The Baseball 100

Posnanski, Joe. The Baseball 100. New York: The Athletic. 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

There are many words we sportswriters use way too often. We might write that something quite believable is 'unbelievable" and that something that falls well into the realm of the possible is actually "impossible." But, if I had to guess, I would say that most of all we use the word "unique" too often.

    [Comments on Ichiro Suzuki, the first player profiled - rank #100.]


Description:

It never gets old to discuss the greatest baseball players of all time. Ranking the Top 100 adds an even greater challenge. But backing up an all-time greatest list with statistics, first-hand observations, comparisons, and commentary from articles, books, interviews, and other relevant resources makes a strong case for which players and rankings shake out in a convincing Top 100 list.

In The Baseball 100, writer Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, New York Times, etc. fame, presents his own well-researched list of choices for the greatest players of all time. And it is a compelling, convincing, fascinating, detailed, and astonishing lust. While I personally am no longer the biggest baseball fan, I absolutely loved reading about the players I have heard about or even watched play in my younger days.

The book is more than just Ruth, Cobb, DiMaggio, Berra, Mays, and other familiar names. No, Posnanski introduces the cases for less-famous (to me, at least) Bullet Rogan (#92), Charlie Gehringer (#87), Kid Nichols (#82), Monte Irvin (#69), Smokey Joe Williams (#62), Arky Vaughan (#61) and Oscar Charleston (unbelievably #5!). Each player gets 5-8 pages of stories, stats, quotes, media coverage, and interviews to substantiate Posnanski's case for their inclusion on this list.

And what a page-turner this book it, all 869 pages of it. I couldn't stop myself from reading about childhood heroes and learning about unknowns who with their dazzling skills made significant marks. I loved reading about their childhoods, with overbearing (Mantle #11) or gentle fathers (Mathewson #36); rich (Cobb #8) or poor (Aaron #4); naturally gifted (Mays #1) or driven but possessing fewer skills (Rose #60); good-looking (Williams #6) or short and squat (Berra #43); Jewish (Koufax #70) or racist (Collins #29); young (Feller age 16 #55) or Paige (age 58+ #10). Every player is given a detailed analysis and a recap of his moments of glory.

  

[Probably just listing these players' rankings might raise some arguments in any dedicated reader's mind, but that what makes this book wonderful.] Here are some highlights:

• Reggie Jackson #59 - "I didn't come to New York to be a star. ...I brought my star with me."
• Warren Spahn #49 - always wanted to be a hitter, not a pitcher until he saw his high school team's first baseman (Spahn's position) and said, "That guy is a lot better than I am" and decided then and there to become a pitcher.
• Yogi Berra #43 - had only 12 strikeouts in the entire 1950 season.
• Nap Lajoie #39 - under "fixed" conditions, went 8 for 8 on the last day of the season to beat Cobb for the batting title and win a new car.
• Satchel Paige # 10 - threw rocks as a boy to protect himself from gangs. "Rocks made a real impression on a kid's head or backside," he said.
• Jimmie Foxx #33 - after retirement from baseball at age 37, coached a women's baseball team and was the inspiration for the Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) character in the film, A League of Their Own.
• Johnny Bench #30 - caught a fast ball bare-handed just to convince his pitcher he had no speed that day.
• Pop Lloyd #25 - played catcher one game for the Macon Acmes. Since the team couldn't afford catching equipment, he played without a mask, knee or chest protectors, winding up with two swollen eyes and bruises all over his body. That was when he became a shortstop.
• Ricky Henderson # 24 - Jim Murray wrote of Henderson's squatting batting stance, "He has a strike zone the size of Hitler's heart."
• Lefty Grove #22 - in his first game, age 19, he pitched seven inning and struck out 15; in the second game he threw a no-hitter and struck out 18
• Tris Speaker #18 - played so shallow in center field that he made 450 assists (a record never to be broken - second is Mays with less than half that number). He also made six unassisted double plays.
• Stan Musial #9 - would go up to strangers celebrating in a restaurant, borrow a $1 bill, fold it into a ring, and slip it onto the fan's finger just to add to their fun and memories. He also carried a harmonica with him everywhere, but could only play four songs.
• Ty Cobb # 8 - in 1947, age 60, he was asked at an old timers' game what he would hit in modern baseball. "About 300," he said, "but you've got to remember I'm 73 years old."
• Walter Johnson #7 - A batter who faced him "saw (or didn't see) two fastballs go by for strikes and headed back to the dugout. 'You've got another strike coming,' the umpire shouted to the player. 'I don't want it,' the hitter said. 'I've seen enough.'"
• Ted Williams #6 - could "hear a single boo in a Fenway Park filled with cheers."
• Henry Aaron #4 - as a kid practiced hitting with a broomstick and a bottle cap.
• Babe Ruth #2 - in 1920 was sold by Boston to the "lamentable New York Yankees who had never won a single pennant in their entire existence."

