No comments about Coach Reflections of Indiana Football Legend Dick Dullaghan.

5 comments about The Ride of My Life.

1. Great book , but it has some bad language in it . I recomend it for people sixteen to thirty , not much of a kids book . I haven't finished it yet , on chapter 12 . Great for someone into extreme sports , like skateboarding , snowboarding , surfing , or BMX .



2. Wow, what else needs to be said about Mat Hoffman? He's the godfather of pretty much everything bmx freestyle. Whether it be street, ramp, vert, big ramp whatever. Mat was busting out all the biggest and gnarliest tricks and creating this big book of tricks almost the size of your typical yellow pages book. Alot of the stuff Mat did back in the 80s and early 90s-- well it would be rare not to see any rider from today not pulling the same tricks. And he invented most of those tricks. Hell, I do alot of the tricks Mat invented haha. Let's not forget he was also the first person in the world to ever pull a 900 on a vert ramp. Even rollerbladers and skaters weren't doing 900s and their rotations are easier since they don't have the weight of a 30 lb bike between their legs.
   
   Mat did pretty much everything on his bike. He's one of the few vert riders in the world who can probably say there's nothing left to do on his bike anymore, but that's not gonna stop him from riding.
   
   In this book you'll read about his life on and off his bike. I don't want to get into detail here since it covers alot, but even if you don't ride bmx and are looking for something to read about somebody who pushed the limits of gravity and inspired many riders today, then add Mat Hoffman's autobiography to your list.
   
   Let's not forget he was also the first person to pull off the flair and will probably be the only person on the entire planet to pull a no handed 900 on vert... and I'm serious about that. And I'm pretty sure no one else is gonna huck themselves 50 feet in the air being pulled from a motorcycle.



3. One word to describe the sky flying superman of BMX.....DARING! This man has broken enough bones to have the hospitals on speed dial! Hes amazing in every way a rider living his dreams just like the others. Mat is not just a rider though hes an artist in the sky. His bike is the brush and the ramp is his canvas. He is the creater and godfather of biking today. He is like tupac, always remebered. Mat you have taught me more of how to have fun and get out their. Now i know to never get knocked down without a fight!



4. ok this book is awsome the only book i have ever enjoyed reading i have read this book 3 times and still doesent get old its cool to see how someone so great go to were he is todaybuy this book as soon as possible i recommend it



5. My brother, an avid BMX'er, loved this book! He's not much of a reader but I think he liked the short tidbids about Mat Hoffman. A great gift idea for the cyclist in your life.

5 comments about It's True! It's True!.

1. Kurt Angle's biography is a great read. The first 200 pages or so describe Kurt's childhood and how he progressed through amateur wrestling to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I know nothing about amateur wrestling and yet I found the descriptions of the training and matches to be fascinating. Reading about the training Kurt put himself through for 2 years before the Olympics is enough to bring tears to your eyes. It is inspiring to hear about how Kurt focussed on his goal and then did everything he could to achieve it. The second part of the book, about 150 pages, describes how he got into WWE and gives a run down of the storylines he was involved with in his first couple of years. I was very interested in this as it's always nice to get the behind-the-scenes details on WWE programmes. He doesn't reveal anything particularly controversial or shocking, but it's interesting just the same.
   
   Parts of the book surprised me. From watching Kurt when he joined WWE I had assumed he came from a fairly priveliged background, but that isn't actually the case. His family are working class and his father died when Kurt was still young. It was an event that, of course, had a huge impact on his life and was a driving factor in him wanting to win a gold medal in his father's memory. After Kurt won the gold he found himself at a loss for what to do next. The book goes into detail about how he eventually decided to join WWE after initially turning down a lucrative offer from them after the Olympics.
   
   The book is sometimes inadvertantly funny because Kurt can come across as quite egotistical - which is very similar to the character he played in WWE. Many, many times in the book, Kurt uses these kind of phrases: 'It showed a lot of character to come back the way I did' or 'I'm a sports icon' or 'I did that quicker and better than anybody else'. On the other hand though, Kurt also describes times when he failed in doing something, such as when he was a sportscaster for Fox and he didn't get much training so he kept on messing up on air.
   
   Overall, I recommend this book to people who enjoyed Kurt's character in WWE and want to find out more about the man behind the gold medal. It is also a story that is very inspiring because it shows that if you are completely focussed on your goal, and work hard at it, it is likely that you will succeed.



