What sports books are you reading this summer?

Not a big fan of sports books. Do accountants read accounting for fun? Much rather engross myself with a novel. I want to escape from reality when I am reading. BTW, I can't read another word on the 1960s and baseball.

 

I probably couldn't have put it as pithily as that, but yes, Maraniss is amazing. The Rome 1960 book was great. "They Marched Into Sunlight" is a great book about the Vietnam War and its veterans.

 

No sports novels, I suppose.

 

There's a book I remember reading as a teen-ager, written by a Phillies minor leaguer named Jerry Kettle. It was like "Ball Four," but it was about life in the minors. I wish I could find that; I'm sure it's out of print.

 

About 2/3 of the way through "A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played" by Marshall Jon Fisher. A fascinating read about the 1937 U.S.-Germany/Budge-von Cramm Davis Cup match, regarded as one of the sport's best matches.

 

Correcting one dereliction by reading Ed Hotaling's "They're Off" right now. Must correct (as a Pirates fan) another by reading "Clemente" before the end of the season.

 

Rarely read sports books, but last I did was "Basketball Junkie", Chris Herren's autobiography, which Bill Reynolds turned into literature.
I could care less about addiction stories, and yet Reynolds' writing makes it all leap off the page. Great stuff.

 

My colleague Dan M. over at tennis-prose.com is currently reading this very same book and said it's the best tennis book he's ever read. An author himself, he is not an easy to please reader by any stretch.

 

Does Hulk Hogan's second biography count? The WWE-sanctioned version should definitely not, but his latest one has all the juicy stuff, like coke binges and steroids. It counts, right?

I'll also get 56: Joe DiMaggio for the Kindle.

 

Did you read Bret Hart's book?

 

That thing barely counts as a book - it's more of an exhaustive manifesto about how screwed up everyone else in his family was. An interesting read, definitely, but like the latest ESPN book, you wish about half the book (300ish pages) had either been taken out or about something else. Jericho and Foley are still the best wrestling biographies to me, although that description of Hogan's sure does make me want to check it out.

 

If The Man Who Wouldn't Leave is who I think he is, management attempted to have him removed, was threatened with legal action and decided it just wasn't worth it.