More than a dozen previously uncollected boxing essays (nearly all done for The New Yorker) from the sure hand of Liebling, whose The Sweet Science (1955) tightly earned him a knockout reputation among fans of the fight game—and of elegant writing. Floyd Patterson, who went from amateur glory at the 1952 Olympics to the heavyweight championship of the world, is the main event here. Liebling covers no less than six of his matches: a tuneup with English opponent Brian London; three brawls with Ingemar Johansson (a Swede with a devastating right but little else); and two losing efforts against Sonny Liston. The undercard is in many cases a stellar proposition as well, featuring the likes of young Cassius Marcellus Clay (now known as Muhammad Ali), Dick Tiger, and ageless Archie Moore. And Liebling does not confine himself to headliners or big-time arenas. In chronicling a brutal sport he relishes without apology on its own unsentimental terms, the wayward pressman reports on bouts between no-name pugs in London's East End, Tunisia, and other unlikely venues. In allusive, digressive fashion, Liebling pays graceful tribute to professional boxing's roots as well as its often colorful seconds—cut-men, managers, promoters, sparring partners, trainers, etc. Before being counted out himself at age 59 in 1963, he offers a prescient, if discontinuous, account of how TV began to co-opt the fight game during the 1950's. A 15-rounder that goes the distance and leaves one to mourn the impossibility of a rematch.
Pub Date: Oct. 18, 1990
ISBN: 0865474958
Page Count: 258
Publisher: North Point/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990
In Indiana, Gildea shows, the yearly high-school basketball tournament is nothing less than an affirmation of the Hoosier way of life, one made of ``industrious, hospitable, down-home folk who enjoy popcorn, race cars and BASKETBALL.'' Every year since 1911, all high schools—from small towns to big cities—have gone head-to-head in the state championship tournament. Starting with this season, however, the Davids and the Goliaths must go their own ways in four tourneys bracketed by school enrollment. During the 199697 season, Washington Post sportswriter Gildea (When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore, 1994) criscrossed Indiana to follow the fortunes of players and schools in the final version of ``Hoosier Hysteria.'' Along the way, he immersed himself in tournament lore, gauged Hoosiers' sentiments about the new tournament's format, and assessed how it would alter Indiana's essential character. Gildea's story is steeped in nostalgia, and as he tells it, one can't help but imagine clean-cut boys in black canvas hightops lobbing set shots, just as they did in 1954 when fabled Milan High toppled all comers on the way to their improbable state crown. However, as Gildea points out, modern-day realities take a significantly different form: Schools occasionally ``recruit'' students from other communities or, in the case of Bloomington North High, students of other nations. And many standout players are already looking to take their game to the next level. Attendant inequities aside, some things never change. The '96'97 tourney, like so many before it, saw the Cinderella team of Delta High (student body 916) capture the state's imagination by playing its way into the finals (where it was crushed by a bigger, deeper, more talented team). Regardless of the outcome, this game only served to underscore what Indiana basketball stands to lose in the future: the chance each year to witness a potential legend in the making. As a veteran of the Milan championship squad said: ``David doesn't beat Goliath very often, that's why it's still a good story.''
Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1997
ISBN: 0-316-51967-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The fifth annual offering in this series edited by Stout features stories selected by Jenkins (You Gotta Play Hurt, 1991, etc.), this year's editor, and as usual, the results are mostly impressive. Looking back with the talented writers whose work festoons this volume, one quickly is reminded that 1994 was a dismal year for sports: the major-league baseball strike, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, Jennifer Capriati's brush with the law and drug rehab, O.J. Simpson's arrest. Not surprisingly, the generally ugly tone of the year in sports is reflected in a volume dominated by these unpleasant topics. Jenkins mercifully only includes one piece on the O.J. trial, a brutal concoction by James Ellroy that is as savage and bleak in tone as any of that estimable neo-noir author's novels. It was a bad year for humor, judging from the contents of this collection, which is bookended by two excruciatingly unfunny pieces by Bob Verdi (on the baseball strike) and Ian Thomsen (on TonyaGate). The highs and lows of the collection are amply demonstrated in the book's foreword and introduction, respectively, a heartfelt tribute to a little-known black writer by Stout and a sour, mean-spirited diatribe against intellectuals who write on sports by Jenkins. Once you are past Jenkins, however, there is a multiplicity of rewards here. Particularly worthy are Dave Kindred's visit with Ted Williams, shortly after the great hitter's stroke; Gary Smith's superb reporting on a gathering of most of the world's living record-holders in the mile; and Gary Cartwright's recollection of a vanished high school football legend from his hometown. This book proves once again that although sports may be falling apart under the relentless pressure of corporate meddling, greed, drugs, racism, and the rest of the real world, sportswriters are still reporting that downfall with keen intelligence and art.
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-395-70070-1
Page Count: 265
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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