4 comments about They Call Me Sparky.

1. I was very disappointed with this book. I love Sparky but I don't really need a lesson on how to treat people,Mom did a fine job with that. This book tells you very little about his amazing career. Instead Sparky tells you something on how to behave and then the author promptly repeats it. If you are trying to figure out how to raise a kid then by all means buy this book. If you are looking for information about Sparky's baseball career save your money.



2. Although Sparky and I come from totally different backgrounds (I am from the Dominican Republic and Sparky is from South Dakota) but the concept of treating everybody equal is universal but unfortunately not practiced by everyone. Some people talk about it others do it. Sparky does it!*The book is awesome and not just in baseball terms but in the every day life term. After reading this book, there is no doubt why Sparky is the best there ever was.

   *I got the opportunity to watch Sparky work his magic when I was a player in the Detroit organization. I am now a minor league manager and one day I want to be just like Sparky. Close at least! there is only one Sparky and I can only pray to be half of the man that he is. Very smart at his craft!!* Ironically I now live in South Dakota:)

   Sparky is coming to town this week and I cannot wait to get the opportunity to pick his brains...




3. I REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THIS BOOK, BUT IT WASN'T WHAT I EXPECTED OR WANTED TO READ ABOUT. I WANTED TO READ ABOUT HIS GREAT CAREER IN BASBALL, BUT WHAT I GOT WAS OVER 200 PAGES OF WHAT A GREAT GUY SPARKY IS AND A LESSON IN HUMILITY, DIGNITY AND HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE IN GENERAL. SPARKY COMES ACROSS AS TRULY BEING A VERY SINCERE AND HONEST MAN. I BELIEVE HE REALLY IS A GOOD PERSON AND AND A GOOD EXAMPLE OF HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE. HE HAS DONE MUCH CHARITY WORK AND IS A VERY GIVING INDIVIDUAL. TO SPEND MUCH OF THE BOOK TELLING ABOUT THIS WAS NOT WHAT I BOUGHT IT FOR. IF YOU TRULY WANT TO FIND OUT ABOUT SPARKY THE PERSON THEN THIS IS FOR YOU. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT A LOT OF BASEBALL STORIES AND NOSTALGIA THEN YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED.



4. As a lifelong Detroit Tiger fan and Michigan resident, the stories and messages that Sparky conveyed typify what the people of Detroit, Cincinnati, and Thousand Oaks California knew all along. Sparky is truly a class act who "walks the walk." His lessons and stories transcend baseball and touch upon something rare in professional sports: Class and Dignity.

   I can only speak for Detroit when I say that the Sparky that is portrayed in "They Call Me Sparky" is the same Sparky whose efforts with C.A.T.C.H. are still benefitting Children's Hospital.

   Any person who deals with people on a day to day basis can take away from this book many of the same interpersonal lessons taught in a Dale Carnegie course.

5 comments about 12 Rounds With Oscar De LA Hoya: An Illustrated Tribute to Boxing's Brightest Star.

1. Now this is the book you want if you want anything of OSCAR DE LA HOYA! It has the best pictures! Eveyone needs to buy this book! It's AWESOME!



2. Just ordered the book for myself. I am a huge Dlh fan and liked the pictures that highlight the start of his career to the present. I would like to see a more current one though. A must for any Dlh Fan.



3. Just ordered the book for myself. I am a huge Dlh fan and liked the pictures that highlight the start of his career to the present. I would like to see a more current one though. A must for any Dlh Fan.



4. I think that this book resembled a yearbook, because it gave a fawning account of Oscar's life. Didn't really get any real feedback of his life, the pictures were superior though. For $24.00, those pictures better be good and of superior quality!



5. The pictures are varied and large, the book is large-format and glossy with almost every page covered entirely by a photograph. Some of the best photography of the prize fighter I've seen. A must for fans, shows Oscar before and after success, in the ring and out. Does not have a lot of written information, but if you admire the game and the fighter, the pictures are worth the price.

3 comments about Termite.

