Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions - Softcover

Gallagher, Todd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0307352803 ISBN 13: 9780307352804

Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 2007

Synopsis

Massive goalies, midget batters, and Mike Tyson...
Todd Gallagher faced them all to answer your questions

Every sports fan knows that the debates can be almost as interesting as the games themselves (unless you’re a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, in which case they're much more interesting). But some debates can never be settled no matter how much you run up your bar tab arguing with your friends.

Well, it’s time to answer your questions once and for all:

· Could an average guy start in the WNBA?
· Would sumo wrestlers make great NFL linemen?
· How easy is it for pro athletes to get laid?
· How good are pro golfers at miniature golf?
· Do pro athletes really play drunk or high?
· How would a fan hit against a major league pitcher?

To settle more than thirty of sports’ greatest (and most ridiculous) debates, Todd Gallagher has teamed up with coaches, general managers, and athletes—including LeBron James, Mike Tyson, Dwyane Wade, Johan Santana, Eddie George, Jose Canseco, and many others.

But Gallagher didn’t just ask questions. He put these debates to the test—literally. He sent an all-midget lineup up against a pro baseball team. He swam freestyle against a doggie-paddling Olympic gold medalist. He recruited America's #1 darts player to test that uncanny accuracy in beer pong. And, yes, he stuck a frying pan in tennis star Andy Roddick’s hands and went to battle.

The results are hilarious and enlightening. Best of all, once you have the answers you’ll be able to shut up the next loudmouth who tries to debate you at the bar.

About this title

About the Author

TODD GALLAGHER is a former professional basketball coach, writer for ESPN, and television producer. He became the youngest director of player personnel in pro basketball history when he was appointed to that position in the USBL at the age of twenty-one.

Review

“An entertaining new book with the best title I’ve ever heard. . . . There are lots of cool and authoritative conclusions in this book, based on empirical evidence.”
—Gene Weingarten, Washington Post
“Asks such burning questions as: Would an all-midget baseball lineup be almost unstoppable? Are pro golfers good at miniature golf? Could a tennis pro wielding a skillet beat an amateur with a racket? Sports fans often pose these kinds of off-the-wall questions—Mr. Gallagher heard many when he was a writer for ESPN.com—and this comic sports book sets out to find the answers by setting up bizarre contests.”
—Wall Street Journal
“[George] Plimpton, the patrician, Harvard-educated polymath with a taste for the madcap and presumably the nightcap, would have appreciated the spirit of Gallagher’s new book.”
—International Herald Tribune
“Todd Gallagher has a lot on his mind. Like, ‘Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team?’ And, ‘Would sumo wrestlers make great NFL linemen?’ And, ‘How easy is the transition from soccer player to NFL kicker?’ To get to the bottom of those burning questions, Gallagher teamed up with players, managers, and coaches.”
—Boston Herald
“Gallagher has personally committed to resolving so many of these kind of thinking-outside-the- squared-circle ideas that some have referred to him as ‘Plimpton on acid.’”
—Los Angeles Daily News

Edition details

• Publisher: Three Rivers Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0307352803
• ISBN 13: 9780307352804
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288