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SLOUCHING TOWARD FARGO

A TWO-YEAR SAGA OF SINNERS AND ST. PAUL SAINTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BUSH LEAGUES WITH BILL MURRAY, DARYL STRAWBERRY, DAKOTA SADIE AND ME

An anti-establishment book that captures the essence of America’s true pastime.

Bull Durham meets Meatballs in this raucous yet meaningful tale of a minor-league club with major-league characters.

The book is set at Midway Stadium, home of the independent Northern League’s St. Paul Saints, an outcast team stocked with outcasts like co-owners Mike Veeck (fired from the Show when his promo turned riot), anti-Hollywood movie star Bill Murray, and Darryl Strawberry, the deadbeat dad and former cocaine abuser who was blackballed from pro ball. All these outsiders, including the author (who hates the poison-pen role he plays for Rolling Stone), are seeking redemption on the wrong side of the Twin Cities. Among the many minor characters who enliven this two-year saga are Bill Veeck (father of Mike and idol of Murray), the legendary and vilified baseball owner who hired a midget and brought in aged Minnie Minoso for comic relief; a ball boy who is a 300-pound pig; a blind announcer; a nun who massages Saints fans behind the third base line; pro ball’s best female pitcher, “Dakota Sadie,” who entertains Fargo fans at the scoreboard with a dance; a teamful of hopeful kids and disgruntled veterans; and Charysse Strawberry, the big-league wife whom all the groupies aspire to be. The team reaches success and then hits bottom, like the many engaging losers who gamble on some beer and a lover at the nearby tavern. Corporate ball be damned, says this classic in the mold of irreverent baseball books; having fun while playing the game counts more than winning. The author’s own character is overplayed—only the thorniest of the Bush Leagues can justify all those quotes from Yeats, Joan Didion, and Murray’s movies—but at least this assignment to the boonies saves his soul just as the Saints successfully launch the Straw to pinstripes.

An anti-establishment book that captures the essence of America’s true pastime.

Pub Date: April 6, 1999

ISBN: 0-380-97484-3

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999

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WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS

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

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BACK FROM THE DEAD

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

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