I have for years enjoyed your writing and one week ago was awarded a copy of "Glove Stories" for Christmas. I read a selection here and there but today, I read "Mom" and even though there's no crying in baseball, I cried.

I cried because as I read the promise you made to your late father, it reminded me of the bond my father and I share.

My father is a baseball umpire. American Legion, high school, local college, whatever. He's there to call the games. And no matter what kind of day he was having, no matter what his mood, he always had time for my
queries of baseball, without exception. Baseball has always been there for my dad and I, but it wasn't until I read your story that it dawned on me just how powerful that bond is.

I'm here in Rochester, NY, with a foot of snow on the ground but after I read "Mom", I looked out my window and did not see snow. I saw green grass, I saw the dust of my father sweeping clean home plate and I heard him complete baseball-diamond air with a called third strike. "Sell the call,
Bob. Sell it." That's the baseball advice he gave me and it's the advice I apply to all walks of my life.

I am a young sports journalist myself. Your writing has struck me as the type by which to be educated and influenced. So a hearty thanks to you, Mr. Kindred. For not
only have you given me a standard to shoot for as a writer, you have reminded me of exactly why this child's game can bring a grown man to tears.

I'm a resident of Sydney, Australia where we don't even have a baseball league anymore, but I've long been a fan of the game (well, all the way back to 1992 when I saw the Blue Jays and the Athletics play in Oakland on my first day overseas as a 20 year old). Since that time, I've grown to love baseball, both the game itself and the intersection of baseball history with the cultural and social development of America.

Given those interests, you can imagine that I immensely enjoyed this book. Glove Stories proved to me again that there is no substitute for great stories beautifully and subtly told.

What an awesome collection of baseball writings! This book is THE standard for writing about the sport of baseball!! Dave takes a humorous, yet gentle approach to the sport he loves. His style of writing will make you love it even more. He covers alot of different subjects--Negro Leagues--the physics of a baseball hitting a bat--baseball funnies [my favorite is the guy sliding into 2nd headfirst with hotdogs stuck inside his uniform]--and baseball greats like Jackie Robinson, Nolan Ryan and even Pete Rose. This book will make you chuckle, and it will make you cry, so be prepared. This reminds me why people have kids: to teach them how to play baseball!! You won't be sorry you bought this book.

It's a nerve wracking sport played at a high level. Different in that there's an opponent standing within yourself and across the net.

This excellent journalist brings his intensity, investigative style and chronicles the sports heroes at the turn of the '90s, both men and women.

Many of the games stars are as high-strung as their rackets. Feinstein paints them all here.

There are very few books that deal with professional tennis. Its too bad, because this book leaves you wanting more. A gripping narrative of a year on the tour, it really gives you a sense of life for the players and announcers. You learn about the players personal lives, as well as their work habits and schedules. Feinstein is not without his own opinions, and he goes overboard in his dislike of the young Andre Agassi. Still a great read, a must for all tennis fans.

I read the book 10 years after it was written - and I could not stop ! I finished it the same time the 1992 Season finished 12:52 at night - this tells you something.

A must for every Baseball nut !

A great book about baseball, that is fun to read. It shows how teams and times have changed. Interesting in-depth information about teams trades and baseball in 1992. Highly recommended for all baseball fanatics. Also has great baseball stories and interviews.

The twenty-sixth volume of "The Annals of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry" (first launched in 1971), Adolescent Psychiatry is the latest collection of peer papers and scholarly contributions exploring, challenging, and discovering new ideas concerning the working of children's and young adults' minds. A diverse selection of insightful essays by a variety of learned authors cover such topics as the minds and lives of male homosexual adolescents; community interventions for reducing youth violence; therapy for inpatient and outpatient suicidal adolescents; matters pertaining to ADHD and Conduct Disorders; and much, much more. A fascinating compendium delving into the latest thoughts and wisdom concerning young minds and psyches, Adolescent Psychiatry is a seminal contribution to professional and academic research library collections.

