We have a winner

Last week's auction for a complete set of NBA media guides has a winner: It's Bob Brown of Toronto, whose bid of $175 blew everyone else out of the water.

That'll make for a nice Christmas present for Sportsmen's Proudfoot Corner at the Star's Santa Claus Fund (named for the late great Star columnist Jim Proudfoot). Thanks to Bob, Wes Wayne and Pete and the rest of 'em at Brown Books, where the lunch hour and the coffee breaks are filled with Raptors talk. This has some symetry too, because it was Bob who submitted the winning bid on a similar package a year ago.

Thanks fellas. Much appreciated.

UPDATE: Bob's cheque ended up at $200 to Proudfoot Corner. Fantastic. Again, many thanks guys.

Christmas charity auction: NBA boxed set

TORONTO STAR LIBRARY

Christmas Eve 1924: The view up Yonge.

Did this last year, doing it again: Time to auction off a complete set of NBA media guides. And this year, I'll throw in the 06-07 NBA Guide and NBA Register, as well as the 06-07 NBA Officials Media Guide, to raise money for Proudfoot Corner, the sportsy side of the annual Star Santa Claus Fund. From now until Friday afternoon, we're open for bidding down in the comments below.

The officials guide is the real prize here. Besides a complete rulebook it has so many nifty nuggets, including: Monty McCutchen raises Spanish goats on his ranch; Ron Olesiak is a tennis instructor in his spare time; Rodney Mott is a "certified avionics instructor" who has won the McDonnell Douglas Engineering Award; Marc Davis competed in the 1995 Raid Gauloise adventure race. Truly renaissance people, and great grist for the mill next time you find yourself sitting in the front row wondering what the hell Bennett Salvatore just called.

Last year the set of guides went for $140. Aiming higher now, so get your bids in (note to out of towners: I can't really afford to ship these, they weigh about a million pounds, so this is definitely a come-to-One-Yonge and pick 'em up prize - the bonus being you will get a personal tour of the newsroom. Okay, forget about the bonus part, but it is a tour),

More for the Christmas Book List

I think we're just about there with this, but I'll keep it open up until the end of the week, so any more submissions, send 'em in.
The original starting point of a dozen titles can be found here, then there were some more here, and author/rock star/hockeyist Dave Bidini's favourites are here.
Now for the latest adds, first one from Garth Woolsey, who does an annual roundup of the year's best in sports books for the Star:

Sunday Money, by Jeff MacGregor. Garth: "My choice for MVB (Most Valuable Book) of 2005. Outrageously entertaining. Shades of Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, gone gonzo on gas fumes."

Here's a foursome from Ken Owen I inadvertently missed out on adding before, with his comments:

The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn. Obvious, I guess, but still excellent.
Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville, by Stephen Jay Gould. A collection of Gould's writings on baseball, that is wide-ranging and very enjoyable. The fact that they are article length makes it easy to dip in and out of, too.
The Bases Were Loaded (And So Was I), by Tom Callahan. Some chapters are absolutely stupendous, I particularly enjoyed his portrait of Pete Rose.
Addicted, by Tony Adams. Former England captain and Arsenal star writing about his battle with alcoholism. Much better than your run-of-the-mill autobiography.

I've got these three to go up, one of 'em not really a book, but a gift subscription:

Wilt, 1962, by Gary M. Pomerantz. I just picked this up at a book sale, an utterly engrossing read on Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point night, and how it saved the NBA.

The Rivalry, by John Taylor. Chamberlain's duels with Bill Russell are an essential part of NBA lore, and this is a natural snuggled up next to Wilt, 1962 on the shelf.

When Saturday Comes. 'Zine has been around for 20 years or so, and is a lot slicker than it used to look, but it still delivers good commentary from real fans of the game.

Got more? We've got the major sports covered pretty good. But no golf. Fine with me, actually, but it seems a shame given the quality of literature on the game -- which brings us, in closing, to the late George Plimpton's small ball theory of sports literature, and Herbert Warren Wind.

Updating the Christmas Book List

JABS' original Christmas Book list post got some additions last week courtesy of Ken Owen and John Richardson, and gets more now -- and a very special set it is.

Dave Bidini, a reader of JABS and a man of many talents, sends along his all-time favourite hockey books to help you with your shopping for the sports (and especially hockey) fan in your life (thanks, Dave! Oh, and I pulled the pdf file to a chapter from Dave's The Best Game You Can Name, one of the additions on the JABS list, from the Rheostatics website):

Phil Esposito: Thunder and Lightning, by Esposito with Peter Golenblock. Superfunny and profane with the appropriate cast of characters. Honest, and just a little sad.

They Call Me Gump, by Lorne (Gump) Worsley with Tim Moriarit. Deadpan humour and sordid 70s stories (also includes a recipe for Gump's Pineapple Squares).

