5 comments about Shooting Star: The Bevo Francis Story.

1. Take a college with under 200 students, a young coach who has as much skill in self-promotion as basketball knowledge and a star player who is a scoring machine, but doesn't have a high-school diploma.
   
   Add in the monolith that is the NCAA and top programs who are getting pushed to the brink of defeat - or are taking big "L's" - to the upstart college, and you have an absolutely wonderful book on a lost history by Kyle Keiderling.
   
   The story centers around Bevo Francis, who scored 116 points in a game, and Rio Grande College & the journey the basketball team took from its band-box of a gym to some of the biggest arenas in the country. It also shows how the NCAA stood in judgment of the small school and ultimately did a masterful job in erasing the records set by Francis and the team from the collegiate books.
   
   As much a history on how an underdog won under the bright lights, it also is a tale how the special interests of the major programs were served by the NCAA.
   
   It is a must read for fans of college basketball or for those who enjoy stories on how - within an even playing field - dreams can come true.



2. I loved the book and found it very flattering of Bevo! I think that anyone interested in college basketball would find this book highly entertaining and informative! Unfortunately, when I asked Bevo to sign my copy, he refused and said it was unauthorized? Is this another case of someone taking advantage of Bevo?



3. For fans of traditional basketball -- where the tradition means tiny uniforms, lousy floors, crowded gyms, transport by station wagon, and honing skills in a barn -- this is literally one for the record books. The college with 100 students took on the establishment and won the hearts of America's basketball fans and the general public through the person of one of the sports' most tragic figures. From scoring 116 points in fron of fewer than 200 people to playing to packed arenas from Boston to Kansas City, the ride was short, not always sweet, but memorable.
   
   'Bevo' Francis earned his nickname from his father's taste for a regional soft drink -- Bevo -- and the name passed on to his son, once Little Bevo and, in time, just Bevo. Raised in the Appalachian hills of southern Ohio, Francis was so frail as a child he missed a lot of school time. By the time he arrived at this tiny college (although most people tghink Rio Grande College is along the river in Texas, it is in southeaster Ohio), Bevo would be a married, 21-year old freshman who still hadn't finished high school. A crafty, P.T. Barnum-like coach saw fame and fortune in building a team and a makeshift schedule around a true phenom, and Bevo rewarded his faith with a 116-point performance that season that earned national attention but also caused the NCAA to disown his performances against teams not from four-year colleges.
   
   There is some clear element of the country rube in Francis, but he comes across in this kind treatment as a bright but uneducated, malleable youth. The promotional coach turns out to be interested in showcasing Bevo's talent, at whatever the cost, running a barnstorming-like schedule against all comers. The good news is that the team generated a quarter of the school's operating budget from their appearences; the bad news is that the school turned on the team when it was clear that basketball brought a harsh media spotlight on a woefully underfunded school.
   
   You can't help but like and feel sorry for Bevo; it is almost easier to despise or at least think little of coach Newt Oliver. After a second successful but stormy season, Oliver urges Bevo to sign a terrible contract to play the oafish role to the Harlem Globetrotters, and a life of basketball and career are finsihed before Bevo would have normally finished college.
   
   Bevo Francis caught the nation's attention at a time when college basketball and Madison Square Garden were reeling from the point-shaving and betting scandals of the late 40's and early 50's. Like a shooting star, Francis shone brightly, but only for a very short time. He may have saved the sport and earned some kudos (and built Oliver's ego), but the NCAA, the Globetrotters, Newt Oliver, and Rio Grande treated Bevo poorly.



4. Times may change, but some things stay the same -- sports have strong grip on the public.
   
   I had never heard of Bevo Francis before, and reading this story makes me wonder why. Truely a remarkable tale of a "superstar" who, along with talented teamates, took the country by storm. His story was covered nationwide, and record crowds gathered to see him.
   
   Bevo Francis was an extremely talented, unassuming, and honest person. His coach, New Oliver, was a promoting promoter who "sold" Francis. Although the team Oliver had assembled was good, they played for a tiny, unknown school - Rio Grande College. Oliver felt that fame would come to the team if ONE player scored a lot of points.
   
   Bevo had his "breakthru" game in Jan 1953. The national scoring mark was 87 points. Bevo had 61 points after 3 periods, when Oliver had the team pass up shots and feed Bevo, as well as foul the opponent as soon as they touched the ball to stop the clock. By the end of the game, Bevo had scored 116 points, and Rio Grande won the game 150-85. Suddenly, all Oliver's efforts to promote the team went from no response to nation-wide acclaim. In a similiar game a year later, he scored 113 points.
   
