National Network for Equitable Library Service

Most people who resist logical thought in baseball preach "tradition" and "respecting the game." But many of baseball's traditions go back to the nineteenth century, when the pitcher's job was to provide the batter with a ball he could hit and fielders played without gloves.

A unique fitness program from a highly respected spiritual leader that blends physical and spiritual practice for everyone-regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability-to great benefits for both body and mind.

Written by the late, beloved Dr. George Sheehan, Running & Being tells of the author's midlife return to the world of exercise, play, and competition, in which he found "a world beyond sweat" that proved to be a source of great revelation and personal growth.

How Toronto FC rescued itself from misery, carved out a niche, and became a true alternative franchise in North America’s most crowded sports market. From Toronto FC’s inception, the club and their fans did things their own way. When Danny Dichio scored the first goal in franchise history, fans at BMO Field threw their seat cushions onto the field in ecstasy. It looked as though TFC had a bright future ahead of it, but what followed instead was eight seasons of poor results, mismanagement, and misery. Still, TFC fans never wavered, building the most unique atmosphere in Toronto sports.

A hockey history moment for every day of the year! A few seconds can make a game, even a season, and behind each play is a piece of history. Mike Commito marks every day of the year with a great moment in hockey and shows how today's game is part of an ongoing story that dates back to its origins on frozen ponds. From the National hockey League’s first games in 1917 to Auston Matthews's electrifying four-goal debut for the Maple Leafs in 2016, Hockey 365 has something for everyone and is sure to give you a better appreciation for the sport we all love.

The untold story of how Canadian Cyclists came into their own during the Hundred Days campaign of the Great War. Canada’s Cyclists spent most of the First World War digging trenches, patrolling roads, and delivering dispatches. But during the Hundred Days campaign at the end of the Great War, Canada’s cycling troops finally came into their own.

Blue Monday: one of the most unforgettable days in Canadian baseball history. Danny Gallagher leads readers up to that infamous day in October 1981 when Rick Monday of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit a home run off of Montreal Expos pitcher Steve Rogers in the ninth inning, giving the Dodgers a berth in the World Series. Readers will be taken back to 1976 when a five-year plan for winning the National League championship was set in place by the Expos with the hiring of experienced manager Dick Williams.

Lacrosse has been a central element of Indigenous cultures for centuries, but once non-Indigenous players entered the sport, it became a site of appropriation – then reclamation – of Indigenous identities. The Creator’s Game focuses on the history of lacrosse in Indigenous communities from the 1860s to the 1990s, exploring Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations and Indigenous identity formation.

At the age of three, Arthur Biyarslanov fled with his family from the war-ravaged frontier of Chechnya. Narrowly escaping bullets and a bomb that destroyed the car in front of his family, Arthur and his brother ran to the border and forded a freezing river to safety. He became a refugee first in Azerbaijan, and ultimately in Canada. In spite of these difficult experiences, and the trials that confront any child refugee in strange lands, Arthur thrived on the discipline and camaraderie of sport, taking up first competitive soccer and then boxing.

The majestic high-wheel bicycle, with its spider wheels and rubber tires, emerged in the mid-1870s as the standard bicycle. A common misconception is that, bound by Victorian dress and decorum, women were unable to ride it, only taking up cycling in the 1880s with the advent of the chain-driven safety bicycle. On the contrary, women had been riding and even racing some form of the bicycle since the first vélocipèdes appeared in Europe early in the nineteenth century.