I have dozens more of quotes I'd marked while reading, but I'll stop here. Suffice to say, it's a fantastic book for any baseball aficionado or even for a casual fan interested in human stories, history, culture, jargon, and even a bit of baseball. Get it now to read or pass on to someone you love. They will love you back for a long time as they work their way through the players' profiles ...each and every one of them.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams.   

Simply wondrous oral history of the Negro Leagues as told through interviews with the men who played the game in those days of segregation. Real baseball lingo, lore, and memories here. Fantastic peek into that era, its players, and their baseball lives.

 

The Church of Baseball

Shelton, Ron. The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit. New York: Knopf. 2022. Print

First Sentences:
 

Bible stories were a big part of my growing up. The dramatic tales of Moses parting the Red Sea and coming down from the mountain and Jesus routing the money changers in the temple and the whole fantastic narrative still live loudly in my DNA.

Description:

If you have never seen the minor league baseball movie, Bull Durham, stop reading this right now and find that film somewhere ... NOW!  And don't come back until you have watched this cinematic gem, certainly one of the best sports movie of all time.

Ron Shelton, the screenwriter and first-time director of Bull Durham, walks us through the process of making his film in his delightfully entertaining The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit.

The book is divided into four parts: "Development" where Shelton discusses his personal history playing professional baseball and his experiences as the seeds to create the original script; "Preproduction" that details the interviewing and hiring of actors, identifying shooting locations, etc.; "Production" with the ups and downs of the actually filming, along with the challenges of costumes, lighting, and weather; and "Postproduction" when the movie actually hits the public screens and the response by reviewers (lukewarm) and public (wildly enthusiastic). 

Each stage has its unique nerve-wracking pitfalls, missteps, and obstacles which threaten to stop production. The ballpark had to be re-painted to a preferred color, the frosty breath of actors during the Durham cold weather had to camouflaged, and hundreds of extras had to be found (without pay) to fill the stands. But each trial has its own humorous moments (taken in hindsight by Shelton who probably did not find them funny at the time). He walks us through scene by scene, decision by decision, to really help us understand the entire film-making process. I only have room to present a few interesting items to whet your interest.

• "Crash" Davis, the film's main character, was actually a real person whom Shelton read about while looking through minor league records. Davis had hit the most doubles (50) in a minor league season. Ebby Calvin LaRoosh was a bright-eyed waiter who served Shelton at a restaurant with the introductory words, "Call me Nuke" (but he didn't know how to spell it when asked by Shelton). "Annie" is a generic name given by players to female groupies. "Savoy," Annie's last name, was on a matchbook that Shelton found in his pocket from a dive bar in Los Angeles.

• Costner wanted to audition for the part by demonstrating his throwing and hitting. Both he and Shelton found that they each "kept a glove and ball in the trunk of our car for reasons neither of us questioned.' Turned out Cosner was a switch-hitter with a beautiful swing;

• Throughout the shooting, the studio heads did not like Tim Robbins as Nuke and repeatedly tried to replace him. One unnamed head felt Susan Sarandon was completely wrong as well. About half way through shooting, Shelton received a phone call from the studio saying they were unhappy with Cosner's performance and they were immediately sending Kurt Russell down to replace Cosner and re-shoot everything fresh. (Turned out to be Russell on the phone making a prank call.)

• Studio producers tried, right up to the film's release, to remove the pitcher's mound scene where the players discuss the curse on a player's glove, what to get Millie and Jimmy for a wedding present, and how to align Nuke's chakras. (Preview audiences, however, on comment cards consistently rated that scene as their favorite);

• When they needed to fill the stands with extras, a production assistant contacted a friend working with the Pink Floyd concert nearby at the University of North Carolina. The band then announced to their fans that there would be a great after-concert party at the ball park, so concert-goers all trooped over to sit in the stands, waiting for Pink Floyd to show up (which they never did), and were unknowingly briefly filmed as background;

• Paula Abdul did the choreography for Nuke's bar dancing scene in exchange for a promised speaking role, a deal which Shelton did not know about and was not added to the film;

• After the film was public, Shelton met the pitcher Milt Pappas, who held a grudge for being included in Annie's speech about the worst trade ever in baseball ("Who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake?");

• [Shelton recalled]: When I signed off on the final cost of the movie, I believe we were ten cents under budget.

