Book Review: Scorecasting

I was fortunate to get a copy of Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won, and it is a book that I have been enjoying immensely.

The book is like the freakonomics of the sports world... it looks at common assumptions in sports (homefield advantage, does defense win championships?, why coaches don't go for it on 4th down, etc) and why they are correct or incorrect. It gives strong statistical backup for all of their beliefs.

As a sports fan that also loves numbers (I am an accountant by trade), it has been a fascinating read. I have learned a lot about these commonly held beliefs, and certainly it will provide at least subtle changes to how I view sports and how I think about them.

If you like sports and like numbers, then I am confident in saying that you will enjoy this book.

Review of "A Game Plan for Life" by John Wooden

I had the good fortune of receiving a copy of "A Game Plan For Life" by John Wooden, and I enjoyed the book immensely.

The book has an interesting format, as the first half is written by John Wooden, and he talks about 7 people that were mentors to him in his life, including his father, his wife, and former coaches. The second half of the book is written by 7 different people, people who were mentored by John Wooden, including former players, NCAA coaches, and his granddaughter.

The book focuses on the importance of having mentors in your life, and in being a mentor for other people. It talks about how you can learn something new from every person and from every day, and it is that continuous learning that helps us grow. People can mentor by the things they say or the things they do, and lessons can be taught at all times.

The book also talks about how you don't have to actually know someone personally to be mentored by them. You can simply read their words, or watch how they lives their lives, and learn from that. For example, two of John Wooden's mentors that he writes about are Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln, neither of which he met.

The book is definitely worth a read, especially if you are a fan of John Wooden and his writings (and really, if you have read anything by him, how can't you be?), or are just simply interested in being a better person. Check it out if you get a chance.

Book Review: Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants Complete Illustrated History

I had the good fortune of receiving copies of both Pittsburgh Steelers: The Complete Illustrated History and New York Giants: The Complete Illustrated History, two excellent books put together by Lew Freedman.

The books document the storied histories of each franchise with great photos, going over the best players and coaches of the franchise, as well as many of the great moments in each franchise history. It brings to life to on and off the field storylines of each franchise from its inception.

If you are a fan of either franchise, then you should definitely give the books a look. Even if you are simply a fan of football, these would be great books to get to learn and understand more about each franchise. Here are the publisher previews of each book:

New York Giants:

"Purchased in 1925 for $500 by bookmaker and businessman Tim Mara, the New York Giants were New York City’s introduction to professional football. The National Football League was a mere five years old, and for almost a century since, the history of football, the city, and the Giants has been inextricably linked. New York Giants: The Complete Illustrated History is a thorough and thoroughly entertaining illustrated chronicle of the New York Giants football team, telling the full story of the seasons, players, coaches, teams, and moments that have made history decade after decade. Filled with player statistics and team records, and brilliantly illustrated with vintage and contemporary photographs, this book is a fitting celebration of a team whose name is synonymous with football in America."


Pittsburgh Steelers:

"Pittsburgh Steelers: The Complete Illustrated History documents the great moments in a tradition that stretches back more than seventy-five years and offers an unmatched legacy of success. Fresh on the heels of a record sixth Super Bowl victory, the Pittsburgh Steelers are a team steeped in history and accomplishment. The roster of players who have donned the black and gold reads like an all-star team, and the 1970s dynasty alone featured nine players currently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This book celebrates the players, the teams, the legendary coaches such as Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher, and the legions of passionate fans throughout western Pennsylvania and across the nation who cheer the black and gold. Lavishly illustrated with vivid color and classic black-and-white images from throughout the team's history, Pittsburgh Steelers brings to powerful life the on- and off-field exploits and achievements of this iconic franchise."

Review of "Our Boys" by Joe Drape

This isn’t some urban football juggernaut. This isn’t some wealthy suburb. The nearest McDonald’s is ninety miles away and the town has a hard time keeping businesses on Main Street. These players are the hard-working sons of farmers, laborers, teachers and coaches. They don’t drink, smoke or do drugs. They work multiple jobs. Here, teachers are nobility. Parents are heroes. And a football coach is revered.

This is Smith Center, Kansas. The home of the Redmen.

I got the chance to get an early copy of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, and it turned out to be one of the best football books I have ever read. The author Joe Drape moved to Smith Center, Kansas, to follow the football team all year, as they worked towards their 5th straight state title and a Kansas record of consecutive victories (they entered the season with 55).

If you didn't know anything about the book, you might think it was like Friday Night Lights, which was surreal in the sense that high school football consumed the town of Odessa, TX, and the success of the team became bigger than the players themselves. With any book about high school football, I wondered if that would be the case here.

However, it was just the opposite. Oh, the town sure loved the football team, and they cheered them on passionately every week. But their lives were not built around Smith Center football. They were able to keep perspective, and focus on the education and maturation of the boys, not just their football success.

