Frank DefordBesprekingen

This book was a series of essays and anecdotes about Deford’s career as a sportswriter and sports commentator. There were some interesting stories about various people including Kingsley Amis, Rodney Dangerfield, Vince McMahon, Bill Bradley and Arthur Ashe.

My issue with this book is that I downloaded it as a Kindle book. There was no proper index. It just described the Chapter number and page without a description. I skimmed through the 46 chapters of varying lengths. There were some chapters I read with interest, others that I paged through quickly.

I actually found the Jimmy The Greek chapter rather poignant. He was such a tragic figure---he was not a smart or sophisticated man and one slip of the tongue ruined not only his career but his life.

I am not a huge fan of Deford. I enjoyed his sports commentaries on TV but did not follow his writing on Sports Illustrated.

I saw the movie with Dennis Quaid and Jessica Lange before I read the book. The movie runs close to the book except for the ending. I enjoyed both the movie and the book. Not an unusual story. Football star becomes legend in college. Good, not great career in the pros. Then a sad decline as the years build up and the injuries mount. Gavin, the Grey Ghost was a running back and athletes in that position do not usually have long careers.

Gavin suffers financial setbacks, betrayal and his marriage to his college girlfriend Babs begins to suffer. When Gavin’s playing days are over, he does not make an easy transition to a new career. He flounders and hopes he gets the chance to play football again. Babs moves on with her life.

All the attention, accolades and glamour leaves his life. He hangs on tight to his past legends and memories to the dismay of his wife and friends.

This is not so much a sports book but a tale of human tragedy. One reads actual stories like this of other athletes who retire or unable to compete and become financiually destitute and suicidal. A cautionary tale not only for athletes but all who choose to live on past laurels.

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I love Deford's sports writing, and have enjoyed his previous collections, but this one left me wanting more, more about his family, more about the athletes he mentions (and "mentions" is the correct term for this collection) and finally, less-less repetition, especially when he refers to sports writers of the era that came before his. This feels like a book thrown together to fulfill a contractual obligation or to top up a bank account.

If you are a sports fan you might like this book. If you are a meta-sports fan, you will definitely like it. But, if you're not that into sports or the interworking of the sports writers community, you should just listen to his weekly editorials on NPR.

the life of a child

I occasionally listen to Frank Deford on NPR as I wake up, but I am not a fan of his. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I do not. This novel strikes me as realistic and quite engaging. If you are, like me, a baseball fan, you will enjoy it, and if you are not, you might enjoy reading it and also learn something about baseball and its attractions for us.½

Deford tries a bit hard to cop the vibe of the early 1900's at some points, writing a bit too much in that style, but an overall solid effort.

Good reading for an airplane ride. Not taxing on the brain. Satisfying ending, though a bit too neat and predictable for reality. But after just finishing Les Miserables, I needed something easy!

Hilarious.

The author's daughter died at age 8 of cystic fibrosis in 1980. This version was re-released in 1997, with the author's forward noting that a cure is in sight. Unfortunately that hope was premature and there still is no cure for the disease. Although technology and knowledge has improved, I'm not sure given the severity of Alex's disease if she would have lived past her teens if she were born today. Hopefully someone will really figure out how to have children as severely ill as Alex be able to be cured.

Deford writing about the roller derby! What could be better? Well actually, this book from 1971 never quite takes off. The portraits of the stars I remember from my childhood are good, and paint them as real people who just happen to make a living skating, but the very normality of these folks makes the book more interesting than it is entertaining. A little more perspective on what became of everyone after the end of the book would have made this much more interesting. Still, Open Road Media deserves a lot of praise for resurrecting this never-reprinted look at a peculiar corner of American sports.

Because I enjoy Deford's weekly commentaries on NPR's Morning Edition, I read his book to find out more about him, only to find that with Deford, what you hear is pretty much what you get. Having done hundreds of commentaries full of short-form anecdotes, Deford has written his memoirs the same way, in a few dozen short chapters each telling a little story or following a well-defined theme. You get a lot of stories about hanging out with this athlete or that, and a lot about what it was like being a sports journalist in the 50s, 60s and 70s. What you don't get are many opinions stronger than those he shares on the air, any stories he probably hasn't told before, or much emotion of any stripe. (The death of his young daughter from cystic fibrosis is passed over in a mere mention.)

I'm good at reading between the lines, so Deford's justified outrage over racism in sports and his empathy for the particular trials that great athletes must endure for their moments of glory come through loud and clear. But I wish, as he approaches the end zone of life, he might let his guard drop a bit.

