Gitlin, Martin. Kyrie Irving: Uncle Drew, Little Mountain and Enigmatic NBA Superstar. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 224. 16 illustrations. $26.95 hardcover and ebook. Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski During a fall 2018 fan event at the TD Garden, the home of the Boston Celtics, former Celtics player Brian Scalabrine asked the best player on the team,…
Balukjian, Brad. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife. University of Nebraska Press, 2020. Pp. 280. Author’s note, prologue, epilogue, photographs, notes, $27.95 hardback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo Books about players dealing with life after baseball have provided some memorable reading. The genre has been blessed with Lawrence Ritter’s The…
Kenny, Kevin. Patty Berg: Pioneer Champion of Women’s Golf. North Carolina: McFarland, 2019. Pp. 205. Appendix, Chapter Notes, Bibliography, and Index. $45.00 softcover. Reviewed by Erica J. Zonder In November 2019, the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s (LPGA) season-ending event, The CME Group Tour Championship, was won by Korean golfer Sei Young Kim. First place was…
Hernández, Lou. Bobby Maduro and the Cuban Sugar Kings. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing Company, 2018. Pp. 218. Bibliography and notes. $39.95 paperback. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Lou Hernández provides a comprehensive biography of one of baseball’s most successful and overlooked executives, Bobby Maduro. Maduro had a long career in Cuban baseball before starting over again…
Allison, Rachel. Kicking Center: Gender and the Selling of Women’s Professional Soccer. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018. Pp. 220. Appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. $27.95 paperback and eBook. Reviewed by Cat Ariail Earlier this summer, the US Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT), earned a fourth star on their shirt, winning the Women’s World…
Smith, Averell “Ace”. The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. Pp. 240. 14 photographs, 6 illustrations, 2 tables, appendix, and index. $26.95 hardcover and eBook. $19.95 paperback. Reviewed by Leslie Heaphy Author Averell Smith paints a vivid picture of a season in the…
Love, Brian J., and Michael L. Burns. Corked: Tales of Advantage in Competitive Sports. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Fifth Avenue Press. 2019. Pp. 253. Endnotes, preface, and index. $14.99 paperback. Reviewed by Bob D’Angelo. Gaining an edge in competitive sports could be as old as the games, although probably not. It was difficult during the first…
Kalman-Lamb, Nathan. Game Misconduct: Injury, Fandom, and the Business of Sport. Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 2018. Pp. 183. Notes & Index. $24.00 paperback. Reviewed by Noah Cohan As Kevin Durant writhed on the floor of Scotiabank Arena partway through the second quarter of Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, his Achilles tendon having recoiled upward…
Travers, Steven R. Remembering the Stick: Candlestick Park 1960-2013. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 2017. Copyright: Steven R. Travers. Pp. 357. No index. Photos: Black & white (11). $18.95. Reviewed by Richard A. Macales “You can talk all you want about Brooklyn and New York, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Dallas and Fort Worth, but there are…
Stark, Douglas. When Basketball Was Jewish; Voices of those who played the game. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 2017. Index. Pp. 330. $29.95 hardcover. $29.95 eBook. Reviewed by Murry Nelson I looked forward to reading this volume after enjoying Douglas Stark’s book on the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association’s basketball team, The SPHAS, which was…
Sport in American History 