Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts

Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports Review

Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports
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Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports ReviewIf you're tired of reading the same type of takes on sports - the rambles full of pop culture references that pretend to stand for real commentary, the reactionary critiques of the sports villain of the week, read Welcome to the Terrordome. You'll most likely spend half your time laughing and the other half amazed that Mr. Zirin has been reading your mind.
It doesn't take much experience reading sports columnists, or listening to them talk on TV, to come away with a pretty grim view of the sports world. The profession seems to attract a sort of bitter, fatalist heckler who wants to forget that it's not just a game. Well, it isn't just a game - it's an industry, one that sometimes gets to write its own rules but more often has to live in the same world we all do - the one with pain, politics and promise.
Dave Zirin has the perspective and vision to put these pieces together, to see how the sports world meshes and collides with the real world. And when he heckles - which he does often, and with panache - it's cutting but not cruel.
There's a strong current of humanity in Dave's writing. This isn't a lunkhead screaming from the cheap seats, it's someone who wants to see excellence and fairness at all levels of sport - the field, the office, the media. With all the time and money we spend on it, that's the least we can ask.
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Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete Review

Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete
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Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete ReviewRhoden's aim in this finely written and very readable screed is to explore the African American star athlete's paradoxical dilemma: On one hand, he is worshipped for his athletic prowess and is lavished with millions of dollars. On the other hand, he is beholden to white team owners, white league administrators, and as such is limited to the role of a super-paid lackey.
Some reviewers object to the slavery analogy and the exodus from the plantation to the Promised Land that is heavily used in Rhoden's argument. But Rhoden is correct to point out that the slavery is both spiritual and power-based. Spiritual because too many African American athletes, Rhoden charges, are so busy micromanaging their careers that they have no sense of the broader context, of African American history (one star athlete was shocked with disbelief when he discovered that blacks were once banned from Major League Baseball). Power-based because too many blacks are relegated to "black" roles and forget the larger mission of making more opportunities for blacks in positions of privilege.
Whether or not you agree with Rhoden's analogy, I would argue that the book is nevertheless very readable and entertaining, giving us powerful narratives of how black men, starting with the emancipated slave fighter Tom Molineaux, left America to fight the English champion Tom Cribb and showed whites that blacks' athletic performance defied stereotypes about being dense, ignorant, maladroit, etc. By studying Molineaux, Ali, and other African American greats, Rhoden shows how black athletes who see themselves as symbols of black power help forge the way for other black athletes.
On a personal note, Rhoden, an African American, explains in his own life growing up in Chigaco in the 1950s and 1960s, that sports are a great avenue for learning about race and American history. I am no exception. As a child, I loved Hank Aaron and one day as I read about the way he was bullied and denied white restaurants and hotels, I got a bitter taste of what this country was like for people of color and contemplated the hideous color divide.
Sports is a powerful metaphorical arena for talking about race and Rhoden has done an exemplary job of developing that metaphor in a book that is always engaging and provocative.Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete Overview

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Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport Review

Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport
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Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport ReviewI was made aware of this book when I heard one of the authors give an interview. Many of the topics in the interview weren't in the book, but a host of other areas where. The book is easy to read and well researched. However, it is very much written from a British point of view - so don't let the Americanized title of Soccernomics fool you. It mainly appears to be a book that hopes to explain to the English that they are not the most rabid fans nor the best players of the game they invented 150 years ago.
Some of the chapters were so absolutely fascinating, I couldn't stop reading. Other chapters were so ultimately boring that I skipped them. The good thing is that you can skip around and read each chapter independently without really losing any overall scope of the book.
Even though I didn't agree with some the conclusions and read the data differently, I certainly feel much more knowledgeable about the current game and how we got here. If you are a fan of soccer, you should seriously consider this fact-filled book. It will make for great discussions around the TV during next summer's World Cup.Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport Overview

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