Exploring the imagination of sports in books, history and culture
Also In This Issue: Super Bowl; Pro Football Hall of Fame; Nouveau NFL Architecture; Soccer in Iraq; The Wildest Game in MLB History; The Black Press and Baseball Integration; Northlands Coliseum Farewell; Bill Russell Documentary; The Soul of Sumo; Games Women Must Play; Remembering Bobby Hull, Billy Packer and Gerrie Coetzee
The subject was inevitable as LeBron James neared the NBA career scoring mark this week.
GOAT talk, of course, that a current generation of players and fans has been spouting for a good number of years, mostly in comparison to Michael Jordan.
At the Staples Center, James hit a long jumper against the Oklahoma City Thunder to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The latter, now 75 and sitting courtside, greeted the new champion, and later penned a classy tribute to James, saying he hardly thinks about the record unless someone else brings it up:
“I’m not the grumpy grandpa on the porch yelling at kids to stay off my lawn. I fret much more over picking the right word in this sentence than in my record being broken.”
He makes some interesting film and pop culture references to drive home his point about “the magic of sports,” and the display of lifetime greatness. There’s been some animosity between the two that Abdul-Jabbar blames on himself.
Kareem says “I’m no longer focused on my basketball legacy as much as I am on my social legacy.”
Veteran NBA journalist K.C. Johnson lamented the focus on GOAT arguments:
“Who cares? Of course, the definitive answer is impossible to produce, the different eras impossible to compare. And more importantly: Why would anyone want to do so? Why not just savor and appreciate the greatness?”
That those of us of a certain age were able to see Kareem, Michael Jordan and James play within our lifetime memories is no small treat.
It’s a shame that James’ Lakers are a mess this year. He’s 38, and there probably isn’t another NBA title to be won with what’s left of his career.
His fortitude, endurance and accomplishments operating in a massive spotlight stemming from his high school days are truly admirable.
And soon enough his son Bronny, a high school star in southern California, will be following his father’s massive footsteps, with GOAT talk fading away, undoubtedly.
As it should be.
A Few Good Reads
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is playing in his third Super Bowl, and looking for his second ring, against the Philadelphia Eagles. He had to win QB battles at Texas Tech and Kansas City along the way, but as Ryan Hockensmith writes at ESPN.com, his middle-school duel against his best friend may have sent him on his way. | Order “Kingdom”
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2023 this week, as it does every year right before the Super Bowl. They are former coach Don Coryell, Dallas Cowboys great Chuck Howley, Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko, defensive backs Ronde Barber, Ken Riley and Darrelle Revis, offensive lineman Joe Thomas, DL/LB DaMarcus Ware and linebacker Zach Thomas. They’ll be officially enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in August;
State Farm Stadium, the site of Sunday’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., boasts the first retractable roof. That’s not the only design feature of note for that facility. Peter Eisenman, architect of what was originally called University of Phoenix Stadium when it opened in 2006, explained the other novel elements to the architectural magazine Dezeen: “I think it's really important to have good architecture and to have architecture be part of the NFL;”
Northlands Coliseum, the longtime home arena for the Edmonton Oilers, is still awaiting a demolition date. It’s been called other things since the glory years of the Wayne Gretzky era, and has sat vacant since 2017. At Sportsnet, Mark Spector recounts the building’s many highlights, ranging from hockey to rodeo, as well as rock concerts: “Two years from now, give or take, this will be an empty piece of land. We’ll drive past, and we’ll tell our kids about all the fun we had there, all the things we saw;”
USA Today profiles the black sportswriters who played a pivotal role in helping break the Major League Baseball color line. Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith couldn’t persuade then-commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to take action in 1943, but the wheels were in motion for the arrival of Jackie Robinson four years later;
In 1996, the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers played a game for the ages, scoring a combined 31 runs in a game that MLB.com writer Mike Petriello calls “the wildest game in Major League history;”
At Geezer Jock News, my friend Ray Glier profiles a 73-year-old long jumper who’s No. 1 in the world in his Masters age group and is trying to defy injuries that might derail a glittering career.
The Soul of Sumo
Iconic Imagery: At Japan Forward, a look at a 2022 coffee table book of photography, “Sumo,” by a photographer known as Lord K2. The book will be made available globally starting on March 1. Says the author/photographer: “Those who dedicated themselves to the sport give not not only their body but their lives. They give themselves as a relic, an offering to the past masters and gods.”
