This often rambling and convoluted memoir is Rizzuto's tribute to the 12 men who played with the New York Yankees in each of the team's championship years from 1949 to 1953. Besides Rizzuto, the October 12 were: Yogi Berra, Charley Silvera, Bobby Brown, Jerry Coleman, Johnny Mize, Joe Collins, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat, Gene Woodling, and Hank Bauer. While there are several reminiscences from ``the 12'' (including Bauer's being consoled by Senator John F. Kennedy over a brawl at the Copacabana), the majority of anecdotes belong to Rizzuto. He initially failed a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers when Casey Stengel ``told me to get a shoe shine box, which was unnecessary.'' Rizzuto considers Joe McCarthy ``the best manager I ever had''; still remembers with hostility Eddie Stanky kicking the ball out of his glove in the '51 World Series; and manages to gush about the generosity of George Steinbrenner. Rizzuto criticizes modern ballplayers for the money they make but can state, more than 40 years later, how much he made in the World Series between 1949 and 1951 ($17,811). He also takes David Halberstam to task, saying of his book Summer of '49, ``I can tell you that a number of his anecdotes are just plain untrue.'' But Rizzuto recalls Johnny Mize playing for the Cincinnati Reds, which never happened, and when talking about the 1941 World Series he says, ``We won the first and then they beat us four straight.'' Unfortunately, Rizzuto is referring to the 1942 Series against the Cardinals (which the Yankees lost), not the 1941 Series against the Dodgers (which they won). The chapters on the individual series read like play-by-play accounts, offering little insight. The concept behind this book was excellent. It's a shame that the Scooter and Horton (Yogi: It Ain't Over, not reviewed) have executed it in such a haphazard manner. This is strictly for the die-hard fan.
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-85621-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994
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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