[Wizard of Os]

Cheers, everyone.

On this forum, i took a bit of a turn for the non-sequiturial to recommend the most brilliant sports book ever, Ball Four:


Greatest Sports Quotes


I'm a bookworm, i admit it. Anyone else? What should we be reading next as proper sports heads?

I can make a list, i'm sure, but that should wait a day or so. Time, time...

[CityofBrotherlyShove]

I'm a bookworm, as well.

Fever Pitch, by the great Nick Hornby, is probably the best sports book I've read. He's a genius and he absolutely nails the intricacies of sports obsession. And no, it's nothing like the movie.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Wizard of Os

Cheers, everyone.

On this forum, i took a bit of a turn for the non-sequiturial to recommend the most brilliant sports book ever, Ball Four:

I'm a bookworm, i admit it. Anyone else? What should we be reading next as proper sports heads?

I can make a list, i'm sure, but that should wait a day or so. Time, time...

I on the other hand, handed it a book report on "The Bobby Orr Story" in 3 different Junior High's I went to, to keep from reading a heck of a lot

But of what I read..."Ball Four" was a classic...and I also liked the "off-beat" The Curious Case of Sidd Finch Book, by George Plimpton

[wedge]

One of my favorite sports books is "The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro". It's about an American writer who finds a passion for soccer after the 1994 World Cup. He travels to Italy to cover the Serie B team Castel Di Sangro. It's quite entertaining and funny with an inside look at what soccer is like in a country who lives and breathes it.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by wedge

One of my favorite sports books is "The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro". It's about an American writer who finds a passion for soccer after the 1994 World Cup. He travels to Italy to cover the Serie B team Castel Di Sangro. It's quite entertaining and funny with an inside look at what soccer is like in a country who lives and breathes it.

Wedge!...You reader you...I bet you know words I can't even pronounce...what are the odds that anyone on this site has read "The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro"...Here are reviewers that agree with you...http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/printed-book...nniss/reviews/...just to give you credibility bro...always watching out for you I am...

[ThePundit]

I never read Ball Four: Bouton was before my time so I was never motivated enough to read it. I've read so many sports books, they're tough to pin down. Off the Top of my head:
Very Good:
The Bronx Zoo - by Sparky Lyle
Balls - By Graig Nettles
The Dark Side of The Game - Tim Green
Dog Days - Basche (This is the story of the Yankees futile years from 65-75. The Celerino Sanchez, Horace Clarke Yankees. This is when I first started rooting for the Yanks so I found it interesting).
Big O - Oscar Robertson
FishSticks - ALan Hahn (Islanders)
Worst Team that Money Could Buy (by Klapisch about the 92 Mets)
Juiced - Canseco

And I'm sure the new Bonds book should be pretty good.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by ThePundit

And I'm sure the new Bonds book should be pretty good.

The kinda book you can sit with by say....A Great Eternal Abyss while avoiding Barry Bond's reality show... ...just messing with you Pundit...you still own my all time favorite line in this site ...but hey simple minds like mine are easily entertained...you know what I mean?

[Wizard of Os]

Cheers all,

Great to see such a response! A comment or two because i can't resist:

Pundit -- Dude, you've read Bronx Zoo. Sparky Lyle is very funny, but i promise you he's following Bouton's lead. Weird in The Bronx Zoo is the meeting in the clubhouse Sparky has with Billy Martin before Billy is to be announced as the Yankee skipper for 1979. In Billy Martin's bio Number 1, Martin describes the exact same encounter, but with Rod Carew. I've never figured that one out...A fun read for you might be The Year I Owned the Yankees also by Spark, which has Craig Nettles (best defensive third baseman ever) as a main character.

Gotham Knight -- You've read Sidd Finch...how about Paper Lion, in which Plimpton hangs out with the Detroit Lions for a preseason or so? Good one. I remember when Finch first emerged as a long "feature" story in the SI cover dated April 1. Some people were actually cheesed off enough to cancel their subscriptions. Sheesh.

Brotherly Shove -- Yes, Fever Pitch was amazing; Hornby is brilliant. The Brits actually produced an honest film version of this back in 1997 with Colin Firth, but as i recall, it was actually quite a snooze. Doesn't AI have a bio...?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Wizard of Os

Gotham Knight -- You've read Sidd Finch...how about Paper Lion, in which Plimpton hangs out with the Detroit Lions for a preseason or so? Good one. I remember when Finch first emerged as a long "feature" story in the SI cover dated April 1. Some people were actually cheesed off enough to cancel their subscriptions. Sheesh.

Hey Wiz, I had some trouble with the big words...but yeah, I read it...gotta pick me up Paper Lion, cause I took the cheesy way out and saw the movie with Alan Alda in it...

...As for the SI article on Fitch...I was one of those fools that actually believed the article when it first came out...I'm like, get out of here!...I got to go see this Prospect Pitch...didn't realize it was an April Fool's joke...you know me Wiz, first fool jumping on that band wagon...but hey, that's just the kind of guy I am...didn't cancel my subscription though...thought it was a classic joke!

[DrCool]

Not saying it is the best sports book out there and the definition of sport might be being stretched here but "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King" was a great book. It was written about Texas billionaire Andy Beal and his attempt to take on a group of the best poker players in the world in the largest game ever played. Good writing, good characters.

I believe there will be a sequel coming out though since Andy Beal recently made another run a few weeks ago and the author of the book, Michael Craig, was there documenting everything. Beal was up over 10 million but he decided to play one more time and Phil Ivey took him for 16 mil over 3 days.

[cjg11582]

Personally I like The Bellagio, The Mirage is really underrated and The Exacilbur is act- ... oh ... Fever Pitch does seem to stand out, it is no High Fidelity as far as Hornby novels are concerned. For non-fiction I prefer Moneyball.

[Wizard of Os]

Cheers Dr. Cool and everyone else,

I will most definitely check out "The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King." You, meanwhile, should take a look at Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich; i was turned onto this by Rick Robey. It's an unbelievable but absolutely true story of a bunch of MIT brainiacs banding together as a collective to take Vega$ of A LOT of money at the blackjack tables. Unbelievable what happened/almost happened to some of these dudes. Keanu would say "whoa."

O, and if anyone has a problem with considering stuff as poker and blackjack as sport...well, sorry. You know why we should talk about them in a sports forum, though? 'Cuz they're cool!

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by Gotham Dark Knight

...As for the SI article on Fitch...I was one of those fools that actually believed the article when it first came out...didn't realize it was an April Fool's joke...thought it was a classic joke!

You know, i was young when i Plimpton's bit was in SI. I should have been naive enough to believe it, and they had me until they said the dude threw 130MPH. I said to myself, "Nope, nope...that ain't right." However, i couldn't figure out why this story was in there if it were a joke or completely wrong. I was weirded out by this, and figured it was fiction.

Only two weeks later when i got hold of a copy of the week-old follow-up issue did i realize that it was 1 April and that it was an April Fool's Joke.

Obtuse i was then.

But only then.

(Good Old Sidd)