•  When Bull Durham opened, it faced competition from current movies including Big, Die Hard, Coming to America, Cocktail, Midnight Run, Rambo III, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It grossed $5 million the opening weekend, then shockingly grossed more the next weekend and the third as well. After 28 weeks that summer, the film grossed the equivalent of $120 million in today's dollars.
  

 

What's not to love about a well-written memoir full if eobderful stories about likeable people, while gently walking us through the steps and decisions around constructing a delightful movie? I loved it and gobbled it up in only a few reading session. Can't wait to see the movie again and remember the process, choices, fights, and joy behind each portion.  

[Writer/Director Shelton]: My interest in baseball isn't analytical, romantic, or even patriotic. I like the game -- it's nuanced and difficult and physical-- but it has a appealing vulgarity, an earthiness...

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Elwes, Cary. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride

Recollections from the star of the wonderful adventure comedy, The Princess Bride, about the making of the movie, from ad-libbed comments by Billy Crystal that made Mandy Patinkin laugh so hard he broke a rib, to the weeks of sword fighting instruction, to Andre the Giant plowing around the landscape on a motorcycle, breaking Elwes toe in the process. Delightful.

Jim Murray: An Autobiography

Murray, Jim. Jim Murray, An Autobiography. New York: MacMillan 1993. Print.

First Sentences:

I was a Depression child. With all that connotes. That means you never trust the system again. You know what can happen to it. That means you  go through life never able to fully enjoy it. That means you have a ever-present sense of foreboding....I never quit a job in a huff. I swallowed guff. I don't recommend it. It's just the way I was.

 

Description:

Growing up in Southern California in the 1950s through the '70s, every day for me started with reading Jim Murray's sports column in the Los Angeles Times. He introduced me to the back stories of athletes, games, and sports history, all with wry wit and biting comments that made sports so much richer. What a wonderful introduction for a kid into the world of great writing, humor, and sports (or even today as an adult).

I recently discovered Murray had written his autobiography, cleverly titled: Jim Murray: An Autobiography. In this fast-paced book, Murray only sparingly writes about himself beyond his early life, preferring to focus on stories about the sports figures he had encountered and the condition of various sports themselves. 

Notable among the few stories about his youth are recollections about when he saw Babe Ruth hit a homer, or arranged neighborhood boxing matches among kids, or learned about the reality of sports from his Uncle Ed:

Never take money from an amateur -- unless he insists ...

Never play cards with a man with dark glasses or his own deck ...

Never make change for a guy on a train ... 

Murray prefers to throw the spotlight on the athletes he encountered and commentary on various sports throughout his career on the LA Times, Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated.

Time didn't linger at what happened. They wanted to know why it happened....They wanted the globally significant. And the writing had to be of a high literary order.

It's quite a world of people he covers in depth, including Walter O'Malley. Muhammed Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Pete Rose, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Henry Aaron, Al Davis, Jack Kent Cooke ("a man in a hurray...as unstoppable as a glacier"), and so many more.

He offers several brief anecdotes about Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Ty Cobb, Magic Johnson, Sonny Liston, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Ted Williams, and on and on. Each tidbit is a gem of insider info into what makes that person unique, funny, talented, or ultra-driven.

The longest portions and best observations are reserved for the sports themselves that he loves: 

• Golf -
• Golf is the most maddening of games....The bleeding is internal in this sport.

• Auto racing - 
• [column headline] Gentlemen, Start Your Coffins 

• Baseball - 
• Baseball was always loath to enter the twentieth century. Baseball will always be three of more decades behind the rest of society. That's part of its charm.

• Boxing - 
• Jake LaMotta used to say he fought Sugar Ray Robinson six times and won all but five of them.

• Basketball -
• At the college and high school level, it used to be just something to go through to get to the dance afterward. The pros used to play wherever they could pass the hat and make bus money.....

There are pieced aplenty about my favorite Southern California teams (the Rams, Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, and Kings) and my boyhood baseball idols: Maury Wills (companion to Doris Day, who knew?), Jim Gilliam, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey, and Tommy Lasorda. 

I liked baseball. It was the right mix of competition, contemplation and calibration for me. A ball park is still one of the great relaxing venues. It is a great place for the leather-lunged fan to work out his aggressions but there is an undertone of "I'm just kidding' in the baseball fan's torrent of abuse. 

