Author Jeff Pearlman reveals Bo Jackson's (failed) campaign to ban him from Alabama bookstores. Plus: a fun glimpse at a few long shots by my son at Indiana University's Assembly Hall.
I don't know. Different values. Different cultures. Here is a guy - Jeff Pearlman - who invests time, effort ... essentially his whole being in sorta a hagiography project ... about - in the long run - a trivial unimportant person. Really? And I'm supposed to care? Jeff Pearlman should get a life. Particularly since Dick Schaaf apparently already walked this path.
As far as the books stores being brave and noble. Count me skeptical. I'm wondering if the subject was Nick Sabin, and ole Nick called in a similar vein, would the bookstores be so noble in standing up for the First? Count me doubtful.
Bruce, you and I see it much differently, but I appreciate your trademark frankness. Jeff digs deep to get as full of a potrtait of some of the most iconic, influential people in the sports world. They have left a deep imprint on many people, and their stories are worth telling. Jeff is anything but a hagiographer (fancy word for PR Puff Piece Biographer)---he gives 360-degree portraits that include the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have read six of his 10 books (Jackson, Favre, Payton, LA Lakers of the '80s, LA Lakers of the 2000s, and Football for a Buck, about the USFL). I respect his reporting immensely. I do think that he goes over the line on occasion, and his language is coarser in some places than is my stle, but to his credit, Jeff is candid about noting where he has regrets in some of his reporting and writing decisions. Jeff also has a podcast, Two Writers Slinging Yang, that I heartily recommend for any journalist, aspiring journalist, or fan of good journalism.
I think we can all stand against censorship, but Jeff Pearlman is one of the last writers I will ever feel sorry for. I do not share your high opinion of his work. He takes on excellent subjects, and he is to be given some credit for choosing them, but I do not think he does them justice. I've read three of his works, and I haven't read any of Bob Woodward's, but he is like Woodward in that, as an athlete, you'd be a fool to ever authorize his reporting of you. (Politicians are reminded that, when consenting to a Woodward interview, they will not win. He is not to be spun. The one exception I can think of with Pearlman is Troy Aikman.) Michael Lewis's original reservation about Pearlman's book about the '86 Mets has stood up as Pearlman has built his oeuvre: you didn't come away liking any of the players on the team. That can't be reality. Pearlman may say he's reporting the truth, and that the portraits are balanced, but the profiles he writes are deeply troubling. One example would be Jerry Jones. Seemed like a monster in the book Pearlman wrote about the Cowboys, but I watched a documentary with him in it, and I don't think Pearlman got the essence of the man. Beyond this, Pearlman's analytical abilities, statistical and otherwise, are simply poor. Going chapter by chapter, I can eviscerate his work, and there are more problems in reasoning than one can name. Then the Cowboys book featured a couple of grating analogies on every page. They were showy but distracting. I wish the sports biography market were bigger, and the considerable attention given to Pearlman's work was shifted to more deserving authors.
Thank you for writing, David. I've not read Jeff's book on the Cowboys (or on Bonds, or Clemens, or the Met's '86 championship team--that last one, which I think was Jeff's first book, would be painful for me, a diehard Red Sox fan). So I cannot speak to those books, however, of the six that I have read, plus a good deal of Jeff's other work [including through his blog], I find him to be a dogged reporter and solid writer who is also a rare bird who is willing to self-reflect--often with blunt criticisms of mistakes he's made--as he peels the curtain back on his reporting and writing process. I left a lengthy note in my reply to Bruce Kleinman, so you might want to review that too. Again, thanks for taking the time to read and comment---truly appreciate it. I will say, word for word, Jonathan Eig, is probably my favorite sports biographer (who also has gone beyond sport in his writing).
Thank you for your forbearance and your tolerance of my strong opinions. I enjoy the discussion; I spend a lot of time with books, and rarely have an opportunity to confer and vent.
I saw Eig on C-SPAN last weekend. They were playing an interview with him since he did a book about MLK and it was the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. I was struck by his thin appearance and interesting last name and nagged by the feeling this was a giant I should know. But I could not place him until it dawned on me that he had written a biography of Muhammed Ali, which I think may also have been the starting point for a movie.
Beyond Joe Posnanski, Kostya Kennedy is a sportswriter I am idolizing and investing blind faith in, in the sense that I maintain faith that anything he does will be very good. The case is the opposite of Pearlman: when I hear what Kennedy has written, I always groan, and my faith is tested. Aside from his book on the dangers of football, I do not think he could have picked less promising and more frequently tread subjects. Yet he pulls them off.
I drew the line at Pete Rose. I could not make myself read Kennedy's book about him, in part because I thought Michael Sokolove captured Rose so superbly in "Hustle." It's always a risk to read a non-fiction book done many years ago, but that is a fascinating psychological portrayal and leaves the man bare.
Jonathan is terrific ... his book on Jackie Robinson's first year in Major League Baseball ("Opening Day") was eye-opening on so many levels, particularly its raising my awareness that while Jackie was primarily the one under a microscope, so were all Black Americans during that period. For example, their need to refrain from being provoked by taunts and other racist attacks while they attended games, so that no incidents could be used as a basis for stopping the progress of enabling more Blacks to play in the bigs.
