"F.X. Toole with this first collection of stories drawn from his own experiences in boxing reveals a complex web of athletes, trainers, and promoters and their extended families, all players in an unforgiving business where victory, like defeat, comes at a dark and painful price.". "In "The Monkey Look," an aging cut man with an incorrigible sweet tooth works the corner for Hoolie, a featherweight "bleeder" with attitude. "Black Jew" brings Reggie Valentine Love and his camp to a brutal elimination bout in Atlantic City, where they are treated like second-class citizens by a promoter. In "Million $$$ Baby," seasoned trainer Frankie Dunn faces the most daunting challenge of his life when he agrees to aid the fearless Maggie Fitzgerald in her quest to become a champion boxer. "Fightin' in Philly" and "Frozen Water" are stories in which youthful dreams of glory and celebrity are threatened by the harsh realities that suffuse both of these narratives. The novella "Rope Burns" is an account of the indestructible bond that develops between a devoted fighter and his trainer."--BOOK JACKET.
His heart is broken. His partner is in jail. And someone is trying to kill him. Then Myron Bolitar gets some really bad news.... For sports agent Myron Bolitar, it seemed like the perfect vacation. A tropical beach. A warm breeze. A little uncomplicated passion with a woman he barely knows. Myron is almost in heaven when his friend Win shows up with a message that blasts him back to reality: Esperanza is in trouble. It's time to come home. Now Myron is back in New York, determined to help Esperanza, his best friend and partner, who's been accused of killing one of their clients. But Esperanza isn't talking. Neither is her lawyer. And to prove his friend's innocence, Myron must trace the rise and fall of the victim, a pitcher who had been making a comeback with the Yankees. Suddenly the investigation is leading Myron to places he'd rather not go: into a family's agony, through the city's sexual underground, and to a moment buried on the dark side of a brilliant sports career.... Twelve years ago a young agent named Bolitar tried to help an up-and-coming athlete. It was a fatal mistake-- and now Myron will have to pay the price...
"New York City, October 1962; The Cuban missile crisis threatens the world as a drug war consumes the Mafia. Caught up in its midst is Davey Rossi, former light-weight champion and son of don Vince Rossi. As Davey trains for his comeback to regain the title, he learns of a secret kept by Vince and his brother, Johnny."--Jacket.
This is the first-ever biography of the legendary wrestler Gorgeous George, filled with incredible never-before-told stories. George directly influenced the likes of Muhammad Ali, who took his bragging and boasting from George; James Brown, who began to wear sequined capes onstage after seeing George on TV; John Waters, whose films featured the outrageous drag queen Divine as an homage to George; and too many wrestlers to count. Amid these pop culture discoveries are firsthand accounts of the pro wrestling game from the 1930s to the 1960s.The ideal American male used to be stoic, quiet, and dignified. But for a young couple struggling to make ends meet, in the desperation born of the lingering Depression and wartime rationing, an idea was hatched that changed the face of American popular culture, an idea so bold, so over-the-top and absurd, that it was perfect. That idea transformed journeyman wrestler George Wagner from a dark-haired, clean-cut good guy to a peroxide-blond braggart who blatantly cheated every chance he got. Crowds were stunned—they had never seen anything like this before—and they came from miles around to witness it for themselves.Suddenly George—guided by Betty, his pistol of a wife—was a draw. With his golden tresses grown long and styled in a marcel, George went from handsome to...well...gorgeous overnight, the small, dank wrestling venues giving way to major arenas. As if the hair wasn't enough, his robes—unmanly things of silk, lace, and chiffon in pale pinks, sunny yellows, and rich mauves—were but a prelude to the act: the regal entrance, the tailcoat-clad valet spraying the mat with perfume, the haughty looks and sneers for the "peasants" who paid to watch this outrageously prissy hulk prance around the ring. How they loved to see his glorious mane mussed up by his manly opponents. And how they loved that alluringly alliterative name...Gorgeous George...the self-proclaimed Toast of the Coast, the Sensation of the Nation!All this was timed to the arrival of that new invention everyone was talking about—television. In its early days, professional wrestling and its larger-than-life characters dominated prime-time broadcasts—none more so than Gorgeous George, who sold as many sets as Uncle Miltie.Fans came in droves—to boo him, to stick him with hatpins, to ogle his gowns, and to rejoice in his comeuppance. He was the man they loved to hate, and his provocative, gender-bending act took him to the top of the entertainment world. America would never be the same again.
After the death of his father, Elijah Breeze, a ten-year-old African American boy, moves back to New York City with his mother and attends a summer baseball camp as he tries to make new friends and adapt to urban ways.