His other books might be more popular, but none hold a candle to this incredible book. As a college basketball fan in my early 20s, it's hard for me to imagine an era when Duke basketball was not excellent. This book tells the story of the program's transformation which laid the groundwork for Duke's real rise to power in the 1980s. Feinstein focuses on several players and coaches, and his accounts of the actual games are very compelling. A must read for any college hoops fan!

John Feinstein gives us a glimpse into the people who make up the PGA Tour by following a variety of the golfers in their pursuit of a major championship during the 1998 PGA Tour season. Any true lover of the game will find his enjoyment of following the Tour greatly enhanced by this look into the personalities of many of the PGA's top stars and lesser known players. Couples, Love, Duval, Daly, Stewart and many more will be more than just names and faces that you watch on TV each Sunday afternoon, they will become real life heroes not simply because of the game they play but because of the people they are. You will gain respect and admiration for many of the players and the PGA Tour as a whole in this wonderful journey in pursuit of "the holy grail'.

In reading this book, two things jumped out at me. The first was that, to my surprise, the book made me like Bob Knight. After all he's been through and all the disapproval I felt for some of the things he did, I just didn't think I could like him. But, after reading this book, I think I understand him better and can see his good side as a coach and as a man much better. He's made some big mistakes, but he does a lot of good work and a lot of great coaching.

The second thing that jumped out at me was what an ordinary job of writing John Feinstein did in this book. Yes, he reported what happened, and he used language I understood, but he just didn't write in an interesting style. Instead of developing characters on the team or among the staff to report around, he just basically ground out what happened. I had to push myself to finish the book even though I'm a big basketball fan and was highly interested in the story. This dullness surprised me because I hear Feinstein on the radio and see him on the tube frequently and almost always find him very entertaining and funny. Maybe he hadn't really developed as an author when he churned this one out.

If you like basketball and have any interest in Bob Knight or Indiana, I'd say read this for sure. Just don't expect to be captivated by the writing.

As a huge sports fan, I couldn't wait to read this book and get an inside look into a college basketball season with Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. John Feinstein pulled off a minor miracle by convincing Knight to allow him to follow the whole team, players and coaches alike with his notepad and tape recorder throughout the 1985-86 season.

What you'll see is an inside look at the trials and tribulations of a big-time college basketball team and the sometime circus atmosphere created by their tempermental coach. The book starts off with a quick recap of the 1984-85 season which included the now famous chair throwing incident. Then you are lead through the offseason, training camp and regular season of 1985-86. Feinstein does a good job of keeping up the pace despite giving detailed recaps of every season's game. He ends the book with a brief summary of the national championship season of 1986-87.

There's no doubt who the center point of the whole book is: That of course is Bob Knight. I'm not an Indiana hoosier fan but I certainly was well aware of all the incidents Knight's been involved in over the years including the chair throwing, head butting, and choking. I can't say that my opinion of him changed at all after reading this book. The best word I can use to describe him is: complex.

In this book, you'll read how he verbally abuses players, especially Daryl Thomas. He'll play mind games like he did with Steve Alford, the team captain and best player. He'll be upbeat about the performance of the team one minute, and then the next he'll say how the team is horrible and will never win with these players. Warning: there is some profanity, but the f-words are "blanked" out.

But at the same time, this coach is extremely loyal to his players after they graduate. He'll do favors such as help get them jobs, etc. One of the most touching moments in the book is when he meets a family where the father and son are deaf-mute. Is his good side good enough to put up with his other nonsense? You be the judge!

Supposedly, BK was NOT very happy with the book. I don't know what he expected, but Feinstein clearly didn't take sides or had some kind of adgenda to [thrash] Knight. This is must read for all sports fans, Indiana Hoosiers or not.