I don't know. Different values. Different cultures. Here is a guy - Jeff Pearlman - who invests time, effort ... essentially his whole being in sorta a hagiography project ... about - in the long run - a trivial unimportant person. Really? And I'm supposed to care? Jeff Pearlman should get a life. Particularly since Dick Schaaf apparently already walked this path.
As far as the books stores being brave and noble. Count me skeptical. I'm wondering if the subject was Nick Sabin, and ole Nick called in a similar vein, would the bookstores be so noble in standing up for the First? Count me doubtful.
Bruce, you and I see it much differently, but I appreciate your trademark frankness. Jeff digs deep to get as full of a potrtait of some of the most iconic, influential people in the sports world. They have left a deep imprint on many people, and their stories are worth telling. Jeff is anything but a hagiographer (fancy word for PR Puff Piece Biographer)---he gives 360-degree portraits that include the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have read six of his 10 books (Jackson, Favre, Payton, LA Lakers of the '80s, LA Lakers of the 2000s, and Football for a Buck, about the USFL). I respect his reporting immensely. I do think that he goes over the line on occasion, and his language is coarser in some places than is my stle, but to his credit, Jeff is candid about noting where he has regrets in some of his reporting and writing decisions. Jeff also has a podcast, Two Writers Slinging Yang, that I heartily recommend for any journalist, aspiring journalist, or fan of good journalism.
I think we can all stand against censorship, but Jeff Pearlman is one of the last writers I will ever feel sorry for. I do not share your high opinion of his work. He takes on excellent subjects, and he is to be given some credit for choosing them, but I do not think he does them justice. I've read three of his works, and I haven't read any of Bob Woodward's, but he is like Woodward in that, as an athlete, you'd be a fool to ever authorize his reporting of you. (Politicians are reminded that, when consenting to a Woodward interview, they will not win. He is not to be spun. The one exception I can think of with Pearlman is Troy Aikman.) Michael Lewis's original reservation about Pearlman's book about the '86 Mets has stood up as Pearlman has built his oeuvre: you didn't come away liking any of the players on the team. That can't be reality. Pearlman may say he's reporting the truth, and that the portraits are balanced, but the profiles he writes are deeply troubling. One example would be Jerry Jones. Seemed like a monster in the book Pearlman wrote about the Cowboys, but I watched a documentary with him in it, and I don't think Pearlman got the essence of the man. Beyond this, Pearlman's analytical abilities, statistical and otherwise, are simply poor. Going chapter by chapter, I can eviscerate his work, and there are more problems in reasoning than one can name. Then the Cowboys book featured a couple of grating analogies on every page. They were showy but distracting. I wish the sports biography market were bigger, and the considerable attention given to Pearlman's work was shifted to more deserving authors.
Thank you for writing, David. I've not read Jeff's book on the Cowboys (or on Bonds, or Clemens, or the Met's '86 championship team--that last one, which I think was Jeff's first book, would be painful for me, a diehard Red Sox fan). So I cannot speak to those books, however, of the six that I have read, plus a good deal of Jeff's other work [including through his blog], I find him to be a dogged reporter and solid writer who is also a rare bird who is willing to self-reflect--often with blunt criticisms of mistakes he's made--as he peels the curtain back on his reporting and writing process. I left a lengthy note in my reply to Bruce Kleinman, so you might want to review that too. Again, thanks for taking the time to read and comment---truly appreciate it. I will say, word for word, Jonathan Eig, is probably my favorite sports biographer (who also has gone beyond sport in his writing).
Thank you for your forbearance and your tolerance of my strong opinions. I enjoy the discussion; I spend a lot of time with books, and rarely have an opportunity to confer and vent.
I saw Eig on C-SPAN last weekend. They were playing an interview with him since he did a book about MLK and it was the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. I was struck by his thin appearance and interesting last name and nagged by the feeling this was a giant I should know. But I could not place him until it dawned on me that he had written a biography of Muhammed Ali, which I think may also have been the starting point for a movie.
Beyond Joe Posnanski, Kostya Kennedy is a sportswriter I am idolizing and investing blind faith in, in the sense that I maintain faith that anything he does will be very good. The case is the opposite of Pearlman: when I hear what Kennedy has written, I always groan, and my faith is tested. Aside from his book on the dangers of football, I do not think he could have picked less promising and more frequently tread subjects. Yet he pulls them off.
I drew the line at Pete Rose. I could not make myself read Kennedy's book about him, in part because I thought Michael Sokolove captured Rose so superbly in "Hustle." It's always a risk to read a non-fiction book done many years ago, but that is a fascinating psychological portrayal and leaves the man bare.
Jonathan is terrific ... his book on Jackie Robinson's first year in Major League Baseball ("Opening Day") was eye-opening on so many levels, particularly its raising my awareness that while Jackie was primarily the one under a microscope, so were all Black Americans during that period. For example, their need to refrain from being provoked by taunts and other racist attacks while they attended games, so that no incidents could be used as a basis for stopping the progress of enabling more Blacks to play in the bigs.
Great topics, writing and perspectives, Matt!