The 27 Best Sports Nonfiction Books of All Time

Locker-room diaries share this shelf with prize-winning biographies, tactical histories and a few reads only devoted fans have found.

1. 1
   The Sweet Science

   A. J. Liebling's 1956 collection of New Yorker boxing essays, often called the finest sports book ever written.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Ali: A Life

   Jonathan Eig's 2017 biography of Muhammad Ali, winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.
   649pts
3. 3
   Pistol

   Mark Kriegel's 2007 biography of the dazzling, troubled basketball star Pete Maravich.
   592pts
4. 4
   Friday Night Lights

   H. G. Bissinger's 1990 chronicle of a season with the Permian High School football team in Odessa, Texas.
   525pts
5. 5
   The Book of Basketball

   Bill Simmons's 2009 doorstop of NBA history, arguments and a pyramid ranking of its greatest players.
   525pts
6. 6
   Paper Lion

   George Plimpton's 1966 tale of training as a backup quarterback with the Detroit Lions as an amateur.
   525pts
7. 7
   King of the World

   David Remnick's 1998 book on the young Cassius Clay's rise to the heavyweight title.
   525pts
8. 8
   Born to Run

   Christopher McDougall's 2009 look at ultrarunning and the Tarahumara runners of Mexico's Copper Canyons.
   525pts
9. 9
   Levels of the Game

   John McPhee's 1969 dissection of a single US Open semifinal between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner.
   525pts
10. 10
    The Last Shot

    Darcy Frey's 1994 account of teenage basketball players at Coney Island chasing college scholarships.
    525pts
11. 11
    Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

    Richard Ben Cramer's 2000 biography stripping the myth from the Yankee Clipper.
    444pts
12. 12
    Eight Men Out

    Eliot Asinof's 1963 reconstruction of the Black Sox scandal at the 1919 World Series.
    444pts
13. 13
    The Summer Game

    Roger Angell's 1972 collection of New Yorker baseball essays from the 1960s.
    444pts
14. 14
    The Boys of Summer

    Roger Kahn's 1972 portrait of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers and what became of them after their playing days.
    345pts
15. 15
    Moneyball

    Michael Lewis's 2003 study of how the Oakland A's used statistics to compete against richer baseball clubs.
    345pts
16. 16
    Fever Pitch

    Nick Hornby's 1992 memoir of life as an obsessive Arsenal supporter.
    345pts
17. 17
    The Boys in the Boat

    Daniel James Brown's 2013 story of the University of Washington rowing crew that won gold at the 1936 Olympics.
    345pts
18. 18
    Veeck as in Wreck

    Baseball owner Bill Veeck's 1962 autobiography full of stunts, promotions and front-office mischief.
    345pts
19. 19
    The Breaks of the Game

    David Halberstam's 1981 account of a season with the Portland Trail Blazers and the business of the NBA.
    345pts
20. 20
    Unbroken

    Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 biography of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who survived a POW camp in World War II.
    0pts
21. 21
    The Miracle of Castel di Sangro

    Joe McGinniss's 1999 account of a season following a tiny Italian village's football club in Serie B.
    0pts
22. 22
    Ball Four

    Jim Bouton's 1970 diary of a baseball season that scandalized the clubhouse with its candor about player life.
    0pts
23. 23
    Open

    Andre Agassi's 2009 memoir, ghostwritten with J. R. Moehringer, admitting he hated the tennis he dominated.
    0pts
24. 24
    Into Thin Air

    Jon Krakauer's 1997 first-hand account of the deadly 1996 storm on Mount Everest.
    0pts
25. 25
    A Season on the Brink

    John Feinstein's 1986 inside look at a season with Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers basketball team.
    0pts
26. 26
    Loose Balls

    Terry Pluto's 1990 oral history of the wild, short-lived American Basketball Association.
    0pts
27. 27
    Inverting the Pyramid

    Jonathan Wilson's 2008 history of football tactics, from early formations to modern systems.
    0pts

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