The calendar will soon read October, one of the best months to be a sports fan, if not the best.

Baseball playoffs, college and professional football, the start of the NBA and NHL seasons—it's all on the docket.

So, to prepare everyone for the onslaught of sports to come, we offer our readers this very special gift: more sports.

Here are a couple of little nuggets that may pique your interest and pull you away from the TV for a moment or two. But don't blink, because you might miss something really cool. "The Greatest Game Ever Played" Author: Mark Frost Amazon.com price: $5.49

Some stories seem too good to be true. Although this book by Mark Frost reads like a fairytale, it is the true story of Francis Ouimet and the 1913 U.S. Open.

Unknown even to himself, Ouimet is entered into the Open as an amateur. The Open that year is played in Ouimet's hometown of Brookline, Mass., at a course where the 20yearold had caddied for many years.

Ouimet decides to compete in the event, against the wishes of his father. That's not Ouimet's only problem. He is competing against his childhood idol, Harry Vardon, the greatest golfer during the early days of the sport. Ouimet also has no caddie.

Stepping up to caddie and help guide Ouimet is 10-year-old Eddie Lowery, who's barely taller than Ouimet's golf bag. The two form an unlikely friendship, and together they tackle a course they know better than anyone.

Over the next few magical days, what unfolds is some of the greatest golf ever played.

"Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember"

John Feinstein may very well be the best sportswriter alive, and he delivers again with "Living on the Black."

The author of such classics as "A Season on the Brink" and "The Punch" has written a detailed story of the lives of two highly successful major league pitchers, Tom Glavine, formerly of the New York Mets, and Mike Mussina of the New York Yankees.

Both hurlers are avid students of the game, and both pitched in the city that never sleeps, but their 2007 seasons were miles apart.

In Feinstein's book, he describes Glavine's pursuit of 300 career wins and the Mets' meltdown in the last week of the '07 season.

At the same time, Feinstein covers Mussina, who struggles for the first time in years as the Yankees fight for a playoff spot.

More importantly, Feinstein describes what goes on during pitchers' off days, and he finally tells us what actually occurs on visits to the pitching mound.

"The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship"

Quick, try to name four current players that have been together on the same baseball team for more than 10 years.

Can't do it, can you?

In the age of free agency, it's highly unlikely to see one, let alone four players, on the same baseball team year after year.

But it wasn't always this way.

In David Halberstam's 2004 book "Teammates," the author sits alongside former Boston Red Sox players Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio as they take a 1,300-mile car ride to visit Ted Williams, who's dying in a Florida hospital.

A fourth Red Sox mentioned frequently in the book, Bobby Doerr, cannot make the trip because his wife, Monica, has had a second stroke in Oregon.

With Halberstam riding shotgun, DiMaggio and Pesky discuss opposing pitchers, Williams' arguments and how he never lost a verbal battle, fishing, times when they played at Fenway Park and their life after baseball.

Halberstam wrote numerous great books, but this one is probably his best.

"Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty"

We tried to purchase this book last week, but the darn thing was already sold out.

Hey, that's a good sign, right?

Pearlman is the same author who penned "The Bad Guys Won," a classic baseball book on the 1986 New York Mets.

Well, apparently Pearlman has struck debauchery gold again, this time by chronicling the Cowboys of the early-to-mid-'90s.

One snippet on ESPN.com has Cowboy wideout Michael Irvin, now a member of the media, stabbing a teammate in the neck because the not-as-famous newcomer wouldn't get out of a barber chair so Irvin could get a haircut.

Seriously, can you really pass this book up? We can't.