5 comments about Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith (Sporting).

1. I cannot remember if I watched the medal presentation ceremony for the 200 meter race at the 1968 Olympics. I think I did, if I did not then I missed a historic occasion.
   At that time racial problems in USA were not unfamiliar to me and I knew of people like Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis... However I thought that those problems would not affect top class athletes and that they were fairly treated by the white society. So I regarded the medal ceremony as a strong and emotional protest by people who though not directly affected wanted to give a voice to the majority of afro-american citizens.
   I could not be wronger. For instance, it never crossed my mind that Carlos and Smith feared to be shot by someone from the crowd.
   The book under review is a detailed account of Tommie Smith's life, focussing on the events that led to Mexico 68 and what happened afterwards.
   It is hard to believe what the two athletes, Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medallists respectively, had to endure: insults, menacing junk mail (a friend of a Smith's sister later confessed she used to send similar messages just for fun), the collapse of a marriage, a wife's suicide, the lack of support from people who could have helped (the former footballer Jim Brown was one of those), other black athletes strongly complaining their careers had been destroyed (Jim Hines, for example), no jobs...
   Also the families suffered. Smith's mother died at 57 and he strongly implies her death was caused by the stress that the situation generated. His brothers and sisters suffered all sorts of abuse and his youngest brother still seems to blame his life failures on him.
   It is no wonder that Muhammad Ali threw his Roma gold medal into the Mississipi river when realized that he was treated as before in his home town.
   The story appears to have a happy ending, the book closes with the unveiling of a statue
   portraying both athletes where everything started - the campus of San Jose State College -,
   but has it? Does anything in the world erase the strong suffering both athletes had to face?
   On reading this book I was reminded of a TV movie I watched long ago. The character played by Bette Davis, an old teacher, bumps into a former and much, much younger pupil.
   They recall her motto - It's better to lose on one's terms than to win on someone else's. (I'm quoting from memory). I think that Tommie Smith might agree.



2. I thought the book was wordy but interesting. I wish the ghost writer had more control. Sometimes preachy. Slow read.



3. I enjoyed learning more about Mr. Smith, but found the writing to be cumbersome, and a bit boring.
   
   The concept was a good one, unfortunately the writing was poor.



4. With several long-winded sections on the kinetics of sprinting and slams against athletes - John Carlos, George Foreman, Bob Seagren, Lee Evans, teammates on the Cincinnati Bengals - and others - Dr. Harry Edwards, Jim Brown, the NAACP - it is no wonder why it took 40 years for Tommie Smith to get his autobiography published.
   
   In what is oftentimes a very tedious read, Smith and co-author David Steele ruin what is a powerful personal account of an athlete who truly wanted to use his talent for a greater good and the institutionalized racism in this country that he has confronted his entire life.
   
   Smith's recollections of the Olympic Project for Human Rights is particularly moving and he does an excellent job is dispelling the myths that has clouded the issue since the late 1960s. For the record, his Olympic gold medal was never seized by the International Olympic Committee.
   
   But his personal vendettas against so many people and institutions detracts mightily from his message. It may have been theraputic for Smith, but whining about the salaries of Bengal teammates and magnifying every perceived slight from friends/colleagues into high drama becomes juvenile and silly.
   
   I was very excited when I heard that Smith's autobiography was finally going to be published. But it proved to be a very disappointing read.



5. I feel that the previous reviewers each has an ax (albeit a different ax) to grind. I am simply a progressive who happens to follow the sport of track & field, and have since before 1968. I admire both Smith and Carlos, but I thought Smith's book (I have not read Carlos')was self-serving and, as one reviewer noted, compromised by regret. To those of us of that generation , to whom that silent gesture was meaningful indeed, whatever its exact motivation, this volume constitutes a terrible disappointment. I'll take the Tommie Smith of 1968 without resrvations, but who's THIS guy?

5 comments about Season on the Brink.

1. As best I can tell, this is the finest book yet written about Indiana University basketball and Bob Knight, and it's 21 years old. Feinstein is a top notch biographer and he doesn't sugar coat anything in this book. It's filled with interesting anecdotes and quite a few raw quotes. The mid-1980s was a magical time for IU basketball, including in their rivalry with Purdue and Gene Keady. And Feinstein tagging along for a whole season gives the reader a good feel for some of the magic of basketball in the state of Indiana, as portrayed in the movie Hoosiers. I think Feinstein is quite objective in his portrayal of the good, the bad, and the ugly in Knight. Regardless of your opinion of Knight, I think it's clear that he cares about his players, the sport of college basketball, and about running a clean program. Feinstein ends by stating that the then 46-year-old Knight is "A young man with a bright future. If he doesn't destroy it." Knight may have come close to doing so around 2000, but he's recovered nicely and seems to be doing well at Texas Tech. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.



2. Knight is nothing but a bully and a lunatic. He's proof that you can do whatever the hell you want as long as you win and make $$$$$$$$$$$$$.
   Typical America these days.
   When he got fired from Indiana I had a parade down my street.



