As swift and entertaining as a close race—but rarely contemplative or introspective.
A New York Times sportswriter spends the year 2000 following some prominent owners, trainers, and jockeys as they prepare for horseracing’s Triple Crown.
Drape has a problem with suspense: Fans of horseracing already know the outcomes of the three races that comprise the final pages of this galloping chronicle. But his julep is not entirely mintless, for the strengths of this account are the portraits he paints of the various players. “Hope is robust,” he writes. “It is the horses who are fragile.” Note the who. In this extravagant world there are no insulting which’s or that’s trotted out to refer to horseflesh. But Drape’s portraits contradict his conclusion. More fragile by far than the horses are the egos of everyone involved. We begin in August 1999 Saratoga, where the author introduces some of the major players and begins explaining fundamentals like claiming races. He then moves to one of the annual yearling sales, where we meet the enormously wealthy Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who flies in his own 747 from the United Arab Emirates to bid millions of dollars for animals he thinks one day might win a Big One. We meet the two top trainers in the country, Bob Baffert and the flamboyant D. Wayne Lukas, as well as a couple of bright but lesser lights, Neil Drysdale and Jenine Sahadi—the most successful female trainer in the country, who must cope not only with God’s dumbest creatures (male chauvinists) but also with horses. Drape periodically inserts passages of memoir about the deaths of his father and mother, about his imminent divorce (he refers to his spouse as his “soon-to-be ex-wife”), and about his own passions for betting and racing (including his experience of owning a quarter horse). He expresses little skepticism about his world and is silent on such subjects as cruelty to animals, egregious excess, and the dark side of gambling.
As swift and entertaining as a close race—but rarely contemplative or introspective.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-87113-785-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
An ambitious, remarkably frank, but overlong and digressive chronicle of the Philadelphia Eagles' 1992 season by a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter. Bowden begins and ends in the middle of the Eagles' dramatic come-from-behind playoff victory over New Orleans in January 1993. In between are 400 pages of reconstruction of behind-the-scenes goings-on, as well as highly personal profiles of the players, coaches, and owner Norman Braman. Just prior to the start of the football season, All-Pro defensive lineman Jerome Brown was killed in an auto accident. The talented, irrepressible Brown was mouthy and loud, often flabby from poor workout habits, and apparently determined to set an NFL record for paternity suits and speeding tickets. His locker became a shrine, and his loss helped bring to light the team's barely concealed divisions and animosities. Linebacker Seth Joyner became openly insulting to ``franchise quarterback'' Randall (Randoll, Joyner called him) Cunningham, accusing him publicly of consistently letting the team down in the clutch. Joyner and the rest of the defense were ``Buddy's Boys,'' hard-nosed athletes assembled by fiery, controversial Buddy Ryan, axed the previous year and replaced as head coach by the team's relatively inexperienced offensive coordinator, Rich Kotite—soon dubbed Coach Uptight by the press. As the season progressed and the team disintegrated, Bowden reenacts a wild fight in the stands between defensive back Wes Hopkins's wife and mistress and other fairly irrelevant outbursts. His recounting of the more pertinent football controversies, such as the debate over whether Cunningham or Jim McMahon should be quarterback, demonstrate the depth of the venomous feelings within the team. By midseason, even the press was urging the players to ``shut up and play football.'' Bowden's writing has an it's-all-so-amusing edge. As incident- laden and wacky as the season was, he's too long-winded to sustain interest. (16 pages photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42841-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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
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