Tag Archives: book

AKTIV Against Cancer to Honor Summit Health Cares, Leanne Hainsby-Alldis at 2026 Awards Dinner

Three veteran amateur golfers who are accomplished and award winning storytellers today launched “GOLF’S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO RESPECTABLE CHEATING,” a new book designed to tackle one of golf’s most enduring and entertaining subjects: the rules golfers bend, the excuses they make, and the remarkable ability of otherwise respectable people to suddenly develop a very flexible interpretation of “the rules.”

The authors; Mark Goldman, a 40 year award winning in marketing executive, Ross Greenburg, former President, HBO Sports and winner of 56 Sports Emmy® Awards and 8 Peabody Awards and Michael Greenburg, Producer of over 500 prime-time television episodes, including MacGyver (Paramount/ABC) and Stargate SG-1 (Amazon/MGM/Netflix), have delivered a fun look more about golf’s culture, its quirky traditions and its frustrations…ones that everyone experiences from those on the driving range to the ones wearing the Green Jacket. It is more than an actual guide to skirting the rules, but they accomplish all of the above and much more in a fun 100 page read.

“We are lifelong lovers of golf, but we fully know the challenges and struggles everyone deals with on the course, so we created a guide that takes those rules and simply, and with great humor, goes on an easy journey on how those rules can be skirted with pride and dignity,” Ross Greenburg said. “It’s the book golfers will insist is about everyone else in their foursome.”

The book is about the little negotiations, traditions, rationalizations, rivalries and rituals that make golf unlike any other sport. It asks the questions golfers have debated for generations. Those topics covered in the easy to read format, along with dozens of humorous illustrations include :

Modifying the rules to achieve perfection, positivity, and overall happiness on the course.

The Mulligan: The story of David Bernard Mulligan and the 1920s birth of the do-over.

Point of Entry: Flexible drop options to ensure your actual distance isn’t penalized by water or woods.

Safety Free Drops: Prioritizing Self-Preservation over Par—how to legally avoid alligators, snakes, and poison ivy.

Club Slamming: Proper techniques for relieving stress without breaking your wrist or the club.

Whether you are a scratch golfer, a weekend warrior, a reluctant participant in a corporate scramble, or someone who has spent years perfecting the phrase “I play strictly by the rules,” this book promises a fresh perspective on the game we love—and the human beings who play it.

GOLF’S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO RESPECTABLE CHEATING will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and most places where you buy boos on October 30.

Dan Good’s ‘Playing Through the Pain’ Named CASEY Award Finalist

Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever, the story of the three-time All-Star and 1996 National League MVP whose addictions and use of steroids derailed his career and life, has been named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious CASEY Award, which Spitball magazine annually honors as top baseball book. Written by seasoned book writer, ghostwriter, journalist, and editor Dan Good, “Playing Through the Pain” was published in May by Abrams Press to great acclaim in the baseball, sports and mental health communities.

Good began researching Caminiti in 2012 and conducted his first interviews for his biography in 2013. Since then he interviewed 400 people, providing him with an exclusive and exhaustive view into Caminiti’s life.

More than two decades later, the full truth about Major League Baseball’s steroids era remains elusive, and the story of Caminiti, the player who opened the lid on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball has never been properly told. A gritty third baseman known for his diving stops, cannon arm, and switch-hit power, Caminiti voluntarily admitted in a 2002 Sports Illustrated cover story that he used steroids during his career, including his 1996 MVP season, and guessed that half of the players were using performance-enhancing drugs. “I’ve made a ton of mistakes,” he said. “I don’t think using steroids is one of them.”

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the CASEY Award by Spitball, a literary baseball magazine founded in 1981 and dedicated to poetry, short fiction, prose, art, and book reviews; all devoted to baseball. Among the previous CASEY Award winners are notable authors and baseball historians such as Joe Posnanski, Marty Appel, Rob Neyer, Kostya Kennedy, Howard Bryant, Larry Tye, Leigh Montville, Phil Dixon, Bill James, Roger Kahn and others.

“It’s truly an honor to be considered among this amazing group of books and authors,” said Good, who has held leadership roles with the New York Daily News and New York Post and also worked for NBC News, ABC News, and local news outlets in New Jersey and his native Pennsylvania. “I’m pleased that the Spitball team has considered Caminiti’s story worthy of inclusion among the other compelling ones that this list represents.”

The 10 books listed as finalists for the award, to be announced in March 2023, are as follows:

• The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life by Joe Maddon and Tom Verducci, Twelve Books;
• Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs by Jason Cannon, University of Nebraska Press;
• The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit by Ron Shelton, Knopf;
• The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series by Tyler Kepner, Doubleday;
• The Lineup: Ten Books that Changed Baseball by Paul Aron, McFarland;
• Playing through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever by Dan Good, Abrams Press;
• Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend by Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker, University of Nebraska Press;
• Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original by Howard Bryant, Mariner;
• In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair by Bob Ryan & Bill Chuck, Triumph Books; and
• True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy, St. Martin’s Press