No comments about A Splendid Madness: A Man, a Boat, a Love Story.

3 comments about Still Roaring: Jim Phillips's Life in Broadcasting.

1. I miss Jim Phillips. As the voice of the Clemson Tigers, Jim filled the rooms of my house growing up more often than some of my relatives did. In fact, for the first 30 years of my life, Jim Phillips was the only "Voice of the Tigers" that I knew. His genuine warmth, friendliness, and passion for Clemson athletics made him the perfect ambassador for the university.
   
   Jim was working on Still Roaring at the time of his sudden death in 2003. He shares his memories of growing up in Northeast Ohio, his start in broadcasting, his unexpected hiring at WFBC in Greenville, South Carolina in 1968, and his 36 years of covering Clemson athletics. In those 36 years, Jim broadcast more than 2,000 sporting events, including men's and women's basketball, baseball, and 401 football games. For a while, he was also the voice of the Greenville Braves, the longtime AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, and he covered The Masters golf tournament for 13 years. He had a remarkable career.
   
   Those who are familiar with Phillips will instantly recognize his friendly, easy going style in the pages of Still Roaring. It's like he's sitting there, talking to you again. The text is loose and conversational as Jim shares some of his favorite memories from his long tenure at Clemson. In his 36 years at Clemson, the school grew from having a regional presence to having a national presence, including winning a football national championship in 1981. Jim witnessed it all.
   
   Listening to a Clemson football game isn't quite the same now that Jim is gone, but, of course, life goes on. We were truly lucky and blessed to have Jim as long as we did.



2. Jim Phillips' autobiography "Still Roaring" tells the life story of Jim Phillips -- the Voice of the Clemson Tigers for over 30 years. Although it was written with the assistance of Ken Tysiac, but you can hear Jim Phillips' conversational style come across in the narrative.
   
   After a short history of Phillips' childhood and early broadcasting days in Ohio, Phillips tells how his hiring at Clemson was almost a fluke and was certainly unexpected. Phillips tells his stories about some of Clemson's most memorable football, baseball, and basketball games, interspersed with personal anecdotes from his travels with the teams. For an avid Clemson fan, though, Phillips' selective storytelling leave you wanting to read a game-by-game and year-by-year history of Clemson's sports teams, which this book is not.
   
   Phillips also gives insight into the coaches and personalities in the Clemson athletic department during his tenure: Danny Ford, Ken Hatfield, Tommy West, and Rick Barnes especially. However, at times Phillips tells the story as an insider and whitewashes some of the failings of these coaches.
   
   Finally, Phillips tells some interesting stories about his days covering the Greenville Braves, Masters golf tournaments, and other sporting events. His stories hearken back to a bygone era in sports broadcasting, and his nature as a true gentleman comes through in these stories.
   
   This book is a must-read for any Clemson fan - and I would recommend it for any fan of South Carolina sports or for anyone with an interest in college sports or sports broadcasting.



3. Jim Phillips trusted Ken Tysiac to help him tell his life story, and the trust was well-placed. Although Phillips has passed away, you can hear his voice again in this well-organized, fast-paced book. If a book can feel like a football Saturday afternoon in the fall, this one does. All Clemson fans will get a big kick out of it.

1 comments about The Jack Brabham Story.

1. I have many books about the man and the machine but as you would expect the best details come from Black Jack's own pen. Excellent information especially his pre Grand Prix life and Cooper years which aren't covered well in other Brabham books. Great photos from his personal collection. Best of all you get his true feelings about his career, life and specific incidents.
   
   This book is a must have if you are a serious fan of the history of Formula One.

5 comments about A Kind of Grace: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Female Athlete.

1. Jackie Joyner-Kersee elaborately describes the struggles and obstacles that she had to overcome to become a successful and outstanding athlete and person. Her book is filled with emotions that the reader can intially relate to. Her life was filled with adversity and proves that a strong and self-determined person can triumph regardless of depressing and self-destructing obstacles that may stand in your way. Jackie, who is portrayed through the media to be "Superwoman" is really more human and down to the earth than most of the world. Life for Jackie was not always "peaches and cream." She was born and raised in East St. Louis, which was not known as a very safe place at the time. A reporter once suggested to Jackie that she should not tell people where she was from cause it might destroy her image. This event, however, made Jackie appreciate her hometown even more. You cannot put into words why this woman is thought of as superb. She went from rock bottom to soaring to the unlimited top. With the help of this book, Jackie's title as "The World's Greatest Female Athlete" has been justified.



