Author Archive
How to Read Derek Jeter: On The Devil’s Snake Curve by Josh Ostergaard
The Devil’s Snake Curve: A Fan’s Notes From Left Field Josh Ostergaard Coffee House Press, 2014 253 pages $15.95 Buy: book | ebook Of course every history is subjective, but Josh Ostergaard starts his from an intriguing place by broadcasting his subjectivity. Devil’s Snake Curve is Ostergaard’s American history
Private Tutor to the Stars: On THE HOOPS WHISPERER by Idan Ravin
The Hoops Whisperer: On the Court and Inside the Heads of Basketball’s Best Players Idan Ravin Gotham Books, 2014 246 pages Buy: book | ebook As a national champion during his only year of college, as the third overall pick in the NBA draft, and as a recipient, this
First Down Te Ching: On The Tao of Chip Kelly
The Tao of Chip Kelly: Lessons From America’s Most Innovative Coach Mark Saltveit Diversion Books, 2014 128 pages $12.99 Buy: book | ebook Today marks the beginning of the 2014 NFL season, America’s favorite consumption-based present-time activity. Odds are that a family, friend, or loved one in your life
Around the World in 209 Teams: A Review of Thirty-One Nil by James Montague
Thirty-One Nil: On the Road With Football’s Outsiders–A World Cup Odyssey James Montague Bloomsbury, 2014, Bloomsbury 330 pages $18.00 Buy: book | ebook The work-ditching phenomena that our globe experienced throughout June and July, known as the World Cup, is really just the polished and gawked-at tip of the
The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Great Tennis Player: Looking Back at Foster Wallace on Federer
Under Review: “Federer as Religious Experience,” article by David Foster Wallace for New York Times, August 20, 2006. Collected in Both Flesh and Not: Essays (Little, Brown and Company, 2012, 336 pages). On July 6th, Swiss tennis player Roger Federer lost the final match in this year’s Wimbledon men’s
Sports in Utopia: On The Grasshopper by Bernard Suits
Under Review: The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia by Bernard Suits (University of Toronto Press, 1978, 178 pages) Just as an enthusiastic reader can make their way through a lifetime of books without ever once consulting a single text on literary theory, most sports enthusiasts will cheer their way
The Self-Publisher Who Changed the World of Baseball: On Fool’s Gold by Bill James
Under review: Solid Fool’s Gold: Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom by Bill James (2011, ACTA Publications, 224 pages) Whenever I think of Bill James I think of the following Margaret Mead quote, which probably appeared on the walls of half my high school classrooms, the words arranged
Believe in the Gimmicks: On The Squared Circle and the World of Professional Wrestling
Under Review: The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling by David Shoemaker (2013, Gotham Books, 400 pages) I was caught quite off guard last month when my Twitter feed—usually the domain of snarky chatter about baseball, basketball, and football—was suddenly overtaken by a flood of breathless comments about
Mess With the Horns: A.L. Kennedy’s On Bullfighting
Under Review: On Bullfighting by A.L. Kennedy (2001, Anchor Books, 176 pages) Scottish novelist A.L. Kennedy’s exploration of Spain’s matador culture begins, jarringly, with the author in earnest contemplation of her own suicide. Fortunately she backs off the ledge. But the pervasive theme of On Bullfighting, and of bullfighting
Competing With Your Muse: On Stephen Amidon’s Something Like the Gods
Under Review: Something Like the Gods: A Cultural History of the Athlete from Achilles to LeBron by Stephen Amidon (2012, Rodale, 240 pages) Sports, much like the arts, are only as vitally useful—or frivolously useless—as the beholder deems them. Neither game nor poem serves an essential function in helping