The Ball in the Air
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Narrated by:
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David Morse
About this listen
After a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, “the poet laureate of golf” (GOLF magazine), delivers an exhilarating love letter to the amateur game as it’s played—and lived—by the rest of us.
Over Michael Bamberger’s celebrated writing career, he has written a handful of books and hundreds of Sports Illustrated stories about professional golf and those who play it—that is, the .001 percent. Now, Bamberger trains his eye on the rest of us. In his most personal book yet, Bamberger takes the lid off a game that is both quasi-religious and a nonstop party, posing an age-old question that is answered over its pages: Why does the game cast such a spell on us?
Here is the story of modern golf that is not on TV. This is our story, we who pay to play, who can’t wait to get another crack at the game, even when golf doesn’t love us back. And just as every round is an adventure, every life in golf is, too. The golfers Michael Bamberger introduces will leave you inspired and moved. You’ll meet Sam Reeves, a golf-loving US Army soldier who becomes captivated by a fellow soldier, Cliff Harrington, a gifted Black golfer who’s cruelly robbed of the chance to show the world all he can do. You’ll meet Ryan French, who plays on a college golf team out of Animal House. You’ll get to know Pratima Sherpa, who grew up in a maintenance shed at the Royal Nepal Golf Club in Kathmandu and took up the game with a stick whittled by her father.
The Ball in the Air is reported with Bamberger’s you-are-there intimacy and captures the sweep of time. Pratima finds her way from Nepal to a university golf team in Southern California. Ryan and his father caddie in minor-league events while sleeping in tents, a preamble to Ryan’s becoming the godfather of the popular Monday Qualifier Twitter feed. Sam Reeves, born in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes a cotton king, the oldest amateur to make the cut at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and the ultimate man for all seasons.
And there are Bamberger sightings, too, as he finds his own path in the game. You’ll make joyful side trips with the author, who’s spent more than forty years exploring golfers and golf, a way of life that captivates him down to his bones. You’ll visit the golf course at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and compete with Bamberger and other purists at the National Hickory Championship in rural Pennsylvania. At St. Andrews, you’ll get up close and personal with Lee Trevino, one of the few professionals in these pages, because Trevino, when you really get to the core of the man, is one of us. He can’t get enough of it.
The Ball in the Air is Bamberger’s valentine to golf. The modern world, obsessed with fame and fortune, has infiltrated professional golf—but it hasn’t infiltrated golf. Bamberger is here to highlight the distinction and to celebrate the game and all who play it.
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- Unabridged
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In 2007, pitcher Barry Zito signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. At that time, it was the largest contract ever given to a pitcher. He was at the top of his game, in peak physical condition, and had the kind of financial security most people can only dream of. He was also miserable. And it began to show. Zito's career declined over the next few years until he hit rock bottom - watching from the bench as his team won the World Series in 2010. In Curveball, Zito shares his story with honesty and transparency.
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The Seeker
- By Gary T. on 11-14-19
By: Barry Zito, and others
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The Barcelona Complex
- Lionel Messi and the Making—and Unmaking—of the World's Greatest Soccer Club
- By: Simon Kuper
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
FC Barcelona is not just the world’s highest grossing sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organizations on the planet. At last count, it had approximately 214 million social media followers, more than any other sports club except Real Madrid CF—and by one earlier measure, more than all 32 NFL teams combined. It has more in common with multinational megacompanies like Netflix or small nation-states than it does with most soccer teams. Journalist Simon Kuper tells the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful club in the world.
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Fantastic
- By steve finkelstein on 10-27-23
By: Simon Kuper
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Barkley
- A Biography
- By: Timothy Bella
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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He's one of the most interesting American athletes in the past fifty years. Passionate, candid, iconoclastic, and gifted both on and off the court, Charles Barkley has made a lasting impact on not only the world of basketball but pop culture at large. Yet few people know the real Charles. Informed by over 370 original interviews and painstaking research, Timothy Bella's Barkley is the most comprehensive biography to date of one of the most talked about icons in the world of sports.
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Great insight to the big man’s life.
- By marci rodee on 07-03-23
By: Timothy Bella
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His Ownself
- A Semi-Memoir
- By: Dan Jenkins
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The colorful, sentimental, funny, affectionate, cantankerous memoir by the most colorful, funniest, most cantankerous-- and probably the most revered-- sportswriter of the last fifty years. Dan Jenkins is accepted as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) golf writer of all time, wrote beloved bestselling novels and abused more corporate expense accounts than anyone who ever lived. It's a touching, laugh-out-loud tribute to the romanticism of old-time sportswriting-- and the glory days of sports.
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Loved this book!
- By Flannery Abrahamson on 05-23-19
By: Dan Jenkins
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Arnie & Jack
- Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry
- By: Ian O' Connor
- Narrated by: Alpha Trivette
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Surprisingly, one of sport’s most contentious, complex, and defining clashes played out not in the boxing ring or at the line of scrimmage but on the genteel green fairways of the world’s finest golf courses. Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their 50-year duel, in both the clubhouse and the boardroom, propelled each to the status of American icon and pushed modern golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys today. Yet for all the ink that has been spilled on these two essential golf figures individually, no one has ever examined their relationship in this way.
