Over the Line - Wrist Shots, Slap Shots, and Five-Minute Majors

A Saturday night spent with Ron MacLean has been a tradition for twenty-five years. Known for his quick wit, arched eyebrows and encyclopedic hockey knowledge, MacLean is the skilled ringmaster of Canada’s most watched weekly program. He has interviewed the greatest players, coaches and personalities of an era and is a master at coaxing the best in substance and entertainment from his guests, as well as from his opinionated and often irascible co-host, Don Cherry, on Coach’s Corner. And he has never written a book-until now.

Cornered is packed with inside accounts-some inspiring, many hilarious-from his early days as a part-time radio announcer and weather forecaster in Red Deer, Alberta, to his time hosting Hockey Night in Canada and the Olympics. Perhaps no other journalist has witnessed first-hand more Canadian sports milestones in the past quarter century. From Gretzky to Catriona, Mario to Salé and Pelletier, MacLean has been there with an eye for detail and an appreciation for what makes a great story.

Pat Burns was one of the great NHL coaches. He worked with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils, and seemed always to enjoy instant success. He capped his extraordinary career by coaching the New Jersey Devils to a Stanley Cup victory in 2003. Cancer--his third bout--finally claimed him in 2010, aged 58. 

Rosie DiManno, who knew Burns well, has written a revealing, exhilarating and heartfelt account of his life: his childhood as a fatherless, solitary male surrounded by many women, his years as a police officer, his glorious coaching career and his long and characteristically valiant ending.

Coach is both the first major biography of Burns and one that, with its revelations, personal insights and riveting prose, is--like the man himself--sure to be both controversial and hard to beat. Rosie DiManno knew, liked and admired Burns, and in the writing of this book has interviewed many, many people from every stage of his life. She is not blind to his less endearing qualities, but seeks to explain them.

DiManno reveals a man of contradictions--gruff and crude, bullying and sentimental, and easily wounded. She shows, moreover, a man of hockey. The Burns who rode motorcycles, dressed like a cowboy, and sweet-talked the ladies was, says DiManno, a self-creation. His one indisputable, true talent was for coaching hockey. He was a pure coach. 

DiManno tells a compelling story and helps us to understand a complex man, one who gave little of himself to the public and yet whose funeral was a spectacle. How did that happen? Who was Pat Burns? Rosie DiManno, who witnessed much of the story, has the answers.

Mike Jefferson started out as a suburban kid who dreamed of making it to the NHL, with parents determined to do anything and everything to make their son’s dream come true. So how did this promising young man’s hockey career turn into a harrowing crime story played out in sensational news reports?

Coach and agent David Frost fast-tracked Jefferson’s route to the NHL, but at a staggering cost. Along the way, the affable young man turned against his parents, changed his name to Danton, and descended into a spiral of paranoia and violence that finally cut short the career he had sacrificed everything for when he was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder.

In this fast-paced and gripping story, veteran hockey journalist Steve Simmons digs beneath the surface to answer questions that have left Canadians shocked and fascinated. How did Frost get such a grip on Danton and his family? How did Frost work himself into such a position of trust in the world of minor hockey? What exactly was Danton’s relationship with Frost? And who was it that Danton hired a hitman to kill—his father or his agent?

Full of the insights from one of Canada’s most-trusted hockey columnists, who is intimately familiar with both minor hockey and the big leagues, The Lost Dream is the story of the dark side of our fascination with a game Canadians love.

The unique life story of late golfer Moe Norman

Moe Norman has been called “The Mysterious Genius of Golf.” His swing, his mannerisms, and his lifestyle were unusual to say the least: Moe played very quickly, never took a practice swing, often repeated phrases when talking, and lived in motel rooms most of this life. Moe, who died in 2004 at age 75, suffered from crippling insecurity and introversion, which kept him from succeeding at the highest levels of play. Yet Tiger Woods has said that only Moe and Ben Hogan actually “owned” their swings, and Moe described himself as “the happiest guy on two feet.”

In Moe and Me, Lorne Rubenstein, a sports journalist who knew Moe for 40 years, examines Moe Norman’s unique swing, his character, and how he lived his life well, despite being limited in significant ways. Rubenstein also offers his views on what made Moe special and what this most sensitive and peculiar man meant to him and to others.