Böcker av Mark Mayfield

Combining career stats, common sense, and a host of intangibles, veteran sportswriter Mark Mayfield imagines an embarrassment of riches and sets the all-time All-Star Crimson Tide lineup for the ages.

A must-have for anyone fascinated by space travel, rocketry, NASA, SpaceX, and more! A new era in spaceflight, led by SpaceX and other commercial rocket companies, is generating the kind of worldwide interest in space travel that we haven't seen since the space race of the 1960s. Kids are dreaming of becoming astronauts again. New feats, such as SpaceX's remarkable ability to land booster rockets, under powered descent, back on land or sea has galvanized a new generation of rocket enthusiasts. Yet none of this would be possible without the advances of rocketry over the past century. The Chinese were the first to develop black-powder fireworks and rockets centuries ago, but modern rocketry truly began with Robert Goddard's launch of a liquid-fueled rocket on a Massachusetts farm in 1926. That metal contraption-which flew just 41 feet high before arching over and streaking 184 feet into a cabbage patch-came just 43 years before Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong's Apollo 11 mission was made possible by a giant 36-story-tall Saturn V rocket that used some of the same propulsion principles as Goddard's first tiny, crude rockets. The beginning of the "Space Age" is considered to be Russia's launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. But it was the pioneering human spaceflights of the 1960s that captured the imagination of the world and turned astronauts into heroes. Weapons of war-the Redstone, Atlas, and Titan II missiles-were converted into civilian launch boosters and led to the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs. All the while, Saturn rockets were being developed that would ultimately lead to the moon missions. Kids were so excited about these pioneering space flights that an entirely new hobby-model rocketry-was created to serve their interests. Small scale models of NASA's big rockets were ordered by the millions, generating a $100 million hobby at a time when there were no video games, no internet, and no cable, just three broadcast television networks. Now, the next generation of rockets from SpaceX and other commercial companies, along with NASA's new launch vehicles and Orion spacecraft, will lead the United States and the world into a new era of rocketry-beginning with crewed flights to the moon as early as 2024, and ultimately to Mars within the first half of this century.

Here is the essential keepsake for every Alabama football fan, with stories and statistic about the greats of Bama history: Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, John Hannah, Lee Roy Jordan, Derrick Thomas, Cornelius Bennett, Julio Jones, Dont'a Hightower, Calvin Ridley, Mark Ingram Jr. and Derrick Henry.Alabama's Crimson Tide has been the most dominant college football team in America for the past decade, winning five national championships and five conference titles. The team, under coach Nick Saban, has won an astounding ninety percent of its games since 2008, and established a dynasty unparalleled in modern college football.As impressive as Saban and his teams have been, these are far from the only glory days in Alabama football history, and their great tradition is celebrated in Miracle Moments in Alabama Crimson Tide Football History.Mark Mayfield chronicles Alabama's colorful football history dating to when their first team won a scrimmage, 56?0, over a group of Birmingham high school players in 1892. Three decades later, Alabama pulled off a stunning 20?19 upset of West Coast powerhouse Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl, won its first national championship, and took its place among the elite teams in America with seventeen national titles through eras coached by Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Saban.

It was fitting that Alabama and Clemson put on one of college’s football’s greatest ever championship games on a magical January night in Glendale, Arizona, with a dazzling display of athleticism, power and heart. When it was done, the Crimson Tide emerged with a jaw-dropping 45-40 victory and secured an almost unprecedented fourth national college football title in seven years. Only Notre Dame, which topped the Associated Press college football polls four times in seven seasons during the 1940s, has come close to the same feat. But that was in an era when the Irish didn’t play in bowl games, college teams had shorter schedules, and there were no scholarship limits. Even the powerhouses of Miami in the 1980s, Nebraska in the 1990s, and Southern Cal in the early-to-mid 2000s, never won as many championships in as short a period of time.More astonishing, Nick Saban, who will enter his 10th season at Alabama this fall, is now being seriously compared to the most legendary coach in college football history, Paul “Bear” Bryant, who won six national championships with the Crimson Tide. Those titles, however, were spread over Bryant’s 25-year tenure at Alabama. As great as Bryant was, Saban has now emerged out of his shadow and into a vaunted spot in college football history.Saban’s latest team, the 2015 edition, will be remembered for a dominating front seven on defense, a remarkable resurgence after a turnover-filled early season loss, and a running back—Derrick Henry—who shattered the Southeastern Conference’s 35-year-old single-season rushing record held by Herschel Walker. In the process, Henry became Alabama’s second-ever Heisman Trophy winner, and finished with 2,219 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns—SEC records not likely to be broken anytime soon. Back on Top! takes an in-depth look back at the Crimson Tide’s challenging 2015 season, beginning with the first game against Wisconsin on a neutral field in Dallas, and ending with the College Football Playoff’s national championship game in the Arizona desert. It wall also pitch forward to examine what Alabama fans can expect during Nick Saban’s 10th season in Tuscaloosa as the Crimson Tide reloads for another championship run.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.