Good bets for the Bob Mackin News Reporter bmackin@nsnews.com SO there’s a sports fan on your Christmas list. You've checked all the stores twice and haven't found the gift that’s nice. The way the Canucks and Grizzlies have played this sea- son, tickets for a night at che Garage may be as welcome to your special Person as a new Pair < of socks. Only a week remains in regulation shopping time, so head for a bookstore -— in person or online. Here are sume recommen: - dations. Of course, vou make the call! Turn of the Compilations The . Best of Tlustrated’ — (Total/Sports Illustrated). Striking images and words from the pages of the sports magazine chat changed journalism. Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century by Tim Crothers and John Garrity (Total/Sports Illustrated). More irom the archives of SI, focusing on 25 ‘athletes, including saccer’s Pele and tennis’ Martina Navratilova. ESPN SportsCentury Michael MacCambridge, edi- tor (Hyperion). “The station that. changed sports broad- ‘casting has produced. an * almost definitive, decade-by- “decade written guide to major sports achievements and achievers of the 20th century. They Changed the Game: Century Sports for Managing Team Sports Pionecrs of the Twentieth Century by Ken Rappoport and Barry Witner celj, A pair of ss scribes salute revolutionized society, from who sport and ‘Muhammad Ali to basket- baller/golfer/runner Babe Didrikson Zaharias. The Best Ainerican Sports Writing of the Century David Halberstam/Glenn — Stout, editors (Houghton Mifflin). It’s more a package of erating about sports than sin g. It teads of f ti cation of ‘joe DiMaggio and only gets better, Trresistible Force: Disability Sport in Canada by fan Gregson (Potestar) goes up close and persanal with . Canada’s world-beating ath- «fetes with a disability. “Baseball Jec Tarve’s Ground Rules Winners: 12 Keys to Players, Tough Bosses, Setbacks ‘and Success by Joe Torre with Henry Dreher (Hyperion). ue STAL LODGE At tha Center of tt All . fan on your list Friday, December 17, 1999 — North Shore Mews ~ 19 NEWS photo Teny Peters SOME of the best sports books of the year, and of the century, for your sporty San‘a. He bear prostate cancer, gets along with George Steinbrenner and managed the New York Yankees to back-to-back World Series titles. He knows about suc- cess, Who's better: Yankees of the carly °50s or the late "9Gs? Phil Rizzuto played shortstop Christmas and New Year Ski Breaks when they won the World Series five times in a row from 1949 to 1953. He recalls the glory days in The October Twelve: Five Years of Yankee Glory with Tom Horton (Forge). Los Gehrig played 2,136 games in a row for his home- town Yankees. His career ended with the streak on May 2, 1939. In 25 months he would succumb to a debilitat- ing disease which would later bear his name. His famous “luckiest man on the face of the earth” farewell speech is number 11 in The Sporting News Selects Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: Milestones and Memories of Our National Pastime. Major League Baseball returned to the great out- Crysial Lotige - At the Center of it All - Whistler, BC Enjoy a magical white Chistmas in Mhister. Steps to lis, restaurants & shops. 3 night package fem $340.pp indudes room, it tickets & all taxes. Toll-Free 1-800-667-3563, Vancouver (S04) 664-5635, Wrister (604) w22.2221 doors of Cascadia in July when the Seattle Mariners moved into the lalf-billion- dollar Safeco Field. The House That Griffey Built {and wants to vocate) is sub- ject of Déiasond in the Emerald City: The Story of Safeco Field. Baseball and cigars are the passion of Cuba’s dictator Fidel Castro and an entire nation, as you'll find in the comprehensive and stylish Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball by Mark Rucker and Feter. C. Bjarkman (Total /Sports illustrated). Viva basebol! Basketball The National Basketball Association wasn’t. always a high-powered hype machine. It stregeled for 2 number of years. “Turn back the shot clock and tind out how it sur- vived with 24 Seconds 10 Shoot: The Birth aad Imprebabl: R of the NBA by Leona Koppes: (Toral/Sports Silustrated) John Horan was the “Vertical Hyphen” and Zaid Abdul-Aziz is the former Don Smith. And who can remem- ber the World Basketball League's forgettable, short- lived and las: place Vancouver Nighthawks? Everything you ever wanted to know about James Naismith’s great game is in the C ‘ompendinm of Professional Basketball by Robert Bradley. (Xaler Press; www. xalerpress.com). : Skywalking: How Ten Young Basketball Stars Soared to the Pros by Jetf Rud {Polestar) tells the stories of how Shareef Abdur-Rshim, Steve Nash, Vince Carter and others made it to. big-time hoop careers. University of North Carolina -Tarheels’ coach Dean Smith won a U.S. col- lege record 879 games. His star pupil was Michael Jordait: Whar was the secret of his success? He has a dozen, according to former Tarheel . David Chadwick, author of The 12 Leadership. Principles of Dean Smith (Total/Sports. Illustrated). Speaking of Jordan, historian Walter LaFeber. proved the links’ between pro sport and the” free market in Michacl Jordan and the “New — Global - Capitalism (WW. Norton &: Co.). : 5 See Books page 23 Whistier's’ MOUNTAINSIDE s* LODGE Value Special ‘ti Bec. 26 from 2) a Goubie seen special from $179" Hoult :