A Sports Book that Befits the Greatness of NYC
582853
The wealth of sports information that Dr. Kroessler has compiled in this wonderful book informs and delights.  The breadth of material is rendered in a seamless historical timeline and geared to illustrate the role of sports in forging New York's unique cosmopolitan character.  Dr. Kroessler expertly combines fact, anecdote, and thoughtful commentary in a reference work history buffs and armchair athletes will draw on and appreciate time and again.
394825
OK, in the overall landscape of sports books, this is light Chi-town baseball reading, but really, really fun and really, really worth buying to own.

I'm the Executive Director of Chicago's Old Timers' Baseball Association, and Ron has been a member and guest for a long time; he's a regular guy who'd you'd want to go drinking with, so this collection of stories is so accurate in detail that you'd swear you were part of the club and watching it all unfold.

Kitt's collection of stories serve as a jumping on point for new Sox fans to get a quick overview of South Sider history and all of the color that went into "Winning Ugly." Two notorious annoucers got toasted by management as "the scum that they are" and when I read it, I laughed out loud. One of those announcers migrated to the north side and I still don't forgive the Cubs for letting him in their gates; LaRussa and the boys on the south side should have polished him off for a better world.

Great for the fact-finding reader and Sox fanimal.
2653312
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Book-of-Basketball-The-NBA-According-to-The-Sports-Guy/dp/0345520106/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy</a>

The Book of Basketball

The book offers an interesting, informative and humorous history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) over the years.  Simmons provides a sense of historical perspective on the evolution of basketball at the professional level combined with a million references to pop culture.

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com's Sports Guy, covers a wide range of topics including:
His history attending Boston Celtics games with his father, the exciting moments at the Boston Garden, the best players to view live, how close the fans could get to the players, and how as a child he thought he was black.

What Simmons calls "The Secret", how he learned "The Secret" (an entertaining meeting with Isiah Thomas in Los Vegas), which players knew "the secret" and how it applies to building a winning team in NBA.
Russell vs. Wilt - who was the better player?

"How the Hell did we get here?" - A readable and entertaining chapter covering the history of how the NBA evolved from a low scoring physical game to its modern incantation and the changes necessary to get there. Simmons covers: the racial climate, the shot clock, Mikan, Russell, Basketball cards, Labor Relations, Red Auerbach, the fabled American Basketball League (ABA), various records (both team and individual, The Dunk Contest, Drugs, Fighting and the NBA draft.

"The what if Game" - A collection of the author's answer to 33 questions involving the NBA.  Examples include: "What if Len Bias hadn't overdosed?" and "what if Wilt ended up on the Lakers instead of the Sixers in 1965?"

"Most Valuable Chapter" - Covers the history of the NBA MVP, what he believes an MVP should be and a classification of all MVP winners ranging from valid winners to "outright travesties" in the authors view.

The rest of the book covers the Basketball Hall of Fame, The best 96 players in the History of the game (who are then subdivided into 5 separate categories of greatness), the best teams in the history of NBA, Authors  all time all star teams (both current and old school) and lastly Simmons hanging out with Bill Walton.

Simmons perspective of the professional basketball enlightens the younger fan who thinks the game began with Jordan and that Bird and Magic couldn't handle Lebron and Wade. It enhances the view point of those that believe the game began with the Bird/Magic era and think Cousy and Russell couldn't beat the college star of today. Hopefully the book can convey the beauty of the NBA today to those think the League declined after Mikan hung up his sneakers.

If you want to have a good basic knowledge of Professional Basketball, the teams, players (especially the all time greats) and the evolution of the game this is a good read.

The obvious downside to this book is the length (701 pages) and huge number of footnotes.
If you are overly sensitive on issues of sex, drugs, race and Kareem Abdul-Jar do not read this book.
948876
If your a Philadelphia sports fanatic, this book will give you things you did not know or bring back memories, buy it
529328
A great book.  I remember Joe Namath in the 70s, when he was at the tail end of his career.  Reading about him when he was "Broadway Joe" in the mid-to-late-60s made me realize what a big deal he was at the time. Along with the Amazin' Mets and Red Holtzman's Knicks, Namath gave New Yorkers a break from the unbelievable challenges the city faced during a tumultuous time in its history. When he wasn't throwing 70-yard bombs on the football field, he was a proud rascal off of it--which in some ways was even more entertaining to fans. Namath didn't fully live up to his promise--after winning Super Bowl III he never made it back to the playoffs--and the author cleverly ties his story to that of another fresh face on the New York scene in the 1960s: John Lindsay.  Fifty years ago, Lindsay entered City Hall with big plans to reform New York, but one crisis after another brought him back down to earth.  Deveney does a terrific job of telling these two stories. As he says, journalists mocked Lindsay for calling New York a "fun city."  But the Jets, Mets, and Knicks allowed New Yorkers to believe--if only briefly--that it really was.
2532680
New York baseball, and baseball in general, was at it's peak in the 1950'a and 1960's. I am not, really, a Yankee fan but, this book caught the magnatism and excitement of the sport. I, ashamedly, never had the opportunity to see Mantle play, even though he came to Cincinnati during the 1961 Series. More, the pity.

