your employees are performing and the audience - your customers - will love the show, hate it, or worst of all ignore it. Scott McKain has discovered what the film, television, and music industries have known for years: to be successful, you must create an emotional link with your audience.
Struggles and Triumphs:
Or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum
Road Swing
Steve Rushin, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, sets out for a year on the road to scope out the odd and not-so-odd shrines that America's built for its fun and games..
Owning a Piece of the Minors
This is not a typical baseball book.... this is a book about people and a love affair with the ultimately unattainable past. (The New York Times Book Review, Charles Salzberg )
The Dream Job: Sports Publicity, Promotion and Marketing
It has been adopted for classroom use by more than 110 universities, sports administration programs and professional organizations. It has become the world's bell selling textbook on sports media and event planning.
Thinkertoys: (A Handbook of Business Creativity
Thinkertoys will teach you to generate ideas for new businesses, new products and product extensions. Written by a full-time creativity consultant. 5-Star Rating from Amazon.com readers.
Aha! : 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas
A noted motivational speaker introduces a ten-point program for reviving the creative core that stimulates innovation and promotes success in business, artistic, entrepreneurial, community-oriented, and personal endeavors.
Veeck As in Wreck The Autobiography of Bill Veeck
Marketing Your Dreams
Business Lessons from Bill Veeck, Baseball's Promotional Genius
Slouching Toward Fargo
Slouching Toward Fargo does go deep, even off the deep end at times. The really amazing thing is that it's all true.
Stage Lighting Revealed : A Design and Execution Handbook
Comprehensive, well-illustrated volume could serve as a basic reference manual for career technicians. The jargon of the profession is defined, and commonly used procedures are explained in detail.
Concert Lighting : Techniques, Art, and Business
Thoroughly updated with new sections on Computer Aided Drafting, moving lights and other new equipment and techniques.
Control Systems for Live Entertainment
Covering lighting, sound, projection, machinery and pyrotechnics for theatre, concerts, theme parks, themed-retail, cruise ships, museums.
Gameops.com Top Three from SI's Top 100:
Compiled by the staff of Sports Illustrated in the Dec 16th, 2001 edition, we pick through for the Gameops.com Top 3 of the SI Top 100 Books of all time. Self-indulgent? Maybe. Enjoy it anyway.
The Professional by W.C. Heinz (#54)
Cosell by Howard Cosell (#67)
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle (#65)
The Green Book of Songs by Subject: The Thematic Guide to Popular Music
With over 35,000 songs classified in almost 1800 logical categories, this is an important reference tool. A simply amazing tool for game operation directors and sound operators in sports. Have the perfect sound bite ready for your next bumper, promotion, or contest..
Event Planning
The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events.
The Name of the Game
The authors provide good background on the evolution of the major sports leagues and show how their growth was fueled by the broadcast media.
