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Gods at Play: An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in American Sports
by
30/99
Critics
27/99
Readers
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Scholars
27/99
Rating
34/99
Volume
41/99
Rating
13/99
Volume
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About This Book
A beautifully observed narrative of American character, grit, tragedy, unremarked heroism, and, always, the illuminating story behind the story. As a columnist for Time magazine, among many other publications, Tom Callahan witnessed an extraordinary number of defining moments in American sport across four decades. He takes us from Roberto Clemente clinching his 3,000th, and final, regular-season hit in Pittsburgh; to ringside for the Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight in Zaire; and to Arthur Ashe announcing, at a news conference, that he'd tested positive for HIV. There are also little-known private Joe Morgan whispering thank you to a virtually blind Jackie Robinson on the field at the 1972 World Series, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar saying he was more interested in being a good man than in being the greatest basketball player. Brimming with colorful vignettes and enlivened by Callahan's eye for detail, Gods at Play offers surprising portraits of the most celebrated names in sports. Roger Rosenblatt calls Callahan "the most complete sportswriter in America. He knows the most and writes the best." 15 illustrations
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Reviews
"And yet this volume—written by one of the 'knights of the keyboard' (as Ted Williams called sports reporters) and not by one of the sports hawkers on the tube—may be one of the last of its kind, given how endangered our daily newspapers are today."
"Sure, there's always a little kibitzing when you're dealing with Ali, but most of the chapters depict a fair degree of melancholy."
"Particularly intriguing are Callahan's portraits of Bill Walsh and Tiger Woods ..."
"The book works as both a paean to sportswriting's glory days and a lyrical reminder that athletes have rich lives away from the stadium lights."
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