Sports Couch Potatoes are spoiled. Televised sporting events have gotten so sophisticated that we're not fazed anymore by innovation. High definition is becoming as commonplace as color TV. We expect to see at least a half-dozen different camera angles of the same play. Scores are updated as fast as a tailback crosses the plane of an end zone or a baseball clears a fence, and stats scroll by like a stock ticker. Then there is instant replay. No invention has had a more lasting impact on TV sports and as the technology has evolved, it has become ingrained in the fabric of the games themselves as a tool for how they are officiated. Those of us who follow sports media and are enamored with its history immediately associate the creation of instant replay with the pioneering director Tony Verna, but it's a credit he's had to fight to protect. Verna aims to set the record straight in … [Read more...]
‘The Last Real Season’
It would be a hoot for any true baseball fan to belly up to the bar for a few cold Lone Stars with author Mike Shropshire. The onetime beat writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram lived among the dysfunction that was the Texas Rangers of the early and mid-1970s and he has quite the number of stories to tell. In 2005, Shropshire wrote "Seasons in Hell," an account of the writer's first-hand odyssey covering the franchise he would later christen "the worst baseball team in history" — the 1973-75 Rangers. Three years later, he's back with "The Last Real Season" ($25.99, Grand Central Publishing), a lighthearted diary of the 1975 Rangers season that would also signal the end of an era when players put the love of the game ahead of the almighty buck. It's not surprising that Shropshire would have enough material for a sequel given the central character of this … [Read more...]
’67′: Win and turbulence in Toronto
Longtime hockey fans can't help but be engrossed by the yarns authors Damien Cox and Gord Stellick weave in "'67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire" (Wiley, $19.95 paperback), a fascinating account of Toronto's last Stanley Cup winner and the behind-the-scenes drama that plagued the team throughout the 1967 season and for years thereafter. That the Leafs were able to beat the powerful Montreal Canadiens and take the Cup in '67 is an amazing feat considering the back-stories of deceit, fraud and sexual abuse that were pervasive throughout the organization at the time. In an era when indentured servitude permeated much of professional sports, the Leafs were as cutthroat as they came. Coach and general manager George "Punch" Imlach was detested by most of his players and it was his stubborn and near-sighted personnel management the authors cast … [Read more...]
Donnes’ ‘Saints’ a celebration
Never has a sports team been so important to a city as the 2006-07 Saints were to New Orleans. After the physical and emotional damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, those who chose not to flee The Big Easy yearned for some semblance of normalcy and the triumphant return of their hometown football team gave them more than they could have hoped for. In his new book Patron Saints: How the Saints Gave New Orleans a Reason to Believe(Center Street, $24.99), Alan Donnes provides a first-person narrative derived from more than a hundred interviews that are a series of snapshots recalling the events before, during and after Katrina as experienced by players, coaches, local officials and longtime residents. To fully understand what the Saints mean to New Orleans you'd have to have been there from the beginning as the author was — as a kid roaming the stands of Tulane Stadium before there … [Read more...]
David Halberstam, 1934-2007
David Halberstam was a rare breed. He was a master storyteller and one of the best investigative journalists of our times. He was a Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote 21 books on topics as varied as the Vietnam War and baseball. He was among the best and the brightest. Halberstam died Monday morning in an car crash in Menlo Park, Calif. He was 73. His last public appearance was Saturday night at the University of California, Berkeley, where he spoke to students about molding reportage into works of historical significance. Halberstam's books were indeed significant. There was the seminal "The Best and the Brightest," which chronicled how the United States became embroiled in the Vietnam War. Considering the current situation in Iraq, the book — now in its 20th edition — is as relevant as ever. My personal favorite, "The Powers That Be," should be required reading for anyone planning a … [Read more...]
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