   Despite these two "contrived" scores, Bevo was a legitimate scorer and all-around skilled player. He averaged almost 50 points a game over two seasons. The second season was entirely road games against top flight competition that Oliver arranged to maximize the exposure of his team and to generate the most income.
   



5. Bevo Francis, playing for tiny Rio Grande College in Southern Ohio, was indeed a shooting star. He averaged just under 50 points a game for two seasons and still holds the NCAA record for the most points scored in a college game (116).
   
   As would be expected, the team was built around Francis, and he made all the headlines, as well as the covers of the major sports magazines of the day. Unfortuately, his team did not receive the credit they deserved. In 1954, Rio Grande, with an enrollment of less than 200 students, played some of the nation's best teams: Villanova, Providence, Miami (Fla.), Arizona State, Wake Forest, and North Carolina State. In January of that year, I watched the Redmen beat Butler University in Indianapolis. Bevo, coming off several weeks of appendicitis attacks, scored 48 points. At the end of the game, the Indiana fans, who know their basketball, gave the entire Rio Grande team a standing ovation; something rarely seen in college play.
   
   Two years later, While in the Army, I had the privilge of playing on the same team as Roy Moses, a former Redmen. After listening to some of Roy's stories about touring the country with Bevo and the Redmen, I was hoping that someday somebody would write the definitive history of Rio Grande's two legendary seasons. Kyle Keiderling has done it, and it is an excellent book.

5 comments about Addicted to Danger: A Memoir About Affirming Life in the Face of Death.

1. This is an absorbing account of the mountaineering adventures of Jim Wickwire, one of the foremost American high altitude mountaineers. It is at times a moving memoir, and at other times somewhat sophomoric in its attempt to explain what drove him to climb, at great cost to his family.
   
   The book is nicely illustrated with many photographs of his family, fellow mountaineers, and his beloved mountains. The photographs are well placed, as they go with the flow of the story. When you see those of his wife and children, however, it makes you wonder how he could ever be away from such a beautiful family for so long and miss so many family occasions. It is a testament to his wife's devotion that she and the children are still loving towards such an absentee figure.
   
   The most interesting part of the book involves his mountaineering adventures. Whether writing about the death of a companion on the mountain or the victory of a successful summit ascent, it is told with much feeling. The single most moving chapter, however, is the one which describes the unfortunate death of fellow mountaineer, Chris Herrebrock, while he and Jim were on Peter's Glacier on Mt. McKinley. It is poignantly told, and one can sense the impact that this young man's death had on Jim Wickwire.
   
   He also vividly recounts his summit of K2, second only to Everest in height, but infinitely more difficult to climb. He was one of the first two Americans to summit K2 and on his descent was forced to bivouac solo at 27,750 feet. He survived this bivouac sans water, stove, and supplemental oxygen, while lacking a sleeping bag and down parka. He credits the images of his wife and children for his survival that long, frigid, and lonely night. It was only his fierce desire to see them again that kept death at bay.
   
   The chapters which discuss mountaineer Marty Hoey were intriguing because of the romantic feelings he had towards her, and she towards him. Jim was on a climbing expedition on Aconcagua where she was a fellow expeditioner, when the embers of a romantic relationship began, though it was never physically consummated. Of course, this budding romance came to an abrupt end when Marty died tragically on Mount Everest while, again, on expedition with Jim. He later let his wife read his diary which told of his feelings for Marty. She was very understanding of this emotional betrayal. It would have been a kindness to his wife not to have made these feelings public. Its inclusion in the book indicates a continuing insensitivity towards his wife that is unfortunate.
   
   All in all, however, the book makes for a good read, though in the end one wonders if Jim Wickwire is really through with the mountains which so inveigled him throughout his life. One cannot help but wonder if there is yet another promise to his wife and family waiting to be broken.



2. All too often we read about the awesome success stories of mountaineers. I like how Jim shares his successes and failures on the world's highest mountains. Although Jim's adventures are on a grander scale than my own (see Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection), we both go out of our way to share the "failures." When facing the extreme forces of nature, you can't always reach the summit. There are many times you must choose between attaining your goal, or surviving. Jim had the brains to choose life when faced with many decisions that could have cost him his life. I was pleased to read that we both regard Reinhold Messner as the greatest mountaineer of all! I also enjoyed hearing about Jim's struggles to balance his climbing desires against his family's needs. There is no doubt his family suffered while he was out fulfilling his mountaineering desires. On one hand, he had to climb while he had his health and youth. On the other hand, he lost invaluable time with his family that is forever lost. Even though I've fantasized about devoting years to climbing like Jim did, I realize that you have obligations once you decide to become a husband and a father. My family comes before my "selfish" desires of climbing.