Mantle could do it all. Unfortunately, as with several athletes of note, some of his abilites were cut short through injuries and, shall we say, the sauce. Willie, Mickey and the Duke have been imortalized in song. And for good reason. How I would have like to have grown up in New York and had three teams for which to root. My first year following the game was during Mickey's Triple Crown season of 1956.

I really enjoyed the chapters in the book that were centered around the specific dates, especially the Chuck Stobbs gopher ball and the hunt for the owner. While vacationing in Sarasota a few years back, I read an article/interview with the immortal Stobbs, his residence being Sarasota. It was quite interesting.

The delving into Mantle's family life was all to sad and revealing. I am glad that Ms. Levey wanted/needed to write about it. It portrays the entire scope of the man.

I had, also, read the biography that Levey had written on Sandy Koufax. Obviously, since I, thoroughly enjoyed that book, I was intrigued by the Mantle book. The mere fact that Doris Kearns Goodwin recommended the Mantle book was icing on the cake, since Kearns-Goodwin is the most knowlegeable individual on the Brooklyn Dodgers and Abe Lincoln. At least she was able to grow up with, possibly the three teams.

I am overjoyed to rate "The Last Boy" a FIVE STAR book. And I look forward to more of Ms. Levey's writings.

Thanks for the ride.
390531
Many sports teams are well documented in literature.  If you want to read about the New York Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Green Bay Packers, you would not have to look far to find a book.  But you would come up pretty empty if you were a fan of the now-defunct Hartford Whaler's.

Until now.

And what a book to read!  Yes, it is fiction, as a fictional player is the hero, but he is superimposed over the actual events, which are worth reliving, especially the way Robert Muldoon tells them.  And no detail is left out, from Chuck Kaiton to Chucks's Steak House and everything in-between.  As the memory of the Whalers recedes in our memory, Muldoon brings it right to the fore so it appears crystal clear.  Most of us can't see past the sad ending, but Muldoon reminds us of the good times.  Even though the good times consisted of ordinary games, each was an event in itself, one in which the city of Hartford came alive, even for just a few hours.

And the fictionalized part does not detract from the story, it adds to it.  Yes, our hero is a goon, but somehow, a lovable goon, an oxymoron which works.  On the ice, he fights for his teammates, for his team, and his (adopted) city.  Off the ice, he is the city's biggest booster; his navet and spirit are contagious.  It doesn't take long to wish there really was a Tiger Burns in our past.

The Whalers come alive again on these pages, and the whole city of Hartford appears vibrant and thriving.  A great read not only for those living in or near Hartford, but for anyone able to imagine Rocky on ice!
2975355
The Making of a Championship Heart by Steve Yerrid, is a stunning coffee table book that would make a great gift for any Yankee's fan.  It is also a book that anyone would be proud to display with it's inspirational sayings and short stories about the qualities that make a great leader and a successful person.  It's about preparing for a task, having the desire, attitude and determination along with the confidence and perseverance to see the job through.  It's about effort, courage, vision and integrity.  And it's all tied to some of the most amazing photographs of the Yankees that span three decades, some from the team's archives that have never been published before.

Steve Yerrid is a Yankee fan from way back and he was a personal friend of George Steinbrenner as well as having a professional relationship with him as a lawyer.  He interviewed players, both past and present, Steinbrenner's family members, and others associated with the team.  The result is a book that really gets to the heart of what the Yankees are, both past and present.  Each page has beautiful photos, along with a paragraph or two that is inspirational, often in the words of the players themselves.  For example, this one by Reggie Jackson, "Take care of the things you can control.  As long as you have a bat in your hand, you can rewrite the story."  Or this one by Babe Ruth, "The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.  You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."  And not all of the quotes are by baseball players.  Some such as this one by Micheal J. Fox are just very insightful, "I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.  Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business."

