The John Amaechi book, Man in the Middle was supposed to be a huge leap forward for homosexuals. It was supposed to be a big coming out for a former NBA player. In my eyes, it was just your average biography. Yes it was well written, and yes it had moments where it was very interesting but when it comes down to it, John Amaechi wasn’t a star player, and this detracts from his story.

This was a pretty good underdog story, which kept me turning pages. Amaechi was basically the fat, out of place kid who no one really cared about. He never played basketball until he was a teenager. Even then, Amaechi barely had any talent, and growing up in Britain, he wasn’t exactly aware of the sport and certainly wasn’t up against much talent. He basically got through for being the tall kid.

Amaechi then moves to the United States to finish up high school and go to college. It is at college where he has his first gay moment, and describes it to the reader in no uncertain terms. It really is impressive that Amaechi managed to improve his game quickly enough to play at a Division I level. Throughout this story, Amaechi constantly refers to his “plan” which was supposed to guide him to a career in the NBA as well as shaping him into a good person. This plan guides his life, but for all the importance it appears to have, he never lays out the plan for the reader. I guess you have to hire him as a speaker to get that part of the story.

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The fact that I finished this book the day before the Duke vs. North Carolina basketball game was pure coincidence, but it works out perfectly. This book is a journey into the depths of the North Carolina Duke rivalry. I always knew the rivalry was intense, and I always made it a point to watch the games, but I honestly didn’t know that the rivalry was as intense as it is, To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever gives good insight into it.

These two schools simply don’t like each other. It is upper class meets working class in a present day industrial revolution style conflict. The author, Will Blythe does a great job taking the reader into the middle of the rivalry. Blythe grew up as a North Carolina fan, he was raised in a household that bled the baby blue of UNC. As a result of this, he hates Duke and everything about them, all the way down to Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale. So what does he do? He takes a year off to go back to North Carolina and immerse himself back into the basketball culture for a year.

Blythe just happened to pick a perfect year for this jaunt back down memory lane. He followed the team in their 2004-05 campaign, one which culminated in them winning a national championship. Blythe openly admits in this book that while he is a die hard fan (which he calls the beast) he must also be professional in his journalism efforts (the part which he calls the journalist). Because of the intensity of the rivalry, and perhaps because of his personality, Blythe often lets the beast slip and take over. Despite his blatantly obvious bias, Blythe does a good job getting both sides of the story. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wanted to follow an NFL team for an entire season with full access to their practice facilities, locker room, and players? Same with me. Author John Feinstein was lucky enough to get that opportunity. He followed the 2004 Baltimore Ravens from draft day beginning to disappointing end and he details his journey in his novel Next Man Up.

Feinstein could not have made a better choice of teams to follow. The Ravens were under new ownership (Art Modell had just sold to minority owner Steve Biscotti) and were in a make or break year for a lot of players as well as coaches. He picked a team with many trials and tribulations (Jamal Lewis and his drug case) but also a team with loads of character and talent (Ray Lewis, Deion Sanders).

The coach for the Ravens is also an ideal choice for one to follow. Brian Billick knows what he is doing, he’s been at it for a long time, and is considered one of the better coaches in the league. He knows how to handle his players, and because Feinstein has such unbridled access to the team, he can pick Billick’s brain, and that is exactly what he does.

Starting from day one, the reader gets to see how everything in the Ravens organization works. It starts in training camp. We get the scoop from the coaches about what they are looking for out of the players they brought to camp. Feinstein then does a good job of telling the stories of those players. He shows us which ones are “slapdicks,” there just to fill a training camp spot and get hit around with no real chance of making the team. He then describes the position battles that are occurring, and the decisions that Billick and his staff, including general manager Ozzie Newsome and the rest of the coaches, must make on who to keep and who to cut. Read the rest of this entry »

Three Nights in August, by Buzz Bissinger is easily the most in depth and technical look into baseball that I have ever read. Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights gives us full access into the clubhouse of the Saint Louis Cardinals for the 2003 season, and then highlights a three game series against the Chicago Cubs. We don’t see the series from the standard perspective of a fan, instead we see it through the mind of Tony LaRussa, one of the best, if not the best, managers in Major League Baseball.

