Book reviews of sports related books
recbball
Posts: 1,522 ✭✭✭
I thought I would start a thread for members to share reviews of any sports related books that they have read.
I'll start, I 've just finished The Book Of Basketball by Bill Simmons
The book is massive, 700 pages, but is a must for any hoops junkie.
In the book he ranks the top 96 players of all-time through four levels of his hall of fame pyramid.
He then ranks the top teams of all-time and goes on to make an all-time team of handpicked players.
There's alot of other stuff crammed in here and he goes off on tangents frequently and most of them are pretty funny.
I would reccommend it to any hoops fan.
Tom
I'll start, I 've just finished The Book Of Basketball by Bill Simmons
The book is massive, 700 pages, but is a must for any hoops junkie.
In the book he ranks the top 96 players of all-time through four levels of his hall of fame pyramid.
He then ranks the top teams of all-time and goes on to make an all-time team of handpicked players.
There's alot of other stuff crammed in here and he goes off on tangents frequently and most of them are pretty funny.
I would reccommend it to any hoops fan.
Tom
0
Comments
Not really sure why I have been turned off by him, but I just can't stand to read his articles.
My favorite sports book has to be Jerry Kramer's 'Instant Replay'. One footnote, only read this book if you like an old school coach.
<< <i>I'm no longer a fan of Bill. I used to read all his articles on espn.com up until about two years ago >>
I never read anything from the guy or knew of him so I didn't know what to expect when I bought it. I can say the author has an excellent knowlege of the NBA.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
To Joel: EAT POOP!
Very cool inscription.
Two books I plan on getting.
My favorite quote was from I think Marvin Barnes. When he found out the plane he was getting on at 2pm actually landed from it's short flight at 150pm (due to a short flight into another time zone) said "I ain't gettin' on no time machine"
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
<< <i>EVERY kid had to have an ABA basketball. >>
I loved my rubber ABA basketball when I was a kid.
I have big hands and can palm a basketball, but that ABA ball was like velcro. A must for evrey youth back in the day when he was trying to do that Dr. J move where he hides the ball behind the backboard, lol.
I agree, he has a vast knowledge of the NBA, if you really like his style you should read some of his 'Sports Guy' articles on ESPM.com. In my opinion, his best articles will be his older ones.
I wonder what the top five books in each sport would be. Baseball, Football,Hockey, Basketball, Golf, Soccer, and Nascar.
I have a bookshelf full of baseball books. I have enjoyed most of them.
Great book about the early hoops playground history of N.Y. City.
Great look at the early recruiting that schools did of playground legends.
I remember it followed Albert King around as he was the next big thing.
Would probably be an interesting read again to see how things have changed.
I'm almost done with Billy Ball- Billy Martin- not that great but a fairly quick read
I'll have more as I remember them
- Jason Lee, "Mallrats"
Here's some of the ones that I've enjoyed:
"Namath" & "Pistol" - both by Mark Kreigel
"The Beckham Experiment" - Grant Wahl
"Next Man Up", "The Last Amateurs", "Play Ball" & "The Punch" - John Feinstein
"One Dream: The NFL" - Woody Falgoux (caveat... It's a book about Undrafted FAs that try to make the Saints, not sure a non-Saints fan would enjoy)
"How Soccer Explains The World" - Franklin Foer (neat book, if you read and enjoyed Freakonomics, it's similar)
"The Bad Guys Won" - Jeff Pearlman (about the '86 Mets)
"Game of Shadows" - Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams
"Summer of '49" - David Halberstam
"Life On The Rim: A Year In The CBA" - David Levine
"The Lion In Autumn: A Season With Joe Paterno and Penn State Football" - Frank Fitzpatrick
Meh:
"It Never Rains In Tiger Stadium" - John Ed Bradley (easy read, but he spends the majority of the book whining about just how terrible it was that he just HAD to play football at LSU in the 1970s. Cry me a river....)
Avoid:
"Crazy '08" - Cait Murphy (supposed to be about the 1908 baseball season. About halfway through, I couldn't even tell what she was talking about...)
"Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty, and the Say Hey Kid" - John Rosengren (about the 1973 season...interesting subject matter, but either written or edited by an 8th grader)
Just got a copy of "Ball Four" in, and I'll be starting that soon!
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
Here's some good ones
Wrigleyville - Peter Golenbeck. An oral history of the Cubs.
Spirit of St. Louis- Peter Golenbeck. An oral history of the Browns and Cards
Ball Four- Jim Bouton. Must read.
