Notable sports books of 2015, reading about but not watching sports, Friday night bloat
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This week on the blog I served up a short list of notable sports books published in 2015, but didn’t rank them in any particular order.
I love the subjectivity of it all, and invite you to come up with your own list or add to or subtract from what I included. This is just a very short collection of 15 titles with links to reviews, interviews, podcasts and more. I’m going to post more in December on notable books by sport or subject (baseball, history, biography, etc.,) so stay tuned for that.
Before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, I also gave thanks of sorts to the places and experiences that were gateways for my incurable love of sports: a youth softball field, and memories of free, recreational play, particularly on a bicycle.
I may be getting a bit sentimental with age, but I don’t think I sound as wistful as I might have when I sat down to write those pieces.
Notable sports book lists and honors galore
Sports historian David Goldblatt’s “The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain,” was named the British sports book of the year by William Hill.
Goldblatt is the author of the excellent “The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer.” The William Hill award has been given since 1989, right as the Premier League came into being and as the British soccer scene was reeling from the Hillsborough tragedy. Here’s an excerpt from “The Game of Our Lives,” about the game’s aristocratic roots in early Victorian middle England.
The New York Times’ list of 100 notable books for 2015 includes William Finnegan’s surfing memoir, “Barbarian Days.”
Baseball author Dan Epstein (“Big Hair and Plastic Grass,” “Stars and Strikes”) has compiled a best baseball books list that Esquire has turned into a slide show. This one ought to cause some chatter since it’s limited to 20 books.
Back in Britain, The Daily Telegraph recently dropped a best 50 sports books list that understandably is very UK-centric, although there are few American titles.
A little bit of song and dance and a pilgrimage
In early February, during the week of the Super Bowl, the San Francisco Symphony will perform a “Concert of Champions” featuring the music of NFL Films;
Leading ballet dancers were asked to give a critique of Golden State Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry’s graceful moves on the basketball court;
This place remains near the top of my sports bucket list: Attending a Barcelona match at the Camp Nou, as much for the club’s storied history as team's spectacular style of play.
‘My replacement for three hours on the couch’
As we’re building out the Sports Biblio enterprise, we may have found the ideal reader for what we have in mind. For The Millions, Jacob Lambert rounds up books he’s read recently about boxing, baseball, football, basketball and more, and admits that as he’s turning a certain age, the television is turned off so he can read more about the games he loves:
“I still love to see a well-turned double play, a darting touchdown run, or a well-thrown jab, I’d just as soon wait a few years — when the best moments and contests have been ranked and distilled — and read about them.”
Lambert recently wrote about the demise of the sports column in wake of layoffs at The New York Daily News.
Feasting on some more great things to read
Thanksgiving has come and gone, but you can still treat yourself to this excellent historical dig by Brandon Prunty for Rolling Stone about a Turkey Day game that wasn’t even played;
Former Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin talks to Rod Carew, who is in dire need of a heart transplant;
Bethlehem Shoals (of Free Darko fame), wants you to curb your enthusiasm for the New York Knicks and rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis—there's a long road back to respectability;
Gregg Easterbrook on the watering down of high school football with too many classifications in too many states;
University of Alabama graduate Gay Talese on the Crimson Tide, before most recent renewal of the Iron Bowl with Auburn on Saturday;
NHL legend Bryan Trottier writers a letter to his younger self.
Off the Sporting Green
The excellent Longform website/podcast is conducting a fundraising campaign and has created a place to donate. I can’t think of a better way to offer up some holiday cheer this season;
I’ll read Pete Hamill writing on just about anything. Here’s something marvelous he just penned for National Geographic on the 72 years he’s spent in his native New York City;
Peter Guralnick, biographer of Elvis Presley, has published a new book about Sam Phillips, the legendary Memphis recording impresario at the dawn of the rock ‘n' roll age;
Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle served up a terrific homage to the presumably bland fare of grandma’s casseroles and stews of the 1950s that food snobs love to loathe. It’s comfort food, and for those of us raised on these simple unfussied meals, there’s nothing better, especially during the holiday season:
“The modern foodie cannot imagine a world in which he or she would enjoy sitting down to a meal of poached eggs on toast points drowned in floury white sauce, followed perhaps by a dainty frozen salad. And after looking at food pictures of the era, you can sort of understand why. Photographers hadn’t yet figured out how to make food look appetizing on camera. Nor were the Technicolor hues then in fashion very kind to their culinary subjects.”
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