3. This dated but gripping look at coach Bobby Knight and Indiana University basketball places readers squarely at courtside and inside the Hoosier's locker room. Author John Feinstein observed the team during the 1985-1986 season, and he recreates the excitement as Indiana surges through the highly-competitive Big Ten conference to reach the NCAA tournament in March. The players stress under their demanding coach, yet seem to accept him. And coach Knight is a handful; volatile, foul-tempered, immature, and willing to play head games ("BK Theatre") with his players. Of course, he's also highly intelligent and one of the few NCAA basketball coaches to punish class cutting and run a clean program with high graduation rates. That plus winning probably explains why Knight kept his job until 2000, despite cry-baby antics, throwing chairs, screaming at referees, and even kicking his own son.
   
   This is an excellent narrative, but I wish the author had gone even further. We could use a more detailed look at the team's defensive schemes, the players themselves, and the exploitive hypocrisy of letting coaches get rich while NCAA players play for scholarships in a multi-billion dollar industry. Despite these omissions, this is a superbly readable narrative, and one of (or the) top-selling sports book of all time.



4. Growing up, all I knew about legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight was that he would rant and rave, throw chairs, get arrested, scream in his players' faces and snap at the media. During college, upon taking a class called "Moral Reasoning In Sport," I conducted research on Bobby Knight and got to know Bobby Knight as a person better. The ironic thing was that he stood for good morals but what he practiced as a coach boardered on the immoral at times. I saw how wonderful a man he could be and how badly he could cut a person down. I was fascinated by his style.
   
   My curiosity about Bobby Knight led me to "A Season On The Brink;" a book which describes the full 1985-86 season with Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers. Author John Feinstein, who trooped along with the team complete with notepad and tape recorder, crafts this book in amazing detail with all the trimmings. We are given a real life look at the pressures that college basketball can bring to both coach and players, the trials and tribulations. We are given a taste of how addictive competition is and the emotional effects it can have.
   
   "A Season On The Brink" describes Bobby Knight in a way that begs you to love him and begs you to hate him. Passionate about not failing, Knight pressures himself to succeed and is quick to think himself a failure each time he does not reach certain goals. His characteristic short fuse is always there to represent this. After the disastrous 1984-85 season where he performed the legendary chair throw that got him in trouble, he vowed not to go through a repeat season in 1985-86. He constantly reminded his players of that terrible season as fuel for them to create a better season in '85-'86.
   
   We are literally taken to the "brink" of Knight's sanity at times as Feinstein describes Knight's techniques for getting his team prepared for games. The saga continues before each game for the Indiana players, from studying hours of opponent game tape in "the cave," to "walk-throughs" on the court of what will be conducted in the upcoming game, to appetizing pre-game meals of spaghetti and pancakes in the early morning. Practices are grueling as the players are screamed at by Knight; virtually every four-letter word flying in their faces each time one fails to get a certain rebound, set a certain screen or make a decent pass.
   
   Then of course there are always the Bobby Knight mind games present, a term that Feinstein calls "B.K. Theater." Players like his all-stars, Steve Alford and Daryl Thomas will be targets of his ranting and raving of how horrible they are, how they don't care about playing and how he should never have gotten players like them on his team. You did not want to land in Knight's "doghouse" as Feinstein describes it. In fact, on some of Knight's worst days, the whole team is in the doghouse as he throws all of them out of practices while yelling his questioning of their commitment to the game.
   
   Feinstein does an excellent job of describing the games themselves from the tension in the locker room before the game, during halftime and after the game, to the crowd noise and chants, to the arguments Knight has with officials. As for the players themselves, Feinstein chronicles virutally every key shot, mistake made, rebound and beautiful pass. As you read the book, you'll find your heart pounding as Indiana fights for the lead or fights to keep their lead as the clock quickly winds down to crunch time. You'll find yourself cheering for star players like Steve Alford when he drains another key shot and for Cinderella players like Steve Eyl when he makes two clutch free-throws.
   
   But you'll also feel the despair the players feel if a win has not been grasped or a goal has not been reached, from the chilling silence of the locker room, to Knight screaming and storming out of it only to come back in and talk calmly. Sometimes Knight will resort to taking off to fish or hunt with friends, attending other basketball games or letting the other coaches run the team for a while, while he watches from the stands. And of course there are the situations that the players bring on themselves that creates tension and stress such as Alford's posing for a calander, Daryl Thomas's injuries and Andre Harris's skipping of classes.
   
   You'll find out what Bobby Knight goes through with the media; how his past record continues to follow him and how the media jumps to conclusions and exaggerating. You'll also see Knight's recruiting process (players from high school and junior college) and the ups and downs that come with it. You'll hear Knight's own insecurity through talks with his other coaches over meals at late-night diners, on the plane trips and before games with words like "Do you think we're okay?" "Will we win again?" You will see Knight marking up important words on the chalkboard and trying different defensive and offensive set-ups that he wouldn't have done in the past. In short, you'll hear it, you'll feel it and you'll see it all.
   