There is a really funny chapter detailing his columns which contained disparaging reflections about the cities hosting sporting events that he was covering.

• Long Beach, CA - The seaport of Iowa

• Los Angeles - Underpoliced and oversexed. Its architecture has been (accurately) described as "Early Awful"

• Philadelphia - A town that would boo a cancer cure...a place that even the British gave up without a fight.

• Oakland, CA - You had to pay fifty cents to go from Oakland to San Francisco. Coming to Oakland from San Francisco was free... that's all you have to know about Oakland.

• Cincinnati - If the Russians ever attacked, they would bypass Cincinnati, as it looked as if it had already been taken and destroyed.

There are some serious portions as well. He devotes a chapter each to his onset of blindness, his son's battle with drugs, and the death of his beloved wife. All are presented with genuine emotion and thoughtfulness as he contemplates the reasons behind these situations and his own role in each.

If you are a sports fan or just an admirer of clever, witty, insightful, and always humorous writing, I highly recommend getting to know Jim Murray and his brilliant observations of the games of the world.

There is no cult in the world like a busload of fans on their way to a home game....The home team wins, the world's gonna be all right. Food tastes better. Wives look prettier. Work gets easier. 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Murray, Jim.. The Jim Murray Collection.   

The best collection of his columns covering baseball, boxing, tennis, hockey, strikes, and sport figures.

 

Rough Magic

Prior-Palmer, Lara. Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race. New York: Catapult 2019. Print

First Sentences:

It was May 2013 when I wa cooped up in an attic in Austria, au pairing for a family with six Ferraris.

They lived in a converted hotel in the jaws of an Alpine valley 

Description:

Sometimes an absolutely fascinating plot and setting can make up for an average writing style. Such is the case for me with Lara Prior-Palmer's exotic tale of competing in the 1,000 kilometer Mongol Derby, Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race.

I had never heard of this fascinating race, much less that it was an ongoing 10-day race over uncharted barren lands. I also didn't know the Mongolian Derby re-enacted the pony express mail delivery system created by Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century. The speedy ponies of then and now allowed letters from Siberia to arrive in Poland within twelve days across a route flanked by the Gobi Desert, the Altai Mountains, and Siberia. 

With a last-minute decision to enter leaving author Prior-Palmer only one month to "prepare," she set about learning about the ride, seeking advice (not forthcoming) from previous riders and her Aunt Lucinda who was a famous distance rider (and who gave her a can of Anti Monkey Butt power for sore bottoms), and preparing her meager supplies. 

Why do human put so much thought into some decisions yet plunge into others like penguins into freezing ocean....Maybe I had a simpler desire to settle something unsaid, away from home. Or a longing to be wild and snort about like a horse 

Competitors would be allowed only a horse, five kilos of clothing and supplies, and a unreliable GPS. The entry form was ominous:

By taking part in this race you are greatly increasing your risk of severe physical injury or even death....If you are seriously injured you may be hundreds of miles away from the nearest hospital.

Thus begins this engrossing narrative of Prior-Palmer's ride of a lifetime. She was the youngest person to ride in the Mongolian Derby, and certainly the least prepared. When her first horse (provided by hundreds of Mongolian herders throughout the route) went lame and refused to run, she knew she was in for trouble. 

The race required she change mounts every four hours, provided at 25 relay stations where officials checked the horse's heartbeat to make sure he hadn't been overworked. A high heart rate meant the rider had to spend time in the station until medics deemed the horse fit, a loss sometime of hours.

Along the way, Prior-Palmer describes the vast, trackless plains she had to navigate; the herders she met; the hamsters and marmot holes that threatened to break a horse's leg or at least throw its rider; the 4,000 year old bronze carvings of animals in the middle of nowhere; and of course, her profound boredom. 

It's a fascinating read, a personal challenge to the author that she conveys to us lucky readers in clam, concise descriptions. Through hills and plains, as well as constant downpours, she perseveres towards the finish line and a very surprising ending.

On a related note, The New York Times had an article today about the latest running of Mongol Derby and its 70-year-old winner. Check it out at:     www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/sports/mongol-derby-winner.html 

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Curtis, Wayne. The Last Great Walk.   

In 1909, walking was the most popular sport in many countries. Here is the true account of one of the greatest long distance walkers, Edward Weston, and his world-famous walk from New York City to San Francisco at age 70. (previously reviewed here)

The Grand Slam

Frost, Mark. The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf New York: Hachette 2004. Print.