2. First off, I will say that I respect Kurt because he is a very talented athlete. However, he did nothing but praise and remind himself, and the reader, about how great he is--and that was really annoying. Reading it once was enough.



3. THIS IS ABOUT THE LIFE AND CAREER OF PRO WRESTLER KURT ANGLE. I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE BOTH ENTERTAINING AND INTERESTING. HE GIVES A BIT ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD GROWING UP IN PITTSBURG WHERE HIS FATHER DIED IN A TRAGIC ACCIDENT TO HIS SUCCESS IN WWE. ALONG THE WAY KURT TELLS US OF THIS WRESTLING CAREER IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE AND OLYMPICS. I FOUND THE HIGHLIGHTS TO BE HIS RELATIONSHIPS WITH HHH, BOSS MCMAHON AND VARIOUS OTHERS WHO HELPED HIM ALONG IN HIS CAREER. I RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL WRESTLING FANS,NOT A GREAT BOOK BUT GOOD.



4. This book called It's true It's true book is full of lies and deceit. It is interesting to note, Kurt Angle has only one child and that is his son by Nicesty Girl. The fans has been knowing her since December 89. She has other children by two other wrestlers. Her true tell all book that Angle and other's on his behalf has tried several times to stop her from getting it published will be out by the end of the year.



5. Graet book if you like long, looonnng stories about what his olympic training consisted of. If thats not what youre interested in avoid this book like you'd avoid contact with The Big Shows jockstrap.

2 comments about The Best Game You Can Name.

1. OK- I read Tropic of Hockey back when it came out and loved it. So, in describing why I have waited nearly two years from the time "The Best Game You Can Name" was published to get around to reading it, I can only summon the images from Cameron Crowe's masterpiece "Singles" when Campbell Scott's character Steve greets the long-awaited Kyra Sedgwick with, "What took you so long?"
   
   Well, I can only plead the fifth on that, but I LOVE this book. Bidini's style is easy to enjoy- his words flow, coming from the heart, and he weaves a good deal of musical and cultural references througout.
   
   But it's the hockey- oh, the HOCKEY that keeps you on target and turning every page without slowing down. Bidini deftly navigates between anecdotes from his own Toronto Morningstars amateur club to the first-person accounts of former NHLers who speak openly and candidly of their playing days and experiences.
   
   This is a rich narrative- some of Bidini's talking points and references will be lost on more than a few, but when he gets down to the brass tacks: the hockey- he's definitely on his A-game.
   
   There are so many outstanding stories told here, and they keep getting better as the book goes on. I loved former Boston Bruin Walt McKechnie's tale of a young rookie named Dave "Tiger" Williams literally fighting to make a Toronto team and Maple Leaf great Darryl Sittler's warning to McKechnie, which he thought nothing of until Williams blackened one of Terry O'Reilly's eyes. "Gee, Taz-" says McKechnie sitting in the dressing room between periods. "Sittler said that the kid had gotten in a fight per game since the preseason started." Replies O'Reilly: "He'll have two tonight."
   
   That's just magic. As a die-hard B's fan growing up near Boston and worshiping O'Reilly and his Big, Bad Bruins (Al Secord was my first REAL hockey hero), these are the stories I never got enough of when I thirsted for whatever information I could get my hands on, and eagerly awaited every issue of The Hockey News.
   
   Bravo, Dave- this is a GREAT book. And it is my honor to accord this work with a 5-Star rating that is well-deserved. This is must-reading for any true hockey fan...you'll want to go out and lace up the skates immediately after reading just one chapter. Unfortunately for me- that will have to wait, but rest assured. When I return stateside and get back out on the ice, I'll be thanking Dave Bidini for helping bring some of my passion for hockey back.
   
   Baghdad
   02-06-08



2. The Best Game You Can Name
   
   I love all of Dave's books, and this one doesn't disappoint. The fun details about his musicians' league hockey tournament are interspersed with great anecdotes from NHL players about their good coaches, their crappy coaches, their good teammates, their lousy ones, the practical jokes they played on roommates... All in all, just a good enjoyable read. Since I'm a recent NHL fan, it was nice getting caught up on hockey dirt from the non-internet earlier years. I'll bet that if you buy it, you won't be disappointed in the slightest. So, go, what are you waiting for, click on the book and have it shipped to your home overnight.