   But one thing that Feinstein enables us to see is the loveable Bobby Knight; he Bobby Knight who doesn't forget past players that he has befriended such as Quinn Buckner. The Bobby Knight who sympathized with a deaf kid and gave he and his family tickets to the basketball game. The Bobby Knight whom past players and friends call upon for advice or to have some strings pulled. As Feinstein pointed out in the book, nobody could have a more loyal friend than Bobby Knight. You ask him to do something and he would do just about anything for you. And granted we see plenty of Knight's softer side around his players from Steve Alford's final game as a Hoosier, to the heartfelt goodbye to Delray Brooks who would transfer to another school. And of course you'll really get a taste of Bobby Knight's sense of humor and quick wit. When times are going a little smoother for the team, you'll read of Knight making cracks with his coaches and players.
   
   Feinstein even takes us right down the path to the crucial tournament games with heated rivals Ohio State and Michigan. The read is quite a nail-biting experience. Feinstein follows the chronicled 1985-86 season up with a fairly quick but detailed overview of the 1986-87 team on the way to a championship against Syracuse, where you will again start getting onto the court with the players as the key plays of this amazing championship game are described by Feinstein. Headed by new recruits such as a kid named Smart, the Hoosiers took home a championship and rendered Knight literally hoarse with emotion in the end.
   
   Indeed, if you are a fan of sports and you love the game of basketball; especially the thrill of college basketball, you will love this book. Even for those who may despise Bobby Knight, I would still recommend you give this book a read. It's a wonderful basketball story and a read that gets you right into the heated games and the hardened practices with the team. It could quite possibly be the best trip to the brink a sports fan could want.



5. Road To Satisfaction
   
   A Season On The Brink shows the struggles of a great college basketball coach, Bobby Knight, to not have a losing season. The intensity of Bobby Knight can sometimes cause problems and hurt feelings. Knight tries to keep his poise during the 1986 season and clean up a little bit. The way things are going for a while really doesn't help him control his anger. Coming off from coaching possibly the best Olympic team, Knight expects nothing but the best for his Indiana Hoosiers.
   The book can be repetitive at points while John Feinstein the author is explaining non-exciting games play by play; but the close games can get you caught up in the action. You can be thrilled at one minute and then picture yourself in the locker room during one of Bobby Knight's intense speeches after the game. Feinstein did a great job with the details of the whole season and that is why A Season On The Brink is a best seller.
   
   ---Sean Weakley

5 comments about The Runner: A True Account of the Amazing Lies and Fantastical Adventures of the Ivy League Impostor James Hogue.

1. Samuels has taken an admirable stab at dissecting this enigmatic Gatsbyesque con man's psyche for motive, astutely tabulating the paltry gain from the years of petty crime. In a funny aside that Samuels to his credit puts in the book, Hogue responds to one of Samuels's elaborate and quirky questionnaires by closing with this jibe: "What's with the janitor garb? Are you trying to show your solidarity with the lumpen?"
   
   The book is an elaboration of a New Yorker article and probably should have stayed as such (much like Barry Werth's Scarlet Professor), as it feels stretched and padded. Although not a great writer, Samuels rightly senses that he holds compelling subject matter. One fault is that the chronology would have been much better as a simple linear progression; it confusingly yoyos between past and future. Also, instead of just letting the story tell itself, Samuels often intrudes with exaggerated veneration of the privilege of a Princeton (or his own Harvard) education, with admissions committees' self deluding liberal smugness, and with largely irrelevant autobiographical items.
   
   Hogue ultimately proves uncooperative and Samuels is left to speculate on his quarry, but perhaps there is no very profound mechanism at work here. Although I have to admit I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary Con Man. One wonders what a Truman Capote or a Norman Mailer might have done with this material.



2. Just finished reading Samuels The Runner, and literally could not put it down. Wow! What a crazy fascinating story. It's amazing that people like Hogue exist and that people like Samuels can tell their tale so well. I really felt like I was there, meeting Hogue in person. Not sure what the other reviewers problems are... I thought it was great, and so did every other members of my book group (expect Andy, but he hates everything!) Really, this is a five star winner!



3. Some writers can craft a sentence and story; some reporters unearth great detail. David Samuels is that rare talent who can do both, and the result is The Runner, a terrific literary page turner.



4. The Runner is a engaging read about a fascinating character. The original article was the tip of the iceberg and I appreciated the expanded treatment. David's writing is insightful and funny. The books leaves me wanting more but in a way that keeps the fascination alive. Like a movie with an open ending I am left to wonder about specific events and ponder what it really means to reinvent yourself in a world that is so clearly driven by unfair rules. No one likes to be lied to but sometimes lies can be inspiring.



5. This book seems particularly relevant right now, with the literary world increasingly falling victim -- practically once a month -- to frauds, plagiarists and con artists. It's the true life story of a particularly colorful specimen. In his late 20's, basically a drifter living in Colorado, James Hogue decided to recreate himself as a charismatic genius and sports hero -- and he used his new identity to hustle his way into Princeton University as an undergrad. He was a complete fake, but as Samuels shows, that doesn't make him any less accomplished. His insane story tells you as much about our times, and about our elite institutions, as it does about the peculiar twists and turns of one individual's particular psyche. In America, the land of self-invention, the con man is often king, and this small book -- just about the same length as The Great Gatsby, one of Hogue's inspirations -- is a wonderful and strangely moving portrait of a true American original. David Samuels is well-known as an award-winning magazine journalist, and this, his first book, shows him at the top of his form. I recommend it highly.

