💪 Books and Biceps Issue 237

Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Apollo Creed and...

Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that’s like if your meathead writer best friend sent you a personal newsletter about cool stuff he’s read and written. Awesome, right?

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BOOKS

Last week a new Books & Biceps reader asked me if I had a favorite baseball biography to recommend. So many popped into my head, plenty of which I’ve recommended here. Howard Bryant’s Hank Aaron biography. Leigh Montville’s Ted Williams bio. Jane Leavy’s Babe Ruth bio. Jonathan Eig’s book on Jackie Robinson... So many choices. Hard to stick to just one, but two kept bubbling up to the top.

With Spring Training upon us, I thought it would be a good time to share those two with everyone:

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss

Everyone who saw Roberto Clemente play live said that watching him in the outfield was as much an exercise in enjoying his artistry as it was his athleticism. He didn’t run so much as glide through the grass. His throwing motion was violent and beautiful. He was also the picture of dignity as a leader, winning two World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates all while being the Jackie Robinson of the Spanish speaking world.

Maraniss does a phenomenal job digging behind Clemente’s incredible baseball numbers to help you understand who he was as a person - and shares how a kid born in rural Puerto Rico became the greatest Latino baseball star of his era.

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy by Jane Leavy

Jane Leavy is one of the all-time greatest sports biographers. She’s written definitive biographies of Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth and Sandy Koufax. I love them all, but I read Koufax first and in a way, he’s the most fascinating of the three athletes, which is why it’s my favorite.

Leavy dives into a long-forgotten baseball era where players had no freedom and even someone of Koufax’s caliber could get stuck in the minor leagues for what seemed like eons for payroll reasons and stubborn GMs. Fortunately, Koufax’s talent was undeniable and once he broke through with the Dodgers, there was no turning back.

In an injury-shortened career, he won three Cy Youngs, two World Series MVPs and became the most dominant left-handed pitcher of all time. And he did it all while dealing with the subtle (and often not subtle) anti-semitism of the 1960s.

BICEPS

Here’s a bad ass bodyweight workout I did earlier this week that I called the “Clubber Lang” because it felt like a workout he’d do:

10 Minute Warm-Up Jog

4 x 100 yard sprints (pace off or guess 100 yards)

20 press-ups (push ups with arms/elbows at your side)

20 push-ups (push ups with elbows away from your body)

4 x 100 yard sprints

20 wide grip push ups

20 diamond cutters (push-ups with your hands close together, forming a diamond)

4 x 100 yard sprints

20 shoulder tap push-ups (push up and then take one hand off the ground and touch the opposite shoulder)

20 Spiderman push-ups (push ups with wide grip arms and legs spread far apart)

4 x 100 yard sprints

20 push-ups

20 burpees (yes… finish strong!)

TOTAL TIME: 40 Minutes

Quick Flexes

I’ve had Rocky on my mind all week because Creed III is coming out soon. I did deep a dive on Carl Weathers’ career in a Twitter thread.

READ IT HERE.

Also, it was “crazy sock day” at my kid’s school and not to brag or anything, but my boy definitely won and represented my upcoming Macho Man biography like a champion (oooohhhhh yeahhhhh):

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Have a great weekend! - Jon