Summer of '49- David Halberstamm. Incredible book about the Red Sox/Yanks pennant race. Great book by an amazing author. His book The Fifties is one of my top 5 of all time. Avoid his book October '64, it sucked. His book The Teammates about Williams, Doerr, Pesky, and Dimaggio's lifetime friendship was just so so.
Nice Guys Finish Last- Leo Durocher. Really good.
Our Game- Charles Alexander History of baseball
Glory of their Times- An oral history by players from the early 20th Century.
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
The Boys of Summer - Roger Kahn (excellent book, in my completely unbiased opinion
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg - Nicholas Dawidoff
Who's Your Caddy by Rick Reilly is a pretty fun read, too.
Dodgers collection scans | Brett Butler registry | 1978 Dodgers - straight 9s, homie
This is my Amazon review of The Book of Basketball
If you're an NBA Junkie and/or a fan of Bill Simmons, this book is a must read. It is quite long, but justifiably. The book has two really strong aspects, extremely interesting statistical analysis and some stories about older players that have a limited Q rating today (the story about Jack Twyman caring for a debilitated Maurice Stokes was very good). The weak points of the book are fairly easy to pick out too. First, the stories about his friends, roommates and ex-girlfriends are fine for an ESPN column and add entertainment to the book, but ultimately distract the reader from the history of basketball. The second major problem is this; if you're going to do all that research (and he was very thorough), why not interview former players for their unbiased opinions, particularly players that played before his time? A guy like Arnie Risen, a Hall of Famer player who played when the NBA and BAA merged, is still living and could have added to the book. The same is true for any player that played before he was alive. If you're going to tell me why George Mikan couldn't play in today's NBA (he couldn't), it would have made sense to back up your argument with someone that played against him confirming it.
By choosing to cite the work of other writers instead of doing interviews, he missed a unique opportunity to write the definitive history of the NBA and settled for a 756 page very entertaining research paper.
My Podcast - Now FEATURED on iTunes
Monster of the Midway - the story of Bronko Nagurski by Jim Dent
Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent (Pros Hardy Brown and Dewitt Coulter feature in this book about growing up in a masonic orphanage in Texas in the '30s)
'63: The Story of the World Championship Chicago Bears by Gary & Maury Youmans
The stories about George Halas and Doug Atkins make this a good read. I knew Atkins was drafted by the Browns, but I didn't know he was traded to the Bears because coach Paul Brown couldn't deal with him or his antics. Halas did just barely, lol.
Has anyone read this?
Seems like an interesting read.
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
<< <i>Glory of their Times- An oral history by players from the early 20th Century. >>
GOTT was the last sports-related book I read. No wait, the second-to-last. I enjoyed it along with the last one I read -- "Damn Senators" by Mark Gauvreau Judge, grandson of Joe Judge. That was a good read about the old Senators teams with Walter Johnson, et al.
The next book I plan on reading is "The Washington Senators, The Story Of An Incurable Fandom" by Morris A. Bealle. I finally scored a copy of it about a year ago.
I also recently picked up "What Time Is It? You Mean Now? / Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All / Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan". That's gotta be a fun read!
I've got lots of other sports books I've picked up over the years from the big coffee-table books to bios of several players:
<< <i>Cait Murphy brings 1908 to life with a richness and detail that is truly wonderful. Wrapping details of early 20th Century America into a fascinating account of an historic season, the reader is transported back in time.
This is baseball writing at its finest and a book that no fan should be without. >>
Pretty much anything by John Feinstein will be great. Have read probably 10 of his books and have never been disappointed.
"Total MMA" by Jonathan Snowden is the definitive work on the subject of MMA. It's absolutely incredible.
Tabe
<< <i>
<< <i>Glory of their Times- An oral history by players from the early 20th Century. >>
GOTT was the last sports-related book I read. No wait, the second-to-last. I enjoyed it along with the last one I read -- "Damn Senators" by Mark Gauvreau Judge, grandson of Joe Judge. That was a good read about the old Senators teams with Walter Johnson, et al.
The next book I plan on reading is "The Washington Senators, The Story Of An Incurable Fandom" by Morris A. Bealle. I finally scored a copy of it about a year ago.
I also recently picked up "What Time Is It? You Mean Now? / Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All / Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan". That's gotta be a fun read!
I've got lots of other sports books I've picked up over the years from the big coffee-table books to bios of several players:
I'm partial to Cal Ripken's "The Only Way I Know,".....then again, he mentions me on page 298 (shameless plug!)
<< <i>I'm partial to Cal Ripken's "The Only Way I Know,".....then again, he mentions me on page 298 (shameless plug!) >>
Hey!! I've got that book!!
