The Boys of Summer
pjm’s comment on his favorite book (below) reminded me that my favorite sports book (as opposed to just a running book) is, without a doubt, The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to love it. Kahn goes back to individually interview the 1955 World Series’ winning Brooklyn Dodgers 20 years past their glory days at Ebett’s Field. As you read each chapter, you feel like you know these guys … like you were on the team with them and they are your friends. Kahn isn’t like writers today who make sure the audience knows exactly whose doing the interview. He sets up the scene, recedes slowly, and then disappears completely - leaving us with the raw story of each player’s sometimes tragic, sometimes heroic, always moving life.
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Perhaps I should have put this in the 7/19 blog, but here it is.
Your book list is a pleasant surprise, because I actually stumbled into several of those books in the last two years. I got a copy of A Clean Pair of Heals (by ‘60 5k Oly gold medalist Murray Halberg), and also Peter Snells’s No Bugles, No Drums, from a used bookstore (probably through Alibris) in New Zealand. Wonderful photos. I note they both write slightly understated descriptions of their running accomplishments. Lydiard’s New Zealand crew seems to remain one of my favorite running eras — possibly because they accomplished so much in an era when there was no money in the sport and many of them had to hold down day jobs (. . . I can at least relate to the latter part).
I think the Herb Elliot book might be The Unforgiving Minute, unless that is Ron Clarke’s. I’d like to get Ron Daws book (Self Made Olympian) someday, and perhaps one of Percy Cerruty’s (sp?) books. Like you, I still read Kenny Moore’s Best Efforts now and then.
Enjoyed the article in Doitsports. I think I felt that way in a race once (although my race stories involve phrases like “and then I got second in the 9th grade mile” rather than “I won Falmouth”). Run Well — Eric
Comment by Eric — 7/20/2005 @ 6:51 pm