A Necessary Spectacle

1973. The Battle of the Sexes--the match that changed everything. Billie Jean King didn't want to play Bobby Riggs. He baited and begged her for months while she ignored his catcalls and challenges. But after Margaret Court's ignominious defeat, Billie knew what she had to do despite the risks: take on the self-proclaimed male chauvinist pig and slay the myths about women and weakness. In this book by New York Times sports columnist Selena Roberts, the whole spectacle returns, reaching beyond two outsize personalities who emerged during a simmering social revolution that pitted chauvinists…