4 comments about Becoming Holyfield: A Fighter's Journey.

1. A few days I ago I purchased a copy of Evander Holyfield's book Becoming Holyfield. I have always respected Holyfield despite what many critics have said about him in regards to fighting too long, his personal life, etc. This book gave a great insight from the man himself about his life growing up, the struggles he faced, his faith in God as well as his missteps in faith, his Mike Tyson days and many other things. I found this book to be very entertaining. There were a couple of run on sentences and misspellings but I enjoyed the book. As I read the book Evander talked about his family life growing up and how his mother and grandmother expected him to behave. The way he was taught how to act in times of good and bad made a lot of sense because you have never seen Holyfield really get mad or act a fool. When Tyson bit his ear, he jumped around in pain, but he did not try to get revenge or engage in the wild activity. That shows a lot about his character because most of us would have tried something. I found inspiration in the book as he talked about his struggles growing up in the south, his misfortunes in the amateur ranks as well as the Olympics. As he described how he felt and reacted to certain situations then to see how his positive attitude ended up working out for the best, it gave me a new respect for Evander. Sure he has plenty of kids, but when you read the book you understand why. You also see how even though he was always training and fighting, how he made sure his kids were disciplined properly and taken care of too. Like with most fighters, they have their issues with people in their camp not being truthful. Evander spoke of these things and also spoke of his forgiveness too. For instance how he forgave Tyson and a few other people in his past. This is a good book that I recommend. This book comes from the true source of the man himself and takes you behind the scenes to some situations you think you know about. You also get to understand the reason for his comeback and see how despite his many flaws how God has worked on this man. If you like to read or just like Evander Holyfield, I suggest you purchase this book.



2. This was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed it. I think when we look back several years from now we will really appreciate Evander Holyfield more than ever. It is rare in boxing or any sport for that matter, to find a champion who carried himself with such class and determination. Evander Holyfield is one of a kind. I would recommend this book, especially for anyone who needs a great role model.



3. I have a recently become interested in boxing for fitness and found this memoir of Evander Holyfield to be a solid, interesting look into Evander's perspective on his life, instead of how his story has been told through the media. I admire how he can keep his cool in unfair situations, and takes his wins and losses gracefully. The story is well told and it held my attention throughout. A fantastic life adventure.



4. This book makes exceedingly clear the benefit of reading an "AUTHORIZED" biography. Having Evander being quoted real-time in first person, rather than simply having an author present an accumulation of public knowledge information garnered from newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets, presents the reader with an intimate, insightful, personalized, tour through Holyfield's extremely interesting life. With Evander as your guide, he has the unique ability to lead you through his life in the sequence he feels is best suited to sharing and explaining the nuances of both his professional and personal life. As befits the only "FOUR-TIME-HEAVYWEIGHT-CHAMPION-OF-THE-WORLD" Evander pulls absolutely no punches. Whether regaling in pride about his victorious knockouts, his unbridled love and respect for his Mother, his earnings which broke boxing records that still exist today, or his boxing losses, his business missteps, and his mistakes with women, that led to multiple marriages and engagements, and how he now has a total of eleven children that he loves dearly.
   
   Evander was born to a poor, black, single Mother and was one of nine children, one of whom died of pneumonia shortly after childbirth. One of the first major turning points in young Evander's life is when he was allowed to go to a Boys Club in Atlanta. Until that time Evander had dreamed of playing football for the Atlanta Falcons. Most of the adult volunteers at the Boys Club were white, and that became a lifelong influence as far as Evander being "color-blind", even though the notorious Don King called him an "Uncle Tom" years down the road. Evander met a white man there named Carter Morgan who not only taught him to box, but became the most influential person in his life other than his mother. From that point on the reader is taken through his amateur boxing career all the way to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Evander was robbed of his chance for an almost certain Gold-Medal in a decision that to this day is probably the most ridiculed insufferable decision in Olympic boxing history. After an official protest Holyfield was given a bronze medal, but he had never been beaten by a fighter, he was "robbed" by a Yugoslavian judge. While there was a near riot in the stands, Evander just stood there without expression, because that's the way his Mother raised him. After the Olympics Evander leads you step by step through his professional career and victories and championships, his losses, and his reclaiming the titles. And more important he tells you about the people that surround him outside the ring as well as inside it. He is "UNFLINCHING" in narration of his accomplishments and his mistakes. I'm sure of great interest to most potential readers are the famous fights Evander had with Mike Tyson and it's all here, including: exacting detail of the excruciating pain Evander felt when Tyson bit both his ears, with one of the bites resulting in the top portion of one of his ear's actually coming off. After the fight an employee found it on the ground and brought it to Holyfield's handlers in the locker room in a plastic bag. But you know what? Holyfield said a prayer in the locker room and immediately forgave Tyson!
   
