On Sunday, Apr. 13, journalist and author David Davis moderated “One for the History Books: Pivotal L.A. Sports Stories,” a discussion between three other journalists turned authors who recently published books about the “untold” sports stories of Los Angeles. The discussion touched upon how the authors found their ideas, reported them and why one aspect of sports history warranted an entire book.

“We tell the story of America through sports. This isn’t just a sports story, it’s a cultural story, it’s a story about the story of LA,” Davis said. “Sports is a jumping off point.”

Here are the highlights of what the three authors had to say about their sports books:

"The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption" by John Rosengren 

“I find my stories in sports -- it’s not who wins or loses -- but what’s won or lost... what’s at stake, what’s the cultural context, what’s revealed about the human spirit in sports,” John Rosengren said. Rosengren is a sports journalist and author whose most recent book is about a fight between two Major League Baseball players in 1965 which represented the tensions of the Civil Rights Movement apparent in American sports leagues.

“In this story there were the aspects of the Dominican and the Watts riots, but what convinced me this was a book that needed to be written was that these two men after their famous fight eventually reconciled and became friends. They turned it into a moment of redemption.” 

"Mover and Shaker" by Andy McCue

Andy McCue, a former journalist for The Wall Street Journal, was interested in going back and dispelling the poor reputation that tainted sports executive Walter O’Malley when he moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles and the New York Giants to San Francisco.

“The biggest misconception [about O’Malley] is reinforced every day. We go out there and we look up on the hill and there’s this beautiful stadium and people roaring in there every week,” McCue said. “We think, ‘Boy, he moved out there and got a lot of money.’ But if you look at the first five years in LA -- it was nothing but problems for him.”

"Showtime" by Jeff Pearlman

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Jeff Pearlman, a former writer for Sports Illustrated, was interested the history of one of the most famed basketball franchises, the Los Angeles Lakers. 

“To me [1980s Lakers] brings a powerful feeling of nostalgia within me,” Pearlman said. “I like going back in time. When you’re a kid, you have this one dimension, you’re looking at a screen to be able to go back in time and to see what really happened.”

Contact Staff Reporter Kevin Tsukii here.