Running with the Big Dogs

 Talking to GOATS – Jim Gray (William Morrow)

There are times when I can honestly say that after nearly 25 years in the news and sports media, that I am embarrassed by much of the current crop of broadcasters. Sports media in particular, has become a full on dumpster fire; full of preening nitwits full of stupid opinions about politics and the world, and high opinions of themselves. Even longtime talents like Bob Costas have become insufferable assholes who seem to be bent on focusing on anything and everything but sports.

One of the few bright and consistent spots in sports broadcasting is and remains, Jim Gray. For over four decades, Gray has turned his focus to the proposition that sports, is a metaphor for life, all the while never losing sight of the fact that he is a sportscaster. Gray brings the world of sports into sharp focus with his new book Talking to GOATS, taking readers inside his relationships with some of the greatest of all time (hence GOATS) that he built on trust over his long career.

Gray is the perfect mild-mannered foil to these often flamboyant, high flying greats, who bring not only outsized talent and success to their side of the table. With so many folks looking to take a piece of these superstars either physically or financially, trust is difficult commodity to build under the best of circumstances. With easily recognizable names like, Jordan, Ali, Tiger, Kobe, LeBron and Brady, to name a few, Gray’s track record of being a tough but fair interview and a consummate storyteller as allowed him to garner unprecedented access to legends.

It isn’t the subject matter that sets this book apart from so many other sports books; it is Gray’s often very personal insights about what went into the interviews collected in Talking to GOATS are what set this book apart. Perhaps the most stunning revelation in the book comes at the very end, when Gray posits the chapter title “I am NOT writing another book.” While this book covers his checkered career and the event and personalities he has interacted with over time about a well as you can, that he won’t do another is disappointing.

Queen: Of Biblical Proportions

Queen: All The Songs, The Story Behind Every Track – Benoit Clerc (Black Dog and Leventhal)

Full confession up front- as a recovering rock radio DJ, I fully admit to not being a fan of Queen’s music. Chalk it up to them not being my cup of tea and the fact that they were omnipresent on the airwaves and got played over and over.

I gained a new appreciation for the band with the release of the biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, which gave insight into not only their beginnings, but into the process of writing songs and recording.

So it is from that perspective, one of new found appreciation that that I approach Queen: All The Songs, The Story Behind Every Track by Benoit Clerc. For me, the book has a great similarity Mark Lewisohn’s timeless book The Beatles: The Recordings, which delves not the nitty gritty detail of the Fab Four’s studio sessions. Queen: All The Songs, dwarfs that book, not only shear volume, but in the depth of the very specific detail. It covers songwriting, the recording studio, the participants on the production side and the specifics on the session itself.

I am an old school album collector and as a music fan obsessed with the minutiae of liner notes. Clerc delivers liner notes on performance enhancing drugs. This is super-sized fan stuff.

Lavishly illustrated with archival photos and highlighted tons of fan friendly tidbits and trivia, this is one of those great books that fans will dip into on a regular basis. I can easily see pulling out a stack of Queen albums and gaining insights into what went into the making each of the songs. Great stuff all the way around.

The Death of Honesty

Win at All Costs – Inside Nike Running and Its Culture of Deception – Matt Hart (Dey St.)

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game” – Grantland Rice, early 20^th century sportswriter. Ah, remember the good old days…

There is a phrase that gets tossed around, “sport is a metaphor for life,” which has been credited to actor Robert Redford, of all people. As I read Win at All Costs by journalist Matt Hart, which delves into the deceptive culture of cheating, fraud, and lying that is pervasive at Nike Running; I couldn’t help but think of how reflective this story is on the current state of our country.

With quite literally billions of dollars at stake in the world of sports, we have seen over the course of time, words like truth, integrity, and honesty, become quaint thoughts from a bygone era, replaced by a ruthless, win at all costs, and screw the rules attitude. Cheating and rule breaking have become not only accepted, but expected, not only in sports, but in everyday life. As former UCLA Bruins head football coach “Red” Sanders (no it wasn’t Vince Lombardi) first said “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Hart, who covers sports science, performance enhancing drugs and human powered adventure and exploration, (whatever that is) does a nice job of capturing the intrigue and spy novel stuff that is a part of this story. Win at All Costs, is a well-researched and written tale, that will hold the attention of not only those who follow the sport of running, but those with even a passing interest in the business of sports. Hart’s portrait includes all the colorful characters and the internal machinations at Nike, all brought forth by a whistleblower, in the spy novel twist of a mysterious jump drive containing internal Nike documents, with a skilled eye to detail.

