Grasping the Ring : Nine Unique Winners in Life and Sports

Over the course of his varied career, Gene A. Budig has served as a professor, the president of the American League of Major League Baseball, the head of three major universities, a major general in the Air National Guard, a newspaper man, and co-owner of a Minor League Baseball team. One can safely assume that Budig has met his share of interesting and inspiring people. InGrasping the Ring, he selects nine from this great array of individuals and offers candid biographical sketches of these compelling characters. Though they are very different, George Steinbrenner, Larry Doby, Tom Osborne, Roy Williams, Gale Sayers, Jerry Reinsdorf, Bob Kerrey, Al Neuharth, and Bob Dole are all exceptional people whose achievements and faults have captured the national interest. Budig writesGrasping the Ringas an insider whose acquaintance with these individuals enables him to ask the kinds of penetrating questions that make these stories intimate, honest, and revealing.

Gene A. Budig was president of Major League Baseball’s American League from 1994 to 2000. He served as president of Illinois State University and West Virginia University and as chancellor at the University of Kansas. He is now co-owner of the Charleston RiverDogs. Bob Costas has been a sportscaster with NBC since 1980 and is the author of several books, including Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball and, with Maury Allen, Brooklyn Remembered: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers.