Sports

FX resurrects the "trial of the century" in its new season of American Crime Story. Critic John Powers says every single episode "is an embarrassment of tawdry riches."

Baseball's Mike Matheny speaks with Fresh Air's Dave Davies about his playing career, managing in the big leagues and the pressures of youth sports. Matheny is the author of The Matheny Manifesto.

Sifford died Tuesday at 92. During his career, he won more than $1 million and was the first black golfer inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He spoke with Terry Gross in 1992.

Michaels will anchor the Feb. 1 game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. He tells Fresh Air about falling in love with sports and the hardest sport to announce.

Chris Lelie-Hynan's debut novel follows a white grad student who's a chauffeur to a black basketball player. It references The Great Gatsby often with fresh takes on race, manhood and meritocracy.

At the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, former jockey Donna Barton Brothers will interview the winner on horseback. Now an analyst for NBC, Brothers won more than 1,100 races before retiring in 1998.

Colson Whitehead's new book was born of an assignment to write about the World Series of Poker for Grantland. It's a sharp observational tale of the game, those who play it and how it changed him.

Jaworski spent 16 years in the NFL, most of them with the Philadelphia Eagles, the team he took to the Super Bowl in 1981. Now the former quarterback works as a football analyst for ESPN. He tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies about what it feels like to play in the big game.

Didinger, who has been covering football for decades, says there's a lot of thought that goes into successfully executing a football play. He tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies, "I really don't think you can be truly a dumb guy and play this game at the NFL level."

The hitter had a swing so pure and flawless that Mickey Mantle would watch him take batting practice. But he was also a tormented soul who hurt a lot of people, including himself. Ben Bradlee Jr. delivers a deeply personal account of Williams' life in The Kid.

Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell say that champion cyclist Lance Armstrong was at the center of "the greatest sports conspiracy ever." Their book chronicles everything from group blood transfusions on the team bus to extensive efforts to silence and intimidate those who might expose the abuse.

In a new memoir called Just Tell Me I Can't Moyer explains how he became a better pitcher in his 40s than his 20s. Moyer's story isn't just the tale of a talented guy who hung on a little longer than others; with the help of a sports psychologist, he managed to gain control of the mental side of his game.

Sherpa guides are 10 times more likely to die than commercial fishermen, the most dangerous, nonmilitary occupation in the U.S. But they're offered little financial protection by companies who charge Western climbers thousands of dollars for a trip up the mountain.

Do big league hitters have naturally faster reflexes? Are African-Americans predisposed to be better athletes? In his new book, Sports Illustrated's David Epstein says science now has answers — or at least insights — to all these questions.

Marathoner and Runner's World contributor Amby Burfoot talks about the vulnerability of running 26.2 miles of public space, the Boston Marathon as a holy grail and the importance of being cheered on. Burfoot won the Boston Marathon in 1968 and has run every five years since. He was there Monday.

Sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about Monday's events at the Boston Marathon, the place the marathon holds in the life of the city, its importance in the international world of running, and the history of attacks at sporting events.

In a new memoir, the Major League Baseball catcher opens up about getting drafted in the 62nd round, his feud with Roger Clemens and what it's like to go into retirement. Leaving the game, he says, was "like a small death."

Over the course of his 14-year career as a pitcher, Bob Ojeda threw more than 1,000 strikeouts and countless pitches across the plate. During that entire time, the lefty's pitching arm hurt. "The act itself is sort of violent and completely unnatural," he says. "I think most pitchers certainly feel a level of pain."

Two reporters for The New York Times detail their monthlong investigation of America's racetracks. Since 2009, more than 6.600 horses have broken down or showed signs of injury at U.S. racetracks, a rate much higher than in other countries.

New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey is currently the only knuckleball pitcher in the major leagues. His new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up, explains how his life — and career — have mimicked the unpredictable trajectory of the difficult pitch he throws game after game.