Nick Bakays Tale Of The Tape

A collection of the popular ESPN columns and segments in which any two items that come to mind -- such as the Kentucky Derby vs. the Indianapolis 500 or Babe Ruth the player vs. Baby Ruth the candy bar -- are compared in Bakay's irreverent and hilarious style. Bakay's Tale of the Tape is an institution that occupies a unique niche as ESPN's only comedic department appearing frequently on ESPN.com's Page 2, and each month in ESPN The Magazine, and regularly during ESPN broadcasts. Now for the first time ever in one place, ESPN fans can find all of their favorite "Tales of the Tape" columns, even the classics such as Tiger Woods vs. James Bond, Michael Jackson vs. Mike Tyson, and Indy 500 vs. Kentucky Derby. Fans will be thrilled to learn that the book also includes new tales -- ones too long for print and others too racey for broadcast! Fans will not want to miss this collection.

ESPN: The Uncensored History is the first book to provide a critical analysis of the 20-year history of Americas original and largest sports network. Through information gleaned from internal documents, police and court records, and interviews with network employees, on-air talent, producers and executives, this book investigates the inside story of ESPN and brings it to you uncensored.

Once a shoestring operation built on plywood sets and Australian rules football, ESPN has evolved into a media colossus. A genius for cross-promotion and its near-mystical rapport with its viewers empower the network to set agendas and create superstars, to curate sports history even as it mainstreams the latest cultural trends. Travis Vogan teams archival research and interviews with an all-star cast to pen the definitive account of how ESPN turned X's and O's into billions of $$$. Vogan's institutional and cultural history focuses on the network since 1998, the year it launched a high-motor effort to craft its brand and grow audiences across media platforms. As he shows, innovative properties like SportsCentury, ESPN The Magazine, and 30 for 30 built the network's cultural caché. This credibility, in turn, propelled ESPN's transformation into an entity that lapped its run-of-the-mill competitors and helped fulfill its self-proclaimed status as the "Worldwide Leader in Sports." Ambitious and long overdue, ESPN: The Making of a Sports Media Empire offers an inside look at how the network changed an industry and reshaped the very way we live as sports fans.

Sports talk in America has evolved from small-time barroom banter into a major media smorgasbord that runs 24/7 on TV and radio. With hundreds of billions of dollars generated annually by pro and college teams in major markets nationwide, sports fans across the country are more dedicated than ever to their teams. And when it comes to sports talk -- especially all-sports radio -- it's all about entertainment, information, prognostication, analysis, rankings, and endless discussion. Prominent sports-media figures in each of the three target cities -- Cleveland, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. -- engage in this phenomenon with a compilation of sports lists sure to delight as well as stir up debate within these already-buzzing sports communities. List topics include: What were the most lopsided trades in local sports history? Who were the most overrated athletes to play in our town? What local athlete had the best appearance in TV or film? What was the most heartbreaking loss in local sports history? What was the greatest single play in local sports history? Who are our team's most hated rivals? Plus dozens of "guest" lists contributed by famous local sports and entertainment celebrities. Following each of the four major pro sports teams -- the Redskins (NFL), the Capitals (NHL), the Nationals (MLB), and the Wizards (NBA) -- plus prominent college sports programs such as Georgetown and Maryland, D.C.'s fans have a vast array of choices, and Andy Pollin and Leonard Shapiro are the guys who help sort them out.

For sports fans who always know (or think they know) the latest scores, statistics, and records, this book presents the ultimate collection of trivia, culled from ESPN's "Did You Know" segment of "SportsCenter".

The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato's concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L'oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment. The purpose of this critical historical analysis of representations of virtual reality is to examine how they might deny, repress or overlook embodied experience. Specifically, the author will contend that embodiment is a fundamental aspect of immersion in virtual reality, rather than something which is to be transcended. In this way, the book aims to challenge distorted ideas about transcendence and productively contribute to debates about embodiment and technology.

The multiple contributions of Hungarian society in the fields of art, science, technology and sports are highlighted here.