2. Jackie Joyner-Kersee elaborately describes the struggles and obstacles that she had to overcome to become a successful and outstanding athlete and person. Her book is filled with emotions that the reader can intially relate to. Her life was filled with adversity and proves that a strong and self-determined person can triumph regardless of depressing and self-destructing obstacles that may stand in your way. Jackie, who is portrayed through the media to be "Superwoman" is really more human and down to the earth than most of the world. Life for Jackie was not always "peaches and cream." She was born and raised in East St. Louis, which was not known as a very safe place at the time. A reporter once suggested to Jackie that she should not tell people where she was from cause it might destroy her image. This event, however, made Jackie appreciate her hometown even more. You cannot put into words why this woman is thought of as superb. She went from rock bottom to soaring to the unlimited top. With the help of this book, Jackie's title as "The World's Greatest Female Athlete" has been justified.



3. Jackie Joyner-Kersee elaborately describes the struggles and obstacles that she had to overcome to become a successful and outstanding athlete and person. Her book is filled with emotions that the reader can intially relate to. Her life was filled with adversity and proves that a strong and self-determined person can triumph regardless of depressing and self-destructing obstacles that may stand in your way. Jackie, who is portrayed through the media to be "Superwoman" is really more human and down to the earth than most of the world. Life for Jackie was not always "peaches and cream." She was born and raised in East St. Louis, which was not known as a very safe place at the time. A reporter once suggested to Jackie that she should not tell people where she was from cause it might destroy her image. This event, however, made Jackie appreciate her hometown even more. You cannot put into words why this woman is thought of as superb. She went from rock bottom to soaring to the unlimited top. With the help of this book, Jackie's title as "The World's Greatest Female Athlete" has been justified.



4. A Kind of Grace is an excellent book. I think everyone should read it. It gave me a whole new look on life and how to appreciate everything I have. It also gave me inspiration to work hard at track. Now I have the heart and determination to train, lift weights, and practice, practice, practice. So everyone please buy and read this wonderful book, A Kind of Grace.



5. Jackie Joyner-Kersee's autobiography is everything a biography should be, well-written, entertaining, and deeply moving. Unlike many celebrity bios that center around events, primarily ones that reflect well on the author, Jackie's book is people-centered and equally honest about her struggles as well as her triumphs. She writes with love and admiration about many people who have touched her life both in big and small ways. It is not hard to see why Jackie became the woman and athlete that she is. This book could have just as easily been titled "The World's Greatest Role Model for Young People."

No comments about Rodger Ward: Superstar of American Racing's Golden Age.

1 comments about On the Cobbles: The Life of a Bare-Knuckle Gypsy Warrior.

1. On the Cobbles was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from cover to cover. It is a simple story of the life of the Gypsies and one family in particular, the Stockins. Most of what is written and spoken regarding Gypsies in our society is negative. I enjoyed reading about the life of the Gypsies from an insider's perspective. I have a bit of wonderlust in me and envy some of the freedoms that the Gypsies enjoy.
   
   Add bareknuckle boxing, pubs, beer, and witty humor and you've got yourself a quick and enjoyable read. These are the kind of folks I could have a few pints with, some good crack, and maybe a scrap or two.
   
   Cheers!

5 comments about Rogers Hornsby: A Biography.

1. Just like his book on Cobb, Alexander's bio on Hornsby is excellent. What I especially like about it is that the author provided considerable info. on Hornsby's personal life during and after his career as a player. I don't feel that Hornsby was "colorless." He had an abrasive, stubborn insensitive personality and his interests were generally confined to baseball and horseracing. Still he managed several major league teams and married three times. I think Alexander really captured the essence of Hornsby. you were actually able to feel Hornsby's one track obsession with baseball and human failings that his contemporaries saw. If Hornsby had been able to contain his horseracing gambling addiction, he would have become a wealthy man after he retired as a player instead of struggling. Yet Hornsby was always able to find someone- in baseball or out to hire him.
   
   The author's writing style makes for an easy read. Alexander's research is excellent. This includes interviews with players who played for him. There's just enough detail about his career to make the chronology of his baseball career complete- without a boring recitation of every game he played. And in contrast to one reviewer, I don't find the author's omission of Hornsby's baseball statistics or discussion of his saber metrics a problem at all. There are many other sources for such information.



2. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought the author did a marvelous job of capturing the essence of Rogers Hornsby's personality, warts and all. By the time I finished it, I felt that I really knew what Hornsby was like.
   
   I also had a small personal connection to Hornsby that served to increase my enjoyment of this book. When I was ten years old in 1960, living in the Chicago suburb of Lincolnwood, my grandfather, who was retired and living with my family, somehow became friends with Rogers Hornsby. What was the one common interest that brought these two guys together? You guessed it - playing the horses! Almost everyday, from the time they met in 1960 until Hornsby died in 1963, he would drive his car to our house, and then ride together with my grandfather in my grandfather's car to Arlington Park Race Track. Knowing of my love for baseball even at the age of ten, my grandfather introduced me to Mr. Hornsby and even had him sign a baseball for me - unfortunately long since lost! I also spoke to him numerous times on the phone when he called our house.
   