First Sentences:

On September 20, 1913, America welcomed a new hero into its sporting pantheon and for the first time the broad middle of the country embraced with curiosity and enthusiasm the exotic game he'd mastered.

Description:

Bobby Jones was not only one of the best golfers ever (and that include Palmer, Nicklaus, Woods, and anyone else you can name), he competed his entire career as an amateur. That right, he turned down all prize money for every tourney, contenting himself with trophies and the self-satisfaction of playing the game for the love.

In Mark Frost's engulfing The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf, Jones' career is documented in well-researched details and interesting anecdotes. Jones played during the early 1900s (when golf relatively unknown in America) through the 1930s. In his childhood he was a club-throwing, swearing, self-taught golfer who displayed enough brilliance to regularly beat adults on his home course, East Lake, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Those were the days of clubs with hickory shafts and nicknames like "Calamity Jane" (Jones putter). Courses were such a new phenomenon that A.J. Spaulding hired a consultant to freely advise local cities on course design simply to provide places where the public could purchase and play with his golf equipment. Interest in this new game grew with exhibitions rounds between immortals like Walter Hagen, Harry Varden and Ted Ray. It was such a match played on East Lake course that ten-year-old Jones watched that inspired him to pursue the perfection of golf.

Talent, nerve, a relentless mentality. Not many players had all these weapons in their arsenal.

From his first tournament in 1911 at age nine to his teen years when he flirted with winning  international championships, Jones steadily improved to achieve his ultimate triumph in 1930: winning the four greatest tournaments in the same year. Holding the trophies for the British Open, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur in the same year was nicknamed "The Grand Slam" and Jones was the first and still the only person to reach that pinnacle

Author Frost carefully details each step along the road to greatness, introducing the major golf tournaments, players, and courses, along with Jones' disappointments and record-breaking low rounds, and information about world figures during the World War I, Prohibition, and the Depression. A sports-mad world made him headline news worldwide and the subject of the biggest ticker tape parades New York City had ever hosted.

Even if you are not a golf fan, Grand Slam is a great read, a fascinating look at the intensity of an athlete to could work and will himself to success under a plethora of conditions, and then step away from the game at the height of his fame. He had a successful career designing golf clubs including the fabled Augusta National Course in Atlanta. He even had a motion picture presence, creating 18 short instructional golf films where he worked with celebrities on a specific shot. HIs films played to movie houses between feature pictures and were wildly popular. 

Grand Slam depicts an era and public just discovering a new sport and its heroes. It was the age of sports coverage by radio and newspaper giants like Grantland Rice, Paul Gallico, and Pop Keeler, Jones' best friend throughout his playing days.

I just couldn't get enough of the details of that age as well as the stroke-by-stroke play of Jones throughout his tournament days. For example, when given the honorary citizenship by the the city of St. Andrews (the only other recipient was Benjamin Franklin), he learned that he now had the ancient rights to "catch rabbits," "dry his washing on the Old Course," and "take divot whenever he pleased." Who can't love details like this that Frost dug up?

During the 1920s [Jones] played an average of only four tournaments a year against full-time professionals, generally practices for only a few weeks to prepare himself, and was still, without argument, the greatest player who ever wore cleats....Bob had played in twenty-one majors championships and won thirteen of them.

Readers are immersed in the era and personality of Bobby Jones and the daily effort required to become a champion ... as well as what that road to greatness takes away from anyone seeking to pursue excellence.

Some may discount his legacy by saying he only played a game, but what he achieved remains in its own right as powerful and permanent an expression of the human longing for perfection as any poem or song or painting. Greatness is rare and a solemn responsibility, and because he offered himself in service to his talent with a strong mind, a committed heart, and every ounce of strength in his being, he deserves a lasting place in our memory.

Amen to that. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hogan, Ben. Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Mdern Fundamentals of Golf  

Simply the best, briefest, and most clear golf instruction book. Period

Yogi, Count. Five Simple Steps to Perfect Golf  

Offbeat, clever, but solid, proven tips from golf's self-proclaimed greatest player, Count Yogi. Never heard of him? Well, take a look at this book for the most down-to-earth instruction and biography you ever will read. (previously reviewed here)

Wodehouse, P.G.. The Golf Omnibus: 31 Tales by the Green from the Maser of Comic Fiction: 

The funniest, drollest, and odd-ball golf stories with completely unexpected plots and outcomes, (such as the two men playing a 16-mile long hole in order to win the favor of a girl). Unmatched reading. 