I read this book more than 10 years ago and it sticks with me even today. This is a masterpiece that shows the mind, ethics, mania, honor, despite, loathesomeness, and honesty of Bob Knight. The same man who screamed at his kids until his face matched his ubiquitous red sweater is the same man who paid for Stew Robinson's final tuition credits (after the scholarship ran out) from his own pocket. The same coach who is mournful or enraged or both after a loss was preternaturally calm after his '86-87 team won the NCAA title stressing how great it was for the kids.

The dichotomies of Knight are fascinating, and occasionally frightening. I was a Knight-hater before I read the book. I don't hate him, nor would I pretend to understand him. His self-view is highly nuanced and the depiction Feinstein gives reflects the complexities and contradictions of Knight, his program and the pressures of college basketball.

This book is outstanding because of how much Feinstein reveals, perceives and transmits to the reader.

While I am not a big fan of Feinstein, primarily based on the way he has written about the ACC over the past several years, I was enthralled with his book about the Army and Navy football programs. I read it in one sitting. I don't think I have ever read an account of a football game quite as good as what Feinstein wrote in the book's chapter describing the 1995 Army-Navy game. While I had always been impressed with the quality of the young men and women who attend our nation's military academies, I came away from this book with even more admiration for the student-athletes who manage to juggle football and academics in an environment that is as a tough as any for people their age. While it is easy to be disappointed and frustrated with the antics of so much of the teenage and young adult population in today's society, it is heartening to know that there still are young people such as those depicted in the book who are not at all afraid of discipline and hard work. I can only hope that we as a nation will have the good sense to turn to them as leaders in the 21st century.

I am a retired army colonel (not an academy grad) and love college football...but, except for once a year when they play each other, don't follow the teams as I am a HUGE Notre Dame fan. This book is about so much more than football. It is about the young men at the academies who--after you read this book--will truly give you a sense of what college football should be. And you'll feel like the opponent Feinstein quotes who after defeating one of the academy teams says that he's glad the national security is in the hands of young men like these. In fact, I was so moved by this book that during last week's Notre Dame-Navy game, I wanted Navy to win. Read this book...and then give it to a teenager you love.

John Feinstein's chronicle of the 1995 college football season for the teams of the US Army and Navy Academies offers an arresting and unmissable insight into America's most unique and historic inter-school rivalry. The insular military subculture of the academies at West Point and Annapolis amplifies grid-iron's oblique detachment from the mainstream social model, with the result that the annual Army-Navy game becomes an almost religious experience in its intensity and significance. Unlike other heated college rivalries, which are based on mutual enmity, Army-Navy stems instead from mutual understanding: the players involved are brothers-in-arms in their dedication both to the nation's defence and to the "duty, honor and victory" of representing their school on the football field. For both teams as well, but especially for the Senior students whose last game ever is the Army-Navy clash, the passage of the season marks one more step towards the end of their football careers and the start of their military ones. This sense of inevitability and tragic predestination dominates Feinstein's nerve-jangling account of the final game. If the players and coaches of both teams lapse one time too many into clichéd rhetoric, then it is only because each and every game represents so much for them emotionally. At the same time, the fast-paced and vivid style with which Feinstein recalls the season captures perfectly the importance of the rivalry and football in general to the young men who play the game. Overall, A Civil War is an outstanding book from a first-rate sports writer that provides a valuable and inspiring perspective upon the athletic phenomenon of self-expression through competition.

John Feinstein follows the nine teams of the Atlantic Coast Conference through a tumultuous season in this book. Given amazing access to most of the coaches and teams from the preseason to the Final Four, Feinstein captures the essence of playing basketball in the ACC. From sitting in on pre-game and half time conversations, to being right on the bench for games as the they unfold, Feinstein offers a picture that many fans would never see of the basketball game.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the look into the lives of the coaches before reaching their current positions at the time of the book. The background information helps to define the styles that each of these men display on the court in the games described in the book and also in games they are coaching today in the NCAA.

