Northwest Christmas Gift Ideas for Sports Fans

If you're like me and grew up in the Pacific Northwest then you probably root for Northwest sports teams and have since you were very small.

With Christmas approaching very fast (it's only 18 days away) it's time to get a gift for the Northwest fan in your life. Here are five book/DVD suggestions from the sports guys at Just South of North.

• Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers: Now I have personally read this book and it's great! (I'll get a review up in the near future). The book chronicles how baseball returned to the city of Seattle. It's fast paced and great for any Northwest baseball fan. About the book: In 1937, when local beer baron Emil Sick stepped in, the Seattle Indians were a struggling minor-league baseball team teetering on collapse. Moved to mix baseball and beer by his good friend and fellow brewer, New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, Sick built a new stadium and turned the team into a civic treasure. The Rainiers (newly named after the beer) set attendance records and won Pacific Coast League titles in 1939, ’40, ’41, ’51, and ’55.


• Seattle Seahawks 2005 NFC Champions DVD: Ok, I know it's not a book, but it's awesome. Sadly it's not every year that the Seattle Seahawks make it to the Super Bowl. I own this DVD and watch it at least once a year. About the DVD: For nearly three decades the Seattle Seahawks were pro football's most anonymous team, tucked away in the Pacific Northwest, far removed from the media spotlight. But in 2005 the Seahawks could no longer be ignored. They posted the NFC's best record at 13-3 and led the league in scoring, enroute to their first-ever Super Bowl appearance. Team stars included league MVP Shaun Alexander, who led the NFL in rushing while punching in a record-shattering 28 touchdowns. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, fullback Mack Strong, and linemen Walter Jones, Steve Hutchinson and Robbie Tobeck were named to the Pro Bowl. On the other side of the ball rookie Lofa Tatupu was one of eight new starters on defense who transformed that unit into one of the league's finest. Here are all the highlights, from opening day right through Super Sunday -- the sights and sounds of every game in this special salute to the greatest season in Seahawks' history.


• Tales from the Seattle Seahawks Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest Seahawks Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team): I got this book years ago and loved reading about the untold stories of the NFL team I'd supported for years. About the book: From the hilarious to the surreal, from inside the huddle to inside the broadcast booth, twenty-eight-year Seattle Seahawks veteran Steve Raible takes fans to places they never knew existed. In this newly revised edition of Tales from the Seattle Seahawks Sideline, fans are offered an inside look at life in the locker room and on the sidelines of one of the NFL’s most beloved franchises. Readers will have the chance to laugh along as Jack Patera trades Andre Hines to the Dolphins after warning Don Shula that a worse offensive lineman never existed, to marvel as Raiders legend John Matuszak becomes Seattle’s offensive coordinator during the final minutes of the Seahawks blowout win, to come along with Steve Largent as the Hall of Famer obliterates Broncos safety Mike Harden in the ultimate payback, and so much more. Tales from the Seattle Seahawks Sideline brings all the Seahawks greatest players to life from Jim Zorn, Dave Krieg, Kenny Easley, Curt Warner, Brian Bosworth, Cortez Kennedy, Warren Moon, Mike Holmgren, Ricky Watters, Chad Brown, Shaun Alexander, and more. This insider’s account also explores the lesser known characters whose stories inspire laughter, tears, and lasting lessons. Tales from the Seattle Seahawks Sideline is all about the people, proving through vivid anecdotes why the Seahawks are one of the most storied franchises in today’s NFL.


• Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team: While Seattle still doesn't have an NBA team this is an amazing telling of the events that happened to the Seattle Supersonics leaving for Oklahoma City and becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. About the DVD: Webby and Emmy® Award-winning director Jason Reid pulls no punches in this riveting documentary that explores the modern business of pro sports. SONICSGATE: REQUIEM FOR A TEAM depicts how a perfect storm of corporate greed and political ineptitude drove Seattle's only team with a major league championship to relocate to Oklahoma and become the Thunder in 2008. SuperSonics fans were powerless as the team they supported for 41 years was ripped away, leaving Seattle as the latest casualty of the sports-industrial complex. Featuring exclusive HD interviews with Sonics legends Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, acclaimed author Sherman Alexie and other experts and insiders who witnessed this tragic story unfold.
  
  
• Shipwrecked: A Peoples' History of the Seattle Mariners: A must have for any Seattle Mariners fan. A look at the past and future of the team from Safeco Field. About the book: From "Moneyball," baseball fans have learned about the complicated relationship between money and success. The question now for Seattle Mariner fans is whether the current ownership will spend the money to give fans the team they have dreamed of and earned with years of support.
  In "Shipwrecked," Jon Wells, a baseball writer and publisher who has covered the team for more than fifteen years, asserts that poor management and shortsighted ownership kept a team with three first-ballot Hall of Fame players, each in the prime of his career, from reaching the World Series. Wells details every misstep by the Mariners during the team’s 35-year history. But wait, there’s hope! Can General Manager Jack Zduriencik bring in enough young talent to make this club a contender again, as he did for the Milwaukee Brewers?
  EXTRAS: *Best and worst trades *All-time best and worst players *Ranking the managers *Infamous quotes*