Eisenberg’s melding of history and sports journalism is altogether superb.
The first large-scale U.S. horse race between the rivaling North and South, promoted as a contest of speed versus stamina (or “bottom,” in turf parlance).
In the 1800s, spectator sports weren’t popular. The slowness and difficulty of travel kept people from journeying far from home; baseball, football and basketball were nonexistent; and exercise itself was viewed as “dangerously arousing.” The only sport that could consistently draw a crowd was horse racing, and such events were staged only a few times a year. In 1822, William Ransom Johnson, determined to prove the superiority of Southern horses, concocted a challenge to unseat Eclipse, the unbeaten Northern champion. Johnson approached Cornelius Van Ranst and John Stevens, the men in charge of the eight-year-old stallion, proposing a match race at New York’s Union Course. Johnson pledged to bring a horse “from anywhere in the land beyond the confines of the North” to be named on race day. The stakes—$20,000—were significant. The match race would consist of two four-mile heats, and in the event of a tie, the horses would run a brutal extra heat, bringing the race’s grueling total to 12 miles. Despite Eclipse’s age and the unknown caliber of his opponent, the offer was quickly accepted. As 60,000 fans gathered, Johnson—a horseman so renowned he was known as the Napoleon of the Turf—decided to run a fleet youngster named Sir Henry. A nervous Van Ranst deemed Eclipse’s usual jockey, 49-year-old Samuel Purdy, too old for the race, replacing him with a younger, inexperienced rider. After Sir Henry easily won the first heat, Purdy was pulled from the stands, and guided Eclipse to victory in the second heat. Sides heaving, legs trembling, the exhausted horses rallied for their third and final match. Spectators held their breath: Would the North or the South prevail?
Eisenberg’s melding of history and sports journalism is altogether superb.Pub Date: May 5, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-55612-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.
NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective.
With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like China’s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, it’s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors—one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described “hick.” Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores—still the highest-rated college basketball game ever—the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. While the pair’s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and Johnson’s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. Ironically, this nostalgic chronicle about the two men who, along with Michael Jordan, turned more fans onto NBA basketball than any other players, will likely appeal primarily to a narrow cross-section of readers: Bird/Magic fans and hardcore hoop-heads.
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-547-22547-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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