   There is so much more in this all encompassing biography, including Evander signing for the rematch with Tyson and getting a package "of about $34 MILLION IN CASH PLUS $1 MILLION WORTH OF OTHER STUFF." Research was done that said "IT WAS THE LARGEST AMOUNT EVER PAID FOR A SINGLE PERFORMANCE OF ANYTHING IN ANY FIELD ANYWHERE ON EARTH!" Evander also tries to explain the mystery that is the WBA, WBC, AND IBF boxing organizations on multiple occasions, and due to the nature of the beast, it is still "clear as mud"! I also give Evander credit for openly responding to critics of his faith, including Lennox Lewis regarding Evander's having kids out of wedlock. As befitting a true champion, Holyfield takes punches as well as delivers them. An excellent performance!

No comments about Big Ed Walsh: The Life and Times of a Spitballing Hall of Famer.

2 comments about Play-by-Play: Tales from a Sportscasting Insider.

1. Having heard Bill Mercer on the air all of my life, it was nice to read some inside stories of the sports broadcasting world.



2. Anything Bill Mercer does reaks of class and sophistication. His career continues even today after over 50 years of hard work. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Bill Mercer at many places with the first of them being KVIL radio. I remember him tearing through the front door of the radio station being scheduled to be on the air in 10 minutes. We're talking 4:30am. All of this after being up all night on a return trip from a UNT (NTSU) "Mean Green" game. His book describes the behind the scenes of sports in a way that you can't put the book down. Bill Mercer's book should be required reading in every school in the US and Canada and a few other countries

5 comments about Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation.

1. 
   This book is highly recommended for wrestling fans of the last 20 years looking for a behind-the-scenes look at the major promoters (namely "Mr. McMahon"), "talent" (wrestlers) and events of pro wrestling of the 80s and 90s.
   
   The book is a fairly quick, enjoyable, entertaining, and informative read; and chronologically lays out a mini-history of pro wrestling, focusing on McMahon's WWE empire and the pivotal WWF-WCW battles of the early through late 90s!
   
   Included among other topics is exactly how McMahon's changed pro-wrestling from small-time regional promotions to the humungous (and publicly-traded) money-making promotion that it has become using his controversial, and often "cut-throat" business methods - but also his creativity - and how he ultimately changed pro wrestling forever in many's opinions. The book also includes various information about the rest of the McMahon clan (Linda, Shane, and Steph) and their involvement in the family business.
   
   Other major events discussed in some detail are the McMahon trial in the early 90s; the (homo- and hetro-) sexual assault charges, the Montreal "screw-job" featuring Bret Hart, and the interesting never-televised WWE card featuring Scott Hall's (aka "Razor Ramon's") final match shortly before his departure for Bishcoff's WCW, which featured a taboo break in character in front of the audience by 4 members of "the clique" as they paid their farewells to Mr. Hall, thereby breaking the so-called pro-wrestling code of "kayfabe".
   
   The book is also choc-full of other behind the scenes tidbits of the various WWE & WCW talent from the last 15 years (that is '85 - '00) including how Dusty Rhodes was for a period the primary "booker" (writer ) of the NWA storylines, and the real-life tension it caused between he and Ric Flair; the story of how Dustin Rhodes created (or went along with) the Goldust character mainly as a way to show disdain for his father; various stories of Brian Pillman leading up to his demise; Mr. McMahon's attempts to first make the Ultimate Warrior, then Lext Luger the next Hulk Hogan; and Sid Vicious' bloody (and vicious) attack of Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors after deemed insults in the hotel bar about Sid's ability to draw a crowd.
   