What’s Up, Sports Docs?
Fan Flix: The new documentary about Bill Russell from Netflix began streaming this week to a good bit of acclaim. But at Slate, Jack Hamilton sees a trend in the recent sports documentary genre of focusing on individual greatness and avoiding “any real thorniness. . . . Sports are culture, in other words, and the myth-maintenance tendencies of sports documentaries ultimately betray a failure to take their subjects seriously.” | Reviews of “Legend:” Roger Ebert | Rolling Stone | Boston Globe
Games Women Must Play
The Defiant Ones: The Bright Wall Dark Room cinema website is featuring sports in its current issue, and examines Jafar Panahi’s 2006 film, “Offside,” about female soccer players and fans in Iran: “Offside politicizes football. It is the perfect camouflage: it enables the film to carry hints of the limitations imposed by an oppressive regime under the guise of a lighthearted story of football fandom.”
Also: “How Football Might Prevent Iraq's Next Civil War,” by Faisal Saeed Al Mutar and Wameed alshaibi
Sports Book News
At the Baseball Books for Baseball Fans Facebook page, Bob Canter reviews “The Death and Resurrection of Baseball,” William Douglass’ futuristic novel from 2022. Set after a second American Civil War in 2166, to “a pre-digital Stone Age:”
“The author uses a clever entree to baseball's long path of resurrection: a ‘No Pepper’ sign some boys discover in an abandoned field. Slowly, this chance discovery starts the boys, their families, some government employees, a local newspaper reporter and eventually a slew of others, down the path to rediscovering and eventually resurrecting baseball.”
Canter concludes that while he doesn’t think the novel is great literature, “but it is enjoyable and interesting, especially if you are a veteran baseball fan who will have fun recognizing the many baseball-named characters liberally sprinkled throughout.”
Former “Monday Night Football” reporter Lisa Guerrero has written a new book about her experiences, especially in navigating her career in sports journalism. A former Rams cheerleader and Playboy cover model, Guerrero, now 58, talks to Daniel Brown of The Athletic about her work on the sidelines, her new role in investigative journalism and personal issues, including a miscarriage.
At the book site The Millions, former college soccer goalkeeper Kelcey Ervick did this Q and A about her new memoir about her playing days, during the early years of Title IX, and how she approaches her work.
Passings
Bobby Hull, 84, was the first player in NHL history to score more than 50 goals in a season, and accrued 913 goals (and a Blackhawks record 604) in a 23-year-career as the “Golden Jet.” But in later years, his history of domestic abuse and other personal issues placed him in a different spotlight. While Deadspin’s take is predictable, I didn’t see an imbalance in the coverage of his legacy that the CBC alleges here. As Larry Brooks writes at the New York Post (and getting it largely right I think): “Has his career been canceled? You have the right to do that. But you also have the right to memorialize his career, even if it is very, very uncomfortable to do so.”
Billy Packer, 82, was a former guard who led Wake Forest to the 1962 Final Four and was a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports for more than 30 years. He teamed up with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire for much of that time, and had a blunt style of commentary that grated on some observers. But Packer’s role in the integration of the sport in the South has been underappreciated, as former NBA scout Clarence Gaines, the son of Winston-Salem State coaching legend Big House Gaines wrote in 2011. | Order “Hoops”
Gerrie Coetzee, 67, was the first African to win the world heavyweight boxing championship and did so while defying the Apartheid regime in South Africa. He was later honored by President Nelson Mandela but otherwise was rarely in the public spotlight after his fighting career ended.
Gregory Alan Howard, 70, was a Hollywood screenwriter, including the film “Remember the Titans,” starring Denzel Washington about a high school football coach. Howard was the first black screenwriter in Hollywood history to write a script for a film earning more than $100 million. He was a two-time winner of the NAACP Image Award, a recipient of the prestigious Christopher Award, the Howard University Paul Robeson Award for artistic excellence and the Heartland Film Festival Award for screenwriting excellence.
Don Ketchum, 69, was a longtime high school sports reporter in the Phoenix area, including for the Arizona Republic.
The Sports Biblio Reader e-mail newsletter is delivered on Sunday. You can subscribe here and search recent archives. The full archives for Sports Biblio Digest can be found here. This is issue No. 258, published Feb. 12, 2023.
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