5 comments about Final Rounds: A Father, A Son, The Golf Journey Of A Lifetime.

1. This book really hits home as a story of a grown son and his dad. They plan a final great trip together in the twilight of the dad's life. It is about life and is a great golf story also in that the story is intertwined with the history of golf on a personal basis.
   
   My dad is gone so I gave a copy to my son. I also gave a copy to a couple of friends whose fathers are now growing old. They are golfers who learned the game growing up and playing golf with their dads. If you fit this description, I highly recommend this book.



2. ISBN 0553375644 - I started reading this book hoping for the touching story of the father and son and was vaguely disappointed. Not to say the story isn't there, because it is in it's own way, but the golf far overshadows Dodson and his father, making this a far better book for golf fans than non-fans.
   
   James Dodson and his father finally get around to planning that dream trip: all the best courses in great company. Just before they are to leave, his father calls with bad news - the trip will have to be postponed because the cancer of years ago is back. With a small laugh, the man Dodson calls "Opti the Mystic" tells him the prognosis: he has a month, maybe two, to live. Dodson realizes that this means that the trip may never happen, but another call comes soon after and the trip is on. There are conditions and one of them is that when his father says it's time to go home, it's time to go home, no argument. Opti has "things to do", clearly the tying up of loose ends in his life.
   
   The men set out on the golf trip of a lifetime and, honestly, will bore the non-golf-fan cross-eyed with the details of games and players. If you've gotten that far, barrel through - the point of the book isn't the game, or the courses, it's the relationship between father and son. Golf is just the medium in which they relate to one another. Knowing, all along, that Opti is going to die doesn't detract from the sorrow when the time comes and, oddly, his death doesn't detract from the happier side of the story. Opti the Mystic, with an eye always for the silver lining, gives his son some incredible gifts and Dodson does his best to share them with the reader.
   
   I'm not a fan of golf and found myself just skimming very big sections of the book. The stories OFF the course were far more interesting and I wish they'd been given more ink, but Final Rounds is still a very good book.



3. Fanstic read. This will touch the heart of any golfer that has ever had the chance to play with their Dad.



4. I lost this book while I was vacationing with my wife in Italy for her 40th birthday. I couldn't wait to get home to buy another copy and finish it. That was 9 years ago. I was so moved by the story that I made a pledge to try and take my sons on a similar trip one day. Well, I've lost 3 jobs since then and have been paying college expenses for 6 years, the last 4 years for 2 kids at a time. However, my current job allowed me to go to Aberdeen, Scotland 6 times last year alone. While reading the book again, I dog earred places I wanted to include on my trip. I have also been saving magazine articles as well as itineraries from acquainteses who have made similar golf excursions. And during my trips to Scotland I've developed friendships and they have helped with insights to add my catalog of information.
   
   Well, the trip is planned. I compiled a notebook for both my sons with our planned itinerary, a route map showing the courses along our journey and website information on all the courses. I gave it to them for Christmas. They are pumped. Both are very good players and we have played alot together. My oldest is getting married in October and my yougner son plays for his college team and will graduate in May. For their birthdays they each will get a copy of Final Round to read as a prerequiste to the trip schedlued June 6-21. We will play both the famous and the hidden gems. We'll play Carnoustie on Father's Day and then drive down to St. Andrew's and watch the final round of the US Open in a pub 100 yards off the 18th green of the Old Course. Our last round will be on the Old Course. This book provided a dream for a once in a lifetime trip. I'm going to share it with two of my favorite people.



5. I picked up this book at a used book sale on a lark. I love Scotland and thought a book on a father and son golf trip to the old courses would be fun. What I didn't expect was such a great book about the relationship between a very optimistic father and his earnest son. Just before the trip the father discovers he has cancer and not long to live. They go on the trip anyway and we get to know two interesting people and how life's lessons can come in many places including on a golf course. I lost my father a few months before I read this book. I took my time reading it, not wanting it to end. It helped ease the pain of my loss and to direct my energies and lessons I have to offer to my sons.

1 comments about Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas.

