It was a good read, but the author didn't check his facts when he started talking about other racing series such as CART and IRL. That there were errors in these areas made me question some of his other things he talked about. I liked the book, but with reservations.

Most people consider that the sport of baseball has the most colorful history of any American sport. They point to characters such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and extraordinarily colorful Dizzy Dean as examples. Baseball history is certainly colorful, but stock car racing can match it character for character. Stock car racing edges ahead, though, because many of the most colorful characters in stock car racing were alive at the time American Zoom was written.

In this wonderful book, Peter Golenbock introduces us to the likes of Richard Petty, Bill France, Junior Johnson, the Flock brothers, and Tiny Lund. Dozens of people associated with stock car racing, from the early days when hopped up cars carrying white lightning were outrunning the law to the modern era of multi million dollar sponsorships, were interviewed by Golenbock. With the exception of the introduction of each person, Golenbock lets those he interviews tell their own story. The words and the memories are faithfully presented for us to savor.

Would you like to hear about the first lap Richard Petty ever took in a race? It's in here (and NOT what you would expect). Do you wonder where the idea of drafting other cars for increased speed came from? It's in here. You'll also find stories about the first Southern 500 in Darlington and how Bill France milked the announcement of a winner in the first Daytona 500 for several days before finally naming the winner (and why people think he took so long to name the winner).

American Zoom belongs on the shelf of any fan of motorsports. Give it a try but hang on, it's a wild ride!

This is the first book that I read on Stock Car Racing. It covers the business, personalities emotions and soul of Stock Car Racing in the most eloquent way possible. After reading about some of the personalities in this book you feel as if you had just spent the day with each one. This book actually was the catalyst for leading me in the direction of starting a NASCAR stock car racing career as a driver. Any long time fan will cherish this book and any new fan will learn about the soul of the sport.

This book is one of quite a few published about the Gators since the football team truly came to national prominence in the early '90s. This one is different, though, in that it is history told in a continuous series of (generally) well-edited interview segments Golenbock had with Gator players and coaches from through the years, starting in the late '20s.

Among the recognizable names are: LaPradd, Casares, Dunn, Graves, Infante, Dupree, Rentz, Trapp, Tannen, Youngblood, Reaves, Dickey, Fisher, Peace, Nattiel, Bell, Matthews, Jackson (Terry) and Wuerffel, to name a few. The last chapter, written by the author, deals with Spurrier's departure and Zook's arrival. A very good index allows you to find mention of particular players or events.

Negative points? Recent history is told mainly from the quarterbacks' point-of-view; it would have been nice to hear from the likes of Nat Moore, Wilber Marshall or Jevon Kearse, not to mention Steve Spurrier. Photos are confined to an 8-page centerspread that looks like an afterthought. Typos are common, including a continual reference to Murphree Hall as "Murphy." And the book is awfully thick, no less than 2-1/4".

All that aside, there is a lot of fun stuff here. Whatever your Gator era, you will find a lot to reminisce about.

Even though I'm a Seminole fan, I couldn't resist this brand new exploration of our biggest rival. And I'm glad I did! A rollicking romp through Gators history, this book makes our yearly rivalry all the more weighty. Every football fan in Florida should read it, but don't ask to borrow my copy -- it's a keeper!

I first became a Yankee fan during the "Bronx Zoo" era; during the late-70s Yankee dynasty. Graig Nettles was - and pretty much still is - my favorite player. His remarkable defense at third base during regular season games, and especially during the 1978 World Series, rivaled that of Baltimore's Brooks Robinson. And while he was a right-handed fielder, Graig was a left-handed "power hitter" at the plate... capable of hitting home runs in clutch situations. When you look at his stats during the 1970s, it's hard to understand why he's not in the Hall of Fame. I have a Graig Nettles autographed baseball and I wear Yankees jersey number 9. I'm a big Nettles fan, and I'm glad he wrote a book for me to keep for posterity.

The premise of the book is this: Nettles made an agreement with the publisher wherein he'd write about the dirt behind the crazy "Bronx Zoo"... Steinbrenner, Martin, and Reggie. The prediction was that he'd be playing for a team other than the Yankees by the time the book was published, and thus wouldn't be biting the hand that fed him. But Steinbrenner signed him for an additional year, leaving Nettles with a choice... tone down his comments in the book or write the tell-all tome he promised, despite still being a Yankee. Nettles chose to honor his agreement with the publisher and say what he felt about Steinbrenner and Company... a decision that took "balls" (hence the play-on-words title).

But does Graig actually deliver the goods and give us the dirt? Sorta. He takes a few pot-shots at Steinbrenner and makes a few fat jokes at his expense, and he also has an occassional bad thing to say about Jackson, but that's about it. Billy Martin is made out to be some sort of managerial genius, with Graig giving him nothing but praise. If making a few fat jokes at your boss's expense takes cojones, then Nettles has a big and brassy pair. But beyond that, there's really not anything scandalous here... nothing that would take "balls" to say.

