Better Than Lifting Things

Former award-winning Pittsburgh and Atlanta sportswriter Glenn Sheeley's career memoir, BETTER THAN LIFTING THINGS, is a behind-the-scenes, entertaining trip through his 44 years in and out of newspapers, which started professionally in his mid-20's, covering the iconic Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s. Featuring a foreword by NFL Hall of Famer and TV personality Terry Bradshaw, BETTER THAN LIFTING THINGS (Markson Press) is an insightful, inside look at other sports giants such as John Madden, Arnold Palmer, Joe Paterno, Mickey Mantle, Chuck Noll, and Al Davis, and also includes chapters detailing his special relationships with golf's two greatest players, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. A former Steelers beat writer for the Pittsburgh Press, Glenn describes life around this famous Steelers team of the '70s, when it won four Super Bowls with players such as Bradshaw, Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, and Fats Holmes, who somehow also won a bizarre cocaine trial in Amarillo, Tex. Pittsburgh fans will love Glenn's look at the city he fell in love with, the amazing Rooney family, and Pittsburgh's wildly unique sportscaster, Myron Cope. Atlantans will enjoy Glenn's inside looks at former Hawks coach Hubie Brown, Atlanta Journal legend Furman Bisher, the Braves and the Falcons. BETTER THAN LIFTING THINGS takes you behind the scenes for Glenn's 26 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when he assumed the golf beat in 1994 and covered 32 straight major championships, 10 of them won by Tiger Woods. Glenn takes you to Augusta National, where he covered 20 Masters tournaments, including Nicklaus' victory in 1986 at age 46, and to the Open Championship, where he walked every step with Nicklaus during Jack's last trip around St. Andrews in 2005. The late Red Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from The New York Times, called sportswriting "a lot better than lifting things," and despite decades of missing holidays to make deadlines, Glenn Sheeley could not agree more.