You can't hope to understand a nation without understanding how it feels about its sports. This worldwide compendium explores baseball, soccer, golf, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, NASCAR, cricket, and American football, but also sumo, camel racing, lucha libre wrestling, Basque stone-lifting, and wheelchair rugby, among many others. Each entry contains fun facts about the history and the appeal of the sport, and illustrations appear throughout. Also included are a guide to the world's best stadiums and a calendar of sporting events.