   Mr. Alexander makes it vividly clear that, other than his love for baseball, the major constant in Hornsby's live was his addiction to playing the horses. It's now very clear to me why these two old codgers became fast friends - their love of horseracing.



3. This is an outstanding biography of the hitting machine, Rogers Hornsby, perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). The story that Charles C. Alexander tells explores the rise and fall of this remarkable baseball player, an individual who could work magic on the diamond but had real difficulty off of it.
   
   Signed out of Texas to the St. Louis Cardinals, he had a "cup-of-coffee" with the team at the end of the 1915 season, hitting a measly .246. Hardly a stellar debut, but after working hard all winter the next year Hornsby made the Cardinals and batted .313 while becoming the everyday second baseman. He went on to compile a career batting average of .358 and established the highest single season batting average when he hit .424 for the Cards in 1924. Indeed, from 1921-1925, Rogers' overall batting average was .402, a truly amazing accomplishment. In 1925 Hornsby became player-manager of the Cardinals and the next year his team captured its first National League pennant by edging Cincinnati in the final week of the season after an August spurt had shot them into pennant contention. The season was made perfect by the Cards' first victory in the World Series, coming at the expense of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the rest of the New York Yankees.
   
   Always an abrasive force on the Cardinals, the year after his World Series success the owner shipped him off to the New York Giants for Frankie Frisch and Jimmy Ring. It was only the first time in which Hornsby's personality led to adversity for him. But there was room for only one massive ego on the Giants and within a short time manager John J. McGraw shipped him to the Boston Braves. From there he went to the Chicago Cubs, back to the Cardinals, and then to the St. Louis Browns. He finally retired in 1937. Hornsby lived another 26 years after retiring from MLB, always hovering around the fringes of it but never truly a part of it. He eventually died in 1963, bitter about his fate.
   
   Charles C. Alexander is an outstanding historian, the author of several other books on baseball as well as on other subjects. This is a superb addition to his path-breaking series of studies on a range of subjects.



4. This is the third book I've read by Alexander, which I suppose is evidence that his books are readable.

   In the end they all share the same strengths and weaknesses.

   For a straightforward narrative of the key points of Hornsby's career and life, this is perfectly OK.

   But the book really stays on the surface. For example, there is never any in-depth discussion of techniques of batting or fielding. It's like reading a book on Napoleon without finding anything about the nature of warfare in the period.

   Also, there is very little meangingful discussion of Hornsby's relative baseball greatness. Alexander doesn't need to become a zealous SABRmetrician, but some basic statistics about Hornsby and others (beyond saying what the average batting average for the league was in a given year) seems called for. Alexander doesn't even include a table or appendix with Hornsby's basic statistics.

   I've given this 3 stars, because for the general reader it's OK. If I were rating it as serious history, I'd give it a 1. You come away from this book unaware that there have been lots of serious books written about baseball and its relation to society. Alexander's attempts to provide historical context are embarassing--on the order of, "The same continued hot, dry weather than made the Great Plains a Dust Bowl was present on Opening Day 1936 [my paraphrase, to be honest]".

   In short, there is the same strain of intellectual laziness in this book that I saw in his others.




5. Alexander captures Hornsby and his times perfectly. While not as readable as the author's previous "Ty Cobb", this is due more to Hornsby's general colorlessness than in Alexander's writing. As enigmatic as Hornsby was, Alexander does a great job in telling the life of the man who hit for the highest average in the 20th century.

No comments about Ted Williams - Teddy Ballgame (Biography).

5 comments about Mel Ott: The Little Giant of Baseball.

1. Mel Ott, in this day and age, seems to be a forgotten superstar. I think there are a number of reasons for this: the team he played for moved from its home of more than 70 years, from the place Ott played to a city across the country, where it developed its own heroes; he died at much too young an age, he was never a controversial figure in baseball, and the records he set, especially the league records, were largely eclipsed - a normal happening over time - by someone who played on the same team that he did, so he didn't even get to own the team records that he set.
   
   Thus, Fred Stein has done us all a favor by writing this book to remind us of the talent of Mel Ott, and of the temperment, sportsmanship and manners of the man. He traces Ott's life from his roots in Louisiana up to New York City, the development of his talent, the foresight of John McGraw to educate and protect him from anyone who would change his batting style, through his many years of stardom and his managerial efforts. There was not much of the book devoted to after he was released as manager of the Giants, such as his work on the farm system or his time as a Tigers broadcaster, but in the big picture of Ott's life, these are only footnotes to the greatness of his career.
   