1. On accuracy: It is wrong to skip or gloss over facts that lead to wrong conclusions. In Russel Freedman's Who was First?, page 11, where he quotes Columbus, "They [the Arawaks] were well built...", Columbus, in that same quote, also wrote in his journal that he took some of the natives by force (2). "They [the Arawaks] would make fine servants . . . With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want" (1) Russel Freedman's book skips a lot on accuracy for Columbus: "Columbus received 10% of the profits from this venture [and] governship over new found lands..."(2). A man named Rodrigo saw the Americas first, but Columbus claimed he saw the land first and he received the reward of an annual pension of 10,000 maravedis for his lifetime (38 kg = 83.6 lbs of silver or about $22,700 in today's dollars)(3). On Hispaniola Columbus took more prisoners and two Arawaks were bled to death with swords for they had refused to trade the number of bows and arrows Columbus and his men wanted (3). On the second trip, Columbus and 1,200 hundred men rounded up 1,500 Arawak men, women and children for slaves: 500 went back to Spain and 200 died en route (4). On Haiti, the original camp of Spaniards had been destroyed because they took women and children for sex and labor slaves (4). In Haiti, Columbus forced all those 14 an older to collect a specific amount of gold every three months; those who failed had their hands cut off (4). Spaniards would behead Indians for fun. Natives who ran away were hanged or burned, so the Arawak men, women, and children started committing mass suicide with Cassava poison (4). By 1650, all the original Arawaks and descendents were dead (5). Howard Zinn. A People's History of the United States.
   
   Russel Freedman fails to name Columbus appropriately as a slaver and an encourager of the rape, genocide and enslavement of the Arawaks. He whitewashes some of the history with his words and pictures (especially priests blessing this man), thereby not giving Columbus his proper due.
   
   I did like Russel Freedman's analysis of the flaws in the theories the Chinese were in the Americas well before Columbus (p31-33). I would liked to have seen more writing on the Heyerdahl's 1947 KonTiki expedition that proved Indian balsa wood rafts could cross the Pacific Ocean. The analysis of Viking landings (43) tie in with what I have read before. I wish Africa had been given more attention. I read there are rock carvings in South America that can be traced to African carvings.
   
   Still, Accuracy wise, for a children's book, Who was First? breaks new bounds.
   
   Jason Penterman, West Bend, WI

5 comments about Cobb: A Biography.

1. Tyrus Raymond Cobb, over a twenty three year career compiled a major league record that will likely never be matched. With a career batting average of .367, he won twelve batting titles, recorded 892 stolen bases, 4191 hits in 11,429 at bats, and played in 3,033 games . When Babe Ruth came on the scene during the last several years of Cobb's career baseball fans were caught up in long ball fever. Unimpressed, Cobb once hit five home runs in two consecutive games simply to show how easy it was to hit homers.
   
   He played the game with an intensity and ferocity that both intrigued and appalled the baseball fans of his generation. Reportedly sharpening his steel spikes to a razor's edge he would slash any second baseman or catcher to the bone who showed the audacity to block the baseline. Cobb was not a pleasant man to be around on or off the field. He was hated and feared even by his own team mates, yet he did more for baseball than any player before him, or possibly since.
   
   Al Stump goes behind the scenes and tells the tragic story of a man who battled baseball officials and his own demons all of his life. Toward the end of Cobb's life Stump lived with him while writing his biography and was on edge the whole time. Even in old age Cobb was tempermental, demanding, and feared by those he came in contact with.
   
   If you're a baseball fan, or simply enjoy a well written biography, this is one that you won't want to miss.



2. I found this book very fascinating. Stump gets into the complexities of a baseball perfectionist while interweaving the complexities of a truly disturbed and unstable man. The story is well told and intriguing.



3. Those who saw the movie "Cobb" know that it centers on the last year and a half of Ty Cobb's life, when he hired sportswriter Al Stump to help him write an autobiography [though Cobb was a highly literate man, who really didn't need a ghostwriter]. Ty Cobb was dying, and knew it; cancer and diabetes were about finished with him, and he wanted to tell his story while he could. This is Al Stump's story of that experience.
   
   Ty Cobb was a strange, difficult, complex, man. His manner was not designed to make him well liked, but he really didn't care. His fellow Tigers may not have cared for him, but they were well aware that he was the greatest player in the game, and that he gave 100% on the field. Some of the popular stories [the sharpened spikes, and, until cancer got the best of him, the drinking] are lies, but the statistics aren't. Cobb always saw himself as an outsider, a member of an aristocratic Southern family, who really didn't belong.
   
   Cobb and Stump had quite a time, and Cobb's book did get written. They visited casinos, churches, the Hall of Fame, Cobb's daughter [who rejected him, though she was willing to have his money after he died], and got Ty his medical care. Stump stayed till the end. Al discovered that Ty was financially supporting a number of old ballplayers, and their widows...he turned Christ's admonition around, publicizing his bad deeds, and keeping the good secret [the support was anonymous; Cobb's lawyer hired another lawyer to pay it].
   
   A psychiatrist could have a grand time with Ty Cobb. PTSD? Probably...what his Mom did to his Dad would throw anybody for a loop. Cobb did give his mother all the love money could buy, but even that may have been more than she deserved. He took chances, from the way he played ball, to his Army service as a Captain in the Poison Gas Division in WWI...no soft job in Special Services for Ty Cobb.
   
   This is a fine book about a very difficult subject...brilliant, hard driven, complex, Ty Cobb was the greatest baseball player that ever lived. He may have had some faults as a person, but NOT as a ballplayer. You can't understand Ty Cobb in one book any more than you can Thomas Jefferson [there actually are parallels]...Al Stump obviously disliked his subject, but his skill and honesty are enough to make the greatness shine thru. Read this, but also read Charles Alexander, and Cobb's own book.