This book is impressive from the moment you open the cover.  The navy blue background with the white pinstripes and a few pages later, the silver background with the NY Yankees logo, give this book a very high quality feel.  This isn't your everyday coffee table book, but a heavy, impressive work of art.  The photos really convey the excitement and feel of the game, most of them in color and a few black and white ones mixed in, mostly the older photos.  I like the effect of mixing the older with the new and the black and white with the color.  You can tell that a lot of thought went into the design.  The overall impression, right from the beginning is a very positive and at the same time conveys a nostalgic feeling of what baseball is today and what it has always been. It's as American as hot dogs, peanuts and beer on a summer evening or a Saturday afternoon.  And what better team to portray this than the New York Yankees?  Two thumbs up for this great book!

This review was from a complementary copy of the book provided to me by the publisher.
1788666
The "Soccer Diaries" by the talented writer Michael Agovino really delighted me. Although I am not at all a soccer fan, I free-lance for a Portuguese newspaper in Montreal and I needed to familiarize myself with this Portuguese religion. The book is a wonderful work of minute observation, fine humor and erudite facts about this world-wide sport, and how it gained steady popularity in the US in the last 30 years. In a literary sleight-of-hand, Agovino uses his diary to comment intelligently on many games he watched since the memorable day his father Hugo brought him to the Giants Stadium in New Jersey. That was it: The young Michael could never extract himself from his burgeoning passion. Over the years, he became a soccer expert and wrote for important media like the New York Times and Esquire.

Michael Agovino picked up a lot from his soccer virus. He learned a bunch about geography (with the handy Atlas Britannica) to locate countries like Cameroon and Nigeria. He traveled to European metropolis (Zurich, Rome, London, Munich) in order to see what soccer meant in other cultures. Soccer first, but he also visited the Maryon Park where part of the film Blow Up was shot by Antonioni. Along the way, the reader can also relate soccer to food with unexpected notes on dishes like Wurste mit Senf. The author has a knack for noticing amusingly incongruous details. IT'S entertaining as well as informative.

Because of his Italian background, the writer includes some Sicilian colloquial expressions -- not to be used in front of your grand-mother. In each text, the concluding punch is always a good find. Following the "Soccer Diaries, an American's Thirthy-Year Pursuit of the International Game", I will soon buy the first book of Agovino Jr. in which he talks about his papa and his familia. I am sure "The Bookmaker" will regale me.

Jules Nadeau, reporter for LusoPresse in Montreal
3064278
I have lived in NYC for 5 years and spent much of my childhood here. In between I have lived in several cities and Sudhir captures perfectly what makes NYC and other mega-cities different.  While the book is about sex workers and drug dealers the core concept of NYC being a floating city perfectly describes how I see people working and network.  It captures a large part of what I love about the city but also what can make it lonely.  If you read it, be sure to finish it.  The last 20 pages are where 90% of the wisdom comes out.
3738911
Being a New Yorker, the history of Manhattan is wonderful. I have read this book 3 times so far. Pete Hamill paints a picture so vivid that the sounds,smells and sights of NY makes the reader want to read more of his books. I have and so far; great!
3530010
With NYC info as the back story - great book - I recommend this book highly.  It is long, but worth it.
4504094
I bought this book in an airport and read it over several days on airplanes.  It held my interest pretty well.  It compares well to some of the best baseball writers and is a mix of story-line and analysis.  Basically it covers a 3 game series between the Cubs and Cards in August 2003.  There are several excursions into timelines of various players and events, but mostly the book is an analysis of the players and the games in this series.

One strength of this book is how it portrays the character of the teams involved.  Teams and stadiums have very distinct characters.  For example, when I lived in Chicago the Cubs games at Wrigley field were fairly laid back.  They were almost always day games because the community restricts how often the lights can be on.  This meant you had to take a day off work to see them.  Tickets were easy to come by, and you parked on some guys lawn for 5 bucks.  On the other hand, I never came home from a game at Old Comiskey Park without being drenched with beer.  The gestalt of a game at Wrigley vs. a game at Comiskey was completely different.

But the funny thing about this book is that I keep remembering parts of it as I watch games and the insights in it are incredibly useful.  I live between a rookie league team (Ogden Raptors - Dodgers) and an AAA team (Salt Lake - Angels).  Over and over some insight in this book will come to mind as I watch some future major-leaguer.  Ex-manager Tommy Lasorda is at the Ogden games fairly frequently and after reading this book I can more often figure out just what it is in some minor-leaguers play that gets Lasorda swearing.  And as I see the bonus babies from Ben Sheets to Prince Fielder come through the rookie league I can better evaluate the players and see what their managers are looking for.  The net result: the game is more enjoyable.

