Joey Zanaboni’s voice has quickly become synonymous with St. Louis CITY SC soccer. His “CITY Leads!” call has narrated some of the club’s most iconic moments over the past three seasons. Now the play-by-play announcer is looking to make an impact beyond the Y98 airwaves with a new book detailing St. Louis’s long sporting history.
St. Louis Sports for Kids, published through Reedy Press, is Zanaboni’s attempt to bring foundational sports lore to a new generation of fans, covering everything from the city’s legacy as a baseball town to generations of groundbreaking women athletes who often fly under the radar.
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“Working on this project gave me an opportunity to learn a few things that I didn’t know about our history,” Zanaboni says of the undertaking. “The book is more than 100 pages and it’s far from exhaustive. I hope it sparks curiosity—maybe someone stumbles on a section because it has a fun graphic, and that leads to further reading.”
Over the past two years, the St. Louis native has balanced his play-by-play duties with work on the book behind the scenes, often spending long, exhausting hours on the project after delivering his energetic calls.
It’s easy to see Zanaboni’s background as a former educator in the project. He wanted a book that could engage young readers with snappy artwork while also inviting them to slow down and immerse themselves in its pages.
The artwork pops off the page, inviting young readers to turn to the next page, the next story, the next sport.
Whether it’s the history of wrestling in the city, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and St. Louis’s long line of track-and-field athletes, or the invention of corkball, the book tells stories that rarely make it into the city’s sports conversation. Zanaboni hopes the book sparks more of those conversations, creating something parents can explore alongside their kids.
“We have to get kids excited about reading. That’s one of the things that’s important about this book—that it can be a jumping-off point for parents to engage with as well.”
Ultimately, he hopes the book gives something back to the city and the sports moments that have captivated it for more than a century.
The retelling reads as a love letter to St. Louis sports.
“I really do believe that St. Louis is a great city,” Zanaboni says. “Every month it becomes more and more clear to me that I love this community.”