The Entitled, by Frank Deford, begins with Howie Traveler, who had spent a lifetime in baseball as an unimpressive player and then as a long-time coach and manager in the minor leagues. He finally landed a major league manager position with the Cleveland Indians when he was in his mid-fifties. Unfortunately, he expects to be fired at the end of his second season with the Indians. However, before that unfolds, Deford takes the reader through a wonderful story that reveals the life stories of Howie Traveler and his star player, Jay Alcazar, along with the development of their complex relationship with each other. In addition, the reader experiences how much the game of baseball demands from those who struggle for success as players and as coaches and managers in the minor leagues and then in the major league. Howie’s dedication and endurance are inspirational, but his perseverance cost him and his family a difficult price. I really liked this book. Deford is an adept storyteller. He includes very colorful and interesting characters that struggle with personal challenges. He also incorporates much informative discussion about baseball and its implications for players, coaches, managers, and even sports writers into the story. If you love baseball, you should definitely read this book. Even if you only casually like baseball and/or played baseball when you were young, you should not hesitate to read this book. Even if you don’t care about baseball, I would still encourage you to read this engrossing story.

They just don't make sports writers like Frank Deford anymore. I shouldn't call him a sports writer really because Deford can and has written on many topics and he is just a great American writer period. This is a baseball story at it's base but it is really much deeper than that. Deford touches on everything from rape to Fidel Castro to the World Series but finds a way to tie them all together to tell not only a very compelling story that never lags but to do so in a literate style that you just don't often see these days in fiction especially sports fiction.

Frank Deford has long been one of my favorite writers, someone whose work I search out, be them in written or spoken form. His erudite and opinionated commentaries on the state of athletics in our society has sustained me, entertained me, as well as disturbed me.

This collection of vignettes are intended to be an autobiography of sorts, they are written as if they were individual essays. Deford is opinionated, brutally honest, and comes off as a curmudgeon. I think he really enjoys the curmudgeon part, or else he wouldn't be projecting this role with such panache and joy. he takes on all comers, he talks about his start in sports journalism, his lucky breaks and he name drops like nobody's business. Many of those names take hits while many others are elevated into the Deford pantheon of all around good guys. Whether you want to believe his observations or not, the delivery is impeccable and always fascinating.

The story that Deford tells is of the evolution of the mass market sports world. It is a recounted of the sports journalism genre as it evolved through the most revolutionary and some say the least beneficent era: the era that goes from the rise of the sports press to today, the social media age. Even though Deford wasn't there at the very beginning, he was an observer through rise and possible demise of the written sports presst. Deford tells the story, or actually history extremely well and does a very elegiac accounting of the history without seeming maudlin or too sentimental.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the essays were of the perfect length for short breaks and interesting enough for the reader to recall the thread when he or she returns to the book.

First, in deference to one of Frank Deford's pet peeves, I have spelled his name correctly. It is not DeFord as so many people write it. Drives him nuts. I can relate; no one could pronounce or spell my maiden name either and it gets really old after a while.

The subtitle of this book is My Life as a Sportswriter and I encourage you to get a copy as soon as it comes out in May. He is in my opinion one of the best writers around. People place sportswriters on a lower level than "actual writers" for some reason, but Deford is just plain great. You may have heard his pieces on NPR on your morning commute as I did for many years. If so, you know he has a somewhat jaded opinion on sports, but since he knows whereof he speaks, it is an opinion that we should take heed of.

In this memoir he writes about his wife Carol, his great friendship with Arthur Ashe, the characters he's met in all his years of covering sports, self-deprecating accounts of his eventful life in sports, and other memories. I hadn't realized how much credit should be given Arthur Ashe for his work in Africa and in trying to create an equality in sports, tennis of course, but also sports in general. I also didn't realize what a great sense of humor he had or his knowledge of topics such as apartheid.

As a person with COPD, I was interested to know that he has lung disease, and that he had a daughter who inherited his abnormality and died of cystic fibrosis. Later he and his wife adopted a little girl from the Philippines, a daughter they adore. He also writes wonderful stories about his son.

Deford grew up in Baltimore and I loved his description of "Bawlmer, Merlin" the way it was in his childhood. In fact, I enjoyed his memories of his personal life more than his sports memories if that's possible. You also get a sense of how sportswriting has changed in Deford's lifetime, from the journalists like Grantland Rice (who, gasp, he doesn't have a lot of respect for) to the television personalities of the current scene. The sportswriters with genuine writing talent don't come any better than Frank Deford. Long may he write. I highly recommend this book.

You can hear Frank Deford's voice, if you know it from NPR, as you read this story of baseball.

Very strong on atmosphere and period detail. Somewhat odd frame tale of a mother telling her son about her own youthful romance. Her reason for telling him this becomes clear when a crucial plot twist comes into play at the end, changing the tone of the book from sweet, leisurely romance and character study into something more suspenseful. It ends up asking a morally serious question, "What would you do for love?" Is love stronger than justice or patriotism or one or the other of the Ten Commandments?

