by Christine Ammer (1993)
Sports fans, word lovers, word slingers, word users, and readers alike - get ready for an all-star lineup of 500 words and phrases from the world of athletics that have made their way into common speech. It's right on the button, not only with intriguing facts about their origins, but also with irresistible anecdotes about odds-on-favorite sports greats (and even a few also-rans). Terms from baseball, boxing, football, basketball, hockey, cricket, and rugby pepper the. English language whether the subject is war (General Schwarzkopf called an "impossible" yet successful Allied troops maneuver during the Gulf War a hail Mary play) or love (she's on the rebound). Sports metaphors and imagery are perfect for conveying the drama or the daffiness of life. Baseball alone has given us southpaw (a left-handed pitcher), go to bat, coming out of left field, playing hardball. It was originally boxers who had to go the distance unless they were. Saved by the bell. And kingpins were the prime targets for bowlers long before the DEA started knocking them over too. These are just a few of the grand slam word treats explored in this Hall of Fame collection that gives every sports lover, reader, and speaker a ringside seat on the inside track. Only an oddball who doesn't know the score would stay on the sidelines or take a rain check.
Carole A. Oglesby
"This encyclopedia provides short biographical entries with time and place of birth and then spells out the women's athletic accomplishments. It also includes historical articles, such as 'Badminton and Women' and sociological/psychological entries, such as 'Goal Setting and Women.'" Voice Youth Advocates. "This clearly written book offers more information about American female athletes than any other single source." SLJ.
Janet Burroway
Written for poets, fiction writers, essayists, and playwrights, *Imaginative Writing* explores the elements of craft (Image, Voice, Character, Setting, Story, and Development and Revision) and includes writing exercises in each chapter.
Robert Hendrickson
Author Robert Hendrickson traces the sometimes bizarre, always fascinating origins and development of more than 9,000 words and phrases from A to Zzz, including slang, proverbs, animal and plant names, place-names, nicknames, historical expressions, foreign-language expressions, and phrases from literature. This greatly expanded and revised version of the critically acclaimed 1987 original contains more than 2,000 new entries. Comprehensive, authoritative, and eminently readable, The Facts On File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins will delight the logophile and serve as an invaluable reference tool for all students of language and literature.
Peter Golenbock
This anthology of baseball's World Series history captures the best of times and the worst of times--from Casey Stengel's inside-the-park home run in 1923 to Cleveland/Atlanta series of 1995--as teams battled for glory and the national championship of America's favorite sport.