Anyone who even remotely familiar with Nike’s early story and that of the late, legendary, runner Steve Prefontaine, know that improvements came in form of harder work in training, and enhancement of equipment. In the case running, that came in form of improved shoes and housewife sacrificing her waffle maker, for a new version of the sneaker sole.

Sports, like so much in our life, has gone through a radical transition. Athletes, once admired for their on field abilities, are now more often lauded for their social media following, woke social stances and other non-sport endeavors. With our collective eye off the ball, cheating, rule breaking and defrauding fans has become common place. We end up with world rife with performance enhancing drugs and the pursuit of trying to find ways around the drug testing regimens becoming a cottage industry all their own. We live in a world where scumbags who abuse their wives or girlfriends are welcomed back to elite sports because the can hit the longball, the strike zone, the opposing quarterback or the wide receiver on the deep route, almost as well as the can their significant other. Law and order, and rules be damned; this is about ticket, jersey, and sneaker sales and ringing the cash register. So, bang on the garbage can and get a shot in the ass all you want, because in the end getting caught won’t matter much.

You can’t help but draw comparisons between this story and the news of the day; where not only is corruption, fraud, dishonesty and cheating accepted and/or overlooked, it is applauded and often abetted by a complicit news media, whose job it used to be, to call out these dirty dealings. The media has become nothing more than glorified stenographers for talking points and adoring cheerleaders for criminals.

In Good Compny

 The Company – A Novel of the CIA – Robert Little – (Harry N. Abrams)

The Company by Robert Little, re-issued in a new paperback version, this 2002 classic, is a dark, complex espionage thriller that walks the reader through a twisted maze of intrigue.

Its not surprising that Littell comes from a journalism background, as he brings an old school journalist’s eye for detail as he let’s the story of the post-World War II Berlin Station play out. There is a real sense of reverence for history that comes through in Littell’s words as he weaves in historic figures like William Casey, William F. Buckley and even G. Gordon Liddy, in with his fictional creations. This technique lends an additional level of authenticity to the story.

Not dependent on biff, bam, and pow action like so many of the books in the spy genre, Littell infuses The Company with suspense, driven by tension and a high level of tactical acumen that is reminiscent of John la Carre. As a reader, you will appreciate the detailed scenes Littell draws, leaving you with a sense you are viewing things through his eyes. You’ll really feel the cold, dankness of the drafty safe house and taste the smokey-ness of the whiskey that is being downed.

Doorstop heavy, at nearly 900 pages this is not a lite read, but it’s more than worth the time to delve into this epic read. It makes for a great lead into Littell’s forthcoming book Comrade Koba.

Inside the Supreme Court

One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History – Ted Cruz – (Regnery Publishing)

Sitting through some of the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings regarding the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States, it can become pretty convincing, pretty quickly, that attorneys have created their own language, rules and standards, in some sort of an effort to exclude ordinary working folks as to how the court works.

Over the course of the hearing for the last three nominees the potential justices seem to hold fast to a code of judicial conduct, about tipping their hand on where they might stand and how they might rule on any given issue that may or may not come before them. Try as they might, often asking the same question about 30 or 40 different ways, the mostly lawyers who make up the Senate panel, notably the Democrat members, don’t seem to be bothered by trying to coax the nominees to speak out of turn.

In his new book, One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a former Supreme Court clerk of Justice Antonin Scalia delves into the inner workings of the court and uses a handful often ground breaking cases, that were decided by the push, a single vote to secure a 5-4 decision, to illustrate how those cases have impacted our daily lives. He makes the case that these types of push decisions can be greatly impacted by the courts ever evolving makeup.

He uses his insiders knowledge to make the case that originalists, those justices who utilize the intent of the founding fathers in their decision making process are often what separates us from tyranny. In a crazy year where the word essential has been so over-used, it is the perfect word to describe the book which cuts through all of the legal-eze and hyperbole of the politicization of the Court to explain exactly how the Court was intended to work. It should be required reading for every high school student.

Portrait of a Spy

 Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy – Ben Macintyre (Crown)

Author Ben Macintyre’s portfolio includes writer at large for the Times of London, author of numerous historical books covering a range of topics and work as a documentarian for the BBC. It is that experience in the realm of documentaries that Macintyre puts at the forefront of his new book Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy.