   A particular thing that caught my attention about the volume is Mr. McMahon's spectacular capacity for committing major business blunders before, during, and after his successes with the WWE - including a blundered promotional bout featuring Mohammad Ali in the 70s, McMahon's failed bodybuilding league in the early 90s (in which no one seemed to understand his unusual vision except for himself), right up to the "Extreme Football League" ("XFL"), which very early on turned into a complete disaster for NBC.
   
   The book primarily deals with facts and does not spend a lot of time opining. Of course there is always a slant an author of any book has, and one must realize one is rarely getting the whole story. This book is clearly taking a negative look at the very least McMahon -if not pro wrestling itself over the last 20 years - but the book doesn't spend time laying out moral diatribe. Rather it lays out the facts behind McMahon's rise to power and his dealings with competitors and employees, and more or less leaves it to the reader to draw an opinion. The book ultimately portrays the business of wrestling as very possibly barbaric and inhumane, but at the very least as like no other sport, entertainment, or business in the world. As they say, the truth is so often more weird (and bizarre) than fiction
   
   This book should be especially appealing for those who followed wrestling in the 80s and 90s and can't get enough behind the scenes info on the business, events, and wrestlers of that period. I give it 5 stars as it hits the mark for its primary target group - and I doubt many non-wrestling fans would pick it up in the first place, though I do think it could be enjoyable for anyone who has an interest in what truly goes on in one of the most outrageous businesses there is.



2. Quick and fun read. This books puts a lot in perspective about the steroids from the 80's and the wrestling wars of the 90's. I've read a lot of wrestling books and this one is up there with one of the best. There are s many interesting "mini-stories" inside the main forum that makes every page anticpated.



3. That is, assuming, the reader is a regular citizen like this reviewer as opposed to being a wrestling fanatic. For me, about 250 pages of the Vince McMahon/pro wrestling story was all it took to satisfy. This is a pretty straight up factual accounting of the rise of the infamous sport/theatrical venture. Sex, Lies, and Headlocks is probably not as tabloidy a tale as the average person would suspect though. Certainly, there is not a whole lot of sex here, but there definitely is an outrageous amount of ambiguity.
   
   What motivates the likes of a Vince McMahon is power and that alone (as opposed to cash, women or drugs). As long as he is able to control an empire then we should expect to hear from him and hear from him often. In his unusual personal example there is an important lesson to be learned. None of the guys we consider giant successes of our culture--a Bill Gates, a McMahon, a Donald Trump--ever got to the top without taking chances or without being knocked down first. I have no idea if McMahon is a billionaire or just a hyper-millionaire, but my point here is that this guy was not destined to be a mogul. He got out there and made it happen for himself through his own labor and conniving. I'm not saying there's anything admirable about him because he really sounds like someone I would never want to have anything to do with, but his resilience and astounding drive are what made his dream happen.



4. At only 258 pages, this volume is a rather short edition chronicling not just McMahon's rise, but skimming lightly on WCW and ECW and the NWA. The beginning takes us into the highly factionalized, almost dirt-poor white-trashy beginnings where the NWA essentially owned the world with an oligarchic style ruling body, to lightly telling of Roderick "Jess" McMahon's promoting of boxing and his son Vincent James McMahon's early interest. It even goes into mild details about the wrestling business in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, telling of the likes of Dusty Rhodes, Gorgeous George, and Lou Thesz, and including the tales of the days when there was no insider information in the wrestling world, and kayfabe was strongly enforced by promoters to keep people thinking it was all real.
   
   
   It gives us a short biography of Vince K. McMahon's childhood, growing up with his mother near a military base not knowing who his father was and growing up trying to fit in with the tough crowd.
   
   The business suddenly started changing around Vincent James, and with his son urging him on to sell the company to him, Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which broke off from the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation began to pick up the pace after acquiring top talent, especially after Vince Kennedy bought the company from his father, who quietly retired, and later died around 1983.
   
   The book is very bland on language, being clear and simple, and relying on the natural circus that is pro wrestling to entertain the reader. After reading the highly sensationalized, opinionated, and overall entertaining "The Death of WCW" by RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, this was a sudden change, with the authors clearly showing no favor or hatred for anyone as they manage to cram mini-biographies from the likes of Jim Crockett, his son Jim Jr. and his apathy towards building his father's business, to Dusty Rhodes and his success as the "American Dream", and Ted Turner's minor promoting of wrestling with Georgia Championship Wrestling, and McMahon's cutthroat approach to business, once telling AWA's Verne Gagne during a negotiation very simply and brutally, "I don't negotiate."
   