   One other item that did bother me: at the end of the book, the author interviews a writer who, in the course of his work, interviewed Carl Hubbell and found him to be "dull," and had the opportunity to sit at the same table with Dizzy Dean, Frank Frisch and Rogers Hornsby, whom he described as a "boor," a "chatterbox," and "mean," I believe the descriptions were. The writer and Stein are entitled to their opinions about these people, and they may well be truthful and honest in their assessment; except for Rogers Hornsby, I hadn't heard the other gentlemen described in these terms, not to say that they may or may not be of which they are accused. I do know that by this stage of the book (almost at the end), Mel Ott does not need to be compared to these gentlemen; Stein has already completely made his point that Ott is polite, kind, entertaining, a fine interview, etc. There's no need to elevate Ott at the expense of lowering these ex-players. Ott and his personality can stand by itself; if you want to call someone a "boor" or "dull," write a book about them and how they got to be that way; all of these fellows would make interesting topics in biographies (by the way, there are good books about Dean and Hornsby out there).
   
   Also, something interesting that Stein did not mention but would have been a point of coincidence is the number of ex-Giants in that era that died from auto accidents. Besides Mel Ott, other teammates include Carl Hubbell and Frank Frisch; there may be more, but I'd have to investigate. It's not often that a number of teammates and stars pass away from the same cause.



2. Fred Stein did a terrific job of bringing Mel Ott to life with great stories of his entry into baseabll at the age of 16 and his subsequent rise to become a Hall of Famer . The Postal Service recently honored Mel Ott by issuing a commemorative stamp and named him one of the all time great sluggers. Stein depicts the era in which Ott, Terry and Mcgraw as manager of the NY GIants, played, as one of the most exciting times to witness the greats in action. Well done and a must for any baseball enthusiast.



3. Author Fred Stein has provided us with a well written biography about Mel Ott, one of the greatest players in the storied history of the New York Giants baseball team. Milton Shapiro wrote a biography of Ott in 1959 on a more juvenile level and it was long overdue for another more detailed biography of Master Melvin. Ott arrived at the Polo Grounds in the mid 1920's for a tryout on the recommendation of Harry Williams, a friend of Giants' manager John McGraw. McGraw didn't want anyone tampering with Ott's batting stance in the minor leagues and wanted to keep a close watch on the young teen ager. After gradually breaking Ott into the lineup and with the added confidence, Ott became one of the most popular players ever to play with the Giants. The book covers the story of Bill Terry's succeeding McGraw as Giants' manager as well as Ott's career as Terry's successor at the helm. It may be true that Ott didn't have the disposition to be a manager. When he acted up over an umpire's decision, his ranting just didn't appear to be real. I read with great surprise that Ott didn't attend his Hall of Fame induction at Cooperstown in 1951 because he was managing the Oakland Oaks in the minor leagues. I remember very well when Ott broadcasted Detroit Tigers' baseball games with Van Patrick from 1956 through 1958 and enjoyed him very much. His death in November of 1958 was a great loss to all of baseball and to those who followed the Tigers on the radio. Many athletes may be great on the field, but are a disappointment off the field. Ott didn't disappoint those who looked up to him. The book is easy to read and should be enjoyable for anyone from teen agers to adults. Thanks, Fred Stein for a great effort. I only wish the book was available in hard cover.



4. This book really showed me how good Mel was as a player and as a person. He was my great uncle, and although I never got to meet him (since he died before I was born), this book provided me with a great opportunity to learn more about him and how he lived his life. I recommend this book to any Mel Ott enthusiast or just about anybody who likes baseball, as it tells about one of baseball's best players and best people.



5. I initially ordered this book because I wanted to learn more about the life and times of a hall-of-famer whose mono-syllabic name appeared so often in baseball's record books. But I came away with a great appreciation for baseball in far simpler times. The author's love and affection for his boyhood hero and his undying devotion to our national pasttime leaps from the pages.

   A must read for anyone who loves baseball and heroes.

2 comments about Tommy's Honour: The Extraordinary Story of Golf's Founding Father and Son.

1. Tommy's Honour is essential for any golfer of any ability level who wants to learn about the history of the game. This account of Tom and his family (including prodigy son, young Tommy) will entertain and educate any reader willing to crack the cover. Buyer beware, that this book may cost you more than the few dollars you paid to purchase it - the urge to plan a trip to St. Andrews will grow with the turn of each page and will be practically irresistible by book's end.



2. Absolute great book. It may be a bit one sided on the founding of golf as we know it, but it tells a great story of a father and son, and the game they loved. A must read for anyone who is interested in the history of golf or for anyone getting ready for a golf trip to Scotland.