Why am I passionate about this?

I have been a professional business writer with a keen interest in baseball, football, basketball, and hockey since the early 1960s. My life was literally changed on January 12, 1969, when the New York Jets shocked me and the world with their upset victory in Super Bowl III. For over 40 succeeding years, I was beyond curious about the under-publicized players on that Jets team (aside from Joe Namath) and what they experienced and felt that day and season. I’m especially proud that the VP of Public Relations for that Jet team read and praised my book for bringing exposure to all “the other guys.” 


I wrote...

Beyond Broadway Joe

By Bob Lederer,

Book cover of Beyond Broadway Joe

What is my book about?

The story of the 44 1969 Super Bowl, Jets told for the first time by the 44 players on the…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

Bob Lederer Why did I love this book?

Babe Ruth's status as baseball's greatest all-around player (hitter–714 home runs, 342 batting average, a . 474 on-base percentage–and pitcher–94-46, 2.28 ERA, 147 Games Started, 107 CG, 17 Shutouts) remains cemented among historians (until Shohei Ohtani potentially proves himself the Babe's equal over time).

Creamer's book overflows with anecdotes about the many memorable moments in Ruth's gaudy career.

By Robert Creamer,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Babe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Portrays the struggles and achievements of baseball's most colorful hero.


Book cover of When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi

Bob Lederer Why did I love this book?

I read this book because, in the annals of football history (up until the decades of Super Bowl success by Bill Belichick), Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers made him the runaway choice as pro football’s greatest coach.

He was considered coaching’s ultimate leader, motivator, and fundamentals technician. This book filled in the very little I knew about Lombardi’s lengthy history before he landed in Green Bay.

By David Maraniss,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked When Pride Still Mattered as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this groundbreaking biography, David Maraniss captures all of football great Vince Lombardi: the myth, the man, his game, and his God.

More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants before his big break came at age forty-six with the chance to coach a struggling team in snowbound Wisconsin. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world…


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Book cover of A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France

A Long Way from Iowa By Janet Hulstrand,

This memoir chronicles the lives of three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel. The story begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn as the author reads a notebook written by her grandmother nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year search…

Countdown to Super Bowl

By Dave Anderson,

Book cover of Countdown to Super Bowl

Bob Lederer Why did I love this book?

I recommend this book as the unparalleled, fascinating, detailed report of what was going on with the individual members of the New York Jets in the two weeks between the Jets’ AFL Championship game victory and their shocking upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl.

Published in 1969, it remains a must-read for football fans over 50 years later.

Countdown to Super Bowl

By Dave Anderson,

What is this book about?

Hardcover book


Genres
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Book cover of Ball Four: The Final Pitch

Bob Lederer Why did I love this book?

This book was the first (many followed since this book’s publication in the early 1970s) that broke the sacred rule of major league baseball to whit: “What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.” Major league pitcher Jim Bouton wrote about his descent from a coveted, fireballing starting pitcher on champion New York Yankees’ teams and his attempt to regain a place in MLB by transitioning to a knuckleball pitcher.

Along the way, he talks about what he saw and heard from and about his teammates and opposing players. His revelations about Mickey Mantle, in particular, made major headlines and caused him to be excluded from Yankee Old Timers Day celebrations until the last years of his life.

By Jim Bouton,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Ball Four as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
New York Public Library Book of the Century Selection
Time Magazine “100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books” Selection
New Foreword from Jim Bouton’s Wife, Paula Bouton
When Ball Four was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And serious critics called it an important social document. Following his death, Bouton’s landmark book has remained popular, and his legacy lives on…


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Book cover of Me and The Times: My wild ride from elevator operator to New York Times editor, columnist, and change agent (1967-97)

Me and The Times By Robert W. Stock,

Me and The Times offers a fresh perspective on those pre-internet days when the Sunday sections of The New York Times shaped the country’s political and cultural conversation. Starting in 1967, Robert Stock edited seven of those sections over 30 years, innovating and troublemaking all the way.

His memoir is…

Crash of the Titans

By William J. Ryczek,

Book cover of Crash of the Titans

Bob Lederer Why did I love this book?

As I was preparing to write my own book in 2016, I felt it was incumbent on me to discover the history of the New York Jets’ franchise before new ownership acquired the team in 1963. The team’s first three seasons–1960 to 1962–occurred under a different name, the New York Titans.

I knew nearly nothing about the situations that drove the Titan's finances into the ground, and I needed and wanted to understand what had happened as the foundation of my work. This book is the sole report on those forgotten three years.

Crash of the Titans

By William J. Ryczek,

What is this book about?

Before Namath, before the Heidi Game, before the guaranteed Super Bowl victory, there were the New York Titans. Remember the Titans? They played to meager crowds and mediocre results in the decrepit Polo Grounds. The organization, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960, was in constant danger of bankruptcy. After struggling for three seasons, the Titans would finally be assumed by the league. New owners were found, the franchise was renamed the Jets and a new stadium would welcome the team in 1964. The revised edition of this award-winning book covers the turbulent history and eventual crash…


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Explore my book 😀

Beyond Broadway Joe

By Bob Lederer,

Book cover of Beyond Broadway Joe

What is my book about?

The story of the 44 1969 Super Bowl, Jets told for the first time by the 44 players on the roster Not-Named-Joe-Namath, plus the five coaches and lead owner of the franchise.

In separate chapters devoted to these 50 individuals, my book explains how they all banded together to make history and establish Joe Namath as a pro football celebrity for over half a century

Book cover of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
Book cover of When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi
Book cover of Countdown to Super Bowl

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Who was the man who would become Caesar's lieutenant, Brutus' rival, Cleopatra's lover, and Octavian's enemy? 

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Interested in Babe Ruth, baseball, and MLB?

Babe Ruth 15 books
Baseball 178 books
MLB 33 books