An informative biography of the legendary basketball player who died suddenly in 1988 at the age of 40 because of a congenital heart defect. Maravich, named to the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players List in 1997, will probably be remembered best for his showmanship and his pioneer role as superstar. Journalist and author Berger (Big Time, 1990, etc.) chronicles the ballplayer’s life from pre- college through his Louisiana State University years to his pro career with the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Jazz, and Boston Celtics. He was dubbed “Pistol Pete” as a ninth-grader by a sportswriter who was impressed by the boy’s off-the-hip, one-hand push shot, a style blending confidence and cockiness. Maravich, a product of his father’s intense mentoring and coaching, became a prolific scorer—breaking the career college scoring record in 1970—and a master of dazzling plays, including dribbling between his legs. Even before his rookie year, he was clearly a superstar, netting an exorbitant salary and landing endorsement deals at a time when ballplayers weren’t seen as commercial spokespeople. But as Berger’s research reveals, Maravich’s life was laced with sorrow. His mother sank into the alcoholism and depression that led to her suicide. Maravich himself was troubled by success, becoming an alcoholic, suffering bouts of paranoia, and enduring injuries and illnesses throughout his professional career, which ended in 1980. Berger uses citations from teammates, friends, contemporaries, press clippings, and Maravich’s own words to show the complexity of his turbulent life as he bore the scrutiny and expectations of a superstar, becoming after retirement a born-again Christian. Old-time basketball fans will enjoy remembering Pistol Pete, and young fans will be introduced to the player who left such a mark on the sport at a time when showmanship on the hardwood was not the norm. (16 pages b&w photos)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-87833-237-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Taylor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
New York's most controversial tabloid sports reporter fouls out in a lazy whodunit. Pro hoops stars Ellis ``Fresh'' Adair and Richie Collins are two kids from the projects who have made it big. African-American Fresh is basketball's most skilled player since Michael Jordan. Richie, a Latino, made his name by getting the ball to Fresh. Together, they bring the New York Knicks to another level and as their reward are admired by millions of strangers—a familiar situation that Lupica milks for all it's worth. Fresh and Richie gain unwanted notoriety when Hannah Carey, a blond fitness instructor with a past, accuses the two of rape. Enter the book's nominal hero, Tony DiMaggio, a former baseball player turned sports sleuth who is hired by the Knicks to get to the bottom of this mess before the cops do. He discovers that Richie, a wolf in point guard's clothing, was indeed the rapist; Fresh, for reasons later made clear, wanted no part of Hannah, who, it seems was infatuated with A.J., yet another Knick. Later, Richie's trouble keeping his pants on earns him an ice pick in the heart—and Fresh is nowhere to be found. As DiMaggio digs up more dirt, he discovers that Fresh is innocent, on the run for more personal reasons. To find Richie's killer, DiMaggio follows the trail of broken hearts leading away from the dead hoopster's coffin. He learns that Richie was a serial rapist who believed that every woman was ``asking for it,'' especially from him, a bona fide superstar. This otherwise interesting bit of insight into the mind of a pro jock serves as the foundation for many red herrings, but the real killer, like the entire book, is obvious. Setting his thriller in the pro basketball universe, Lupica (Dead Air, 1986, etc.) slavishly follows the adage ``write what you know'' but forgets to make it interesting.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-40334-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
That’s just right: Stanton’s is another entry in the roster of excellent works devoted to baseball, sure to please fans of...
A fan’s affectionate notes on America’s game—one whose spirit seems to be at grave risk.
Stanton, a Gen-X native of Detroit, is too young to remember the Tigers in their glory. He does, however, have a keen sense of history, one given full air in this account of a season spent in the city’s now-demolished Tiger Stadium. Detroit squads had played there since 1912, when (a few days after the Titanic sank and on the same day that Boston’s Fenway Park opened) Ty Cobb and his teammates faced off against Cleveland’s “Shoeless Joe” Jackson. Stanton’s pages are populated by countless baseball heroes, many of whom (Charlie Gehringer, Al Kaline) are not likely to be known to readers who did not grow up Tigers fans—or to those younger than Stanton. His hero worship for these players is a constant, but he has sharper words for the modern game—and especially for the New York Yankees, a longstanding bête noire whose current six leadoff hitters earn more than the Tigers’ entire roster. The latter-day Tigers turn in only a so-so performance to punctuate Stanton’s meditation on the meaning of baseball to generations of Americans, and on a park that would soon be demolished in favor of a soulless and corporatized replacement stadium that places fans ever farther from the players. Still, as his narrative closes, Stanton lapses into celebratory reveries not unworthy of Field of Dreams: standing in a baseball diamond, he writes, “if you listen beyond the silence, if you listen with your heart, you can hear all sorts of things. You can hear your childhood, you can hear your dad and your uncles, you can hear Kaline connecting, you can hear the muted cheers of distant, ghost crowds, and you can hear your grandpa calling out from the bleachers.”
That’s just right: Stanton’s is another entry in the roster of excellent works devoted to baseball, sure to please fans of the game.Pub Date: June 15, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-27288-X
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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