   Vince and his wife Linda, both taking very active roles in the WWF, from the horrors of trying to finance Wrestlemania, to recovering after the action flop starring Hulk Hogan, and the infamous steroid case of the early nineties, are portrayed almost amorally, with a true business sense to them and their actions, without explicit and graphic details of shadier practices bordering on the debauched. Sure, Vince took steroids to bulk up and look big, but once the proverbial crap hit the fan, he ditched it and never touched the stuff again. Rather than buy Jim Crockett's promotion, he waited until it went into the hole, so he could acquire it for next to nothing.
   
   From there, much of the focus is on steroids, and the scandals erupting over its use, including name-dropping on just who was on steroids, who was suspected, etcetera.
   
   From there, it jackknifes to detailing the situation in the WWF, WCW, and even mild glimpses into ECW, and how it influenced the WWF's Attitude Era. Keeping true to the focus of the book, matches and booking are given a spotlight, but the backstage workings, the politics and decisions of Vincent Kennedy McMahon are the true main event of this book.
   
   The events from this time period are delivered in great detail, even containing quotes from superstars and personnel, delivered in such a way that you imagine the events unfolding in your head, with the quoted superstar turning to talk directly to you, as if breaking the fourth wall in a re-enacted documentary.
   
   Sex: There's plenty, but not as much as you'd think. Aside from the typical groupie sex with the wrestlers, there are only two real sex scandals---one involving the infamous accusations of rape by a female referee, who (in)explicitly recounts in the book how McMahon ordered her to give him oral sex in a limo, and when she refused, forcibly raped her. The other involves Pat Patterson's aides soliciting sex and essentially creating a gay sex ring involving young men involved with the lesser jobs in the early days of the promotion, such as ring attendants, etc. In the late 80s, this was finally uncovered, and while Patterson escaped unscathed, his aides did not.
   
   Lies: Many things McMahon says and does in this book is or are lies. From guaranteeing a reality series with MTV in 2000 and then going and soliciting NBC about it, to the more deviant ones in the early years, lying to wrestlers, promoters, and businessmen for the benefit of his own company.
   
   Headlocks: I can only remember two, one of them being a headlock delivered by Ric Flair.
   
   
   In total, this is a very slim, quickly and easily readable book, packed with pounds of information delivered in an easy, documentary style with little dressing or relishes--as the stories told provide that themselves.



5. An extremely interesting book, where you'll understand why Vince Mcmahon is wrestling Bill Gates, from its beginning until today, see all the tragedy that WWE has gone through, see all the backstage scheming which is a lot but interesting, Owen Hart death, Montreal Incident ( Bret Hart goes to WCW), Steroid Trial, Anabolic Jim ( Ultimate Warrior ), nobody can miss this book, its excellent.

5 comments about Night Tides: The Striper Fishing Legend of Billy the Greek.

1. This book kept me up for several nights straight. It is not a long book by any means and the average reader can go cover-to-cover in a few hours. However, one WILL find one or two things they missed upon every subsequent reading of the book.
   
   This book is not written by a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Rather, it is the story of a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Mr. Cinquemani, a former NYC English teacher employs his grasp of the English language and writes in a way that is not only understandable, but entertaining to his readers. While the book is about fishing, it is not a "How-to" book and Mr. Cinquemani's choice to not focus on the technical aspect of fishing (i.e. equipment, knots, strategy), combined with his writing skills, does not leave one feeling empty upon the first completion of the book, or all subsequent completions for that matter.
   
   Night Tides is about Billy "The Greek" Legakis, a legend in the striped bass fishing world. It is the story of this man's ongoing pursuit for the "Largest" striped bass. Stories of this man's introduction to this fish, his obsession with this fish, and his unparalleled pursuit of this fish grace the pages of this book. Several pictures are also included in the book, adding to the whole experience.
   
   Having read the book several times, I am not only astonished by the sometimes unbelievable accomplishments of this particular fisherman, but grateful that the paths of these two gentlemen crossed when it did. While the stories of "The Greek" are truly amazing, without Mr. Cinquemani's abilities, these stories may very well have been untold. My utmost gratitude to Mr. Cinquemani and Mr. Legakis for choosing to share their stories with the rest of the world.