While some of the descriptions of games are quite bland, Feinstein does take a fan into a a part of the game they would not normally be exposed to. His ability to capture the feel of life in the ACC is quite an achievement. I would recommend this book to any fan of the ACC who would like an inside view of the league. The book loses 2 stars for the game descriptions but that should not deter someone interested in the league.

I bought this book as a Christmas present for my husband, but unwrapped it twice to sneak in a few chapters myself because I couldn't wait. Feinstein spent last season in an ACC fan's dream, with great access to games, coaches and locker rooms. I enjoyed the background material on each coach, and found myself reliving games through his descriptions. There are numerous humorous anecdotes, many of which I'm hearing again as filler commentary during this year's games. I have to admit that Feinstein does show a slight preference for Duke, his alma mater -- mine too, so I didn't mind but even I noticed.

The end result is, thanks to Mr. Feinstein, I'm watching EVERY ACC basketball game this year (in the past I'd watch for my school and my husband's, and check other scores for standings). Not only that, because I liked Rick Barnes so much in the book, I have actually cheered for Clemson for the first time in my life.

I really enjoyed A March to Madness, because of how interesting it was to read about the coaches, players, and teams in college basketball's strongest conference, the ACC. John Feinstein gives you a behind the scenes look at an entire season of heart pounding ACC basketball. From preseason jitters to the NCAA tournament, Feinstein gives you a chronology of Dean Smith's last games as a coach, Smith breaking the record for wins by a college coach, superstar Tim Duncan's quest to make it to the Final Four, and the inside scoup on all the happenings around the ACC during the exciting 1996-97 season. In short this book was one of the best college basketball books you can find. This book definately deserved a five star rating!

Given that his most recent book "The Punch" was released recently, I figured Feinstein hastily put this book together to cash in the upsurge in interest in golf. I WAS WRONG and am happy to admit it.

The author once again takes us on the "inside" and proffers the reader another dose of history, tradition, and day to day banter of those who help stage the world's greatest (and most democratic) championship. Feinstein grabs the reader with his poignant insights and an introduction to the jargon of those in the know (How many people will be correcting their foursomes on pin placements vs. hole locations?).

The 2002 Open was truly a special and spectacular event held so close to New York during an historical time and truly an Open for the people. Feinstein does justice with this well written and easy to read tome. In fact I found myself wanting more.

I noticed in the thank you portion at the end of the book that he thanks dozens of golfers, but did not mention the 2002 Champion, Tiger Woods. I really thought there might have been more on Tiger, but maybe John has been frozen out of the inner circle due to his book "The First Coming: Tiger Woods: Master or Martyr" Feinstein has alienated subjects in the past (right Bob Knight), but sometimes showcasing the "inside" leads to people reading unflattering things about themselves they wish to hide. It's the author who has to live with himself with those relationships; however once again I found myself enraptured in great sports book by Feinstein.

Write on John!

If you're looking for a fascinating book whose main purpose is not simply to provide a narration and analysis of the competition at Bethpage this book is for you. Mr. Feinstein describes the transformation of the Black course for the 2002 US Open Championship with the entusiasm of a devoted fan and the broad perspective and clarity of a truly talented golf writer and reporter. For those of us fortunate enough to participate directly at Bethpage as fans, volunteers or interested onlookers this book completes the first chapter on the use of a truly public (State owned) facility as a worthy venue for our national golf championship. Seldom, if ever, have we been allowed to glimpse the preparation for and staging of a major sporting event from start to finish. This work is as much about golf as golf is about life.

In his book "Open...Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black" John Feinstein truly takes you inside the ropes at one of the most talked about golf championships in history. Beyond Golf, the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black was unusual for so many reasons. From the inner workings at the USGA, The New York State Parks Department, NBC Sports, to the Long Island Railroad, you get a real sense this was more than a typical 72 holes of Golf. Be prepared to miss a few rounds as this is a difficult book to put down.