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No Match
- By Craig Black on 05-11-15
By: Ian O' Connor
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The Baseball Whisperer
- A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams
- By: Michael Tackett
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, a baseball whisperer who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl's original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would one day become a beloved Hall of Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith.
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Great book!
- By zane Butler on 08-13-21
By: Michael Tackett
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The Master
- The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer
- By: Christopher Clarey
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
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There have been other biographies of Roger Federer, but never one with this kind of access to the man himself, his support team, and the most prominent figures in the game, including such rivals as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick. In The Master, New York Times correspondent Christopher Clarey sits down with Federer and those closest to him to tell the story of the greatest player in men's tennis.
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Roger, voiced by Schwarzenegger
- By S. Armour on 08-27-21
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The Boys of Winter
- The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
- By: Wayne Coffey
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
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Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after.
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Great, but...
- By S. B. G. on 02-13-18
By: Wayne Coffey
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Basketball Junkie
- A Memoir
- By: Chris Herren, Bill Reynolds
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
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Story
At basketball-crazy Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, junior guard Chris Herren carried his family’s and the city’s dreams on his skinny frame. His grandfather, father, and older brother had created their own sports legends in a declining city; he was the last, best hope for a career beyond the shuttered mills and factories. Herren was heavily recruited by major universities, chosen as a McDonald’s All-American, featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story, and at just seventeen years old became the central figure in Fall River Dreams, an acclaimed book about the 1994 Durfee team’s quest for the state championship.
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most powerful recovery story I've ever heard
- By Brian Swasey on 03-23-22
By: Chris Herren, and others
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Dr. J Unabridged
- The Autobiography
- By: Julius Erving, Karl Taro Greenfeld
- Narrated by: Julius Erving
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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With his flights of improvisation around the basket and his towering afro, Julius Erving became one of the most charismatic (and revolutionary) players basketball has ever known. But while the public has long revered this cultural icon, few have ever known of the double life of Julius Erving. Dr. J traces the inner lives of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man - and how he has come to terms with both.
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I may overrate it, but I’m a hoops junkie!
- By @JWTheBlueprint on 01-29-14
By: Julius Erving, and others
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The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
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Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
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The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
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Loudmouth
- Tales (and Fantasies) of Sports, Sex, and Salvation from Behind the Microphone
- By: Craig Carton
- Narrated by: Craig Carton
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In this debut, Carton invites the listener to join him as he recounts tales from his suburban youth, defends his long-held love affair with the New York Jets, reminisces about the shenanigans of some of the highest paid and most celebrated athletes playing today, and reflects on his work as one of radio's craftiest, most hilarious personalities ever to get behind the microphone.
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Fun but too much about early life
- By Anthony A. Ciaccio on 07-13-13
By: Craig Carton
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The Secret Game
- A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph
- By: Scott Ellsworth
- Narrated by: Scott Ellsworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
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Story
In the wartime fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing the game forever. Within six months his Eagles would become the highest-scoring college basketball team in America, a fast-breaking, hard-pressing juggernaut that would shatter its opponents by as many as 60 points per game. The last student of James Naismith, basketball's inventor, McLendon had opened the door to its future.
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Could Have Been Great
- By Rich Hayami on 05-25-24
By: Scott Ellsworth
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What listeners say about The Ball in the Air
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James L Castellano
- 06-16-23
A definitive top 10
Wasn’t sure what to expect from this audio, but once I started I couldn’t stop. At times I forgot this was an audio, more like a conversation. Story line was well put together and worked great. I will buy the book for my collection
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-02-23
You don’t have to be a golfer to sink into this book
Michael writes with heart about a game that has captured so many. The friendships, unexpected places the game has taken players, and the love and frustration of the game. David Morse’s narration draws you in like your spending a day together sharing stories. I know I’ll listen again.
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- courtney c kapp
- 04-12-23
If you love golf, this book is an eagle
The Ball in the Air, by Michael Bamberger, is about three amateur golfers and the joy, community, and sometimes redemption they found through golf. Warm and uplifting, the book is an intensely personal biography of these three golfers. It is also, in part, the author’s memoir and a love letter to golf.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dedicated
- 07-04-23
Another great one from Bamberger
Several stories, including autobiographical, are interwoven in a well paced narrative with the usual writing panache that MB is known for. The reader of the audiobook dramatizes the stories with accents and auditory cues to make it lively. He also mimics the authors voice well. Highly recommended for your Christmas gifting.
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- Scott King
- 08-08-23
Just not what i expected
It isnt a bad book at all. But I thought the book club picked a loveletter to the game. Maybe I was looking for Michael and Shivas. Couldnt find them.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-23-23
A Game for All, A Book for All
This is an excellent book about golf and life. The subjects and stories were compelling and relatable in so many ways. The author and narrator both did a masterful job. I would highly recommend this birdie/eagle of a book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tlusk
- 12-09-23
Love of the game
Loved the stories of exceptional folks, stories of recovery and redemption. Deep relationships created simply by hitting the ball in the air!!
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- Clark
- 07-14-24
Amazing book. Amazing narrator
This is a wonderful book. The writing is simply fantastic. Best narrator I have listened to.
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- Damian Stebner
- 04-03-23
Real Golf
Great storytelling about how golf brings people together regardless of their background. Enjoyed it greatly.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Heng-yi
- 03-17-24
Intimacy
As if you were there. Simply mesmerizing! Finished listening in three days. Thank you Michael, well written!
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