War On Ice: Canada in International Hockey, by Scott Young. Triumphant, scholarly, and gentle-voiced. About Canadian international hockey since the beginning of time.

Pal Hal, by Dick Beddoes. The King Lear of hockey tales. Visciously brilliant and acerbic.

Hero of the Play, by Richard Harrison. Reprinted recently, a rich collection from Canada's greatest hockey poet.

The Death of Hockey, by Klein and Reif. Witty, portentous, acute. As critical as it is loving.

The Mad Men of Hockey, by Trent Frayne. Wild, dark and true. A lost classic.

King Leary, by Paul Quarrington. Best Canadian hockey novel of all-time. A rollercoaster narrative with a wild gallery of characters.

Christmas Book List update #1

It was raining Blue Jays around here yesterday, so in case you missed it here's a reminder to send in your favourites to the ongoing Christmas Book List.

Take a look at the 12 originals here, and a couple of submissions yesterday added these titles to help you with your shopping for the sports fan in your life:

From regular poster John Richardson:

The Best Game You Can Name, by Dave Bidini. I haven't read this one yet, but John vouches for it -- "pretty funny. Having played adult rec hockey for about 25 years, I can confirm that everything he says is true."

Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger. "Unbelievably good," he says and although it's been a while since I read this one, I recall having the same reaction.

And from Ken Owen, whose biweekly SportBlog Roundup at Militant Moderate gathers good blog reads from around the world, three titles from across the pond:

Football Against the Enemy and Ajax: The Dutch, The War, both by Simon Kuper. Ken's take: "They explain the political and cultural origins of football; the former is probably of widest interest, but the second book is a great way of shedding new light on the Second World War."

Beyond a Boundary, by C.L.R. James. Cricket compendium is "peerless", says Ken.

The Christmas book list

So we're going to put this up before the A.J. Burnett news hits the fan, and keep coming back to it until JABS goes on holiday break Dec. 17: It's the Christmas book list.
This dozen are all books I like -- most of 'em I have on my shelf at home -- and it's not even a definitive favourites list. But it is a jumping-off point for you, and please feel free to pass along your submissions. By the end of next week, hopefully we have a nice list of gift possibilities for the sports fan in your life, or even for yourself.
Take the jump to get there...

Auction continues

First, an update: Top bid so far for a set of 28 NBA media guides -- we'll make it a complete 29 to the highest bidder, whenever the New Orleans/Okla. City one arrives -- is $140.
Bidding will close tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. Remember, all proceeds go to Proudfoot Corner of The Star's Santa Claus Fund, and I'll give the winning bidder a tour of the newsroom and sports department.

On to the morning links:

It's Grey Cup week, and Edmonton has two quarterbacks and no idea which one will finish the game. Is this a good idea? Yes, say the Esks (and no, say I, which we'll be looking at later in the day Wednesday).

With the Raptors in Phoenix and on a winning streak -- okay, it's one, but that's how they all start, right? -- Dave Feschuk looks at Steve Nash (we'll be looking at him, too, here later in the day), off his NBA MVP form early in the season:

What's wrong with Nash? "My leadership needs to improve," our humble countryman told ESPN's Marc Stein not long ago. But the truth is there is nothing wrong with Nash or his leadership. It's the absence of his favourite running mate, Amare Stoudamire, that's the primary problem.

Hey, Vince Carter's injured.

In Monday Night Football last night, Minnesota came back to beat Green Bay.

Warning: Sepp Blatter is talking. But here's a change: he might be making sense, saying that national anthems might be scrapped before international soccer matches.
Still on futbol, Alex Ferguson is spinning as Manchester United today face their first European match at home without Roy Keane, and James Lawton weighs in on Real Madrid's goose, no longer golden, but certainly well cooked -- or as he puts it, "beautiful poetic justice."

Up for bids

UPDATE on WED, 3:20 pm: We have a winner. Bob Brown trumped a couple of first-day bids and blew everyone else out of the water, his call of $140 standing up over the next couple of days. Thanks for this, Bob, and I look forward to showing you around and handing over your boxa books.

With the Santa Claus Parade over, the dull roar before the storm leading up to the holiday season is just starting, and Henry Abbott over at True Hoop had an idea a little while back that was so good I'm going to steal it.

I've got a set of NBA media guides here, sent by the league a few weeks ago, and I really don't need them, there are other sets here that I can use. That's 28 media guides (the New Orleans version is not included because of Hurricane Katrina), and here's the drill: we'll auction off the complete set over the next three days, with the money raised going to Proudfoot Corner of The Star's Santa Claus Fund.

If you want to have the set and lend your support to a longstanding tradition, send in a bid via the Comments section. The reserve is $25 -- I'll pledge that myself, right off. (One thing to remember -- you'll have to come down to The Star's building and get them, but I promise I'll give you a tour of the sports department and buy you a coffee as part of the deal.)