3. This is a great book to read if you want to learn more about Jim Wickwire and some of the mountaineering greats of the modern era. If you want a well-written book that makes you feel as though you're climbing a lonely peak in bitter cold yourself, read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." For all the time Wickwire has spent in amazing and beautiful surroundings, he seems largely unable to describe them. Wickwire's story telling always seems focused on the action and never on the scenery. Half the mountaineering terms he tosses around are only explained in the glossary you find in the back of the book.
   
   It was interesting to me how the writing about non-climbing related aspects of his life are presented in a fairly lively manner while his accounts of his early expeditions seem to have been copied out of his journal without much in the way of revision. This book would really have benefited from a vigorous, professional editing. In fact, his publisher should have demanded it. Wickwire certainly has a story or two to tell and it was irritating to for me to be distracted by his clunky writing.
   
   All that being said, he has led an interesting life in the mold of the classic Victorian gentleman explorer-gone for months at a time, knowing his wife and children (five!) only through the post. People have called him narcissistic, self-centered, and monomaniacal. All true to some degree, I am sure, but how else would you expect him to have accomplished so much? His list of mountaineering accomplishments, included here in loving detail, is astonishing.
   
   Reading this book never answered for me the question of "why?" Why take these huge risks time after time? As someone who has been willing to push myself to the point of hallucination for nothing more than bragging rights and a t-shirt or belt buckle, I should have a pretty good handle on the "why" question, but I don't. That is perhaps why he doesn't really tell us "why" in this book. Maybe he really doesn't know either. Maybe it's just pretty fun to be up on the mountain with a fairly simple set of obligations in front of you: Keep moving. Stay alive.
   
   Maybe it's on the edge of death we finally see what is life. Maybe some of us need that more than others. Maybe Wickwire needed that a lot more than the rest of us.
   
   I suspect that this book was able to come to into being only because Wickwire had retired from serious climbing. I also suspect it was harder for him to write the book than to mount an expedition to climb Everest. Most of the stories have a painful aspect, and he doesn't skimp on the unflattering details. While it's not a great mountaineering book, it was certainly an interesting read. I'm glad he finally wrote it.



4. Ok, I was a climber, sort of, well I climbed some of the easy stuff near Seattle. And I realized that in order to keep the thrill of climbing up, as one gets better, you have to keep increasing the danger level. Hence the risk of injury and death keeps increasing until you decide you've had enough via an injury or your life's priorities change and your ice axe becomes a gardening tool.
   
   Wick, well, he seemed to attract more than anyone's share of disasters and this book accounts for that. Why would anyone climb with him? Yet he keeps going and so do others continue to climb with him. It's the climbers lie, "It won't happen to me", "They made a mistake I would never make."
   
   The other great thing about this book is that it should cause every climber to look at your personal relationships and see whether you are being fair to your other life's responsiblities. Wick did not have the same sense of priorites that I have, but then I quit climbing. It's a very personal choice and no one answer is right.
   
   Anyway most climbing books fall into a routine, "the brave set out on a journey", "A sherpa/weak member gets hurt", "We make it/or not" and come home. "Weather was rough but we were tougher". This book looks also at the human condition of why climb at all and for that Wick should be commended for laying it all out. Like him or not, this book was probably one of the bravest things he ever did. Who among us could stand this close scrutney.



5. Instead of a testament to his climbing expeditions, this book might best serve as a testament to what seems to be Jim Wickwire's blatant misogyny and egocentrism.
   
   After detailing how he decided his wife should leave college to support him, Wickwire regales us semi-boastfully with anecdotes relating how he expected his wife to be nothing more than a housekeeper, child-rearer, and "sex object" (his words). After insisting on a large family, and getting offended at a well-meaning priest who gently suggested birth control, Wickwire (by his own admission) proceeds to by-and-large shirk his duties as a father to all five of his children, supporting them only in the economic sense.
   
   We then get to read his thoughts about the innate subordinism of female climbers, and their tendency toward sexual hijinks on the mountains. The brunt of Wickwire's finger-pointing rests solidly on the shoulders of the female climbers he discusses, until he falls "in love" with Marty Hoey, a talented female climber with the sense, it seems, never to have gotten seriously involved with Wickwire, despite his attempts to the contrary. Wickwire seems to read much into incidents like feet (separated by different sleeping bags) accidentally touching in a overcrowded tent. After the reader is forced to endure reading a series of desperate, petulant, and adolescent notes and conversations directed from Wickwire to Hoey, he recounts her death on Everest perfunctorily, for the most part, and in terms of how his wife forgave him for this one-sided indiscretion. All things considered, I'm not sure who should be more outraged: Mary Lou Wickwire, reading her husband's embarassing account of "falling in love" with Hoey (and knowing all her friends and peers will be reading it too), or Marty Hoey herself, to whom Wickwire attributes a number of childish and maudlin love notes, and who is no longer here to defend herself.
   