1. An outstanding, one of a kind, story about an American hero. From an humble working class neighborhood, to the world's best athletic training centers, Termite Watkins exemplified the "can do" American spirit. By thinking on his feet, he negotiated many difficult political and social challenges. During his time in Iraq, he focused his efforts on helping the Iraqi people.
   
   This book chronicles his many acts of self sacrifice, and the rewards that followed. The examples of leadership, documented in the book, are riveting. The emotional highs and lows, brought me to tears. An outstanding, hightly recommended, book!



2. Excellent!! Uplifiting and inspirational. I could NOT put it down. A must read!! You will not be disappointed. Hopefully this is not Suzy Pepper's last book.



3. Once I got into this book I simply could not put it down. It is the story of a man's struggle to fame in boxing and then a heartbreaking failure which helped him find his true calling decades later. Termite's story is truly inspirational, and he helped out a cause much bigger than himself and truly made a difference. I can't even begin to imagine the struggles and the danger he had to endure in Iraq. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone!

No comments about Memorable Moments in Motor Racing: Legends and Personalities Tell Their Stories.

4 comments about Matty, An American Hero: Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants.

1. It is a historical anomaly that at the end of the nineteenth century the violent game of football was a sport for the privileged gentleman yet baseball was the game of the uneducated, profane and in essence the masses. Football was confined to the college campuses, which at that time, meant it was restricted to the wealthy. Baseball was a popular sport, yet the players were often little more than thugs. Nearly all of the players were from the lower classes, which meant they came from working class backgrounds such as the steel mills or coal mines. Professional baseball players were generally denigrated in society, at that time it was not an occupation that was looked upon as a stellar career.
   Christy Mathewson entered the major leagues from college, one of the first players who attended college before playing. He was one of the most intelligent men ever to play the game; he was capable of playing championship caliber checkers against several players simultaneously. Mathewson was also an excellent card player; he regularly accepted challenges from others as he moved from place to place. In his role as a gentleman baseball player, he did a great deal to transform the image of the baseball player from that of an uneducated brute to someone to be emulated. He served as a positive role model for children interested in pursuing a sports career and was idolized by the sports media of the time. Mathewson was also a very good and durable pitcher, his 373 career wins ranks him second all time behind Cy Young and Walter Johnson.
   In this book, Robinson captures Mathewson as he was, considered standoffish by some, yet a consummate professional on the mound. His relationship with his manager, the volatile John McGraw, was an unusual one as Mathewson, McGraw and their wives once shared an apartment. Given McGraw's temperament, this would truly be another example of "The Odd Couple." Robinson never apologizes for some of the negative comments made about Mathewson, merely pointing out that many of those instances can be explained by the context of the times. In general the country was uneducated with racial and personal slurs being part of daily speech. Babe and Rube were common nicknames of professional baseball players, being synonyms for naïve and ignorant. A deaf man was given the nickname "Dummy" and a Native American was usually called "Chief."
   Mathewson's time was also one of great transition in major league baseball, the American league was formed and considered inferior by the older National league. Players were very poorly paid, a consequence of the reserve clause which bound a player to a team and which allowed him to be traded against his will. Robinson points out that one of the reasons why the World Series was continued is because it was a significant financial windfall for the players. Groups of players also regularly barnstormed around the country and even overseas, in many cases to earn enough money to live.
   Mathewson was a charter member of baseball's hall of fame and it is unfortunate that he did not live long enough to be there in person. His health failed him very quickly after he retired from baseball, there is some evidence that the tuberculosis that took his life was brought on by his being gassed during World War I. While he had his faults, compared to those around him, they were few and far between. It has been said that Base Ruth did the most to help make modern baseball what it is today. I agree with that, but also firmly believe that Christy Mathewson occupies second place on that list. His approach to the game and the example he set in life did a great deal to elevate professional baseball players in the mind of the public. His life was an interesting and productive one, you can honor his memory be reading this book and learning all about him.



