Games We Used to Play - Hardcover

Kahn, Roger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395593514 ISBN 13: 9780395593516

Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, 1992

Synopsis

A collection of expert sports pieces touches on locker-room controversies and politics while inviting readers to share in the passion, grace, energy, and intense concentration involved in playing sports

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Even his fans may be surprised at the very high quality of the work Kahn (The Boys of Summer, Joe & Marilyn, etc.) has done over the years. In the anthology at hand, the author collects more than two dozen of the sports pieces he wrote from the early 1950's through 1990--and virtually all stand the taxing test of time. Among other impressive inclusions, there are standout profiles of boxing's George Foreman (then an ex-heavyweight champ in pursuit of a rematch with his conqueror, Muhammad Ali), hockey's Glenn Hall, football's Frank Ryan (a world-class mathematician as well as a winning quarterback), baseball's Stan Musial (in the twilight of a Hall-of-Fame career), and basketball's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (at the start of two-decade reign in the NBA). Covered as well are Carl Furillo, Ingemar Johansson, Don King, Tommy Lasorda (``Sinatra's Friend''), Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the young Willie Mays, Merlin Olsen, Walter O'Malley, and Sugar Ray Robinson. About the only weak links in the lineup are a few self-consciously weighty essays--e.g., a mannered meditation on professional athletes who, though chronologically young, are old by the standards of their demanding trades; an inane attempt to establish enduring linkages between intellectuals and the national pastime; and a churlish put- down of Joe Namath on the occasion of his run-in with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle over the ownership of a Manhattan bar. Kahn does not neglect his colleagues, paying graceful tributes to, among others, Jerome Holtzman, John Lardner, and Red Smith. Equally welcome is the author's parting shot on his literary collaboration with Pete Rose after the superstar had been banned from baseball for gambling and sentenced to a federal penitentiary on tax charges. A decidedly agreeable trip down memory lane with one of the more perceptive tour guides still in the game. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

In these essays, written between 1954 and 1990, the author of The Boys of Summer reinforces his reputation as a master with the pen and a generous-hearted observer of athletes and their games. He pays warm tribute to his special heroes, Jackie Robinson, Roger Maris and Carl Furillo, along with those he particularly admired in the press box, John Lardner and Red Smith. Kahn esteems as well football lineman Merlin Olsen, hockey goalie Glenn Hall, cager Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, outfielder Mickey Mantle and boxing promoter Don King, anathema to many. The last piece, "Story Without a Hero," about Pete Rose, lacks the elegiac tone of the other essays and suggests that, although the ballplayer was a flawed person, so was his adversary, baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti, who presided over the Rose gambling investigation in 1989 that banned the player from the game for life. Kahn also makes scathing remarks about the handling of the book Rose and he wrote together, My Story , by its publisher, Macmillan. A fine anthology.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0395593514
• ISBN 13: 9780395593516
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320