Sports

Historian Jules Tygiel. He gained recognition and critical acclaim for his first book on baseball history “Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy”. Now in his newly released sequel “Past Time: Baseball as History” (Oxford University Press), he examines the relationship between baseball and American society over the past 150 years. He gives his thoughts on baseball history and this year’s World Series. He is a Professor of History at San Francisco State University.

The host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon. He's written a new memoir, "Home & Away: Memoir of a Fan"

Writer F.X. Toole. At age 70, he’s just published his first book. It’s a collection of short stories about boxing called “Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner.” (ECCO/HarperCollins) For twenty years, he’s been a cut man, stopping the bleeding so fighters can go on to the next round. Toole has been writing for 40 years, but it was the publication of his first story last year in a small literary magazine that caught the attention of a book agent.

T-V critic David Bianculli takes a look at this year’s Olympic coverage.

Bodybuilders Pudgy and Les Stockton. Pudgy was an early pioneer of women’s body building, and began working out and performing at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach in 1939, often teaming up with Les who she married in 1941. Pudgy is featured in an exhibit, “Picturing the Modern Amazon” at New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art (to June 25th). There’s also a companion book of the same title (Rizzoli publications).

Pro-wrestler Bret “Hitman” Hart of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He comes from a wrestling family: his father was a wrestling promoter and ran a wrestling school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All his brothers were wrestlers including his brother, Owen Hart, who was killed in a wrestling stunt last year. Bret Hart is the subject of a new biography, “Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be.”

Director Barry Blaustein is making his directorial debut with the new documentary film “Beyond the Mat.” The movie takes a look at the personal lives of the stars of the World Wrestling Federation, men with names like “Mankind” and “Jake the Snake.” Blaustein previously was head writer and supervising producer at Saturday Night Live and he co-wrote many of Eddie Murphy’s best-loved characters like “Buckwheat,” “Velvet Jones,” “Gumby,” and “Mr. Robinson.”

We will talk about the psychology of sports and athletes with Doctor Michael Miletic. He is one of the few psychoanalysts currently treating active professional athletes. Miletic serves as a psychiatric consultant to the Detroit Pistons, several professional Hockey teams, and the parents group of the National Football League Players Association. Miletic himself was an athlete. He was even a member of the Canadian Olympic weight lifting team, until an injury cut his career short.

Attorney and former Deputy Commissioner of Baseball, Stephen Greenberg. He’ll discuss his father, legendary baseball player Hank Greenberg, who faced bigotry in the 1930s and 40s as America’s first Jewish baseball star. Greenberg played first base and outfield for the Detroit Tigers from 1933-46 and for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947. And he helped the Tigers win the pennant four times. There’s a new documentary about him, “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” (by Aviva Kempner).

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, talks about his new book, A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apache (William Morrow and co). In 1998, a member of the Native American tribe, the White Mountain Apaches, asked Abdul-Jabbar to coach the high school boys basketball team on the reservation. A Season on the Reservation tells the story of his time with the team. Since retiring from the NBA in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar has appeared on TV and in films, worked with numerous charitable organizations, and authored 3 other books.