4. This is a searing biography of baseball legend Ty Cobb (1887-1961). As the author shows Cobb was a superbly talented and intelligent ballplayer, and he still has the highest lifetime batting average (.367). Cobb was also intensely competitive, and so mean and fast-tempered that even roughneck players feared and detested him. The author examines Cobb's upbringing in Georgia (including his father's being shot dead by his mother) and his long career (1905-1928) in baseball. Readers learn of Cobb's many batting and stolen base titles, his unproven involvement in a 1919 fix, and his years as player-manager for the Detroit Tigers. Cobb was careful with his dollars and blessed with investment savvy that made him rich - players calling him "penny pincher" had an instant fight on their hands. The book also takes a brief look at his life after his playing days ended.
   
   As many know, a dying Cobb hired the author to write his autobiography - and that first book said what Cobb wanted. This second and more honest effort appeared three decades later, and is far from pretty. We see Cobb as a volatile racist lout, unpopular as a player, and shunned in his later years by both his family and by those struglling ex-players that the financially generous Cobb helped. This second biography is relentless, revealing, and not for those with a weak stomach.



5. "Cobb" by Al Stump: This is THE book that made me truly appreciate the game of baseball and Ty Cobb. I read all 400 plus pages in three days of reading and it was very difficult to put down at the end of the night. Do not confuse this book by Al Stump with the one he co-authored with Ty Cobb titled "Ty Cobb My Life in Baseball." That book was more of a PR campaign for Ty Cobb to help improve his image in the public eye. "Cobb" however is 100% pure, raw, and insane Ty Cobb. It is within this book that you will learn why so many people say that Ty Cobb still is the best that ever was in baseball. You will also learn why so many players and fans thought he was possessed with the "furies"; in fact many questioned his sanity. Ty Cobb hit .367 over 24 seasons, won over a dozen batting titles and was the first ball player to ever be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I was surprised to learn that Ty Cobb had founded a hospital system, an educational foundation and helped down-and-out ballplayers. Truly one of the best baseball books I have ever read. Robert Pedersen www.fatherachildsright.org

3 comments about Heroes of the Negro Leagues (with free DVD: Only the Ball Was White).

1. I purchased this book for a young boy age 13 and I also have one myself. This book and DVD is an excellent, fun history lesson for a child or pre-teen to reference at his or her leasure. It's an easy read and a great reference for people of all ages who want to know more about the Negro Baseball Leagues! A must have!



2. This book preserves an important aspect in the history of baseball and in African American history, and it does so in a riveting way. A sincere and fascinating tribute -- and a handsome one, to boot.



3. If you have any interest in baseball, you'll definitely want to have this book! Created by very talented men, this is a book to keep.

5 comments about Posh & Becks.

1. The simple introduction here would be, "Liked him but didn't like her." Of course, he has that warm, winning smile that makes him both attractive and seemingly approachable--while she favors a frowny pout that is very off-putting. (The book contains 16 pages of photographs, most of them in color.) But more importantly, he has real talent that he has worked all his life to cultivate, while her skills might be charitably described as modest and haphazardly developed. Morton makes the point that Posh has always pursued success rather than proficiency: "Victoria's supreme ambition, the goal she had had since childhood, was to be famous and admired . . . [and her] success was achieved quickly and in spite of, rather than because of, any real talent she could demonstrate." I am also not keen on promoting anorexic role models for today's youth, and there are many pages in this tome devoted to her slenderizing habits.
   
   For a change of pace (although not a sports buff), I took the time while reading this book to watch clips of David's action on the soccer field. I was amazed at what I saw, both in terms of skill but also, and unexpectedly, in terms of joy--this man loves to play! Yet he is described as "nice but dim," and his wife is a high school dropout.
   
   Morton provides his own analysis of this couple: "He seems content to be who he is, secure in his skin, a talented footballer doing what he has always wanted. On the other hand, Victoria is driven by the demons within; a woman who is at once dauntless, intrepid, and dynamic, and yet insecure, vulnerable, and needy." But they have found each other, they love their kids, and they have been successful at promoting "Brand Beckham." Maybe it will all work out in the end . . .



2. this book didn't tell me anything i didn't already know. i guess i was hoping it would go more into friendships and events these two had been involved with but it seemed to just skim over their life with the bare minimum of details. i wasted my money.



3. I have read many books this is the second time and last time I ever read a book from this author. I happen to like the Beckhams, and feel that every single public personality deserves a key word privacy. When you cannot trust your nannies, cleaning people that is really sad, especially since they are a normal couple with children that fight and have their difficulties like everyone else in the world, they are the upper 3% of the world with money, they worked hard for it and deserve every single penny if we buy into them and their branding..and strong family values.
   I am sad if David did have affairs on his wife because that is a lack of respect for her and his boys and if they even have an agreement to an open marriage it is still no ones business but their own. there is a saying men like blueberry pie, once in awhile they like a little apple but than they return to the bluebuerry pie men love history they never leave their wives!
   To Victoria if you want your fashion sense to soar like an eagle think globally not locally to size 0.,go larger bring your books sell it all and than use some of it for charity or a training school for homeless teenagers to get them off the streets.
   I would go QVC or Shopping channel with your fragrances and clothing and sunglasses the more units you sell the more you make it is simple math. Do Jewlery too and anything you can brand your name on because Beckham sells because everyone wants a piece of you it represents wealth and abundance.
   You go Beckhams and when the press hate you it is because you are doing well. No one wants your sucess it is a famous saying. Andrew Morton can you never write a book that is pleasant I challenge you to do it my gosh man you are a negative and jealous writter and no better than the thousands of papparazzi that chase these people daily for their fix!