2. Ray Robinson is a sports journalist and editor, and this book is very much in the genre of many other conventional sports biographies. It is a good, serviceable biography; but it is far from great. In it, we learn about one of the earliest stars of major league baseball. Christy Mathewson had been born in 1880, attended Bucknell University and gained fame there as both a football and baseball player. He signed with the New York Giants and played sixteen seasons with them; arguably the most dominant pitcher in major league baseball during his time in the Majors. While with the Giants, Mathewson won 20 games thirteen times and 30 games four times. During that same period, he won at least 20 games twelve consecutive years (1903-1914). A power pitcher, Mathewson had the most wins in Giant franchise history (372), and had more than 2,500 strikeouts. Perhaps his most dominant performance came in the 1905 World Series when he pitched a record three shutouts in six days against the Philadelphia Athletics, leading the Giants to the championship.
   
   Robinson does a credible job telling the story of Mathewson's remarkable career. He expends considerable effort narrating the dramatic events of his various pitching performances. He also delves into the story of Mathewson's close relationship with his Giants manager, the legendary John McGraw, who is credited with working effectively with a sensitive and talented player to make him more dominant than he might have been otherwise. Robinson also explores the role Mathewson plays in helping to remake the image of major league baseball from one of rowdy hooliganism into one of the "national pastime." Mathewson served as a model of clean living when the sport was known for its hard-living, hard-drinking players. He became a role model for young boys, and MLB exploited his lifestyle to remake its image. He enthusiastically aided this process, and even wrote a series of boy's books advocating a moral, strenuous lifestyle.
   
   Of course, Mathewson served as the perfect example of "clean living" for MLB because of his dominance on the mound. Accordingly, in 1936 he joined four other MLB legends--Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson, none of whom exemplified "clean living"--as the first class of baseball players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. It was a posthumous induction because Mathewson had died in 1925, at age 45, of tuberculosis.
   
   Ray Robinson has written a solid, readable biography of Matty. I give it three stars because it fails to go beyond the basics of what we already know about him, and has no references or even a bibliography with other works to read on the subject.



3. Ray Robinson does a fine job depicting one of baseball's greatest pitchers from Christy's grand beginnings to his unfortunate plight in the end. The book gives a fair amount of detail about the game's first national idol but lacks punch because of the mostly serene nature of "BIG 6's" life. To the extent that the book is kind of fluffy for its depiction of a man who is nearly perfect-save for incidences like his punching a vendor during a melee-it is almost Rockyesque in that one cannot help but wish they were a personal friend of Christy.It is currently the best I've read on the perfector of the fadeaway.



4. This is the best effort by Ray Robinson to date. The book starts off slowly but eventually picks up steam. Robinson effectively captures the era but really does not give you an awful lot more. Christy Mathewson was one of the best pitchers ever in my opinion (based on my research). I just wish that Ray Robinson could have confirmed it with the decisiveness one would come to expect from a seasoned author. Instead, I was left to wonder why certain facts were omitted and why he did not do more to make Matty an American Hero. A few more efforts like this and Christy Mathewson and others of his era will emulate his trademark pitch...Fadeaway! Anthony DeMedeiros, Toronto, Ontario

5 comments about Legends of the Martial Arts Masters.

1. I love the book "Legends of the Martial Arts Masters" by Susan Lynn Peterson. The book was very entertaining because with the stories it helped me understand that martial arts it's not about violence. Martial art is an art using your mind, body, and spirit. Furthermore, my favorite story in this book was "Great Power, Great Control." I really liked it because it showed that without control, you have no power and you will loose many challenges. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes martial arts. In addition, I would mostly recommend this book to children and teenagers because they think martial arts is about fighting, but it's more than that.



2. Legends of the Martial Arts Masters by Susan Lynn Peterson is a very inspiring book. I thought that this story was very entertaining because there are many adventures in it. This story talks alot about how to become a better person. The lessons in this book will make you the best martial artist. My favorite story is The General Fights the Bull. It is about a general who is ordered to kill a bull. He doesn't want to kill an animal but finds another way. He learns that killing is not the answer. I would recommend this book to young teens who like to read adventures."



3. Legends of the Martial Arts Masters by Susan Lynn Peterson is a very inspiring book. I thought that this story was very entertaining because there are many adventures in it. This story talks alot about how to become a better person. The lessons in this book will make you the best martial artist. My favorite story is The General Fights the Bull. It is about a general who is ordered to kill a bull. He doesn't want to kill an animal but finds another way. He learns that killing is not the answer. I would recommend this book to young teens who like to read adventures."



