The mythological and heroic story with a “ring” of truth; the story of Phidippedes and his run to Marathon, Athens in the 5th century BC.
www.prx.org/pieces/84251-phidippedes-marathon
Best friends in first grade trade Mantle for Mays baseball cards in a Berkeley schoolyard during a magic year of innocence before the storms of social revolution in 1960’s America.
The international chess match of the century that filled up the sports bars and captivated the world in the sizzling summer of ’72 – Fischer vs. Spaasky (the Ali-Frazier of chess!)
http://www.prx.org/pieces/84658-is-chess-sport-fischer-vs-spaasky-for-the-cold
(in photo above)
Dolf Luque’ – The first Cuban-born major league ball-player to have a notable career. Luque” won 191 games in 20 seasons in the majors and pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in the famous Black Sox World Series of 1919.
The historical and political relationship between the United States and Cuba has been complicated and contentious, but baseball has always been a common passion going back 150 years when Havana-born Esteban Enrique Bellan played catcher for St. John’s College in the late 1860’s. And then, there’s the genre of “Alternate History,” too. Listen in for for one of baseball’s famous urban myths.
http://www.prx.org/pieces/124908-cuban-baseball-and-alternate-history
Jack London (right) fencing
American turn-of-the-20th century author Jack London was one of the founders of serious American sport fiction. Stemming from his own love of sport and his background as a sports reporter, London’s short stories and novellas revealed early thematic treatment of youth vs. age rivalries, gender issues and sport narratives that went beyond the box scores and revealed the human dimension of sport and competition.
