by Dan Clouser ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2012
Although sometimes redundant and self-evident, this solid advice could be a handy tool for instructors.
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Clouser’s testament to the virtues of America’s pastime.
Few people have such a singular passion as Clouser does for baseball. A longtime player, he turned his attention to coaching after realizing his big league dreams were beyond the fences. Inspired by his courageous mother, his book begins with a memorial to her selflessness and commitment to giving back. Among these memories, Clouser recounts his mother’s indifference and his own astonishment after learning she had lunch with a famous baseball player through the organization where she worked. (She recalled only that the player was a very nice man.) Clouser learned from his mother that there’s more to a man than what he does for a paycheck, even if that check comes from playing professional baseball. He provides many other heartwarming examples of his mother’s humility and how it had a lasting effect on him. Following his love for the game, Clouser helped found the Berkshire Baseball Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching young players the virtues of sportsmanship inherent in the sport. Among his noble goals is to teach young players, particularly those with lofty aspirations, that baseball doesn’t last forever, even for the greatest players, so he sets out to prepare kids for a moral life off the diamond. Clouser’s advice has a tendency to become sentimental and preachy, but his earnestness is genuinely affecting. Ultimately, Clouser’s story and his passion for the game will leave readers longing for a simpler time when the world revolved around the diamond.
Although sometimes redundant and self-evident, this solid advice could be a handy tool for instructors.Pub Date: May 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-1468145670
Page Count: 198
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Scottie Pippen with Michael Arkush ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 2021
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
by Ben Valenta & David Sikorjak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2022
A convincing case for the societal benefits of sports fandom.
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A Fox Sports executive and the founder of a consulting firm explore the social value of fandom in this nonfiction book.
Chicago Cubs season ticket holder Nick Camfield’s fandom “runs at least three generations deep,” and every trip to Wrigley Field “transports” him back to his childhood experience of watching games with his father. In conducting interviews with the Cubs enthusiast and others for this well-researched work, Valenta and Sikorjak came across dozens of individuals like Camfield whose emotional well-being and favorite memories revolved around sports—from Little League coaches and fantasy football leaguers to local fan club members and season ticket holders. In addition to anecdotal oral histories, the authors (self-described data geeks) convincingly deploy a host of statistical data to back their argument that not only do sports fans “have more friends,” they also “exhibit stronger measures of wellbeing, happiness, confidence, and optimism than non-fans.” Not only does fandom bring families closer together, the volume argues, but it is also an essential tool—for instance, it is used by immigrants to find a welcome home in new cities or countries. And as much as rivalry is central to the world of sports, fandom, the book contends, can actually “soften the hardened boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ ” Valenta, the senior vice president of strategy and analytics for Fox Sports, and Sikorjak, the founder of an analytics consulting firm and a former executive with Madison Square Garden, combine their career insights into American sports with a firm grasp of data-driven analysis that is accompanied by a network of scholarly endnotes. At times their prose can revel in the sappy nostalgia of sports history, which may alienate more objective sociologists while gripping the average fan. Still, their writing effectively blends keen storytelling with erudite statistical analysis that will appeal to both scholars of human behavior and lifelong sports enthusiasts. The book’s readability is enhanced by an ample use of full-color charts, graphics, diagrams, and other visual aids that support its overall message that the value of sports goes far beyond its mere entertainment value, as its “social power” has the potential to “heal an ailing world.”
A convincing case for the societal benefits of sports fandom.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9858428-1-4
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Silicon Valley Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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