Sports

His new book is Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It's the story of how the Oakland A's turned their team around and made history, winning 20 games in a row to set a new American League record. Lewis goes behind the scenes and finds a new kind of baseball knowledge. He is the author of the best selling books Liar's Poker and The New New Thing.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Seabiscuit.

Gordon is a sports journalist and Bonner is a specialist on North Korea. They collaborated on the documentary The Game of Their Lives about the most shocking upset in World Cup History: It was July 19, 1966, and the scrappy underdog North Korean team beat the favored Italians, whose players were some of the finest in the world. Later the Korean team lost in the quarterfinals to Portugal. Then the players returned home and disappeared from view.

Novelist Pat Conroy is the author of several books including The Great Santini, and The Prince of Tides which were both made into feature films. Conroy's new book My Losing Season (Doubleday) is a memoir about how playing basketball for the Citadel Military College transformed his life. Conroy was point guard and captain of the Citadel Bulldogs.

Boxer Laila Ali. Shes the only one of heavyweight champ Mohammed Alis nine children to choose a life in the ring. Her recent bout with Jacqui Frazier was the most highly publicized female boxing event ever. Shes written an autobiography called REACH! Finding Strength, Spirit and Personal Power.

Actor and rapper Will Smith. His film Ali in which he stars as fighter Muhammad Ali is now out on video and DVD. This summer he stars in Men in Black II. Smith also starred in the films The Legend of Bagger Vance, Men In Black, Independence Day, and Six Degrees of Separation. Smith got his start as a rapper, making his first record in high school. Known as the Fresh Prince he and his friend DJ Jazzy Jeff went on to make several albums and won two Grammys and three American Music Awards. He also starred in his own TV sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Sherpa Jamling Tenzing Norgay was Climbing Leader for the 1996 Everest IMAX Filming Expedition and summitted the Mountain that year. He's also the son of Tenzing Norgay, one of the first men in history to summit Mt. Everest. In his book, Touching My Father's Soul, Jamling Norgay recounts his 1996 Mt. Everest ascent: the climb and its familial meaning. He now heads Tenzing Norgay Adventures, which is based in India. This interview originally aired April 19, 2001.

Host of NPR's Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan. During the summer of 2000, he took a hiatus from his duties at NPR to follow the fortunes of the Aberdeen Arsenal, a minor league baseball team. Conan pursued a lifelong dream: to become a baseball announcer. He writes about it in his new book: Play by Play: Baseball, Radio and Life in the Last Chance League (Crown Publishers).

Director, co-writer Stacy Peralta of the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. The film is about the community of skateboarders in California in the 1970s who originated extreme skateboarding. They did so in rundown urban beach neighborhood near Santa Monica and Venice called Dogtown. They became international stars. Peralta was one of the Z-boys and is considered one of the founding fathers of modern skateboarding. The film won the Audience Award and Directors Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Theres also a companion book, Dogtown The Legend of the Z-Boys (Burning Flags Press).

Writer Andy Bellin. His new book is Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country. (HarperCollins) Bellin is a graduate school dropout. Hes an editor at the Paris Review and a semiprofessional poker player.

Chris Waddell has won metals in both the winter and summer Paralympic Games, competing as both an alpine mono-skier and a wheelchair racer. Waddell is currently competing in the Paralympics in Salt Lake City. He has already won a silver medal this week.

He is considered the top American male alpine snowboarder. In July 2000, he underwent a liver transplant to cure a serious and rare degenerative liver ailment. Klug was back on the slopes within months, competing in the World Cup races. Snowboarding made its Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano games. Klug began skiing at the age of two. He was born and lives in Colorado. For more information, go to www.chrisklug.com.

Salt Lake City reporter Lee Benson has just published Lee Benson's Inside Guide to the Games: 2002, Salt Lake City. Recognized as one of Utah's leading experts on the Games, Benson has covered seven Olympic Games for Salt Lake City paper, the Desert News, in the past. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Will Smith is starring in the new film Ali as fighter Muhammad Ali. The film begins in 1964, the year that Cassius Clay became world heavyweight champion, announced his conversion to Islam, and took on the name Muhammad Ali. The film is directed and co-written by Michael Mann who also made The Insider. Smith also starred in the films The Legend of Bagger Vance, Men In Black, Independence Day, and Six Degrees of Separation. Smith got his start as a rapper, making his first record in high school.

Emmy-award winning sportscaster Bob Costas. Since 1980 hes been afilliated with the NBC network covering Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA. He was the prime-time host for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, the 1996 Summer Olympics, and the 2000 Sydney Games. Hes won numerous Emmys including one for his now defunct late-night TV interview program Later with Bob Costas. He is currently anchor of MSNBCs InterNight. Costas is also the author of Fair Ball: A Fans Case for Baseball.

Writer and editor Roger Angell has been a fiction editor at The New Yorker for over 40 years. And has written about baseball for the magazine for decades. His pieces about baseball have been collected in four books including Late Innings and The Summer Game. Angell new book is A Pitcher Story: Innings with David Cone (Warner Books). Cone is a celebrated pitcher, a Cy Young Award winner, and one of sixteen men in history to pitch a perfect game. Last year, pitching for the Yankees, Cone experienced his first major slump. Angell chronicles Cone struggle in his book.

Currently, his LA Lakers are battling the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals. They lead the series 2 games to 1. Jackson has already won 7 NBA championship rings; He led the Lakers to the championship last year, and he also won 6 with the Chicago Bulls. He has coached NBA greats Michael Jordan, Shaquille ONeal, and Kobe Bryant. Jackson also has a new book called More than a Game, written with Charley Rosen.

Bill Russell is considered the greatest defensive center in the history of the game. In the 1960s he helped the Celtics on to 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons. He was named the NBAs most valuable player five times. Hes written a new book, Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership From the Twentieth Centurys Greatest Winner

Sherpa Jamling Tensing Norgay. Author of the new book Touching My Father's Soul, Norgay was Climbing Leader for the 1996 Everest IMAX Filming Expedition and summitted the Mountain that year. He's also the son of Tenzing Norgay, one of the first men in history to summit Mt. Everest. In his book, Jamling Norgay recounts his 1996 Mt. Everest ascent: the climb and its familial meaning. He now heads Tenzing Norgay Adventures which is based in India.