   To be fair, Wickwire may not be the narrow-minded boor he appears to be as when, in 1985, he sadly acknowledges of the inevitable entry of women into the legal profession (one wonders what rock he was living under, or climbing over, not to know that women entered the legal profession long before then). The book, while also hampered by a ridiculous title, is full of stilted prose and dialogue. In Wickwire's world, climbers never say things like "We've gotta get down the mountain, fast." Instead, they make proclamations like, "We must descend quickly, or we shall perish upon the mountain." If they were climbing in King Arthur's time, maybe; in this day and age, no one speaks like that. As a result, the dialogue sounds stilted and fictitious, even if it had a basis in fact. The prose lingers too long, and clumsily, on Wickwire's relationships with those around him, even though his relationships seem rather shallow. Again, this may be the fault of the co-writer or the source, one never knows.
   
   I would heartily recommend saving your money and time, and reading a more climbing-related and less self-centered and angsty text.

4 comments about Tiger Woods: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies).

1. Tiger is probably the greatest golfer of all time. He's has great poise and dignity on and off the greens. If only we could all live up to his exceptional qualities. This is a magnificent biography. I cherish it.



2. I was looking more for the values and principles Tiger Woods used to build his gaem. It covered some of this.



3. this Book is very well documented&put together. Tiger Woods is the Baddest Golfer Ever. He is a Standard in sports with his Dominance,but as a Person He is a ground-breaker in the World of Golf. this Book speaks on His Impact as a Golf Player&also the Social Impact his pressence has had on the sport. Tiger is unstoppable. His Father gave him the edge&Tiger ran with it. RIP to His Pops.



4. TIGER WOODS: A BIOGRAPHY brings the world of golf in general and the achievements of Tiger Woods in particular to life, providing a biographical which examines his participation in the sport, its particular demands, and how he lived up to his potential. A timeline of events highlights the high points, while discussions of Afro-American rights and PGA requirements provide the well-rounded background.

5 comments about The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness.

1. This book is a worthy companion to David Halberstam's excellent "October 1964", another book about the decline of another Yankee dynasty. As a Yankee fan, we celebrate the tradition and history of the Yankees, but often bristle at the hubris by which some in the organization think they can create champions by spending money on the wrong players. As Mr. Olney correctly points out near the end of his book (indeed as a theme throughout), it was the unique team chemsitry and not the salaries that made the recent Yankee dynasty. The Yankees won in spite of and not because of Mr. Steinbrenner's hysteria. His contribution to the success of the Yankees has indeed been his driving desire to win and the resources to back that up, but in deferring to his baseball people, Gene Michael, Brian Cashman, and others, he has been held in restraint.
   
   What we have now (the Yankees of 2008) is a team that seems disjointed, not playing together, only the expectation of success driving them. This is a difficult culture to maintain. The dynasty years are over, despite the presence of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. The Yankees are doing what built the dynasty to begin with - developing and promoting young players (with the the passion and camraderie of Joba Chamberlain and Shelly Duncan as examples). When you add smart baseball decisions with the resources and the tradition and the fans - the Yankees are a force to deal with. When they merely survive by clinging to old business models and aging and expensive players, they fail.
   
   Mr. Cashman, Mr. Michael and others in the front office know how to do this, they have done it before. One can only hope that Mr. Steinbrenner's sons can maintain the culture of winning but make smart decisions in the process.
   
   Mr. Olney's book is an excellent baseball book, and not just for Yankee fans. I found many of its lessons applicable in my business career as well.



2. A must read, ESPECIALLY if you are a Yankees fan (although you would think the opposite!). It gives you insight into all sorts of things about Game 7 (and the Yankees in general) that will have you saying "Wow!" to yourself. There are so many more little "what if's" that could have changed the outcome of that game, long before Torre's decision to play the infield in for Luis Gonzalez's last at bat. You'll also understand why the "winning the World Series is the only goal" attitude worked so well for the 1998-2001 teams, as opposed to the post-2001 Yankee rosters of All-Stars.
   
   You might want to wait until closer to the release of the 2001 World Series boxset however... you will DEFINITELY want to see Game 7 again after reading this book!



3. I loved this book. Olney does a tremendous job of providing background on the many significant parts that contributed to the Yankees success during the late 90s, interpersing them with the historic Game 7 of the '01 World Series. This is not only a MUST-HAVE for any sports and Yankees fan, but anyone who still thinks that baseball isn't the epitome of a TEAM sport.



