Sports

Ken Kaiser's new book, co-written with David Fisher, is called Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate. A 1986 Sporting News poll called Kaiser the most colorful umpire in the American League. He left the major leagues in 2001, after calling balls, strikes and outs for more than 3,000 games.

Doug Spreen is one of the official trainers for the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and has worked with the world's top tennis players, including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick. He is responsible for the health of the players, deals with their injuries before and after competition, and tends to them while they are competing. Spreen often has to run onto the court and check on athletes who are injured during play.

Writer Carlo Rotella takes a look inside the world of boxing in his new book, Cut Time: An Education at the Fights. Rotella is also the author of Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt. Rotella is a professor at Boston College, where he teaches American literature, American studies, urban literatures and cultures, and creative and nonfiction writing. His essays have appeared in Harper's, Washington Post Magazine and Best American Essays 2001.

He has won three Kentucky Derbys, two Preakness Stakes and three Belmont Stakes. Now 40 years old, he has been riding professionally since he was 16. Stevens is the author of the autobiography, The Perfect Ride and has a part in the new film Seabiscuit as jockey George Woolf.

His new book is Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It's the story of how the Oakland A's turned their team around and made history, winning 20 games in a row to set a new American League record. Lewis goes behind the scenes and finds a new kind of baseball knowledge. He is the author of the best selling books Liar's Poker and The New New Thing.

Gordon is a sports journalist and Bonner is a specialist on North Korea. They collaborated on the documentary The Game of Their Lives about the most shocking upset in World Cup History: It was July 19, 1966, and the scrappy underdog North Korean team beat the favored Italians, whose players were some of the finest in the world. Later the Korean team lost in the quarterfinals to Portugal. Then the players returned home and disappeared from view.

Former NBA star Charles Barkley. The colorful, outspoken ex-player has a new book, I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It (Random House). Barkley is considered one of the greatest players of the game. He was on 11 All-Star teams, and with Wilt Chamberlain was one of the two players in NBA history with more than 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Phoenix Suns and the Houston Rockets. He is currently a studio analyst for TNT's Inside the NBA.

Boxer Laila Ali. Shes the only one of heavyweight champ Mohammed Alis nine children to choose a life in the ring. Her recent bout with Jacqui Frazier was the most highly publicized female boxing event ever. Shes written an autobiography called REACH! Finding Strength, Spirit and Personal Power.

Host of NPR's Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan. During the summer of 2000, he took a hiatus from his duties at NPR to follow the fortunes of the Aberdeen Arsenal, a minor league baseball team. Conan pursued a lifelong dream: to become a baseball announcer. He writes about it in his new book: Play by Play: Baseball, Radio and Life in the Last Chance League (Crown Publishers).

Writer Andy Bellin. His new book is Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country. (HarperCollins) Bellin is a graduate school dropout. Hes an editor at the Paris Review and a semiprofessional poker player.