Book review!!!
This one will be short and sweet. As many of you know I have spent far, far too much time on airplanes lately, so I have had some time to do some reading. while picking out books for the Hawaii trip, my wife suggested that I get a book about something other than baseball. Now I have to admit this is a completely foreign concept to me. I think in the last ten years I have read about 4 books that are not about baseball - the DaVinci Code, Tuesdays with Morrie, the Lance Armstrong one and the Red Auerbach recent one.
So, lets just say my wife was less than pleased when I rolled up to the register with "Season on the Brink." My argument was "Hey its not baseball."
This one fit with a few other items I have read recently - the aforementioned Auerbach book (same author) as well as, in the words of Joe Morgan "Tony Larussa's book."
ReplyDeleteWell with Larussa, the emphasis was that players needed nurturing and essentially a shrink. With Bobby Knight, you know damn well you are not going to be treated to any kind of love.
With Bobby Knight, I think there is no middle ground - you love or you hate him. My guess is most on this board will probably hate him - I actually think he is not that bad - people know what they are getting into when they sign up to play for him and schools know what they are getting when they hire him (or choose not fire him).
I was a bit surprised that there were not more damning details. Perhaps 20 years after it was written, we are no longer surprised by Knight's antics. I read in the Auerbach book that Knight still hates Feinstein for portraying him poorly in the book. Again, not sure if it is the passage of time (and more incidents), or that I respect the mans accomplishments, but I really did not think it was that bad. Plus it did show a lot of his more sensitive, caring, teaching side (perhaps that is that Bobby was pissed about).
Well, that is about it - not much to say about a 20 y/o book. I was left chuckling with one quote - Knight was talking to Alford one day and apparently Alford comes from a religious family. Alford made some comment like "God willing." And Knight launched into with something like: "Get Real, Steve. Do you really think God is going to help any team that I coach?"
Next up (Andrew will really enjoy this one): 27 Men Out. The Story of (modern) baseball's 14 perfect games. written before Randy Johsnson's 15th last year. I think I will present this one in a chapter by chapter special. Starting this week with Cy Young's gem.
Old sports books -- pretty cool. I guess it probably saw an uptick in readership at ESPN's movie. (I had never heard of it before then.)
ReplyDeleteThe perfect game book sounds great.
Speaking of which...
ReplyDeleteBobby Knight to Host Reality Show
I'm usually not a fan of reality TV, but this could be good...