As we reach the end of 2010, here is a list of books I found interesting, informative and pretty well written in 2010. They are all good reads and reflect books I have actually read. Enjoy the list and happy holidays!

Are We Winning by Will Leitch... great...

There may have been no more tumultuous year in college athletics than the one we are completing now. Switching conferences, launching networks, dropping sports, Heisman scandals, rising costs, coaching changes and on and on it went. The transient nature of big time college athletics today can really bring questions to...

Sometime in the next few weeks, the college sports fan will fully turn his focus from football to hoops, with the specter of March Madness growing with the length of the days from the end of December through the beginning of the expanded tournament now brought to us by CBS,...

Earlier this week, HBO aired the critically acclaimed documentary Miracle (2001), which took us back through all the elements leading up to Team USA's "Miracle On Ice" Gold medal performance in hockey at Lake Placid in 1980. The story lines for that team and those events still transcend time.

As...

It has been a bittersweet few years for international sport in the United States. For all the success of a Michael Phelps and an Apollo Ohno, there is the sting of baseball getting booted out of the summer Olympic Games or the disappointment in the rejection of Chicago 2016 or...

If you are a mom or interested in politics and have a solid opinion or have a green thumb or are an expert on world politics, then the blog world is for you. If you act professional, give solid opinions and do your homework, then companies, media, and followers may...

This past week the U.S. Military Academy at West Point posted as football win over Kent State University, which, given the fractious state of the economy on the country's continued involvement in the global war on terrorism, may not seem like a big deal. However, for Army, for some communities...

The all-access world we live in today gives those in sports and entertainment little room for privacy and can easily extend the "us vs. them" mentality that many in the limelight go through when pushed too far (latest example: Randy Moss). There is an argument that some of the greatest...

Perhaps what will be seen as one of the greatest triumphs of the human spirit in the 21st Century will be the survival of the Chilean miners and the amazing work that took place to keep the men alive and then return them to the surface this past week. They...

Call it what you like -- barbaric, violent, loud, abusive, exploitative. No, we are not talking about Jersey Shore. We are talking about Mixed Martial Arts, or more specifically the UFC experiential version of MMA, which, unlike Snooki and friends, still cannot be held in the State of New York....

With the advent of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), there was hope that for once and for all the debate over who is the best Division I football program could be settled year in and year out. We all know that despite the best intentions and the lack of a...

The Williams sisters have built a legendary career carrying an "Us vs. the world" mentality on the tennis court. Their entry and rise not just to the top not just of the tennis world, but to the top of sports marketing and pop culture, was built on a belief instilled...

There are certain preconceptions that people, especially mainstream media, have about bloggers and those who are heavily engaged in fantasy sports , and well, many of them may be true. They hide behind a computer screen and never face those who they criticize ... they live in their parents basement...

On Monday coming home on the train I got an email from my colleague Rich Sandomir of the New York Times who asked me if I had heard Jay Larkin died. It was so very sad news. Jay was one of the few mentors that I had...I learned more from...

In many places across the country, especially late at night, Ron Barr's interviews on the syndicated SportsByline USA radio network have been the soundtrack and the touchstone for hundreds of thousands of sports fans. Even in this day of localized, regionalized and satellite radio, Barr and his guests are a...

As we move past the midway point of baseball and steam toward football it is always interesting to look at the 'what if's" and "why's" in team sports. Why do teams that look great for rotisserie fail on the field, and what other intangibles can be added in or anticipated...

As LeBron James headed toward the home stretch in his overhyped, over extended and overanalyzed decision as to where he will play, the naysayers will talk more about the losers in the campaigns than the winner, and will it have been worth the fight and the time for the losers,...

It is no secret the horse industry has fallen on tough times in recent years, with trotters perhaps the biggest casualty of the sport over time. Summer nights with full stands at tracks like Monticello and Roosevelt have gone the way of the dinosaur. However one old time track that...

Kenny Smith had a solid career on the basketball court, whether it was at Queens' Archbishop Molloy High School, at the University of North Carolina, or in the NBA, where he helped lead the Houston Rockets to a pair of NBA titles. Always the guard in control, Smith dished many...

As the scramble to get the best value for sponsorship dollars, as well as added eyeballs for products and services, continues on in a challenged economy, two brands took a leap step forward in the New York sports marketing scene last week.

The first was the Foxwoods Hotel and Casino,...