Sports Guy: In Search of Corkball, Warroad Hockey, Hooters Golf, Tiger Woods, and the Big, Big Game

I am a fan of the game behind the game when it comes to sports. I do like to watch the games, but what I find really interesting is stories of the individuals and the stories about what happens off the field. That is why I have thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Pierce's book.I believe the reason sports fascinates us so much is not do to the game but the people who play the game, and how the "game" effects the rest of the world. Mr. Pierce provides that much-needed insight into sorts. He pushes beyond the box scores to bring reader to the heart of sports. In this collection there is a wide range of topics and sports covered, each with Pierce's attention to detail and sharp wit. He goes from the back roads to the inner offices to find the stories behind the sports. He handles each subject with care, and though he may not handle each person or more appropriately ego with care it is done only to breathe reality into the Hollywood and marketing of sports. Pierce has a writing style that is refreshing and each piece has its own flavor. Sitting down with his book is almost like sitting down with a collection of different authors. While Piece does have his own style he does not let that interfere with writing the story they way it needs to be written. He does not try to shoe horn events or people into his style instead he lets his subjects pick the tone and the pace, and he adds the frame and the lighting for us to better understand them.But please do not take my comments about Pierce style to mean that his work is heady or inaccessible. In fact its quite the opposite, after all this is a man who likes to sit in the bleachers with a paper cup of beer in his hand and cheer loudly for the home team. Instead I offered my comments to point out that this book is not just for sports fan, but also for people who enjoy stories.

I am a fan of the game behind the game when it comes to sports. I do like to watch the games, but what I find really interesting is stories of the individuals and the stories about what happens off the field. That is why I have thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Pierce's book.I believe the reason sports fascinates us so much is not do to the game but the people who play the game, and how the "game" effects the rest of the world. Mr. Pierce provides that much-needed insight into sorts. He pushes beyond the box scores to bring reader to the heart of sports. In this collection there is a wide range of topics and sports covered, each with Pierce's attention to detail and sharp wit. He goes from the back roads to the inner offices to find the stories behind the sports. He handles each subject with care, and though he may not handle each person or more appropriately ego with care it is done only to breathe reality into the Hollywood and marketing of sports. Pierce has a writing style that is refreshing and each piece has its own flavor. Sitting down with his book is almost like sitting down with a collection of different authors. While Piece does have his own style he does let that interfere with writing the story they way it needs to be written. He does try to shoe horn events or people into his style instead he lets his subjects pick the tone and the pace, and he adds the frame and the lighting for us to better understand them.But please do not take my comments about Pierce style to mean that his work is heady or inaccessible. In fact its quite the opposite, after all this is a man who likes to sit in the bleachers with a paper cup of beer in his hand and cheer loudly for the home team. Instead I offered my comments to point out that this book is not just for sports fan, but also for people who enjoy stories.

Charlie Pierce has been writing about sports for about a quarter-century, and Sports Guy anthologizes some of his work of the past 10 years. Lots of sportswriters would like you to think they are essayists and that they are writing not about athletics, but about life and its profundities. However, boxing and food and travel and history and war correspondent A.J. Liebling is dead, so Pierce has the center ring to himself. There are 30 pieces here. Take one a day, save some for your flight delay, or read them all at once. Here are some favorites:"Soul on Ice," where Pierce's sentences swoop like chittering bats in the soft night to scoop up another tasty adjective, only to halt in mid-air for the kill: "Community is virtually lost to sports today. A team does not rise within a city. It is laid upon it ..." Plus the history of the Ojibwe."The Snake-Handling Pole Vaulter," which is every bit as funny and quirky and charming as the title, until the end.The racism in the distinction between "smart" ball player and the one with "natural ability," and how Larry Bird and Magic Johnson messed with this.And how Magic Johnson sentenced Earvin Johnson to exile and possibly to early death."The Man. Amen" is notorious, and important, and not funny. It is the Tiger Woods piece, where Pierce ripped the façade of sainthood off the golfer. This chapter should carry a graphic-language disclaimer. And for that very reason, every journalism student should read it.Other celebrity interviews include Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Deion Sanders. Even better are the talks with the unknowns: Bob Marley's son the linebacker. Wolfman the lottery-winning traveling wrestler. The golf pros who teeter on the edge of fame and fall back to the other side. The corkball players. There are not a lot of women here. But "Two Tough Mothers" features two women who are not softball pitchers or soccer goalies, but who play hardball. And get in trouble for it.As alluded to, Pierce quotes both the foul-mouthed and the well-mannered athlete accurately. But if teachers and parents are comfortable that, this is a fine book to give to the student whose intellectual high point of the day has been ESPN's Sportscenter. And give it to those who know who Dickie Beardsley is, and what happened to him, and to those who don't.