Special Post - Best Sports Instruction

Now that summer is here, it's time to think about playing outdoors. And playing a sport well is the best fun. But if you really wanted to learn how to be efficient, effective, and joyful at tennis, golf, baseball, and/or swimming, which books would you choose to read? 

Below are my favorite instruction books for these sports. I have used them all for years and each has changed how I play each game. Also, they have given me a better understanding of the principles of efficient use of my physical and mental energy toward a goal of playing well and simply having fun. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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Tennis For Life - Peter Burwash

First Sentences 

If you're like almost every other tennis player, you've reached a plateau on which you're stuck.

No matter how hard you practice, no matter how many lessons you take, you're stuck on that level. 

Description:

Peter Burwash, a former tennis professional from Canada, observed the common traits followed by successful pros and then incorporated them into lessons for us ordinary players. He discards the usual advice such as "Watch the ball" and "Racquet back," and instead stresses techniques that actually influence the ball. Burwash emphasizes the importance of the contact point between racquet and ball (backswing and follow-through do not actually direct the ball since the ball is not on the strings during each of these!); snapping the wrist in serving; "catching" volleys like a baseball player; and responding to emergency situations when perfect strokes are not possible. 

He breaks the game down into techniques easily understood, remembered, and applied. These techniques work for players of all levels. Believe me, I've seen it happen countless times when I taught beginning and nationally-ranked players using these same concepts. Definitely a game-changer of a book.

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Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier - Terry Laughlin

First Sentences  

It's no mystery why people why people have trouble swimming as fast or as far or as smoothly as they'd like: Most of them are doing it backwards.

"Don't worry if you form's not perfect," coaches and instructors have always assured us. "Just get those laps in. Eventually you'll be fit enough to develop a smoother, stronger stroke." 

It really works the other way around, but that's not how it's been taught.

          

Description:

Author Terry Laughlin was a competitive swimmer all his life including college, but gave it up due to the boredom of endless laps and lack of personal progress in speed and efficiency. Entering Masters competitions renewed his interest in pursuing a revolutionary method of swimming and training: using streamlining and gliding techniques rather than energy-inefficient power strokes. Easy to comprehend and easy to practice, these step-by-step progressions practiced in short bursts of one lap provide fun, highly obtainable results. Really changed my stroke and enjoyment as now I can swim over a mile smoothly without becoming winded.

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Five Simple Steps to Perfect Golf - Count Yogi

First Sentences  

It has always been said that good golf starts with a good grip. That is true.

        

Description:

Count Yogi was a highly successful golfer who hustled for money and gave demonstrations on California courses using a simplified approach to mastering the few essentials of the sports: grip, balance, approaching the ball, total swing, and putting.

Instead of breaking down the swing into minute elements no one can remember or implement, he simply focuses on stroke smoothness and a few minor tips (hitting through the ball). Count Yogi also adds plenty of snarky comments about current pros and their detailed books which offer advice the pros/author don't use on the course ... because they all are actually using Count Yogi's techniques, of course. A hard book to find, but worth the effort. Lots of fun to read and plenty of great tips.

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The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance - Tim Galloway

First Sentences  

The problems which most perplex tennis players are not those dealing with the proper way to swing a racket.... 

The most common complaint of sportsmen ringing down the corridors of the ages is, "It's not that I don't know what to do, it's that I don't do what I know."

   

Description:

Self One and Self Two are constantly battling inside the head of every tennis player. Self One, the critical one, says "Why did you do that, you moron," while Self Two, quietly envisions the success of the shot. Author Galloway argues that silencing Self One and focusing on Self Two via visualization of quality shots and results will be more successful than endless drills and techniques. His offers an easy-to-comprehend philosophy, relying on imaging and quietness of the mind to achieve goals. Fascinating, and it actually produces great results both in shots and one's enjoyment of the game.

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The Science of Hitting - Ted Williams

First Sentences  

Hitting a baseball -- I've said it a thousand times before -- is the single most difficult thing to do in sport.

Description:

Williams, the last baseball hitter to end a season with a .400 average, shares the science and practice behind successfully hitting the ball. He has broken this seemingly simple action into details that are easily understood, but require practice, discipline, and then even more practice to achieve the goals. Very solid writing and theories behind this difficult art.

Fifty Years of Great Writing

Fleder, Rob. Fifty Years of Great Writing: Sports Illustrated 1954-2004. New York: Sports Illustrated Books. 2003. Print.