The subject matter of this book seemed so promising, however the writing was not. Some (very few) parts were interesting, but overall it was really like an extended magazine article that kept repeating itself. I was very disappointed.½

I got this book when I was a child myself - and even then, the story of Alex drew me; I wanted to be Alex Deford's friend. In later years, re-reading the memoir of the struggle and pain and heart-lifting moments the Defords struggled through, I recall thinking that this young girl was one of those children that lead you to wonder about wise old souls in childrens' bodies. Be prepared - if your heart is not made of stone, you may want to invest in Club Pack boxes of tissues or a set of hankies. I went through three copies of this book - in no small part because between rereading it myself and lending it to friends, the pages became warped and slightly blurry because several of them were spattered with tears.

If you haven't treated yourslef to Frank DeFord...pick this one up. Interesting plot line with the historical German Olympics and WWII but the twist toward the end, didn't see it coming. I love books like this - great writing, exceptional characters and historical.

If you’re looking for something light and breezy to take along on Summer vacation, I recommend Frank Deford’s new novel. Set at the 1936 Berlin Olympics on the eve of WWII – Bliss, Remembered is, among other things, an all-American coming of age story.

When Sydney ‘Trixy’ Stringfellow’s father dies she dives into the local river, starts swimming and doesn’t stop. She’s surprised to learn that she’s pretty good at it. Better than pretty good. Sydney enters a local competition, one thing leads to another, and before long she finds herself part of the 1936 U.S. Swim Team headed for Berlin. There she meets and falls in love with a handsome young German… which is when things really get interesting!

Bliss, Remembered contains an impressive cast of historical figures, both famous and infamous. Included are Bandleader Art Jarrett, his wife the Olympic swimmer Eleanor Holm Jarrett (who despite being featured in the novel is probably the inspiration for Sydney), and Hitler’s filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Deford uses them in supporting roles and they, along with an array of fascinating and quirky historical details, make it all to easy for readers to lose themselves in the period and setting.

For my full review, please go to: http://booksexyreview.com/2010/07/13/deford-brings-home-the-summer-gold-for-blis...½

Outstanding, and one of my all time favorite books, even though I cannot get through it without bawling.

This is a story about a young Maryland woman in 1936 who gets to be on the American Olympic swim team and go to Berlin for the games.. At the age of 82, she is telling her story for the first time to her son, Teddy. And what a story it is..

First of all, I am normally very bothered by stories being told, rather than showed. However, I loved the way this one was done. Sydney tells her son her entire story, but she does it in such a way that the reader can visualize everything. She also injects bits of humor on every page and I found myself smiling or chuckling at the way she worded things. Here's an example: While telling Teddy of her first foray into the girl's locker room at a competition in Chicago, Sydney injects humor into her reminscing of being self conscious about her nakedness, "of course, it was just girls, but girls aren't like boys. I know the way you all are, a bunch of exhibitionists, all runnin' around with your whatzits flyin' in the breeze, thinkin' you're Greek gods, snappin' towels at each other's behinds and so forth, but girls... well, we value a certain amount of privacy..."

Anyway, Sydney begins her tale with swimming in the river by her home. What started as a simple hobby and a way to deal with her father's recent death leads to a whole new life when she competes in a nearby local swimming competition. She catches the eye of the right person and soon her life is swim practice and Olympic finals. She even gets to swim and hob nob with Eleanor Holms, a 1932 Olympic champion.

Sydney doesn't make the 1936 Olympic team, but when Eleanor Holms has a little too much fun on the nautical voyage to Berlin and angers one very important man, Avery Brundage, Eleanor is kicked off the team (this really happened) and Sydney is on her way to Berlin as her replacement. As luck would have it tho, due to an official technicality and Mr. Brundage acting before doing his research, Sydney is not allowed to swim in the Olympics, but is she allowed to stick with the team. Enter another interesting real life character, Leni Riefenstahl, a German movie producer among other things. Leni is shooting video footage of the swim team and one of Leni's assistants is none other than a very handsome Horst who sweeps Sydney off her feet.

After a wonderful, whirlwind romance with Horst and experiencing the 1936 Olympics, Sydney must go home but her love for Horst never ends. However, circumstances have her marrying an American soldier named Jimmy. What happened to Horst? Would it have anything to do with Germany going to war soon after the Olympics? Upon marrying Jimmy, is Horst out of her life? Hearing this tale, Teddy has more questions than answers. He's also a little bit bothered by the fact his mom loved a man other than his father, Jimmy. (And kissed him standing up numerous times! LOL) He takes his mother's written memoirs to read and finish the story. What he reads may shock him and change his opinion of his mother forever...

I was shocked. I was shocked that I was so drawn into this tale about a swimmer, the Olympics, Germany, a summer romance, a love gone bad.. I found myself googling the 1936 Olympics and looking these characters up. I was shocked by ending too. This def gets a 5/5 stars.