4. Legends of the Martial Arts Mastersby Susan Lynn Peterson is a very inspiring book. I thought that this story was very entertaining because there are many adventures in it. This story talks alot about how to become a better person. The lessons in this book will make you the best martial artist. My favorite story is The General Fights the Bull. It is about a general who is ordered to kill a bull. He doesn't want to kill an animal but finds another way. He learns that killing is not the answer. I would recommend this book to young teens who like to read adventures."



5. I really enjoyed the book "Legends Of The Martial Arts Master" by Susan Lynn Peterson. I read the whole book and it was so interesting. This book helped me see the world of martial arts in a different way. Most people think its about kicking people here and there but this book helps you understand that its deeper than. A lot of the stories not only entertain you but they teach you valuable stuff. My favorite story was "The general fights the bull" The moral i got from that story was that Your brain can be a very powerful weapon so use it.

No comments about Diamond in the Rough: The Dave Clark Story.

No comments about Bobby Jones: THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL (Classic Golf Champions).

5 comments about The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball.

1. Charley Rosen provides readers with an entertaining book about one of basketball's most talented players, Jack Molinas. Unfortunately, it seems that some of Rosen's information might not be accurate - especially the statements about one of Jack's long-time friends, Shirley Marcus, which are based on innuendoes; and some of Rosen's statements about one of the greatest sportswriters of all times, Milton Gross.
   
   What is particularly disappointing about this otherwise interesting book is how Rosen protects the basketball establishment by putting all the blame on Jack Molinas. The fact is, a real exploration of gambling in sports could lead to a public outcry - followed by reduced advertiser support and cancelled television contracts.
   
   Molinas was no angel, to be sure - and Rosen does a pretty good job of characterizing this complex and talented athlete. But as the title of the book implies, it is the betting odds - the point spreads that appear in most major newspapers - that is more key to the problem than the actions of a single "Wizard" like Jack Molinas, or a lone referee (as David Stern would like us to believe).
   
   Sadly, the current Commissioner, team owners, as well as sportswriters and commentators, would rather sidestep the problem posed by gambling than risk the millions of dollars that are at stake from advertising, television contracts, and sports fans. (Jerry Marcus is the author of the just-published novel, Broken Trust - The Murder Of Basketball Star Jack Molinas)



2. Born to a great family and blessed with amazing athletic prowess, Jack Molinas just couldn't go straight. Brilliant by all standards of measurement, he seemed to have absolutely no way to determine right from wrong, and would always lie, cheat, or steal if he could get away with it. He developed a love of gambling early in his life, and would do anything to win in his lifetime obession with sports betting. If he couldn't bribe or convince a player to throw a game, he would spike their food to make them too sick to play. He would stop at nothing to get his way. Even an unpleasant prison term didn't stop him, and he died in a hail of bullets at his Hollywood Hills home at the hands of other criminals and sociopaths.
   
   An awesome book full of detail for the sports fan and lover of true crime stories.



3. Besides being well over six feet tall, Jack Molinas stood above the basketball competition he faced in other ways. His I.Q. was a whopping 175 and he used his native itelligence and skills on the court to fix college games for Columbia during the 50's. Later on, he was suspended from the N.B.A in his rookie season for working the same scams there. The culmination came with the basketball scandals of the early 60's and his arrest and subsequent five-year prison sentence. After leaving the 'big house' he turned his talents to upholding the law by becoming a renowned lawyer. He had spent his life manipulating and lying to people so it seemed a natural fit that he eventually moved to California with a girl friend and became a porn producer. Ultimately, his mob ties from his fix days and shady connections caught up with him however. Apparently, he had welshed on sports bets to bookies connected with La Cosa Nostra. Obviously, a very dumb thing to do for someone gifted with his level of intelligence. He was shot by unknown assailents in his home in 1974. Clearly, out of all the people he cheated in his life, the author of this book makes very clear that the person he ultimately short-changed the most was himself.



