Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness Modern History from the Espn.com Sports Desk

4.5 stars I didn't read much of Hunter's ESPN stuff at the time, so it was a great surprise and pleasure to see that he lost none of his edge before calling it a life. It's sweet that he was given full rein to delve into sports writing as much as he always wanted to but rarely could on a regular basis (his old Ali pieces still reign supreme in the genre). But what really makes this book work is HST's refusal to ignore the insanity and fraud of the War On Freedom, sorry, Terror, of Bush and Cheney and friends. As if he could! Thompson links sports and politics together in a number of memorably and typically inimitable essays that hit home hard, and will be seen as very prescient in a decade or two. The secret of Hunter S Thompson's writing is that while it looks like he's having a big old party and being a wiseass, he's also hitting the nail so damn straight on the head that most of America is still quite a few years from understanding how sadly accurate he usually was. There's some very fine writing here; while not up to his best 70s work (Shark Hunt is still THE HST tome, methinks), much of Hey Rube is excellent, and anyone who's ever made a sports bet or three will identify, laughingly, with Hunter's oft hilarious tales of wagering. The kicker is that the HST attitude and bite was still fully intact forty years on, and that's pretty impressive in a world of sellouts.

I'm heartbroken. I admit it. I'm not a year around sports nut. I don't watch games all the time. I don't even get ESPN. And I've never allowed myself to get sucked into the uber-geeky world of fantasy leagues. But the Bears are special for me. And if you let yourself care enough, you'll get hurt. It's unavoidable. You can't experience the thrills without being vulnerable to the pain. Especially the way it happened. With the Bears jumping to a lead within the first 14 seconds, and having a nice action-packed first quarter, I couldn't help but believe. But the Colts managed to dominate. And what hurts the most, what's got me down, is that the Colts won by out Bearing the Bears. They played good hard-nosed defense and then wore down the Bears defense with a relentless running attack. Oh well. I still think Peyton's a bit of a goober but the Indiana coach seems to be a real class act, so I'll try and be happy for them. And I know it's just a game. There are bigger crises in the world. There are bigger crises in my life for that matter. Still, it hurts. This goes down in my top five for losses that hurt, along with the Bears of the late 80's being eliminated in the playoffs by the Redskins and then the Niners, and maybe along with some of those Nebraska victories over Colorado. Particularly those real close ones in that painful, smarmy Neuheisal era. So when the soul is truly in pain, where else would I go for comfort but Hunter S? I didn't even know about this book until recently. I didn't know he was writing a regular column for ESPN's web site. But he was and these columns are among the last writings we'll have for him. And what better a topic for Mr. Thomson than gambling? Hunter was at his best when writing about those little vices, those things that can be wonderful, even enlightening, in the right doses, but much more entertaining to read about when they are pushed to and beyond the limits of self-destruction. Great stuff. By the chance of timing, almost a twisted kind of serendipity, this collection contains a generous allotment of Mr. Thomson's political writings as well. The collection spans a period of time containing the Presidential coup in which Bush stole the election from Al Gore and then 9-11 and its aftermath as well. There is an essay written by Thomson dated September 11th, 2001, written that evening following the attack, with classic Thomson vitriol, filled with his trademark fear and loathing, as well as some paranoia that history reveals to be more prescient than delusional, warning that the power that be would use the tragedy of the terrorist attacks to justify further tragedy of an even grander scale. That may be near universal sentiment in hindsight but remember back to that time to realize how deranged and treacherous that would have sounded to the average citizen. Certainly to the chattering hens in the mainstream news media, who couldn't give the American public credit for anything more s

Anything Hunter wrote was acerbic and psychedelic, but somehow hopeful and downright hilarious.. I suggest you read all of it, including this collection of ESPN articles.. Read especially Hunters article on the last election: Some samples, ...Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to pre-industrial America, when only white male property owners could vote... ...Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all... Hunters Fear and Loathing of Bush and the Republicans since the 60s shot to the heart of political commentary.. Not bad for a Sports Writer.. I wonder what the future holds when the Weird start checking out.. Hunter will be missed by anyone with a heart and mind.

Man, another dead hero. Hunter was the last true voice in america. The spirit of independance flowed through him and his pen was mightier than any sword forged. The last work published in his lifetime is a collection of his columns which appear on the internet. You can read them for free. Buy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, if you haven't read it you haven't lived.

Hunter S. Thompson is still the heavyweight of American alternative journalism, the original Gonzo. . . . HEY RUBE, a collection of his sports articles for ESPN.com, may have nothing new in terms of Thompson's unflinching insight and humor, but that is, after all, why we read Thompson. The book contains some significant articles -- "Stadium Living in a New Age" and "Will Sports Survive Bin Laden?," for two, put to words (when few will) our collective sense of dread over the direction our country is headed. There are also pieces of refreshing levity, such as "The Tragedy of Naked Bowling," Thompson's own fantastical solution to the war news tyrannizing our TV channels. What is frightening about HEY RUBE is that Thompson's "Gonzo" approach -- a melding of fact and fiction -- isn't so fictitious anymore: sports may survive bin Laden, but it may well go the way of the Patriot Act's no-more-fun club, which makes rubes of us all indeed.