Review of "Best From Sport," edited by Al Silverman

Review of

Best From Sport, edited by Al Silverman

Five out of five stars

 These eleven stories truly capture the spirit of the sports world, although the biographies were written before ‘tell-all” became the way athletes were portrayed. The eleven pieces are:

*) I Remember the Galloping Ghost, by Grantland Rice

*) Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach, by Jack Sher

*) The Hilarious Case of the Glass Chin, by John Lardner

*) The Last Summer of Musial and Williams, by Ed Linn

*) What the Kentucky Derby Means to Me, by Red Smith

*) A Letter to My Son, by Rudy York

*) Goodbye, Graziano, by W. C. Heinz

*) The Mixed Emotions of ‘The Big O’,” by Dick Schaap

*) The Joe Louis I Remember, by Jimmy Cannon

*) Football’s Taking Over, by Roger Kahn

*) Tell Me About Babe Ruth, by Frank Graham

The writing in all the pieces is superb. My favorite is the one about Oscar Robertson by Dick Schaap. The racism that he openly faced when on the road as well as some that took place in his home city and campus of Cincinnati is a snippet of the difficulties that black athletes faced at the time. Many hotels were off limits and there were other overt examples of racism.

 If you are interested in sports stories that dive deep into the subject, this book is something that you will enjoy.