4. Buster Olney, one of the only sentient and honest people still at ESPN (now that Dan Patrick is gone), has written one the best, most comprehensive sports books of all time.
   
   Proof of this is how accurate his prognosis for the next seven years of Yankee mediocrity has become. It takes insight to determine this, and Olney succeeds. The personal stories/flashbacks are great---as is this book. A must read for any baseball fan, and I am FAR from a NYY fan.



5. A recent personal project required that I read a half dozen books on baseball over the course of about as many weeks. Buster Olney's cool, lapidary prose made a nice sorbet with which to chase down the overweening lyricism of one of the game's Grand Old Men of American Lettahs, and the pomposity of a second. (I resist, with difficulty, the temptation to name names.)
   
   The first thing to do is to set aside that contentious title. Olney, who covered the Yankees for four seasons for the New York Times, is a nonpartisan, or does a fine impression of one. His book is neither the inflammatory crowing of a Yankee hater nor the pessimistic keening of a demoralized loyalist. He uses the seventh game of the 2001 Yankees/Diamondbacks World Series as the springboard for a close analysis of the franchise's history in the years approaching and following the turn of the 21st century, and the treatment is both dispassionate and compassionate. The book's structure has a cinematic quality, with players taking their turns in focused, background-providing flashbacks generated by the inning-by-inning action on the field. Olney's narrative is not an innovation, but with his scrutiny of the decisions (good and bad) that led up to this game, and his attention to the personalities involved, he achieves something rare and tricky. He reminds us that every big game, like every snowflake, is distinct from all others, and suggests that the outcome of Game Seven was foreordained by the confluence of circumstances and people (both on the field and at the executive level) representing the clubs on this night. Put another way, a big game is never one big story; it's a significant point within dozens of smaller stories -- the stories of the uniformed people you see on the field, businesspeople you may recognize in the boxes and clubhouses, and others whose names you might never have heard. If anyone were removed from the tapestry, the whole would be altered. All the obvious slides get their time under the microscope -- Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Joe Torre, George Steinbrenner, et al -- but the author also finds space, in a crisp 355 pages, for pertinent and illuminating studies of relative peripherals: the intellectually brilliant but fatally detached former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette; the obsessive-compulsive early/mid-1990s Yankee manager Buck Showalter; the gifted, infuriatingly undisciplined former Yankee pitcher David Wells, whose "bloated body camouflaged exceptional athleticism," in Olney's words.
   
   The book, as suggested above, casts a wide net, but every one of its portraits has the subtlety and finish of a fine aquarelle. Indeed, some of Olney's most eloquent passages are those devoted to men who were not on the field for the game in question, but who played important parts in seasons leading up to it. I think here particularly of the section on the gracious and articulate yet driven David Cone, a Yankee starting pitcher nearing the end of a distinguished career and attempting (sometimes successfully, other times not) to do with guile and sheer force of will what he could no longer do with velocity and power. And the chapter on substance-abusing Darryl Strawberry's many second chances, and many subsequent relapses, makes something poignant out of material grown hackneyed in both news and fiction. "[T]hrough addictions, incarcerations, and hearings, he had never lost the beautiful buggy-whip swing he'd had when the Mets picked him first in the 1980 draft," writes Olney, and that unshowy yet felicitous phrase (especially that splendid description of the swing) finds just the right note with which to begin a chapter on a man of prodigious natural gifts and abysmal judgment, a package made up of the extraordinary and the dismayingly, even tragically ordinary.
   
   I have taken pains not to reveal my own allegiances, because they are not really at issue here. Whether one roots for or against the Yankees, this is an engrossing and educational book, a potent blend of anecdote and psychology from the perspective of an astute insider. Go along with the author or not on his central point that the seventh-game loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001 was, by itself, of epochal character; but he compellingly makes his case that this franchise, historically restless and overachieving from the top down, was in some way due for sobering disappointment, retrenchment and reevaluation. Though occasioned by a bruising postseason loss, this taking of stock need not have been an entirely bad thing. For baseball franchises, as in life in general, survival is renewal.
   
   Likely to become a classic within its field.

No comments about A View from the Booth: Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti-25 Years of Broadcasting the New England Patriots.

5 comments about A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle.

1. Swearington has written an excellent and inspiring book about Mickey Mantle. I especially appreciated the way the book is organized, which makes it easy and enjoyable to follow the development of Mickey's long and eventful career.
   
   My only complaint is the title. The book is not about Mickey as a teammate. It is about Mickey. In the Preface the author tells us that Mickey "always wanted to be remembered as a great teammate" (pg. xi). I was dissappointed that Mickey's impact as a teammate is almost absent from this otherwise excellent book.
   
