Four for the Month

It's June. Soon you'll be beachside, or poolside, or lakeside, or in Riverside- somewhere where you'll need something to read.

Unfortunately, the Weekly World News is no longer in circulation, so you won't have that option to fall back on. Picking up Us Weekly could mollify a reading fix, but only if you're into Botox and celebrity blackmail.

That, friends, is where we step in.

Rather than treat your mind to gossip and garbage, take our advice and pick up one of these sports novels just in time for summer. We promise that the words on these pages offer more staying power than any sprayon-tan-in-a-can ever will. Enjoy.

"The Bad Guys Won!"

Author: Jeff Pearlman

Amazon.com list price: $6.15

They just don't make teams like the 1986 New York Mets.

So what if the Mets won 108 regular-season games that year? So what if they overcame the Houston Astros and scuff-master sinkerball pitcher Mike Scott in the N.L. Championship Series? So what if they battled back from the precipice of defeat to beat the Boston Red Sox in arguably the greatest World Series of all time?

It's difficult to fathom, but these Mets may have been better off the field than they were on it. This, of course, assumes the definition of "better" to mean more entertaining than anything found on '80s TV, which this band of gifted misfits certainly was.

From Lake Sherwood resident Lenny Dykstra's win-at-all-cost mentality in all things life to the in-season arrest of several players following a brouhaha at a Houston-area bar, the '86 Mets were a whirling dervish of scandal, seduction and substance abuse. "Sex, Lies and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment" Authors: Sean Assael and Mike Mooneyham Amazon.com list price: $10.36

There's much more to professional wrestling than just steroids and overthetop storylines. A lunatic fan base, antipolitical correctness, big-time business and premature death are all part of the equation, too.

In this book, published in 2004, authors Assael and Mooneyham detail the meteoric rise of pro wrestling and, more to the point, the man most responsible for its surge into the mainstream media- Vince McMahon.

The tales told are both fascinating and fetid as pro wrestling transforms from its early days of good vs. evil plotlines to elaborate Hollywood scripts filled with nattily clad, performanceenhanced, made-for-TV men and women.

Rickey "The Dragon" Steamboat, The Honky Tonk Man, King Kong Bundy, Hulk Hogan, Lex Lugar- we could stroll down pro wrestling's memory road forever.

You don't have to have been a pro wrestling fan to enjoy "Sex, Lies and Headlocks," but if you can name Jake "The Snake" Robert's finishing move from memory and haven't read this book, then you're really missing out on something special. "Stalefish: Skateboard Culture from the Rejects Who Made It" Author: Sean Mortimer Amazon.com list price: $12.89

In the book "Stalefish," author Sean Mortimer has lined up an all-star cast of skateboarders to tell how they got into the sport that affected the rest of their lives.

The legendary skaters include Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Steve Olson, Tommy Guerrero, Rodney Mullen, Kevin Harris, Jamie Thomas and Stacy Peralta.

The skaters discuss a variety of topics, including street-style, freestyle, punk rock, turning pro and how a drought in the 1970s actually helped skaters perfect their craft in drained pools.

Mortimer does a wonderful job describing the roots of skateboarding culture. He also uses the skaters' stories to help the reader form an opinion to the question: Is skateboarding a sport? "The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul" Authors: Phil Jackson and Michael Arkush Amazon.com list price: $10.20

After disposing of the San Antonio Spurs in five games, some experts have already deemed the Los Angeles Lakers NBA champions before they step on the floor in Boston for the Finals.

Hmm, this sounds familiar.

With the Lakers and Celtics set to square off for the title, now is the perfect time to revisit Phil Jackson's "The Last Season," a chronicle of the Lakers' 2003-04 campaign, better known as the last time the Lakers made the Finals.

The coach describes a season that saw Karl Malone and Gary Payton take pay cuts to play for a winner, Kobe Bryant's court case in Colorado, Derek Fischer's gamewinning shot with 0.04 seconds on the clock in the Western Conference semifinals, and how the Lakers were upset in the Finals by the upstart Detroit Pistons.

Jackson also famously says Bryant is "uncoachable," and that he would never guide the Lakers while the ultra-talented shooting guard was part of the team.

It's funny how times change.