2 comments about Game of My Life Virginia Tech: Memorable Stories of Hokie Football and Basketball.

1. Mike Harris' contribution to the history of Tech football is an interesting one. He takes a player, gives you some details on how he came to Tech and what he's done since leaving, and has him relate the story of one of his best games. It's a different angle, but it works well. You can pick it up and read it from cover to cover or randomly peruse the pages to find some favorite memories.
   
   If you're a Hokie fan and names like Dickie Beard ring a bell, this book's for you.
   
   I used the book as a resource to fill in some details while writing Hokie Games: Virginia Tech Football Game by Game 1945-2006.



2. Any Hokie will enjoy this fast read of great players in history and their best games.

4 comments about Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49Ers.

1. This is a great book by Bill Walsh on how he sculpted the 49ers in the 80's and why ultimately since then,he's so emulated today by other coaches. There really wasn't a so called "west coast offense"...it was simply the Bill Walsh offense plain and simple.
   Apparently,no one wanted to call it that but we all know where that offense was derived from. This book shows you how inteligent and articulate the man was and why he's recognized as one of the best ever. Here's some handy advice in regards to this book,if you don't understand football that well,there's no point in reading this because you probably won't know what he's talking about.



2. Being a fan of American pro football in general and the Niners in particular, I decided to give Bill Walsh's 'Building a Champion' a read. With the help of bay area sports scribe Glenn D!ckey, Walsh's famous calm and analytical style is faithfully translated to the written page. Throughout the course of this paperback, Walsh discusses his career of coaching in the NFL, from his initial assisting gig with the Raiders to his developing what would become known as the West Coast Offense as the QBs coach of the Bengals and Chargers in the 70s.

   Then there's his biggest challenge and achievement- the turnaround of the San Francisco 49ers from league doormats to the team to beat in the 80s. From season to season, Walsh discusses the many highs and lows of coaching the Niners. He also goes into his philosophy and methods that helped keep the team successful over the years he coached them, and helped to maintain their success for several years following his departure. Sadly, many of his thoughts on how to improve and maintain a championship-form team would likely be considered outdated today, what with the added difficulties of less restricted free agency and the
   salary cap, which he covers this in his follow-up, 'Finding The Winning Edge'.

   Walsh also goes over the many trials and tribulations that he endured, such as learning the effects of drug abuse on players (lowlighted by a disastrous tryout by the infamous 'Hollywood' Henderson), and his coming close to quitting following the team's horrific showing in the strike-shortened 1982 season. I found his memories of dealing with the media somewhat absorbing, the high point- or low point, rather- being a confrontation with legendary Monday Night Football commentator Howard Cosell. Then there's the aspect of coaching that no sideline leader enjoys: the cutting of a beloved past-his-prime veteran. Walsh admits that this, out of all his duties, is the one he dreaded the most when he was running the show.

   The last few pages are a small index of some of the most famous plays in 49er lore. Included is 'Brown Left Slot- Sprint Right Option' (Dwight Clark's Catch against Dallas), 'Red Right Tight- F Left- 20 HB Curl- X Up' (Montana's TD pass to Taylor to win Super Bowl XXIII), and a few other notable offensive formations.

   Whether you're a Niner fan or a football follower in general, this is definitely one for your must-read list!

   'Late




3. Great chronicle of the 49ers' dynasty of the 80s. I have an original hard copy available. E-mail me if you want to bid on it.



4. Coach Walsh walks you through year-by-year his perspective on the 49ers magnificent decade. He also discusses his experiences with the Bengals and Chargers as an assistant as well as Stanford's leader. There is an appendix with some famous plays.

5 comments about The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths.

1. I first read this book while my son was still doing a lot of diving. The book resonated with me as it is as much about the relationship of a father and son as it is about diving. It also is set in the context of the U-Who German Submarine that divers were trying to identify at the time so it contains WWII history info and local dive history. I thought it was a great book and recommend it.



2. One of my favorite dive books. The story of a father and son dive team and their tragic accident. Well written and gripping story of what happens when you get complacent. Just a good book that really pulls you in and keeps you in till the end. Written in a way to really get you attached to the characters.



3. "The Last Dive" is a very engaging read that is every bit as much about why people take risks at the edge of human ability (diving, mountain climbing, racing, etc.), their personalities, and their weaknesses, as it is about Chris and Chrissy Rouse and their fatal dive on the U-Who.
   