First Sentences:

The fact that the great piece has shown up again and again in SI is the result of a contentious conspiracy between the magazine's writers and their editors..

The way magazine journalism is supposed to work is that the best editors match the perfect idea with the idea writer and wait for a brilliant run of words. This is followed )with plenty of time before deadline) by the simple exercise of hooking paragraphs and helping with the diction here and there. Nothing to it. Right.

Description:

If you've ever had a burning desire to become a published writer, a reality check might be in order. Consider reading Fifty Years of Great Writing: Sports Illustrated 1954-2004 (edited by Rob Fleder) to see how skilled writers ply their craft. 

Can anyone write as well as the writers represented in pieces contained in this volume? Frank Deford, Alexander Wolff, George Plimpton, Roy Blount Jr., George Plimpton, Leigh Montville, Roger Kahn, Dan Jenkins, and Steve Rushin. There are even articles by authors not on the Sports Illustrated staff you may have heard of, including William Faulkner, Garrison Keillor, Jimmy Breslin, and Wallace Stegner. All you aspiring authors, match your own thoughts and words with any one of these writers and stories, then select a new career.

And the wonderful events and people they write about! Casey Stengel and his woeful Mets; Roger Bannister and John Landy facing off in a race as the only men ever to have broken the four-minute mile; Arnold Palmer's U.S. Open win by overtaking Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan; Yogi Berra as manager of the Yankees giving off quotes that are compared to the words of yoga masters; Bobby Thompson's homer.

But even better is when a writer pulls you into a story about something that previously you had no interest in. Archie Moore at the ancient age of 37 making his boxing debut at Madison Square Garden; the Rattlesnake Roundup at Mangum, OK; playing a baseball game with retired former Chicago Cub players; a cross-country car trip with basketball great Bill Russell; the death of racehorse Secretariat.

There is plenty of humor as well. the Lake Woebegone Whippets facing Babe Ruth; the mysterious Sidd Finch throwing his 150-mph fastball; high-speed driving on the deadly Nurburgring track in a convertible with a motorcycle sidecar.

The most unsettling thing about driving 142 mph on the German autobahn in James Bond's convertible with the top dropped is not the sudden realization that your head juts above the windshield, so that any airborne object -- a pebble, a lug nut, the shedding payload of a flatbed truck -- will forever be embedded in in your coconut, like the coins and keys you sometimes see in the hot asphalt of city street.

This volume contains my favorite sports writing of all time: Ted Williams' final game by Leigh Montville, tributes to sportswriter Jim Murray (whom I read every day growing up) by Rick Reilly; and owner Bill Veeck by William Barry Furlong. To read about your heroes in words so clear, so powerful, so honest is the joy of this volume. 

Sports may not be the be all or end all of the world, but these short works by masterful writers make these athletes and their contests seem larger than life as well as deeply intimate. They touch an inner respect many of us hold for those who struggle, compete, fail and triumph to rise to the top of their profession.  

This is an illusionary business...The fan comes away from the ballpark with nothing more to show for it than what's in his mind, an ephemeral feeling of having been entertained. You've got to heighten and preserve that illusion. You have to give him more vivid pictures to carry away in his head. [Bill Veeck]

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Halberstam, David. The Best American Sports Writing of the Century

The absolute finest is sports writing from the best writers ever, including Frank Deford, Red Smith, Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Cannon, W.C. Heinz, Richard Cramer, and even Hunter Thompson, Covers major events and personalities from all areas of sports. Fantastic, a must-read for any sports lover or just someone who appreciate good writing about interesting topics. 

The Great American Novel

Roth, Phillip. The Great American Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 1973. Print

First Sentences: 

Call me Smitty.

That's what everybody else called me -- the ballplayers, the bankers, the bareback riders, the baritones, the bartenders, the bastards, the best-selling writers (excepting Hem who dubbed my Frederico), the bicyclists, the big-game hunters (Hem the exception again), the billiards champs, the bishops, the blacklisted (myself included), the black marketeers, the blonds, the bloodsuckers, the bluebloods, the bookies, the Bolsheviks (some of my best friends, Mr. Chairman - what of it?), the bombardiers, the bootblacks, the bootlicks, the bosses, the boxers, the Brahmins, the brass hats, the British (Sir Smitty as of '36), the broads, the broadcasters, the broncobusters, the brunettes, the black bucks down in Barbados (Mistah Smitty), the Buddhist monks in Burma, one Bulkington, the bullfighters, the bull throwers, the burlesque comics, the burlesque stars, the bushman, the bums, and the butlers. And that's only the letter B fans, only one of the big Twenty Six.