   I highly recommend you buy and read this book. But if you are looking for insights into Mickey as a teammate, you may be dissappointed. I am still waiting for somebody to write that book.



2. This book was a birthday gift for my brother, a "rabid" Mickey Mantle fan!!! He's just about finished it and said it was jut "GREAT" - lots of "unknown facts" and wonderful insights by "The Mick's" team mates !



3. I've got several Mickey Mantle books, but I really think this one is the best. Very detailed and accurate. Well done!



4. My kids grew up wanting to BE LIKE MIKE. Like many of my generation, I always wanted to be like Mick. THE MICK.
   
   Mickey Mantle was, for us, the consummate baseball player. He hit the ball hard and ran the bases fast. His arm was strong and his glove golden.
   
   But that's only part of why he was our hero. Randall Swearingen's book, A Great Teammate, covers the rest. Mickey was one of the greatest team players the game has ever known. He found a way to win. One day he'd hit a home run. The next he'd bunt and steal--or literally outrun a fly ball. It added up. Between 1951 and 1964, Mickey's Yankees made twelve trips to the World Series. Twelve!
   
   When his teammates batted, Mickey cheered. When they slumped, he took them to dinner. When Roger wilted in the Babe's mighty shadow, Mickey took him under his wing and into his home--even as The Mick took his own shot at THE RECORD.
   
   Mickey played hurt nearly every game of his major league career because, as a rookie, he deferred to a teammate named Joe DiMaggio. Mickey never complained or made excuses. He just came to the park early, took his treatments, hid the pain, and played hard. As good as he was, he could have been even better with two legs rather than one.
   
   When asked why he didn't take himself out of the lineup to rest the legs, Mickey replied that some child might come to the ball park to watch him play, and he didn't want to let that child down. Mickey didn't know it, but I was that child. My family drove from North Carolina to New York City in 1961. It was the only chance I ever had, as a kid, to watch a major league game. Mickey didn't disappoint: he hit a line drive into the right field bleachers for a home run. From then on, Mickey was my hero. And, like so many southerners in those days, I became, of all things, a Yankee.
   
   Then came the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Sportswriters forgot who Mickey Mantle was and why he had been our hero. They publicized his alcoholism. His business failures. His divorce. If only he had fallen in his prime, they implied, like Gehrig with ALS or Ruth with cancer. But somehow he dodged the Hodgkin's curse. And even though alcoholism is every bit as much a disease as ALS, or cancer, or Hodgkin's, America stopped loving Mickey the way he had loved us. We forgot. And, I must admit, as I almost forgot.
   
   Then I read A Great Teammate, and the memories came pouring back. Mickey winning games for his team. Mickey bringing out the best in his teammates. Mickey loving and respecting the game. Playing hard. Playing hurt. Always humble. Ever helpful. Never making excuses. And, in bottom of the 9th, whipping his toughest foe, alcoholism, and helping others do the same.
   
   No doubt, Old Timers told these stories time and again at ball games, fantasy camps, reunions, and funerals. But, no one ever bothered to write them down for us, the fans. Until now. Mickey, Randall: thank you.



5. Very impressed with book - my son is big fan and loves it.

1 comments about Bear Revelations: Paul Bryant the Man.

1. The year 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's death, and if you live in Alabama, or in any of the states that have a Southeastern Conference football team, you know Coach Bryant, as a coach, and as a man, was not someone you could easily replace. Just ask five of the first six coaches who followed in his footsteps.
   
   The proliferation of books about Coach Bryant has been very steady over the last 25 years. Other than Allen Barra's THE LAST COACH, most have dealt with the lean years Coach Bryant experienced, or were written by assistant coaches, or broadcasters who were ever so familiar with Coach Bryant, but their books generally lacked something: either they did not know Coach Bryant as well as they thought they did or, in most cases, they, or their ghost writer, did not know how to put their thoughts down as well as they should. It got to be a standard joke that soon the "errand boy" would be taking pen to paper to give us their opinion on Coach Bryant.
   
   Little did I know, or expect, that Steve Clark, a "go-fer," those are Mr. Clark's words, for Coach Bryant from 1972 to 1976 would write one of the best books about the "real" Coach Bryant, describing in detail the manner in which Coach Bryant interacted with others on a daily basis.
   
   This book is outstanding in that Mr. Clark relates to the reader the aspects about Coach Bryant that describes Coach's approach to life, and how that mirrored his approach towards developing a championship football team Bear Bryant on Winning Football.
   