4. This is probly the most boring book I have ever read. I have read alot of basketball books and by far this is one of the worst. It seemed interesting so I bought it. Then it started out all right but by page 100 I could not keep reading it I just lost interest. I would not reccomend this book.



5. Once I started this book, I could not put it down. Jack was a person with a great deal of athletic and intellectual talent. However, I thought he blurred the line between life and the game of basketball.

   I was never interested in sports when I was growing up, but this book has certainly sparked my interest. It was a mind opening experience.

   How did I come to read this book, considering my lack of interest in sports? I heard it reviewed on Nat'l. Public Radio. When I heard the name Jack Molinas, I remembered an athletically inclined boy that attended PS 33 and PS 79 with me. My memories of him in school were good so I think of his life as he felt compelled to live it as a tragedy.

5 comments about Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink.

1. I have owned this book for over one year, but have put off reading it in favor of others because I can not claim to be a boxing fan. I finally reluctantly started to read it, and found it to be so interesting I finished it in three days. The book's main focus, of course, is on the two fights between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Although Louis won the heavyweight title in defeating Jack Sharkey he knew he wouldn't be recognized as the true title holdler until he avenged a previous loss to Schmeling. Author David Margolick provides ample and interesting prefight hype and postfight reaction for both contests in addition to sports and movie celebrities' interest. Margolick skillfully weaves the attitudes of African Americans and Jews along with the racist attitudes of the American South in regard to the matches. Comments from several newspapers citing the stereotypes popular at the time are also provided. Finally Louis's and Schmeling's role during World War II and post war life is also provided. I felt this book provided me with a taste of what life was like between America and Germany during this time period. Boxing fan or not, I feel you are sure to enjoy the book.



2. An in depth look at the convergence of the boxing careers of Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Exhaustively researched and fully indexed, BEYOND THE GLORY provides not just an analysis of one the most heralded sporting events of all times, but also gives the reader an extremely intelligent, insightful view of the cultural, social, and political forces at work in America and Germany in the mid 1930s that produced this monumental sporting event. Numerous photos add greatly to the impact of this excellent book. A beautifully written, amazing document ... equally valuable as a history text and as a chronicle of a heavyweight championship fight.



3. There's an interesting twist to this book that I didn't expect. American Jews identified with Joe Lewis because he was fighting Max Shmelling, who was identified with Nazi Germany. When Joe won, jews and blacks hugged and cheered together. There is debate as to whther or not Shmelling was really a Nazo or not. Most likely he was caught in the middle of a political spiral that he had no contraol over. The author expertly crafts the behind the scenes of setting up fights, the fight itself and the aftermath of the winners and losers.



4. Get a taste of the 1930's with this winning review of Louis /Smelling & much more.The author can write and certainly did lots and lots and lots of research. More important than Jackie Robinsons'baseball triumph, Louis'Lose and later victory brought America to an important point in bettering race relations.There is quite a bit of star studded name droping at ringside, most of whom the 20th Century historically deficient reader may not recognize.The author sometimes assumes the reader is familiar with a hundred phrases, terms and names such as Neville Chamberlin,Etheopias plight,CCC,Leni Reifenstal, and "brownshirts",though He briefly clarifies some of these at least once.Well worth reading.!



5. Beyond Gory was a true surprise. I must first admit to not being much of a boxing fan, never have been, but this work is much more that just about this particular sport. First, we have a wonderful social history of a very strange and a very hard time this country went through. Secondly, the social commentary of both the author and of hundreds of writers before him are well documented here and thirdly, this is a very, very good sports book. As an autobiography on either of these fighters, the work is not all that strong, but then that really was not the purpose of this work. We do get a good working knowledge of both fighter's careers and where their motivation came from, but more importantly we get a great look at the social conditions which existed at that time. This in turn gives of a great measuring tool to see how far we have come (or, if you will, how far we have to go). The author has used wonderful excerpts from past publications of both black and white commentators of the time in this country and the rest of the world along with the commentaries of Nazi Germany. We get a glimpse of why our world was like it was at that time. This work is well written, well researched and is just filled with bits of obscure information that is absolutely a delight and certainly gives us thoughts to ponder. I must admit to have been fascinated from cover to cover with this work and do recommend it highly.