Debut novel, originally self-published, by a Texas Monthly contributor who mostly avoids the hokey near-religious overtones often attached to his sport—golf—overtones similar to those often attached by baseball writers to theirs. Pipkin occasionally slips up, but mostly his linkster's coming-of-age yarn is snatched from the abyss of the excessively reverent by some colorful local characters, a lost-father riff, and the author's dead-on ear for Lone Star State dialogue. Set in 1965 and filtered through the perspective of 13-year-old caddie Billy Hempel, the story is mainly about a nine-hole grudge match between Roscoe Fowler and William March. The two had played 27 years earlier, on a desolate Texas plain, for ownership of their oil company. Fowler won by sinking a suspicious hole-in-one in utter darkness, and March has never gotten over the insult to either his game or his ego. The foursome now is fleshed out by Fowler's odious ringer, Carl ``Beast'' Larsen, a tremendous player, and March's second, a brilliant but troubled young Hogan-wielder named Sandy Bates. Age and power thus collide with nobility and beauty: Fowler is old and mean; March is a gentleman cowboy. Billy is carrying for Beast, however—at March's behest, a strategy designed to keep the bad guys honest. Maybe. As the match progresses, the wager is changed and new wagers are made; harsh words are lobbed, and skillful—at time dazzling—shots are executed on both sides, equipment is destroyed, and Billy's mother drops in to unload a doozy of a revelation. Then a real reckoning looms for Sandy and Billy both, and not all may be as it seems. A paean to the Scottish game of sticks and flags with authentic lingo, a solid structure, and plenty of old-fashioned masculine wallowing in the transcendent metaphor of silly games.
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-31647-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
A sunny, refreshing season of pro basketball in the Lega Pallenestro Italiano. Depressed, recently divorced, disillusioned, and fed up with the arrogance and cynicism of American sports, Oregon sportswriter Patton jumped at the chance to spend 1992 in Italy. Based in Bologna, the 32-team Lega Pallenestro plays a 30-game schedule. The lega champion goes on to play in the European Cup tournament, but there is also a complicated system of international tournaments and playoffs. Each team is allowed two stranieri, or foreigners. Many of these are former NBA players such as Darryl ``Chocolate Thunder'' Dawkins and former Detroit Piston ``bad boy'' Rick Mahorn. Cut by the Il Messagero team (ostensibly for a locker-room tantrum, though some claim he'd become ``fat and lazy'') just a few days before Patton arrived, Mahorn was proof that NBA fringe players ``don't automatically become stars in Italy.'' (Mahorn, however, finished 1994 with the New Jersey Nets and his old coach, Chuck Daly.) While the author spends a lot of time with the Americans, he also profiles Italian stars such as il monumento nationale, 69'' Dino Meneghin, who, at 43, was playing his 27th season at pivot, center. ``Italy's greatest player,'' Meneghin led Varese to seven championships in his first ten years in the league and then won five more with the Milan team. There's also C'e solo un (the one and only) Roberto Brunamonti, slick point guard for Knorr Bologna, and his suave coach, Ettore Messina, who, when talking basket, will blithely refer to Saint Sebastian and his favorite Greek mythological heroes. Patton's descriptions of the often ineptly played games (``You see shots there's no name for'') and the boisterous, lewdly chanting crowds are a delight. Well flavored with wonderful passages on the foods, the people, the travel from village to city, and the joys and frustrations of daily life in a foreign land. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-86849-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sharp, affectionate portrait—in words and stunning photographs—of prizefighters in their milieu. Photojournalist Schulman started shooting fighters in the early 1980s, when she covered the Kid Gloves at Madison Square Garden for ABC. She has since taken her camera to the famous, grimy gyms of the boxing world from New York to San Francisco, from the Dominican Republic to Ghana—large or small, decrepit or modern, ``the smell of ancient sweat is the same.'' Her visits include the Gramercy Gym on 14th Street, where Gus D'Amato trained Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres; the Kronk Gym in Detroit, home to Thomas Hearns and Evander Holyfield; Miami's Fifth Street Gym where Angelo Dundee worked Willie Pastrano and Muhammad Ali ``entertained'' Howard Cosell; and back to New York for peeks inside Stillman's and Gleason's, where names such as Joe Louis, Rocky Graziano, Kid Gavilan, Jake LaMotta, and Roberto Duran are more than mere legend. She takes a quick look at a few of the legendary matches: Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney; Ali's battles with Joe Frazier; the Duran- Sugar Ray Leonard saga; and the feisty Alexis Arguello-Aaron Pryor matchups. She offers incisive comments and profiles of dozens of fighters, from long-retired light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore to the little guys, barely 10, who box wearing gloves too large for their hands; from the great to the near-great, to those who made a career of standing up long enough to give the contenders a workout. There are success stories: Larry Holmes, Azumah Nelson, Roberto Duran. And sad stories: Leon Spinks, Aaron Pryor. There's also a touching portrait of trainer Ray Arcel, whose 20 champions over 65 years ranged from Tony Zale to the still-fighting Holmes. Boxing may or may not be ``a sport where the rewards outweigh the risks,'' but Schulman goes a long way toward putting a human— if battered—face on a profession long in disrepute. (100 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-55821-309-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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