   Although I found "Shadow Divers" and "Deep Descent" a bit more riveting; after the somewhat flowery prose of the initial couple of chapters, "The Last Dive" did an excellent job of bringing me into the club of elite cave and wreck divers, introducing the history and exploits of the key divers including the Rouses, helping to understand a bit of what motivates these divers to make the deep dives and take the risks they do, introducing some of the key wrecks that help to set the stage, and taking you inside the head of the author as he experiences the same fascination, thrill, fever, risk, and pain of a dive gone bad.
   
   The author is a friend of many of the key divers and has personally made many of the same cave and wreck dives and has been through a serious episode of the bends, so he knows what he is talking about. He does a good job of describing technical issues in lay terms, so "The Last Dive" will engage the diver and non-diver alike.
   
   While the lives and personalities of Chris and Chrissy Rouse are a thread running through "The Last Dive"; it is just as much the author's story and that of the other deep wreck divers who take the same risks, and their inner needs and drive to do so. Once you get through the first two chapters, you will find "The Last Dive" to be a page-turning adventure.
   
   Definitely read the postlog chapter, "Ever Deeper". It's not the same rate of adventure as the rest of the book, but the additional information about many of the divers, advances in the science and psychology of deep wreck diving, and further information about identifying the U-Who (covered better in Shadow Divers) is worth the additional reading.



4. If you are looking for a great book about scuba diving you search has ended. The last dive is amazing and is a great story about a diving family and their quest for improvement.



5. This isn't Shadow Divers. This isn't written like a NY Times bestseller. It doesn't intensify or create drama like some other books do to try to captivate your interest. This book is written by a diver and is most appreciated by a fellow diver. Some complain of tangents which they say detract from the father and son story. These only serve to richen the experience for me. It not only tells the story but teaches valuable lessons and makes a diver desire further understanding on the many subject which are touched upon.

2 comments about Greatness: The Rise of Tom Brady.

1. I bought this item to give as a gift. I'll have to borrow it some time soon to see how the book actually rates. I received this item sooner than estimated. This transaction was flawless.



2. I gave this as a gift to my husband, and he really enjoyed it. We are HUGE Patriot fans {I am origianlly from New England}, so it is great to have this on our book shelf! A good read, a great quarterback! Nice for you, or for that "Brady Fan" in your life!!!!

5 comments about Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond.

1. Born in Autaugaville, Alabama in 1923, Bob Motley chronicles his exciting and interesting life as a professional athlete. As an umpire in the Negro American League in the 1940s and `50s, he ran the gauntlet from top-flight professional baseball players to the Ku Klux Klan.
   His birth in the heart of "Jim Crow territory," with all the restraints of segregation and prejudice, could not hold back his physical ability, positive attitude, and intellect, which powered him to be the best in his select profession. In that era, baseball was segregated far longer than other major sports. That forced the premier athletes of the time into the formation of the exclusively black Negro American League. Men like Elston Howard, Satchel Page, and Willie Mays turned the all-white Big Leagues on their ear after Brooklyn Dodger star Jackie Robinson broke the 80-year color barrier in 1947. Great black players who had been concentrated in the Black Leagues took the country by storm and elevated the game of baseball to infinite heights.
   Motley umpired them all. His autobiography not only chronicles that story, but his story of success, in spite of unbelievable odds, with fortitude, personal discipline, patience, and guts. From my own personal view, having grown up playing ball with anyone who could swing a bat, I always wondered why such talent should be separated and thereby limited. My black high school teammates and I, although just two or three years from "integration," never gave that separation a thought when we took the field. Bob Motley, in this book, shows us what great a victory has been won by all Americans.
   Even if Motley had not been with the Kansas City Monarchs, if he had not personally known Buck O'Neal, Roy Campanella, Hank Aaron, Joe Black or Cool Papa Bell, his story is that of a man who is in my Hall of Fame.



2. As a novice to the subject, I found this a most enjoyable read. It is full of lived history, love of sport and great humor. I highly recommend this book.



3. THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN BY BOB MOTLEY, WHO WAS AN UMPIRE IN THE NEGRO LEAGUES. HE TELLS OF HIS EXPERIENCES AND LIFE AS A BASEBALL UMPIRE. THIS IS A GREAT READ BY MR MOTLEY AS HE TELLS US OF SOME IMMORTAL GREATS AS SATHEL PAIGE, JACKIE ROBINSON, ROY CAMPANELLA AND MANY MORE. PLUS MANY OTHER STORIES ON THE JIM CROW LAWS AND HIS EXPERIENCE IN UMPIRE SCHOOL AND THE MANY BROKEN PROMISES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS HE HAD BECAUSE OF HIM BEING A NEGRO IN WHITE MAN'S WORLD. I HIGHLY ADVISE THIS FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS.



4. A must have book on baseball history, and what the Negro Leagues went through.
   It's an amazing life that unfolds as you turn the pages. Hard to put down as
   each chapter will leave you wanting more.



5. It's great to focus on some great moments in history. Bob Motley has lived an incredible life. Well worth reading and admiring!

No comments about Juan Manuel Fangio: Motor Racing's Grand Master (Karl Ludvigsen Racer Biographies).

No comments about Four Men in a Boat: The Inside Story of the Sydney 2000 Coxless Four.

5 comments about Bo Knows Bo.

1. Bo Jackson is the greatest American Athlete since Jim Thorpe. For some reason, people don't recognize this fact enough. Most people would give that title to Ali, and to be sure Ali was superb. But no one that I can think of played three sports at world class level (football, baseball, and track and field) the way Bo did. You have to think about how incredibly difficult that is. He was such a natural at everything he tried that he could afford to devout only partial attention to a given sport at anyone time. In terms of pure natural gifts, Bo Jackson surpasses everyone else. But what is most remarkable in this story is how close he came to throwing that immense talent away. Sports was his salvation, that and his hard-driving mother. This book shows how sports can be a great positive outlet in a person's life. They provide an arena for focused action that serves to improve the individual through lessons of hard-work, team-work, and discipline. Even the very talented have to work for it, and Bo shows that in this blunt accounting of his life



2. This piece is a look at the upbringing of Bo Jackson. He discusses his past and what brought him to his successes in life. It is watered down with numbers and flashbacks of games that not many remember. The saving graces in this book are the stories in regard to charitable works Bo has done, as well as Dick Schaap and his mid chapter-per chapter writings.
   This book is good for the twitch speed generation of parents to own to let their children one day know what the words: ownership, accountability, and work ethic really mean. Success is sometimes an afterthought.
   ~Angelo Markantonakis



3. More than One Chance
   
   I recently read the book Bo Knows Bo, Bo Jackson's autobiography. Bo Jackson was a pretty bad child and his career almost never happened. As a child, Bo Jackson twice almost pulled the trigger of a gun and shot and shot someone. He wasn't always a fan of practice and usually slept through team meetings. Bo got out of the ghetto when he got a scholarship to Auburn. While at Auburn, Bo played football, baseball, and did track for a year. A person he thought was a friend lied to Bo and cost Bo his eligibility his senior year for baseball when he worked out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before the draft. He could've gone pro in either football or baseball but decided to go pro when he got drafted by the Kansa City Royals. After the baseball season, Bo would play the ten games or however many were left for the Oakland Raiders.
   I like how this biography told about Bo's childhood because some biographies don't. I disliked how Bo was a problem child because he had so much talent. It is like Sports Century on ESPN Classic which is biographies of athletes on T.V.



4. In my opinion, one of the greatest athletes to come along post-1970s (that generation had Ali, Wilt, Alcindor, Hank Aaron, Jenner, Hamill, Franco Harris, Evelyn Ashford, Archie Griffin, Bjorn Borg, George McGinnis ... some of the biggest names in sport!).
   
   Fast. Big. Strong. (Did I mention Fast? Big? and Strong?)
   
   This dude had all the physical gifts and the "can do" mentality of a super hero come to life!!!
   
   Never seen anyone like him and probably will never again.
   
   It's ironic that this two-sport All-Star, seeminly indestructible had his career hobbled to a stutter that fateful Jan. 1991 day on a football field.
   
   This book gives you the inside on how a young Bo Jackson (aggressive and physically awesome even as a young kid) came all the way from Bessemer, Alabama, rose through elite football and baseball ranks to become the late-1980s megastud on the same dais of Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky before his injury.
   