   Interweaving accounts of the football games and campus life as reported by the student newspaper, "The Crimson-White," Mr. Clark describes, in minute details, the almost cosmological approach Coach Bryant applied to his football program, the University, and the world, and how attuned Coach Bryant was to what was happening on campus during the turbulent early 1970's. While Coach Bryant neither thought it nor behaved as if it were, this was a period when it truly was "his world," and others tried, and usually came-up short, to live in it.
   
   This isn't a "warts" and all book, even though some of what is written may seem to describe Coach Bryant in a way and manner no one else has done before; however, Mr. Clark always shows a well-deserved admiration and respect for "The Man," as he, and others, in the Athletic Department often called Coach Bryant, but not to his face.
   
   I would recommend this book to all who really want to know just what it was about Coach Bryant that made it a cut above other coaches and, in some respects, other men. Twenty or thirty other authors have tried to do that, but so far, only Steve Clark and one or two others have succeeded.

5 comments about The Rookie: The Incredible True Story of a Man Who Never Gave Up on His Dream.

1. I read this book when it first came out in 2001 in the hardback edition. I am a huge baseball fan and have often fantasized about what it would be like to play in the major leagues.
   
   Jim Morris takes us on a nostalgic journey through his childhood, adolescence, and early adult years, growing up in a military family. He describes, in painful detail, his troubled relationship with his father, the challenges he faced in his career, and even the difficulties he had in his marriage.
   
   The story is almost too good to be true. A Texas high school baseball coach in his mid-thirties pitching in the major leagues? No way! The climactic ending is the highlight of this book. Striking out Royce Clayton in front of a hometown crowd? You're kidding me!
   
   This is truly "a guys book". Great reading. You gotta see the movie, too, called "The Rookie" with Dennis Quaid.
   
   Mitch Paioff, Author, Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant
   
   Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant



2. If you are looking for the book to be the Disney version of the Move, "The Rookie", do not get this book. The book was OK, but did not portray the same feeling of "faded dreams get second chance" Disney feel that the movie did.



3. Of course everyone wants a feel-good story. But the messy details that really illuminate a life get left out. It's always best for your image creation to tell your own story (with trained storytellers and) and sound like a great guy with endearing weaknesses and heady but safe admissions to decorate a long-odds story of dreams. I found the previous review of Robert Wilson, someone who actually knew Morris, to be most helpful (assuming the claim is true, which sounds credible).
   
   The objective of publishers is to make money, same as moviemakers. And in the movie, they turn Morris' dad from a guy totally uninterested in baseball and squashing his son's dreams; when in reality the dad was himself a major league prospect and pounded the dream and practice of baseball into his son from an early age. Oh well, just the exact opposite of the truth, that's all. What objection will Morris have to falsehood while he's cashing his book checks, movie-rights checks, and the speaking fees of $10,000-$15,000 a pop he still gets?
   You can rationalize all you want about inspiring people, but the truth has to be there. The truth of the objective facts, and the subjective aspect of what kind of a guy Morris really is (or was). Maybe Morris is a great guy now. I hope so. But money makes you do things you really shouldn't do. Further, it sounds like Morris thinks he was always a great guy, when in his first 25 years he probably had a lot of growing up to do. (I would know, because that's exactly how I am.)
   Last point: Teaching physics and coaching high school baseball over a career contributes way, way more to kids than making it to the majors. You can inspire dozens of kids, every day, the hard way. Fame and money are terribly fleeting dreams, after all. He gave up the majors due to injury, but now says it was to be with his family. Really? To become a national speaker? When in baseball you have nearly half the year off? Fascinating logic. For the love of Pete, where are truth and credibility going? $$$$$$$$$$$ Keep grubbing for it.



4. This story is about a man named Jim Morris and his autobiography on how he always wanted to become a baseball player. There are tons of parts in the story that I liked like when when Lorri (Jim's wife) get a dog named Brandy who was abandoned with her pups by her owner. They took her in and made her well. But soon she becomes ill and dies. I'm now up to the point where Jim is struggling to keep a job and feed two (and on the way three) children. Lorri and him have a fight for a little bit and he leaves the house but soon after he is done thinking they get back together. After his arm starts to hurt him he gets a surgery done but can never pitch again. He quits baseball and concentrates on his family. My friend told me what happens in the end but who ever is reading this I want you to find out for yourself. Also it also really inspires you that you can be a professional baseball player and live out your childhood dreams. Thank you Jim Morris for writing your story.



