Sports

Baseball great Willie Mays, one of the most potent all-round players in the history of baseball. In his 22 seasons in the major leagues, Mays played in 21 All-Star Games, batted over .300 and hit 660 home runs. His autobiography, Say Hey, has just been published. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Baseball writer Roger Angell. His new book, Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion, is a compilation of essays published in The New Yorker magazine over the last five seasons. The essays cover subjects from spring training, Astroturf versus grass and drug abuse. Angell's previous books include The Summer Game, Five Seasons and Late Innings. Angell is the senior fiction editor of The New Yorker.

Bob Ryan, basketball writer for The Boston Globe. Together with Terry Pluto, basketball writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, Ryan has written a book that takes a microscopic look at one night in the National Basketball Association by reporting on the Jan 14, 1987 game between The Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The book is titled Forty-Eight Minutes: A Night in the Life of the N.B.A., and follows every shot, every pass, and all the pre- and post-game developments. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone looks back at television's coverage of the women's figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Book critic John Leonard reviews baseball writer Roger Angell's latest collection of essays, Season Ticket. The essays, which previously appeared in The New Yorker magazine, cover the five seasons of play between 1981 and 1986.

Jan Harold Brunvand explores the urban legend about the skier who stops to relieve herself, slips and breaks her arm. As she's leaving the hospital meets other skiers with broken limbs who say when they saw a woman skiing with her pants down they laughed so hard they lost their balance.

Sportswriter and HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant. He discusses the world of boxing, the disintegration of neighborhood boxing clubs in the big cities and how television has changed the image of the boxer and the audience response.

Red Holzman tells of his five decades in basketball as a player, coach and general manager. He's a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and was coach of the New York Knicks when they won the world championship in 1970. Now retired, Holzman had written an autobiography titled Red on Red.

Photographer Bruce Weber, who does the fashion ads for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. He recently finished a documentary movie about young boxers. It's titled "Broken Noses" and opens at the upcoming New York Film Forum.

Mark Mathabane. He grew up in poverty in a black township in South Africa. His skill at tennis caught the attention of Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith, who brought him to the U.S. on an athletic scholarship. He's written a book about his upbringing and the horrors of Apartheid. It's titled Kaffir Boy.