I always thought I knew a pretty good deal about baseball strategy and how the mind of a manager works. Just off this simple look that I’m sure doesn’t even begin to describe every detail LaRussa thinks about, I know that I know next to nothing. The strategy I think of is simplified to almost a first grade level. LaRussa’s expertise is great to help me realize my lack of knowledge.

The book sometimes gets slightly confusing because of the depth of decisions that LaRussa has to make. It allows readers to see the differences in the way to treat rookies and veterans. How to treat players who are sulking because of lack of playing time, and how to deal with players who seem like they simply don’t care. All of these minor details that most averages fans don’t pay attention to have to be addressed by LaRussa.

Because Bissinger had unrestricted access to every part of the Cardinals organization throughout the year, he was able to tell us what really happens. He followed up most of LaRussa’s decisions with anecdotes, which provided further explanation as to why LaRussa was doing what he was doing. Taken individually these stories didn’t mean much, but LaRussa pieces them all together as the logic behind his actions.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is a big baseball fan and is looking to further their knowledge. If someone who was just an avid fan of the game picked this up, it would probably overwhelm them. It requires a respect of the game, of LaRussa, of the players, and of the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry to truly understand this book. Even then, there are still a lot of things that are hard to grasp. The book is an insight into one of the best minds in baseball, a mind that learned from even better, the likes of Sparky Anderson and Bill Veeck, along with countless other baseball greats. 3 Nights in August is the best baseball book I have ever read, and would be a great read for all other baseball fans looking to gain further understanding into our national past time.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Season of Life is a somewhat deceptive book. Those looking for a book solely about sports will not be finding it here. However, those looking for a book where sports have become applicable to real life situations will find this book very interesting. Jeffery Marx does a great job exploring the lives of the football team of Gilman High School football and their unique style of play, and lifestyle.

Gilman is coached by former NFL player Joe Ehrmann and his buddy Francis “Biff” Poggi. These two men are more than just football coaches, they are coaches of life. In fact, that is what they see themselves as first. Their coaching at Gilman is part of a program that is called “Building Men for Others.” It is essentially re-defining what it is to be masculine.

Masculinity, according to the book, is defined in modern society in a few ways. Girls, wealth, and fame. Ehrmann and Poggi argue that it shouldn’t be measured that way, that it should be measured in terms of relationships. The relationships that men have with others. Can they be open? Do they have a solid relationship that isn’t based on false pretenses? We see how this theory is applied to the game of football. No one would expect to see high school football players telling each other “I love you.” Yet that is exactly what happens at Gilman. We see that these aren’t boys bound by the traditional social restrictions, they are willing to express their emotions to their team mates, something taboo in most situations. Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball is all about tradition. And few teams have a tradition (albeit one full of heartbreak) like the Chicago Cubs have. What Kevin Kaduk, author of Wrigleyworld: A Season In Baseball’s Best Neighborhood, did can basically be summed up as everybody’s dream season. Kaduk left his job as a sports writer for The Kansas City Star to follow his favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, for a whole season. Wrigleyworld was a hilarious perspective about Kaduk’s adventures, ranging from countless drunken nights, 62 home games attended at Wrigley, and countless run-ins with scalpers.

One of Kaduk’s lone rules was that no tickets would be purchased beforehand. This creates a lot more buzz into the book. Had Kaduk simply possessed all the tickets before gameday, it wouldn’t have been a very exciting book. He gets tickets through a variety of ways, mainly through scalpers. Because Wrigley Field was sold out for the entire season in 2005, he simply has to battle the economics of scalpers.

Wrigleyworld isn’t just about the Cubs, Wrigley Field, or “The Curse.” It’s about Wrigleyville, the district that surrounds the stadium. It contains countless bars (most of which Kaduk stumbles out of at some point in the book). This is why the book was so appealing to me. I’m a big baseball fan so I already know a lot about the Cubs and their tragic history. What I didn’t know is contained in this book. I’ve never seen a game at Wrigley Field (Or Yankee Stadium, Or Fenway Park) and this book explains quite well that Wrigley is about more than the Cubs. Half the time, Kaduk is bar-hopping before, during, and after games. He’s drunk dialing, he’s asking girls to flash him, and he’s trying to coax a girl by explaining family ties with Leon Durham (none of which exist). To put it simply, it’s written by a guy for guys. Read the rest of this entry »