Description:

Honestly, Phillip Roth's The Great American Novel is definitely not for everyone. First, you must be a baseball enthusiast, well-versed in and delighted by the nuances, jargon, and insider goings-on of a major league team. Second, you have to enjoy black humor with its irony, biting wit, and uncomfortable situations. Third, a working knowledge of some classical literature and literary techniques (e.g., over-long sentences, revered writers, famous novels, etc) helps. It also would help if you can recognize a few mythological names and places since most of the novel's characters and locales use these names. 

Right from the first sentence there is the tongue-in-cheek reference to the first line of Moby Dick ("Call me Ishmael") and Roth takes off from there. The Prologue is a long rant by Wordsmith "Smitty" Smith, the aged sports reporter from a by-gone era, who is attending the sportswriters gathering at the Baseball Hall of Fame. To everyone else's mocking ridicule, Smitty plans to cast his vote for Luke Gafaloon, the great hitter from the Ruppert Mundys. Never heard of them? Well, that's because the Mundys were part of the Patriot League, the forgotten/suppressed third major league from the Depression and World War II eras. 

When the other baseball writers claim never to have heard of Gafaloon or the Patriot League, Smitty decides to write the epic story of that era and the shenanigans that led to that League's demise. It will be the Great American Novel because Smitty disparages other claimants to that title, from Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many others.

Smitty's Prologue might be a slog for anyone not fascinated by literature and black humor, so skip it if you get bored. Soon Smitty begins his history of the ill-fated Patriot League and its quirky players when the best players had been drafter into military service during World War II. There are stories of luminaries like Gil Gammesh, the fireballer who pitches a perfect game of all strikes ... until with two out in the ninth and two strikes on the final hitter when the umpire calls a ball on a close pitch. Fireworks ensue.

Here's a partial list of a few of the major characters Smitty follows on and off field:

• Roland Agni, the brilliant fielding, hard-hitting player whose father makes him play for free for the worst team in order to instill humility in Roland;

• Bob Yamm, uniform number 1/4, the pinch-hitting midget instructed never to swing his bat in order to draw a needed walk, but decides one infamous day to take a cut at the ball;

• Nickname Dumar, the young kid who longs for a big-league nickname but gets "Nickname" as his moniker instead;

• Luke Gofannon, the most prolific home run hitter in the majors, but who loves triples best;

• Hothead Ptah, the wooden-legged former legend now dubbed "the most irritating player in baseball";

• Isaac Ellis, the genius teenager who develops a secret formula to make the Mundys unbeatable;

• Angela Trust, the elderly owner of the Mundys who has torrid affairs with the best players;

• Ulysses S. Fairsmith, the Mundys' manager who brought baseball to the darkest regions of Africa;

• General Oakhart, President of the Patriot League, who gives away the Mundys' stadium to the US military for wartime training, forcing the Mundys to play all their home games on the road.

The Great American Novel documents these oddball characters as they play games, carouse, and do their best to win games with their limited talent. Then the unthinkable happens: the Mundys start winning. But there are Russians and international politics involved, plots laid and nefarious schemes undertaken. Soon the Mundys are disgraced and the Patriot League abolished from all baseball records.

Smitty's narration can be crude, demeaning to women (and also men), and definitely strongly-opinionated on baseball, its players, and administrators. For Smitty, baseball is a beautiful game, wonderfully played by the greats, yet the Patriot League is full of quirky impostors, greedy owners, blind umpires, and corrupt league officials. It is up to him to record an honest report to preserve the memory of this ill-fated league, the teams, and the characters that make up this era.

It is a colorful tale indeed, full of baseball games and behind-the-scenes plotting, of players you grown to love or hate, and a world of sports rarely portrayed so cleverly. For the right reader, The Great American Novel is an absorbing, fantastic, and very, very funny novel. I, of course, loved it!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out: 

Tye, Larry. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.

Thoroughly researched and highly entertaining, Tye explores the facts behind the greatest Negro Leagues pitcher, sorting through interviews, newspapers clippings, box scores, and recordings. Even solves the ongoing mystery of how old Satch was. One of my absolute favorites.

Brosnan, Jim. The Long Season.

Probably one of the best books ever written about baseball from an insider, pitcher Jim Brosnan of the St. Louis Cardinal, who kept a diary during the 1959 season, documenting the players, life, and struggles of that year in the language of a real ball player. Highly recommended for its authentic language and honest look at America's game.