I'm not into fantasy leagues.  I don't pay attention to the new esoteric stats.  I just love to spend summer evenings watching baseball with my sons with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to some awesome minor league stadiums.  In the book, the author uses a phrase - "Beautiful.  Just beautful baseball."  And after reading this book, I find myself muttering this to myself as I watch a well-executed bunt or a heads-up base-running play that brings in a run.

This book is not a statistical primer.  It does almost have a little too much hero worship of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.  But you don't have to be a fanatic to enjoy this book which has the pacing of a good ball game - sometimes up, sometimes down but just right in the end.
2354265
First of all I love the work Bill Simmons did here and I wish he would do the same for the NHL, NFL and MLB. This is great stuff and he keeps it fresh with witty insights backed up by solid social analysis and intelligent statistical interpretation including stuff he makes up as he is going along. Simmons does not shy away from offering his own biases, (loves the Celtics, hates Kareem)but in the end he remains a reporter and gives the reader a heaping bowl of hoops.

I can't give him five stars and he's hovering between 3 and 4 because he does go on too long. Especially at the end he is arguing for his top players and top teams and while I find them fascinating, I also find it exhausting to read this much information about what is essentially a game. If he does write a Book of Baseball for example, Put the best teams in book one along with the best seasons and then in book two write about the best players and who got robbed for the MVP or what stat is meaningless.

But all in all this is a great book and any sports fan will love it!
2404942
The book is connected to a New York City that is quite different from the city of today and its photographs, both revealing and ironic, bring those times to life. From pictures of its humble beginnings as a Dutch outpost in the New World to those depicting the hustle and bustle of the big city it evolved into, Diana Krause Olivers book of pictures and prose not only immerses you into the evolving maelstrom of this wonderful city but invites you to feel and experience its journey of growth.

 This book is well-suited not only for New York natives, who promise themselves to see all of the city but rarely do, but for all visitors who can use it as a guide to see and appreciate the city in all its historical significance, beauty and wonders firsthand. The compelling illustrations capture the unique character of New Yorks landmarks and the lesser known areas which the author brings to light.

 My only problem with the book is whether to put it in my bookcase of classics (which look impressive but are rarely read) or leave it on the living room table for all (especially guests) to see and enjoy.
206326
Yes--there's a lot of drama in sports and it's captured in Nora Raleigh Baskin's Basketball (or Something Like It). Baskin catches the action, drama, and fun of playing basketball and it's told from the perspective of four unlikely friends.

The book begins with Hank, listening in on his parents' conversation how the basketball coach is deliberately scheduling clinics to conflict with Hank's soccer playoffs, so the coach's own son will come out looking better. Hank's parents are a bit controlling, insisting that Hank play every game, and that the coach should be fired. We've all seen a player like this on one team or another.

Next is Nathan. Nathan is not very good at basketball, but he brags to his parents that he is. After all, he's the only black kid in the whole North Bridge sixth grade. Throughout the season, Nathan tells his parents how great he is, but will he be able to pull of his lie when his parents show up at the final game of the season?

Then there's Jeremy. Jeremy is a great player who temporarily lives with his grandmother after moving from the city to North Bridge. However, feeling a bit isolated and alone in North Bridge, Jeremy really doesn't want to play basketball this year. But with a little nudging and a payoff from his grandmother, Jeremy agrees to try out.

To add a bit of a girl factor to the story, we also have Anabel. Anabel's brother, Michael plays on the team and Anabel has been dragged to every game since she could remember. Anabel knows that basketball could  be fun if you take out the parents, the arguments, the tension, and the expectations.

What I really enjoyed about this story were the characters and the alternating third-person narratives. Anyone who has ever played on a sports team will be able to relate to them, feel for them, and cheer for them. It's interesting to see how sports affect each young athlete differently--from parents living vicariously through their children, the pressure of trying to impress parents, and girls being cast aside while sports expectations are placed on sons. The team endures some humiliating losses, the loss of coach after coach, and the reality of putting up with demanding parents, but in the end, the theme of team and friendship prevails. A great read for any sports fan!
4953505
This book is a great read. Immerso pulls together an immense amount of data to convey the big picture of Coney Island's history and social significance, in a way that is both entertaining and poignant.  I especially enjoyed Immerso's affectionate irony.  He clearly loves Coney Island and writes in a straightforward, understated style that works as a perfect foil for all the hyperbolic quotes from the island's proud promoters, incensed detractors, and amazed visitors.
Immerso includes more than a hundred vintage black-and-white photos, chosen with an eye for intriguing detail.  There are also gorgeous color plates of Coney Island memorabilia from his own collection, as well as color photos by John Matturri of today's scene with its arcades and mermaid parade.  The book is handsomely designed and printed--a real pleasure to own.