4. Andrew Morton is presented as the something between the devil incarnate and the Brit version of Kitty Kelley but this book, Posh and Becks isn't that bad actually. In fact, it's pretty fair. He makes it clear that the whole Girl Power thing that the Spice Girls had going was actually crap. They were invented by two busnessmen and their careers were guided by their male manager. They were a business venture first and musicians second. But hey, they entertained a whole lot of people and they all got rich so who can complain?
   
   Morton says that the Adams/Beckham wedding was tacky. Well, that's a mater of opinion but the pictures of the wedding did provoke more derisive laughter than envy in most people who commented publicly.
   
   Morton presents Beckham as a nice guy who let's his wife make the decisions... that could said for most happily married men. Morton also brings up a few alleged affairs but he makes it clear that the women involved all told their stories to the media so their actions have to be suspect.
   
   As for Victoria Beckham herself, Morton spent less time talking about her relationships before Beckham than she did in her own book. She complains bitterly about Morton in her book but all in all, Posh and Becks isn't a hatchet job and seemed rather mild to me. Pity about Beckham's soccer career though.



5. Morton must receive his praise for putting together all the dirt there was on Posh and Becks. Is it morally wrong? By no means. Instead of digging through old glossy magazines you can check one book with a glossy cover.
   One question which this book fails to answer is how a player who is apparently past his prime and a girl who never was a good singer could become and continue to be such celebrities world-wide. But this is not a question which has anything to do with this charming couple but with us.

5 comments about My Losing Season.

1. Pat Conroy hasn't written a basketball book in the style of the wonderful "A Season on the Brink". Here, the actual season takes a bleacher seat compared to the main theme of coming of age and dealing with a wide emotional range, from great pleasure to enduring abuse that can make a reader squirm.
   
   The basketball itself is interesting enough, with details pulled together after 30 years thanks to a concerted mining expedition with former teammates, a rather successful lot in middle age. As Conroy says, winners develop bonds with each other that last, with memories they want to keep. Losers, well, they move on and don't need any reminders.
   
   The Citadel team underachieved, losing several close games, with the finger-pointing going to themselves and their mediocre coach Mel Thompson. One might think of Bobby Knight or some other screamer as a coach, but at least Coach Knight knew what he was doing and could usually motivate his boys. On Coach Thompson, we hear plenty of how he brought out the worst or sapped their energy with an ill-timed remark or action. Plus, the average college player didn't have to survive the brutal hazing of freshman year and the other challenges of a military school.
   
   In Conroy's case, life intervenes even more in the presence of his father, well-known to people already aware of Conroy's work. A vision of Robert Duvall as the obnoxious Dad was impossible to avoid, with never a kind word and, in reality, degrading insults even when Pat was at his best. How he could (usually) shrug off the abuse is beyond me, other than it must have come from the same reservoir that make him a tough scrapper on the court.
   
   Other threads include some fine mentors on campus who helped Pat survive and develop his literary interests, a distressed pregnant girl he falls for, the honor system, and a nice summary of high school hoops while on the move. As with many survivor stories, a key individual often makes the difference at a critical time or over a sustained period, and Conroy had his benefactors. There is no doubt that he is a very loyal person who appreciates what others did on his behalf. He even had enough loyalty to Coach Thompson, for some reason, leading to some strange appreciative remarks at the end, and he even had some surprising partial reconciliation with Dear Old Abusive Dad. Conroy is one guy who is all over the map emotionally.



2. Pat Conroy, the brilliant novelist, brings his fantastic writing style to his own memoirs in My Losing Season. Pat describes his life from his early childhood through his college years at The Citadel. His father, a Marine, was both physically and verbally abusive throughout Pat's lifetime. When Conroy Senior wasn't beating Pat's mom, he was taking his aggressions out on any one of the seven Conroy children. They learned to avoid him whenever possible and do what they could to avoid raising his ire. Pat found solace in the game of basketball anywhere he could find it. In school he found structure and guidance, on the street courts he found art and guts. But no matter where Pat played he loved every aspect of the game and the various nuances that he could learn.
   
   Conroy chronicles the difficulties of his home life and then the hardship of being a plebe in a rigorous military college where athletes were practically loathed. In many ways, Conroy's situation did not improve when he escaped his father's daily wrath. But what Conroy explains is that these tribulations were the basis of his personal character building and moments that he now looks back on with feelings of gratitude and appreciation. He writes of his journey to becoming a writer and how he balanced his academic studies with the rigors of college athletics.
   
