A mix of giddy admiration and honest reporting that's as wobbly as a junior skater attempting a triple flip. Brennan, a sports reporter for the Washington Post, organizes her book around the cycle of one competitive year, yet the narrative is all over the place, jumping from quick portraits of various up-and-coming skaters, such as 12-year-old media darling Tara Lipinski, to the effect of AIDS on the skating community, to sometimes fawning, sometimes critical, sometimes informative portraits of stars such as Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt. The chapter focusing on the 1995 US national and world championship competitions has the momentum and drama that show what this book might have been. Here Brennan follows some of the top junior and senior amateur skaters as they fall prey to, or triumph over, the vicissitudes of competition and the prevailing attitudes of judges. One of the most poignant losers is 14-year-old Michelle Kwan, who skated two flawless programs at the World's yet finished in fourth place. ``The only thing Kwan couldn't do in front of the judges was grow up and become sixteen, which is what they were waiting for,'' Brennan sharply concludes. Brennan does convey the upheaval wrought in the skating world by the sport's newfound popularity and notoriety: intense media attention, the lure of big dollars; the rush of agents to cash in on a new group of sports celebrities. But Brennan is much more forgiving than Joan Ryan (Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, p. 542) of those who control the fates of these young athletes. After pointedly reporting the frequent injustice of the judges, Brennan then protests that, after all, they are only human. Ironically, she is harder on the skaters, who divide into good girls and boys (e.g., Kwan, Todd Eldredge) and bad (Nicole Bobek, Christopher Bowman). Best read both Ryan and Brennan for a balanced picture of a grueling yet beautiful sport. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-80167-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fox seems to have formed this disjointed work by taking a worthy collection of anecdotes from the professional worlds of baseball, football, and basketball and throwing them against the wall to see what would stick. With little analysis, historian Fox (Blood and Power, 1989, etc.) allows his extensive research to dominate—and the reported words and deeds of the players, coaches, and owners do hold the reader. Early hoop star Johnny Cooper, one of the first practitioners of the jump shot, could not convince his college coach of the shot's worth until he buried one in a key game and received silent consent. Pudge Heffelfinger, the immortal 19th- century Yale football star, underscored the toughness of that era's game and its players by admitting the fear that he and the rest of the Yale squad had for teammate Frank Hinkey. Baseball legend Wee Willie Keeler found the reality of drawing a baseball salary ridiculous, as he would have paid his own way into the ballpark to play (a sentiment that seems equally ridiculous in light of the current conflict between baseball's owners and players). These and other reflections are meant to enlighten a host of subjects, ranging from the evolution of these games into hugely popular diversions to athletes' penchant for alcohol, sex, drugs, and gambling. But Fox's diagnosis of the excessive search for post-game pleasure is simply that athletes are overgrown boys. This is typical of the flat analysis here. Fox doesn't help himself by relying on old, even dated subject matter. He clouds his argument with nostalgia by referring constantly to the glory days that existed long before anyone currently alive can remember. There is little mention of television and its impact on sports, and corporate sponsorship is completely ignored. Interesting stories in search of a collective purpose. (32 b&w photos) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-09300-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The former internist for the NFL's Los Angeles Raiders tells it like it is in this engaging muckraker's guide to the business of pro football. For over 30 years, the Raiders have been the outlaws of their sport. Huizenga, who was with the team from 1983 to 1990, chronicles how this game devours its young. The NFL proudly boasts that football features the biggest, fastest, and toughest athletes in the world. But, according to Huizenga, many players are emotionally immature, overgrown galoots who gladly abuse themselves by ingesting performance-enhancing and painkilling drugs while ignoring the obvious consequences—a fact underscored by offensive linemen Charley Hannah's assertion, made to Huizenga and some teammates over dinner one night: ``We're making too much money, we're having too much of a good time. They're going to have to drag me off the freaking field kicking and screaming.'' Much of Huizenga's memoir revolves around his relationships with players, including stars Marcus Allen (whose unwillingness to risk serious injury landed him in team owner Al Davis's doghouse), the late Lyle Alzado (one of the game's most notorious steroid abusers), and Bo Jackson (who sustained an injury that ended his football career and now plays baseball for the California Angels). However, the most inflammatory passages are reserved for Huizenga's many clashes with Davis and his incompetent team orthopedist, Dr. Robert Rosenfeld, whose frequent dismissal of potentially crippling injuries provides the book's title. Huizenga illustrates why Davis is a pariah among the NFL's owners; his mantra, ``Just win, baby,'' embodies his crass indifference to players' physical and emotional pain. While occasionally melodramatic, Huizenga keeps his vituperation in check, often allowing Davis's appalling actions to speak for themselves. Although many of Huizenga's revelations are old news, juicy gossip about the Raiders always gets tongues wagging. Fans looking for something to pass the time between autumn Sundays could do a lot worse than read this no-punches-pulled tell- all. (First printing of 60,000; author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11353-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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