We need more sports lit written from a personal perspective instead of the usual analytical POV. It's just as interesting, if not more, than the usual insipid commentary that amounts to little more than "the main reason we lost was our inability to win." 🤔
One of the best hockey books I've read is called Zamboni Rodeo by Jason Cohen. It chronicles a season in the life of a team called the Austin Ice Beats, who competed in an obscure Texas minor league in the late 1990s-early 2000s. The players are all confirmed minor leaguers, disheveled and beat up and on the wrong side of 30, their dreams of playing in the NHL long since dashed, riding buses across the dusty Texas landscape. It's so damn good.
Another great one, if y'all like baseball, is The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. Two baseball analytics guys buy a minor league team and soon learn that you can't run a baseball team solely on stats. The human factor is undeniable.
Despite a lifelong aversion to the Habs (I'm a long-suffering Leafs fan), I'm looking forward to reading Beyond Ken Dryden.
Thanks for your comments. I agree, I like this sort of approach. I could identify with some of the author's feelings and experiences more so than would be the case for a pro athlete. And thanks for mentioning those books, they both sound interesting. Good additions to my To Be Read list.
We need more sports lit written from a personal perspective instead of the usual analytical POV. It's just as interesting, if not more, than the usual insipid commentary that amounts to little more than "the main reason we lost was our inability to win." 🤔
One of the best hockey books I've read is called Zamboni Rodeo by Jason Cohen. It chronicles a season in the life of a team called the Austin Ice Beats, who competed in an obscure Texas minor league in the late 1990s-early 2000s. The players are all confirmed minor leaguers, disheveled and beat up and on the wrong side of 30, their dreams of playing in the NHL long since dashed, riding buses across the dusty Texas landscape. It's so damn good.
Another great one, if y'all like baseball, is The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. Two baseball analytics guys buy a minor league team and soon learn that you can't run a baseball team solely on stats. The human factor is undeniable.
Despite a lifelong aversion to the Habs (I'm a long-suffering Leafs fan), I'm looking forward to reading Beyond Ken Dryden.
Thanks for your comments. I agree, I like this sort of approach. I could identify with some of the author's feelings and experiences more so than would be the case for a pro athlete. And thanks for mentioning those books, they both sound interesting. Good additions to my To Be Read list.