For athletes, fanatics, and trivia buffs alike, Minnesota's first and only comprehensive sports almanac features 125 glorious years of winning, losing, and playing the game.

Second edition of the popular weather almanac! Whether planning your garden, settling a bet, or making neighborly small talk, this fascinating guide will give you all the facts and figures, all the trials and tales you need.

A chronological compendium of remarkable and curious events in the history of the North Star State

A guide to the business side of sports, teams, marketing and equipment - a tool for strategic planning, competitive intelligence, employment searches or financial research. It contains trends, statistical tables, and an industry glossary. It includes over 350 one page profiles of sports industry firms, companies and organizations.

A market research guide to the business side of sports, teams, marketing and equipment - a tool for strategic planning, competitive intelligence, employment searches or financial research. It contains trends, statistical tables, and an industry glossary. It includes over 350 one page profiles of sports industry firms, companies and organizations.

A fabulous showcase of individuals, events, and inventions that have made Minnesota.

Professional sports returned to Minnesota in 1961, a year after one of the most successful pro sports franchises left Minneapolis for Los Angeles in 1960. Since then, a history of last-second losses, historically bad teams, draft busts, missed calls, terrible trades, disappointing playoff runs, blown leads, under-qualified front office staff and coaches and untimely injuries. Yet, this fan base stays loyal. For some reason. 'Land of 10,000 Aches' goes deeper into the most heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, even-I-could-make-that-field-goal moments in Minnesota sports history with first-hand accounts from players, coaches and fans. Everybody remembers where they were for the good things: the Minneapolis Miracle, Kirby Puckett's Game Six home run. But were you face down in disbelief when Garrett Hartley kicked the Saints to the Super Bowl? Or forced into an emotional fetal position watching the Eagles hang 38 unanswered points on the NFL's best defense? Until names like Sal Bando, Ron Schock, Claude Osteen, Ed Thorp, Gordie Peterkin and Sergei Krivokrasov make your stomach turn, you have a long drop into the doldrums of Minnesota melancholy. This book is your guide down.

"Minnesota forged an identity during the 1970s that would persist, rightly or wrongly, for decades to come. It was a place of note and consequence--a state of presidential candidates, grassroots activism, civic engagement, environmental awareness, and Mary Tyler Moore. All these subjects and more are covered in this book"--

For over 10 years, the ESPN Sports Almanac has been the definitive source for answers to most every sports question. From record-holders to champions, auto racing to the Iditarod, ballparks, business news, and Who's Who to the dearly departed athletes of the year past, the ESPN Sports Almanac 2008 tracks them in hundreds of photos, thousands of tables, countless facts and figures, plus expert analysis from ESPN's most popular personalities (Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott, Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Dick Vitale, et al.). Add fan input from ESPN.com's SportsNation polls, along with ESPN's unique brand of humor, and this latest edition will keep the ESPN Sports Almanac the reigning champion and a New York Times best-seller.

Twin Cities sports fans are well-versed in disappointment, but the last 120 years of Minneapolis and St. Paul sports have also produced forgotten milestones. Most know of the Vikings' Super Bowl woes and the Twins' record-setting postseason losing streak. Few know that the first full-time college basketball coach originated here and that a Babe Ruth home run record supplanted a local player's achievement. Fewer still know about near misses like John Wooden almost becoming the University of Minnesota basketball coach in 1948 and Billie Jean King turning down an offer to join the Twin Cities' World Team Tennis franchise. Longtime Twin Cities journalist Joel Rippel documents these subjects and other forgotten or unheralded stories.