2. The book is a very easy read. BTG is a unique man with a true obsession with the straiped bass and the sea. A great book if you are not a fisherman and an even better one if you are. I let a buddy borrow it and he is not a fisherman. He is three quarters finished on the second day of his read. Go for it!



3. A quick read for anyone who enjoys catching a few "Strippahs" from their local haunts. Billy has certainly mastered the art of catching the big ones, but it also comes at a price - Fishing is 1st - everything else, I mean everything else comes after. Catching 2,500 fish with a rod during a slow season was mind boggling to me, I had to do the math twice and was sure there was an extra zero in the numbers, but low and behold this guy is a true master of the species.
   
   It was an inspiration to read and even got me up in the middle of the nite to go for the cows under a full moon and a high tide - I got skunked and humbled.
   
   A great gift with some terrific photos.



4. If you are a striped bass fisherman, this book will not let you down. I read it in 2 days. Eccentrics like Billy make life interesting. On a sad note, I can't imagine what it must have been like to fish back in the 60's and 70's before we wiped out the majority of these monster bass.



5. Michael Cinquemani's bio of striper fishing legend Billy "The Greek" Legakis is an engrossing story. Whether they are committed fisherman or not, readers are bound to recognize in BTG the rare combination of wits, will, and sheer tenacity that marks any person at the top of his or her field. Any die hard fishing fanatic will plow through Night Tides in a single sitting. Casual observers of the sport will love it too. Cinquemani's writing mixes humor and awe to create a realistic portrait of a unique character. The fishing community is lucky to have such a literate, and readable, storyteller!

5 comments about Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train.

1. Has there ever been a Major League Baseball star who was as nice a person as Walter Johnson a.k.a. "The Big Train?"
   
   Even Christy Mathewson and Ernie Banks and a bunch of other guys over the years who were great people would be hard-pressed to top Johnson. Walter was about as kind and gentle as a pro athlete could ever get. That's the main thing I came away with after reading this biography of the Hall of Fame pitcher.
   
   I knew Johnson, just from his victory total alone, was one of the greatest pitchers of all time. (Some still think he was the best.) I didn't know what high character the man had, and that everyone - including infamous nasty guys like Ty Cobb and John McGraw - loved him, too. You read the book and you'll know why Johnson was such a beloved figure.
   
   Despite his superstar celebrity status in Washington, D.C., Johnson had a lot of disappointments and tragedies in his life, too. The book, written by his grandson Henry Thomas, tells us all of them. Being in the family, he would know a lot of family information.
   
   Normally, I would think that since Thomas was a direct relation to the great pitcher, the book would too biased but everyone had so many good things to say about Walter, that I believe this a true account of the man.I would love to see films of him and his 100 m.p.h. fastball.
   
   People talk about role-models in sports. Well, here is one.



2. The strength of this book is its detail. As a scientist as well as a baseball fan, I was always intrigued by the question of pitching speed.
   This, unlike home run distances and nymber of HRs, has not been affected by changes in the baseball, stadium size, etc. There were no means for
   measuring Johnson's ball speed while he was playing, in his prime, but there is a means of getting a good estimate, and that from Bob Felller, whose speed was measured at a bit over 98 MPH. But that was at home plate, not during midflight, as is often the case for measurements performed by doppler guns, and which would show higher speeds, since the ball is slowing down from the instant it leaves the pitcher's hand. So we can assume rather confidently that Feller's pitches exceeded 100 MPH.
   And here's the link to Johnson : Bob Feller had seen Johnson pitch firsthand, at close range, and said that Johnson was way faster than he was. That can only lead me to believe that Johnson's pitches must have exceeded 110 MPH. Other anecdotal evidence has come from Cobb and Ruth
   and Shoeless Joe Jackson, all of whom considered Johnson easily the best pitcher they ever saw, and Cobb remarked that Johnson's fastball actually hissed as it went by. He was rather afraid to stand there while Johnson was throwing, who he said had two pitches : fast, and REALLY fast. At 5 foot 11 inches and 200 pounds, and with very long arms, Johnson was physically well endowed as a fastball pitcher. Statistics fail to portray
   how good he really was, considering the enormous workload he carried and for such a rotten team for most of his best years.