   Conroy has written a delightful book that reads like his novels but with the added touch of his reality. He does not hesitate to address his own shortcomings as a human, writer, and athlete. This lends credibility to his descriptions of his youth and how that youth shaped his adulthood. My Losing Season contains many references to Conroy's works of fiction and at times discusses the outcome or plots of his novels that may be considered spoilers by those that have not read the novels. However, mostly, it is a unique insight into the author's thought process that will likely lead to a more enjoyable reading of these fictional books. My Losing Season will be enjoyed by those already loyal to Conroy and those that are finding him for the first time.



3. My Losing Season is the story of The Citadel's '66-'67 season. Pat Conroy begins the book with a little background as to how he got into basketball and fell in love with the game, as a child in a military family moving from town to town every year. He takes the reader through his journey up until he arrives at The Citadel for college. While Conroy does give tremendous details about his experience at The Citadel, the majority of the book deals with the '66-'67 basketball season. Conroy takes the reader game for game through the ups and mostly downs of the season - their crazy coach Mel Thompson, the Green Weenies, the loss of confidence of the starting 5, and all the teams they play in the Southern conference.
   
   As a reader you'll get to know these guys - DeBrosse, Cauthen, Kennedy, Zinsky, Tee Hooper, etc - you truly feel for them especially because they're real people and these games really happened! It's a great lesson on what one can learn from losing. Are those lessons more important that having a winning season? My only complaint was that since every chapter was really a different basketball game it got tedious at times. You definitely have to be a sports enthusiast to enjoy this book!



4. I have a message for Pat Conroy: STOP YOUR WHINING. I read the book on a recommendation from a friend - however, I wish had not wasted my time on it. Mr Conroy did a masterful job of weaving the story of his life into his expereinces at the Citadel. But, personally, I could not take his whining attitude - the tough plebe system at the Citadel, his "Great Santini" father, his demeaning basketball coach, the reaction from Citadel alumnists over his bashing of their school. This book seemed to infer that he was suffering some inhumane, life-long injustice. Give me a break!! I regret that Mr Conroy's reputation as a great writer and the publisher's willingness to support this project allowed the book to be published in the first place. For anyone paying attention to the rest of the world, this book is a crock...one word of advice for Pat Conroy: suck it up!! Alas, I think it's too late for Mr Conroy. One other note: You would never, ever see wrestler write a book like this!!



5. Conroy's fiction has always been a biography of sorts (Great Santini in particular) but I think his choice to chronicle his life through his final basketball season at the Citadel was brilliant. It brings together all the elements of his fictional life that we have come to love and respect: His overbearing father, the south in the 1950s and 1960s, and the one character common to all his books: Sports.
   
   I think that Pat Conroy is the kind of person who most would envy the life he's had, it's ups and downs, and this book only solidifies that belief for me.

5 comments about How Lance Does It.

1. I truly admire Lance and what he is done, but this book overdoes it a bit!



2. There were a couple of Lance stories I hadn't heard before, but, overall, it wasn't a good Lance book nor did it impress me as a motivational tool. Save your money: re-read It's Not About the Bike. It's better written, tells a better Lance story and is a darn sight more motivational.



3. "How Lance Does It" is a good and motivational "airplane read." Author Brad Kearns, a former high-level triathlete, explores how Lance Armstrong's approach to sport and life can function as an effective template for our own success and self development.
   
   Some may tire of the elevation of Lance Armstrong as the greatest cyclist, the greatest athlete, the greatest Dad, the greatest philanthropic fund-raiser, et cetera, et cetera. It is difficult to deny that Armstrong is an extraordinary person.
   
   The problem is, does his way work for us and for YOU? Can it? Should it? Should we find our own path?
   
   Yes, the book is motivational but for how long? Is it be motivational equivalent of Chinese food -- 30 minutes later, you're hungry again and the effect wears off?
   
   Nevertheless, there is more good than bad in this short book. Some may find it unseemly idolatry of Lance Armstrong. Others will draw inspiration from it and it is the latter group which is the target audience most likely of author Brad Kearns.



4. For normal "everyday guys" who wonder how guys like Lance Armstrong approach training and racing but will never "stand on a podium in Paris" themselves this book is a must....Ive read every book about Lance Armstrong that I know about and this is the first one to give me insight into how Lance got "through it". Its the first book about Lance that I can actually use in my own life as an average guy doing average workouts and racing in the middle of the pack at the average Triathlon or 10k race! On top of that Brad Kearns sense of witty humor and his entertaining style of writing keep you in "the game". A good book for a pro racer who really does have a shot at the podium in Paris.....But better for the average guy like me who can only dream.....



5. Brad Kearns book "How Lance Does It" is a very well written and tremendously helpful read for anyone interested in performing their best - in all areas of life. Kearns has a frank, strong and empowering way of writing. He does not back down or "soften the blow". If something needs to be said, he lay's it out there which is really refreshing!
   
   This is a great addition to the library of any person who is passionate about living well, growing or improving how they live life.