Their head coach says, "None of this is really about football. We're going to get scored on eventually, and lose a game, and that doesn't mean anything. What I hope we're doing is sending kids into life who know that every day means something." He went on, "Sure, we like our football around here. But we truly believe it takes a whole town to raise a child, and that's worth a whole lot more." The motto of the coach was basically to get a little bit better each day, and football was simply his way of getting the message across.

It was a very heartwarming story about this rural area of Kansas, where it seems the kids are raised right and the people have the right priorities. Football is important, but it's not more important than living life and becoming the best you can be, and sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle. Not in Smith Center. Family and teamwork is valued above all else. To be honest, the book kinda made me want to move to Smith Center. In a world where we hear so much negativity, it is refreshing to read about people that simply care about each other and want the best for each other, and that seemed to be the case in Smith Center.

This book highlights all of the reasons we love sports, and especially high school sports. Players playing simply because they love the game, without letting it overtake their life. Bravo Joe Drape for writing one of the best sports books I have ever read.

At the end of each game, the team would huddle with parents in the locker room, and they would hold hands and the coaches would all say a few words. It was great bonding for the team as well as reinforcing the importance of the family As Drape writes, "I watched Coach Barta listening to his soon. I looked down the rows of fathers holding the hands of their boys. Coach Barta was more than just a helluva football coach."

Book Review: Friday Night Lights

I realize I might be a little late to the party reading this book, since there's a movie and TV show at least based on this idea (I haven't seen either)... but wow, what a great book.

In case you don't know what it's about, H.G. Bissinger basically followed around and almost became a part of the Permian High football team (obviously minus the actual playing part) and part of the town of Odessa, TX for a year in the late 80s, to follow the phenomenon of High School football in Texas.

In essence, the town lived and died by the football team, placing enormous pressure on the boys from a very young age, and making them play through almost any injury, all to be a part of the team, and be a "hero." Football was the most important thing in Odessa... certainly more important than the actual education aspect of high school. The football players were the most respected members of town, and looked up to by everyone.

A review on the back of the book says, "It reads like fiction, unhappily, it is fact." This is a good description as far as I'm concerned... the seriousness that high school football is taken with is a bit disconcerting, almost like its fiction. And I don't mean to tell anyone how to live... obviously a large part of my life revolves around sports... but when high school football becomes far more important than high school education, that becomes a bit of a problem.

Here are a couple of my favorite passages from the book... this first one is talking about how 3 teams tied for the best record in the conference, but only 2 teams make the playoffs. So, they had a coin flip to determine what 2 teams made it, and it was AIRED LIVE at 1 AM. That is how important this was. For reference, the Permian coach was getting "For Sale" signs planted in his yard with upset fans after Permian had lost 2 games up to that point (by 1 point each), and if he didn't make the playoffs he might get fired.

If the nickel came up tails, Permian was out of the playoffs, and the chorus of complaints and criticism against him would only intensify to the point that it might become unbearable for his family to remain in town. If it came up heads, it simply meant that three men would have to line up in a row and make jackasses of themselves once again in front of live television cameras.

The other passage I thought really captured the spirit of the book came near the very end, talking about the end of the season, when [SPOILER] Permian won the state title the year after Bissinger followed the team.

They played with a flawlessness and sense of purpose that had been building inside them all their lives. After it was over tears flowed freely down their faces, and also down the faces of the grown men and women who depended on them year after year after year.

It was hard to fathom the shock of what Odessa had gone through during the eighties, from a world where everything seemed possible to one in which it was hard to hold on to anything with certainty. So much had happened. So much had changed. But one anchor was still there, as strong and solid as ever. It didn't matter who was playing, or who was coaching. It would always go on, just as Jerrod McDougal had realized, because it was a way of life.

Overall, just a great book, and one I highly, highly recommend reading if you have not yet.

If you have read it, what did you think?

Book Review: A March to Madness

A few months back I talked about a great book I read called The Last Amateurs by John Feinstein, in which he followed around teams from the Patriot League.

This time, I got around to reading A March to Madness, in which he followed around the ACC teams for a season and talks about what happened, what they did, how they did it, etc.

It was a very interesting book that I really recommend reading, especially in conjunction with The Last Amateurs. The differences and similarities really showcase the difference between low-major college basketball and perhaps the most powerful conference in the NCAA.

One obvious difference and part that I loved was seeing the differences in the conference tournaments. In the Patriot League Tournament he detailed, it was do-or-die every game, because there were no at-large bids. In the ACC Tournament, there were probably 2 teams that were really playing in games that they saw as "must-win." Quite a difference, obviously.

Another difference was a lot of the players themselves. In The Last Amateurs, the academic lives of the players were frequently discussed. In this book, there were far less references to any type of academics, and more to attitude problems of a lot of the players. Not say that Feinstein cast them into a bad light, because he didn't, but the differences between big-time and small-time college basketball were evident.

Overall, one of the most interesting books I've read, and definitely one of the best college basketball books I've read. If you get a chance, I definitely recommend you take a gander at it.