3. I have read most of the "greatest" baseball books and this is one of the best. This is obviously the writer's lifetime work, and he weaves Walter Johnson's life with his very personal belongings to create a masterpiece.
   
   If you want to get a feel for what baseball was like at the turn of the century, then this will answer your questions. This is one of the only hardbacks that I will keep forever.



4. The fact that Walter Johnson was the grandfather of the author does not disqualify this book as a legitimate biography. Since he didn't grow up around the "Big Train" Henry Thomas had to rely on meticulous research and perhaps his family connection gave him easier access to first-person accounts.
   
   Walter Johnson had a freakish right arm. With an easy-going sidearm delivery he threw fastballs with such great velocity that Ty Cobb reported he flinched the first time he stepped into the batter's box and Johnson's pitched "hissed with danger" as it blew by. The book is peppered with other anecdotes of players reporting that Johnson was so fast other players could hardly see, much less hit the ball. He probably wasn't faster than Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson in their prime, but he was so much faster than his contemporaries his pitches seemed like bullets.
   
   Yet he was perhaps even more of a gentleman. He was modest,kind,loyal and honest. When Johnson's Washington team finally got into a pennant race in Walter's eighteenth season, there was so much support for him from OPPOSING crowds the cheers for him were repeatedly louder than for the home team, even at stadiums such as Boston's Fenway Park and Babe Ruth's Yankee Stadium.
   
   Johnson's lifetime statistics are amazing. Only Cy Young has more wins than his 417, and if not for his record number of one-run losses, including a record number of 1-0 losses (he also owns the record for 1-0 wins), he would have more wins.
   
   He was among the first five players inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, won two MVP awards, and set the all-time record for batting average by a pitcher with .433 in 1925. He won 20 games 12 times, including a record ten in a row, and over 30 games twice. He had 110 career shutouts - no other pitcher has 100. In 1913 he won 36 games, lost 7, and gave up only 44 runs in 48 games. You need a microscope to see his career ERA of 2.13.
   
   He was also a devoted family man, married to a congressman's daughter until death did part them, with four children. He was so popular that in public appearances with his younger, more handsome available teammates, single young women swooned, even though it was well-known that he was married.
   
   Few American sports heroes have embodied the combination of ability, accomplishment and virtue that were all seen in Walter Johnson. This books stands up well next to the most well-known in the genre. I'd much rather see a film version of this than to have seen "Babe" or "Cobb." This is on the short list of "best baseball books."



5. I will just one particular reason why I like this book. It will seem trivial to some readers, and I will not be surprised if this review gets negative recommendations because of it. After all, the author did not deliberately intend for this "selling point" to occur, but it did. What is it? Well, Henry Thomas is a stickler for names. He insists on calling teams and places what they were called at the time instead of what we refer to them today. The Washington ballpark is not referred to as Griffith Stadium until the early 20's. References are made to the Cleveland Naps and the New York Highlanders. where am I going with this? In the third chapter, Thomas explains how the owners of the Washington American League team decide to officially change the name of team from "Senators" to "Nationals" for good luck. The name did not catch on with fans, who still preferred to call them "Senators", although "Nats" (short for both seNATorS and NATionalS) was a common nickname. Still, Thomas consistently refers to Johnson's team as the "Nationals" since that was the franchise's official name until 1956.
   
   This book was written in 1995. Although there were fans who dreamed major league baseball would eventually return to Washington, D.C., it still seemed like impossible for many people. But eventually, the Montr?al Expos WERE moved to Washington, and Thomas' choice of words proved prophetic. Commissioner Bud Selig wanted to rename the team the "Washington Senators" after the team he remembered in his youth. D.C. Mayor Tony Williams was adamantally opposed to "Senators" since D.C. had no voting representation in Congress---he wanted the team named "Washington Grays" after the champion Negro League team that used to play at Griffith Stadium. "Washington Nationals" was chosen as a compromise.
   
   The result is that if you are sitting in the stands at RFK Stadium watching a Nats game (perhaps the home opener, as I was doing today) and you turn to read Thomas' biography of Walter Johnson and his "Nationals", you realize that the current team is part of a long tradition of Washington baseball, and it is a proud tradition. The proudest part of the history of Washington baseball was the career of Walter Johnson. This book reminds finds why.