# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published November 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-27-best-sports-nonfiction-books-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Sweet Science** — score 1000/1000
   A. J. Liebling's 1956 collection of New Yorker boxing essays, often called the finest sports book ever written.
2. **Ali: A Life** — score 649/1000
   Jonathan Eig's 2017 biography of Muhammad Ali, winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.
3. **Pistol** — score 592/1000
   Mark Kriegel's 2007 biography of the dazzling, troubled basketball star Pete Maravich.
4. **Friday Night Lights** — score 525/1000
   H. G. Bissinger's 1990 chronicle of a season with the Permian High School football team in Odessa, Texas.
5. **The Book of Basketball** — score 525/1000
   Bill Simmons's 2009 doorstop of NBA history, arguments and a pyramid ranking of its greatest players.
6. **Paper Lion** — score 525/1000
   George Plimpton's 1966 tale of training as a backup quarterback with the Detroit Lions as an amateur.
7. **King of the World** — score 525/1000
   David Remnick's 1998 book on the young Cassius Clay's rise to the heavyweight title.
8. **Born to Run** — score 525/1000
   Christopher McDougall's 2009 look at ultrarunning and the Tarahumara runners of Mexico's Copper Canyons.
9. **Levels of the Game** — score 525/1000
   John McPhee's 1969 dissection of a single US Open semifinal between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner.
10. **The Last Shot** — score 525/1000
   Darcy Frey's 1994 account of teenage basketball players at Coney Island chasing college scholarships.
11. **Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life** — score 444/1000
   Richard Ben Cramer's 2000 biography stripping the myth from the Yankee Clipper.
12. **Eight Men Out** — score 444/1000
   Eliot Asinof's 1963 reconstruction of the Black Sox scandal at the 1919 World Series.
13. **The Summer Game** — score 444/1000
   Roger Angell's 1972 collection of New Yorker baseball essays from the 1960s.
14. **The Boys of Summer** — score 345/1000
   Roger Kahn's 1972 portrait of the 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers and what became of them after their playing days.
15. **Moneyball** — score 345/1000
   Michael Lewis's 2003 study of how the Oakland A's used statistics to compete against richer baseball clubs.
16. **Fever Pitch** — score 345/1000
   Nick Hornby's 1992 memoir of life as an obsessive Arsenal supporter.
17. **The Boys in the Boat** — score 345/1000
   Daniel James Brown's 2013 story of the University of Washington rowing crew that won gold at the 1936 Olympics.
18. **Veeck as in Wreck** — score 345/1000
   Baseball owner Bill Veeck's 1962 autobiography full of stunts, promotions and front-office mischief.
19. **The Breaks of the Game** — score 345/1000
   David Halberstam's 1981 account of a season with the Portland Trail Blazers and the business of the NBA.
20. **Unbroken** — score 0/1000
   Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 biography of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who survived a POW camp in World War II.
21. **The Miracle of Castel di Sangro** — score 0/1000
   Joe McGinniss's 1999 account of a season following a tiny Italian village's football club in Serie B.
22. **Ball Four** — score 0/1000
   Jim Bouton's 1970 diary of a baseball season that scandalized the clubhouse with its candor about player life.
23. **Open** — score 0/1000
   Andre Agassi's 2009 memoir, ghostwritten with J. R. Moehringer, admitting he hated the tennis he dominated.
24. **Into Thin Air** — score 0/1000
   Jon Krakauer's 1997 first-hand account of the deadly 1996 storm on Mount Everest.
25. **A Season on the Brink** — score 0/1000
   John Feinstein's 1986 inside look at a season with Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers basketball team.
26. **Loose Balls** — score 0/1000
   Terry Pluto's 1990 oral history of the wild, short-lived American Basketball Association.
27. **Inverting the Pyramid** — score 0/1000
   Jonathan Wilson's 2008 history of football tactics, from early formations to modern systems.

Tags: books, sports, all time, nonfiction