   It's an interesting tale with behind the scenes looks at how teammates and competitors in both the NFL and MLB interacted with him -- or should I saw competed in awe -- how Jackson came to hate Steinbrenner and how his family kept and continues to keep him grounded.
   
   Here you had an athlete with ...
   
   Carl Lewis' speed
   Herschel Walker's size
   Reggie White/Ray Lewis strength
   Jim Brown's physical toughness
   Barry Sanders' explosiveness
   
   ... and a "No feat too great or too tall" mentality ALL HIS OWN.
   
   Bo was a champion who's athletic career was cut short too soon, leaving fans to always ponder "what if".
   
   This book celebrates memories and reflections on "What was."



5. Bo Knows Bo is a good book. It's about Bo Jackson's life as a kid, and how he played professional baseball and football. It tells you about his childhood, and when he went to Auburn. It talks about his personal life, when he played baseball, and football, too. It has chapters when people like Howie Long write in the book.
   I would recommend this book to sport fans or people how know Bo Jackson and want to know more about the real Bo Jackson's life.
   Spokane,WA Morch 17,2005 9 o'clock 32 minuts 21 secents

2 comments about Hello Everybody, I'm George Kell.

1. I know...I know...Ernie Harwell is a legend in Detroit and a Man of God. I would never take anything away from Mr.Harwell.
   
   But, having listened to them both for years growing up, I can tell you that George Kell DEFINED baseball for many more Detroiters than you might think.
   
   And this book helps resurrect the feeling he brought to the game for those who still miss him.
   
   He had so many great lines. Every Tiger fan knows what kind of play he was describing when he said "...And it's a dandy."
   
   And what about "...that helps." Maybe too obscure of a reference for some but Kell's voice uttering those words pop into my head almost everytime a fortuitious circumstance occurs in my life.
   
   A little old fashioned, maybe even uptight by the standards of the 1990's when he hung it up, George would be PERFECT as the ultimate retro announcer in today's baseball climate where fans, so jaded by one disillusionment after another, would relish a rock-solid influence like the GREAT George Kell...



2. That George's book turned out to be a long, tall, cold drink of water on a hot summer day came as no surprise to me. We in Michigan, who watched George throughout his years as the premier Tiger TV announcer and as one of the great players of his time, have long known of his commitment to to all that is good and right about America's pastime. But he also served as a prophet concerning the aspects of the modern game which led to a slow decay not only in the quality of the game, but in the character of some of the game's players and management. Even so, how can a baseball aficionado not feel the warm sunshine of yesteryear as we read of a living Hall of Famer's account of playing under Manager Connie Mack, alongside and against Ted Williams...Joe DiMaggio...even Minnie Minoso! George's book is special. I can virtually guarantee you will not read the likes of "Hello everybody, I'm George Kell" ever again. It is an easy-reading account of baseball's glory days, when a nation came out of a war against the forces of evil, and after looking in the mirror, realized the color line must be obliterated in what was then the undisputed King of American sport. George's decency shines through the entire book, just as his light has shined his entire life. Bravo!

5 comments about John L. Sullivan and His America (Sport and Society).

1. John L. Sullivan was the first great American sports icon, a terrific fighter, a highly flawed human being and a man of his times. This highly researched and well written book by Isenberg is a classic that details both a legendary career and how he effected and reflected America at the time. I have read it more than once and often find myself picking it up and reading passages ... as a boxing historian, it is one of my all time favorite works ...



2. I liked the book but wish author would of said more about subject and less about social period, over all very interesting.



3. What a great piece of storytelling. John L. Sullivan is a true giant of American history, and Mr. Isenberg brings him to life in this fulfilling, enlightening read. I opened the book and didn't put it down until 5 hours later, when I finished reading the last word. Mr. Isenberg, well done and thank you for this wonderful book!
   
   Dr. Raymond Hill
   Durham, NC



4. A nicely written biography of a great champion. Isenberg begins with a scholarly discussion of the Irish-American background in which Sullivan was born and extends to the bare knuckle society were he reigned supreme for twelve years. The thorough coverage of Sullivan's career is full of interesting anecdotes of many of the great fighters of the era and you gain real insight into the America of Sullivan's time. But, most importantly, in the end you become genuinely familiar with the man-John L.-himself.



5. An interesting account of the champion from Boston. Exhaustive research makes for an excellent read. I enjoyed it.