Books about sports

[notin]

If you like math nerdy baseball history books, The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs is out there...

[Northern Star]

If you like math nerdy baseball history books, The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs is out there...

Trying to remember if I've bought/read this. It's sad that I need Amazon to remind me.

[Northern Star]

Just read Pedro's book. Always sad when you discover how flawed your heroes are. In this case, the gigantic ego, the hypersensitivity to being "disrespected" by organizations, people and fans, and on the flip side, not always giving respect where it's due.

[Bellhorn04]

RIP Dan Jenkins, author of Semi-Tough and Dead Solid Perfect and numerous other sports books fictional and non-fictional.

Semi-Tough came out in 1972 and became a bestseller. It was a 'raunchy comedy' about football that was made into a movie with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson.

Interestingly, in 1973, another novel about football came out, North Dallas Forty. This was written by Peter Gent, an actual ex-member of the Dallas Cowboys, and it was also a bestseller and a much darker tale than the Jenkins book. It was also made into a movie with (note the parallels) Nick Nolte and Mac Davis.

[Northern Star]

Playing Through the Whistle by S.L. Price is a fine read about a Pennsylvania mill town, the brutal hold the mill had on the workers during the 20s and 30s, and how football became an integral part of the town culture.

[Northern Star]

Papi: My Story was a big disappointment. It's thinly written, covering the expected topics, but with precious little detail or insight. It's also jumbled up - launches right into his minor leagues career, then in the second half of the book you find out a few scant details about his childhood. At several moments, I was frustrated as something is dealt with in a couple of paragraphs and I'm saying "but how did that make you FEEL?" Pedro's book mentioned his feeling about being called up to the majors, for instance. Nothing from Ortiz, it was just something that happened. "This is our fucking city!" was a watershed moment, but he just says he felt like he screwed up, but some cops on the field high fived him, and then we're onto the next topic.

Also, while he's a legend in Boston, crying about money and Theo won't endear him more to a lot of fans.

[Northern Star]

Read Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning recently. Fantastic, even if the main plot is about the MF Yankees. It's about Reggie Jackson's 1977 season, and also goes into the NYC blackout and the search for Son of Sam.

[mvp 78]

"High Above Courtside: the Lost Memoires of Johnny Most" was a good read from what I remember. I'm not huge into sports books though.

[notin]

One I read a long time ago but liked was “Out of Control”, which was the autobiography of former Dallas linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson. As the title suggests, lots and lots of drug use to the point where he claims to have snorted cocaine on the field during the Super Bowl

[notin]

Now that I think of it “The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber” might be the best sports book I’ve ever read, if you consider the true story of a Romanian D-League hockey player turned drunken bank robber to be a sports book…

[Northern Star]

The Best Team Money Can Buy by Molly Knight about the current Dodgers' ownership was a good read. Never realized what a total douche Frank McCourt is, and his ex-wife wasn't much better.

[mvp 78]

The Best Team Money Can Buy by Molly Knight about the current Dodgers' ownership was a good read. Never realized what a total douche Frank McCourt is, and his ex-wife wasn't much better.

I lived out in LA when McCourt was the owner. He was a complete asshat.

[Northern Star]

I lived out in LA when McCourt was the owner. He was a complete asshat.

Now reading a book about the 70s Oakland As, and Finley sounds like a real douchebag, too.