In compiling the tale of a truly one of a kind spy story, Macintyre had astonishing access to first hand source materials including Sonya’s personal diaries, letters and other correspondence offering unique insights into her life and career as and undercover, clandestine, operator for the U.S.S.R.

In this day and age of Google searches and online sourcing, that this original source information survived and has been preserved in it’s most raw and unencumbered state makes it all the more astonishing.

Early on the story, Macintyre offers a formative glimpse into an event that the young 17 year old Sonya that drove her to become a committed member of the communist party and a fledgling soviet spy, when she participated in a communist workers parade/demonstration that earned year a beat down by the police.

In a time where Antifa protestors are daily news, I couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that the protagonist came from an upper class, well to do, and respected family. A quick examination of the bios of many of the protesters on the streets today will reveal similar backgrounds.

Macintyre has a le Carre like eye for trade craft and successfully weaves an entertaining, thriller-like portrait of this overly zealous spy. Some my find a quibble with some of the commentary and history that Macintyre uses, but one has to be given some license when stringing together decades old storylines into a coherent tale.

A Dose of Reality Thriller

House on Fire - Joseph Finder -(Dutton)

There is an almost perfect parallel to reality, ripped from today’s headlines feel to Joseph Finder’s latest installment in the Nick Heller series, House on Fire. Like many of the prior Heller novels this one has Heller on one case at the start and a very different case as things progress and in this case it becomes a very personal one on a couple of different fronts.

Heller meets one of the daughters of the founder of a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company as he helps to bury a friend from his days in the military special forces due to the friend’s long running addiction to opioid painkillers. The daughter makes a habit of attending the funerals of those she believes are victims of her family’s best selling medication, the oddly familiar, Oxydone. The daughter ends up engaging Heller’s services to try to track down a long rumored, but hidden study that outlined the drugs highly addictive properties.

The search takes Heller to the family estate for a birthday party for the company founder and family patriarch, under the subterfuge that he is the daughter’s new beau. At the party he encounters another person, a girlfriend from his past and his time in the military, who is also undercover and in the employ of another family member, on the hunt for another set of documents. The pair partner to track down the the paperwork and after ducking and dodging their way out of a hairy situation, Heller’s partner in crime, is found dead of the estate.

That’s when things get really personal and Heller loses his client, but starts the hunt not only for a killer, but for revenge for his late, drug addicted friend and his family. Before embarking on the Heller series, Finder really made his bones as a bestselling author, by writing corporate based thrillers and with House on Fire he returns to the best traditions of those high intrigue, pressure cooker thrills. He is a master of drawing multi-dimensional characters and weaving in returning players,like Heller’s Bernie Madoff-like, convict father who ratchet up the action with their own set of motivations.

The Kimball klan bares a striking resemblance to the real-life Stackler family behind the Purdue Pharmaceutical corporation, manufacturers of OxyContin and those most often blamed for the very real world opioid addiction problem, which just add the dose of reality to this storyline.

Debauchery 101

Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends – Jon Weiderhorn (Diversion Books)

I love these kinds of books because the short snippets and pick up the reading anywhere the book opens makes for perfect bathroom reading. I know…T. M. I. In all seriousness, this make for an entertaining read because it is the exact opposite of that…completely not serious.

Broken down into 17 chapters or if you prefer, 17 topic headings, Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends by veteran metal music writer, Jon Weiderhorn covers the full spectrum from breaking the law (with a nod to Judas Priest) to girls girls girls (Motley Crue) and even highway to hell (AC/DC) and everything in between.

I couldn’t help but marvel at the musical similarities with Weiderhorn detailing what amounts to the equivalent of country music’s, smoking weed with Willie (Nelson) being drinking with Lemmy! Apparently it was a bit of a sport for metal artists who crossed paths with the late, legendary Motorhead front man, Lemmy Kilmeister to try to match him drink for drink, often with disastrous results. You might display some sympathy hangover pain just reading about Anthrax’s Scott Ian toe to toe drinking with infamous guzzler.

From the outside the world of metal may seem like an outsized place full of scores of bands all plying their loud trade, but Weiderhorn’s collection of stories really highlights exactly how small that universe really is. These bands interconnect, crisscross and cover so much of the same ground that’s it’s not surprising that so many legendary tales spring forth from these guys. The brawls the battles the hard feelings and the knock down drag out of it, all make up a healthy chunk of this collection.

The grudges take on a life of their own and so do the women, the tour stops and life on the road. Whether you’re a metal fan or just a music fan, Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends, makes for an entertaining, often laugh out loud read.