5. "Everything gets hard before it gets easy." A well known cliché Jim Morris knows all too well. The Rookie, a true story written by Jim Morris, travels the journey of Jim's dream and how he accomplished it. Morris learned to walk at seven months old, passing up five months or normal development, he had natural talent, and was arguably the best baseball player on any team he played on, whether little league or softball. Morris was even a star football kicker, launching the ball over eighty yards with one swift boot. He knew his baseball skills would take him far, maybe even the major leagues, but there was one little problem that hovered over his stardom; his arm. He had Tommy John Surgery on his throwing arm, setting him back a year, then he had more trouble which was a three inch bone spur in his shoulder, the surgery was said to put the cap on his career. Yet Jim Morris wasn't ready to end his career just then.

   Every novel has its good points and its poor points, that is what makes it popular. It is hard to find a negative point when the novel is based on a subject that one may feel so passionate about, yet some of the facts presented here in the book make one wonder how they were retrieved. When Jim Morris walked for the first time, he claimed that his parents didn't even see him because they were driving across the country and neither of his parents were paying attention. More than likely this information was conjured up, which in turn makes the story more interesting, but should be omitted. Even though it may have been false information, the majority of non-fiction books tend to have some created information in them. A technique many writers include in their "bag of tricks."

   
   Jim Morris dedicated his life to baseball. He played the game basically his whole life, and loved every minute of it. The emotions Morris encounters are of the harshest; from learning he will never play baseball again, to marital problems at home. He shares these sensitive feelings with the reader, letting the reader inside his mind and head, thus making the story feel more personal. When an author expresses personal experiences wit the reader, sometimes the reader can relate with the emotions and problems, and when a reader has gone through them as well, the book gets that much better. Jim Morris is a passionate man who has a love for America's past time, and never will let that love go. Jim Morris loves baseball.

No comments about The Rules of the Game.

5 comments about Education of a Coach, The.

1. To many pro football fans, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belechick isn't a popular man, but I've always - despite "Spygate" - thought he was a great coach. After reading this book, I'm further convinced. I also understand his personality better, too - why is why who he is, a man with not much personality.
   
   The story of his dad Steve is just as interesting as Bill's football career. How father-and-son are so alike and so knowledgable about this game, is explained well by the book's author David Halberstam. Yes, that's the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
   
   To be honest, Halberstam is definitely biased for Belechick. You have no problem seeing how much regard he has for both he and his father, so this is not as objective as it could be. In Halberstam's eye, the Belechicks can do no wrong. The parts about Steve, I thought, were the most interesting segments of the book, along with the comments about what happened in Clcveland when Bill coached the Browns.
   
   Despite the fanboy attitude, overall, I thought it was a good portrait of a unique man. This is not your run-of-the-mill coach; he's different, and the book will explain why. As a "character study," alone, I found it a pretty entertaining book.



2. 
   I'm not sure what the book's intention was, but be prepared to read more about life events instead of football related events. I read this after the Tony Dungy book, and I would recommend that over this book.



3. I read this book several years ago, and reread it recently after reflecting on the "Spygate" drama of the past year. I found the book very insightful the second time around. David Halberstam was an incrediably gifted writer who was able to truly get into the mind of his subjects, and this book is a great example of that. He starts by offering insights into Belichick the boy, and how his formative years, watching his father working for Navy, helped mold the man who heads the New England Patriots today. It offers interesting insights into Belichick's mindset when he participates in his always vague press conferences, his secretive manner, and why he is both respect and hated by his players and his peers. Fascinating read.



4. Halberstam set a very high standard for himself -- in his sports books as well as in his political books. The "Summer of 1949", for instance, was particularly well researched and written.
   
   This book lacks the depth of "1949." There is little digging into player reactions. Instead of demonstrating character through anecdotes and understatement, Halberstam keeps hitting us over the head with his point about how great Belichick is about "breaking down film" & etc. What in the heck does that really mean? There is very little detail here.
   
   Of course, Halberstam's worst effort would count as someone else's best work. Halberstam is at his best in describing the Parcells/Belichick relationship; the character of the great Giants' teams; any why Brady was the superior quarterback to Bledsoe. Belichick's coaching genius does come through in the description of his approach to all the super bowls. And Belechick's notion of team, building interchangeable parts, and working with the salary cap are explained quite well.
   
   On the whole, though, we are continually told how great Belichick is without really giving much insight into his soul as a man or even as a coach.



5. I've read several of his books (although this was my first sports book of his) and I highly enjoyed them. Maybe it's because the subject is just not a very interesting person, but this book is just terrible. He tells us material that contributes nothing; who cares about about his grandparents and his wife family? He also gushes about the subject and his family. Is everything really so great? It's as if he chose an average person at random and wrote a biography about him. The average person doesn't lead a particularly fascinating life and the resulting biography would be dull. Just because he is a success as a coach doesn't necessarily make him a good candidate for a biography.