I'd Know That Voice Anywhere: My Favorite NPR Commentaries - Softcover

Deford, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802126723 ISBN 13: 9780802126726

Publisher: Grove Press, 2017

Synopsis

Frank Deford is one of the most beloved sports commentators in America. A contributing writer to Sports Illustrated for more than fifty years, he is also a longtime correspondent on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. These days, Deford is perhaps best known for his weekly commentaries on NPR’s Morning Edition. Beginning in 1980, Deford has recorded over 1,600 of them, and in I’d Know That Voice Anywhere he brings together the very best, creating a charming, insightful, and wide-ranging look at athletes and the world of sports.

In I’d Know That Voice Anywhere, Deford discusses everything from sex scandals and steroids to Americans’ perennial nostalgia for Joe DiMaggio and why, in a culture dominated by celebrity, sport is the only field on earth where popularity and excellence thrive in tandem. He considers the similarities between Babe Ruth and Winnie the Pooh, why football reminds him of Venice, and how the Olympics are like Groundhog Day or like an independent movie filled with foreign actors you’ve never heard of. He considers the prevalence of cheating in the classroom among student-athletes and why academic whistle-blowers are castigated as tattletales, pens a one-size-fits-all sports movie script, and even delivers Super Bowl coverage in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. This page-turning compendium of Deford’s witty and frank pieces covers more than thirty years of sports history while showcasing the vast range of Deford’s interests and opinions, including his thoughts on the NCAA (a shameless autocracy, where college players are essentially indentured servants), why gay athletes play straight” (more for fear of their audience than their colleagues), and why he’s worried about living in an economy that is so dominated by golfers.

A rollicking sampler of one of NPR’s most popular segments, I’d Know That Voice Anywhere is perfect for sports enthusiasts as well as sports skeptics and a must-read for any Frank Deford fan.

About this title

About the Author

In addition to his work at National Public Radio, Sports Illustrated, and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Frank Deford is the author of numerous works of nonfiction, including The Old Ball Game and Over Time, as well as ten novels and two screenplays. He is a recipient of the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing and the National Humanities Medal.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Please, let’s face it, where there are games, people will bet. It’s idiotic to run away from that fact. Indeed, in many countries, national lotteries are based on soccer results. In a grown-up place like England, you can walk into any neighborhood betting shop and get a wager down on just about any event, including even, say, the British Open and Wimbledon. And, you know, I haven’t heard a single suggestion that Phil Mickelson or Anna Kournikova haven’t won the championships because gamblers have gotten to them.

But the American sports leagues love to maintain this fiction that gamblers are a threat to their games. By making a big fuss about this, the leagues can then shout about what a wonderful job they’re doing in saving their games from fixes. It’s like the guy sitting on the street corner waving his arms. What are you doing? I’m keeping the elephants away.” I don’t’ see any elephants.” See, I’m keeping them away.”

The NFL, the NHL, the NBA and baseball are doing a great job of keeping the elephants away. The players in our professional leagues simply make too much money, which is why what few attempted fixes there are invariably involve poor college kids with no pro future. Yet, the leagues have a whipping boy. It would be as if President Bush regularly talked about the threat to America of the Bolsheviks or the Barbary pirates.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0802126723
• ISBN 13: 9780802126726
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288