<< <i>
<< <i>I'm partial to Cal Ripken's "The Only Way I Know,".....then again, he mentions me on page 298 (shameless plug!) >>
Hey!! I've got that book!!
Yeah....the one with the biggest collection from PA
"Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, The Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend" - An excellent piece regarding Mays' career prior to entering the Major Leagues. I was amazed how close the Red Sox were to signing Mays after reading the book.
<< <i>regardless of your political slant, Men At Work by George Will is a must read for any serious baseball fan >>
ironman,
After seeing George Will being interviewed on cable TV (MLB network?), and hearing him talk about his book "Men At Work", I just had to get a copy. I was able to find one at Powell's Book Store on Burnside in downtown Portland last week and started reading it on the train ride home. I'm really enjoying what he has to say!
I'd recommend it to everyone, too...
The front covers:
Some of the pics from the book on the Babe:
Pics of The Mick from the "Baseball The Major League Way" book:
To update, I've read Filip Bondy's "Changing The Game" about the current state of US Soccer. Recommended.
I bought "The Rookie: A Season With Sidney Crosby and the New NHL" on my honeymoon (FAIL), because it was cheap and we don't get much in the way of hockey books here. It was a notch above "okay."
I finished "Maybe I'll Pitch Forever" an "autobiography" by Satchel Paige from the 1960's. It was entertaining and easy to read, but limited in scope.
I gave up on "Good Clean Violence: A History of College Football." I'll pick it up again, as it's a detailed history of college football (at least until 1972), but it was VERY professorial. Like a textbook almost.
I'm currently working on John Feinstein's "A Season On The Inside: One Year In Basketball" and "Living On The Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season To Remember." Both are excellent.
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
"Temporary Insanity" - Jay Johnstone
"The Wrong Stuff" - Bill Lee
Best baseball fiction - "Bang the Drum Slowly"
Most disappointing after seeing the movie first - "The Natural" - book seemed depressing.
My favorites, in no particular order:
The Universal Baseball Association, Robert Coover
Season on the Brink, John Feinstein
Ball Four, Jim Bouton
Veeck... as in Wreck, Bill Veeck
You Know Me Al, Ring Lardner
Foul! The Connie Hawkins Story, David Wolf
A Few Bricks Shy of a Load, Roy Blount Jr.
Loose Balls, Terry Pluto
Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby
You Gotta Have Wa, Robert Whiting
<< <i>"Living On The Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season To Remember." >>
This one was so much better than I had hoped for. I really expected it to be not very good, despite the author, and was very pleasantly surprised at its excellence.
I just completed reading "The Franchise" by Cameron Stauth, the inside story of the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons. This one was great. It helps that it's a subject I love - I have never liked NBA basketball so much as I did that year watching my Pistons finally win a title - but it was also really well-done. Stauth was given total access to the team and players, so you get a ton of insights into every corner. You get Jack McCloskey agonizing over trades, breaking down because he had to leave Rick Mahorn open to the expansion draft, Tom Wilson hating the "Bad Boys" imagery, the whole package. GREAT stuff.
Tabe
<< <i>
I just completed reading "The Franchise" by Cameron Stauth, the inside story of the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons. This one was great. It helps that it's a subject I love - I have never liked NBA basketball so much as I did that year watching my Pistons finally win a title - but it was also really well-done. Stauth was given total access to the team and players, so you get a ton of insights into every corner. You get Jack McCloskey agonizing over trades, breaking down because he had to leave Rick Mahorn open to the expansion draft, Tom Wilson hating the "Bad Boys" imagery, the whole package. GREAT stuff.
Tabe >>
This sounds awesome. I added it to my Amazon list.
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
<< <i>
<< <i>
I just completed reading "The Franchise" by Cameron Stauth, the inside story of the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons. This one was great. It helps that it's a subject I love - I have never liked NBA basketball so much as I did that year watching my Pistons finally win a title - but it was also really well-done. Stauth was given total access to the team and players, so you get a ton of insights into every corner. You get Jack McCloskey agonizing over trades, breaking down because he had to leave Rick Mahorn open to the expansion draft, Tom Wilson hating the "Bad Boys" imagery, the whole package. GREAT stuff.
Tabe >>
This sounds awesome. I added it to my Amazon list. >>
Hit me up and I'll hook you up.
Tabe
From Black Sox to Three-Peats: A Century of Chicago's Best Sportswriting from the "Tribune," "Sun-Times," and Other Newspapers
Just jumping around from article to article, some good stuff on Chicago sports history.