Despite him being my baseball hero to this day, I'm sorry to say that Nettles' book is filled with chest-thumping self-promotion. On only a few occassions does he say he ever performed inadequately on the diamond, and when he does admit to a less-than-stellar performance, he also makes an excuse of some kind. You'd think he won the Gold Glove award in every year he played, batted over .400 every year, and had a one-thousand slugging percentage. Graig also gives nothing but gold stars to relief pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage, and (surprise surprise) Goose is Graig's friend off the diamond. Personally, I always thought Gossage was an inconsistent pitcher; I always got nervous when he was brought to the mound. But Nettles would have you believe that Goose was the best pitcher in the AL during the late 70s.

I'd also have preferred to hear more about the Pine Tar incident, the rivalry with Boston and with Kansas City, the brawl wherein Graig broke the pitching arm of Red Sox southpaw Bill Lee, the strange-but-true story of wife-swapping Yankee pitchers Kekich and Fitz, etc. In the book, Nettles either neglects to tell these interesting tales or gives them just a quick glancing-over.

One last thing, and I hate to say this about my baseball hero... I get the impression that without co-author Golenbeck, Nettles would come across as nothing but a braindead jock. There already seems to be a degree of that in the book; take ghost writer Golenbeck out of the picture, and I fear it would be even moreso. Oh well... nobody said that ballplayers had to be bookishly intelligent.

THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING STORY OF THE BRONX ZOO THROUGH THE EYES OF GRAIG NETTLES. I REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS CLEVELAND INDIAN, A REAL SMOOTH SWING AND A GOOD LEATHER MAN. I WAS VERY MAD WHEN THEY TRADED HIM FOR SOME (GOOD?) PROSPECTS. A TYPICAL GABE PAUL MOVE TO TRADE A GOOD PLAYER FOR GARBAGE. HE WENT ON TO BECOME AN EXCELLENT FIELDER AND HOME RUN THREAT. HIS FIELDING WAS THE SHOWCASE OF THE 1978 WORLD SERIES. THIS BOOK TELLS IT LIKE IT IS. HIS FEELINGS TOWARDS HIS FELLOW PLAYERS, MANAGERS AND GEORGE ARE EXTREMELY INTERESTING. A MUST READ FOR NEW AND OLD YANKEE FANS.
VERY RECOMMENDED.

I enjoyed this book by Yankee great Graig Nettles. It takes you back to the great Yankee teams of the late 70s. "Balls" seems quite tame today, but it was hard hitting when it was released in the mid 80s. Not quite on the same level as "Ball Four" or "The Bronx Zoo" but still a must for any Yankee fan. GO YANKS!!

A really simple, easy-to-read account of Ron Guidry's rise from Louisiana to a star pitcher for the New York Yankees. It even has some terriffic Cajun recipes as prepared by Ron's mother, grandmother, & mother-in-law.

I am not a NASCAR fan, but I am a statistical sports buff. While stock car racing doesn't really qualify as a sport, this book does its best to catalog as many 'stats' as can be collected. While I'd like average finish information and breakdowns by dirt, tri-oval, road, superspeadway, etc, this is a good start at creating an encyclopedia of stock car racing. The key stats are 1st, 2nd, ... 5th place finishes, laps completed, and events started for each year. Another edition with far more detail would be quite welcome.

It is clear in this book that Golenbock is not a big fan of Landry and Schramm. There are too many quotes from malcontent ex-players like Pete Gent so the book is way out of balance. The book provides very little insight from Schramm and Landry themselves about many contentious conflicts between the players, management, and the coaching staff. Golenbock is very derogatory towards Landry for being "controlling" but yet takes quite a positive view towards Jimmy Johnson for doing the exact same thing. Players who were team players, did their jobs, and were respectful are characterized as 'afraid of Landry'. Those who were disruptive and disrespectful are characterized as 'courageous'.

I bought this book to get an inside view of how the Cowboys became the pre-eminent sports franchise in America. What a I got was a book that spent way too much time exploring every gripe from every drugged out players about Landry and Schramm. There are some really good quotes in this book so it does not deserve the worst rating. The concept of this book is a really good one, but all in all it comes off as a lot griping and moaning rather than objective analysis.

An excellent book. Golenbock's style of having the players say what happened while he sets the outline is one of the reasons I love this book. The insights the players give about Landry and Schramm are eye-opening. The palyers themselves in the early 1970's didn't want to be called "America's Team", they thought it was too arrogent (and they were right). Schramm was the one who liked it. That's just one of the many insignts you get from this book along with the aspects of racism, the salary disputes, and how the social evironment changed and the players evovled. The only drawback is if you are a current Cowboys fan and only care about the last few years, you're going to be dissapointed because about 75% of this book deals with the first two decades.

Any one who is a true football fan should read this book. It is realistic, surprising and sometimes shocking in its revelations of the inner feelings of the players during the early years of the Dallas Cowboys. It is written without taking sides; relating the men, their emotions and their relationships with fellow players in factual, graphic terms. You cannot read this and feel the same way you did before about America's Team. The only parts missing are the Cowboys who didn't want to tell their side such as "Dandy Don". These missing voices create a silence in the telling of the whole story. Still, one can relate to the events and emotions that shaped the Cowboys and that generation of Americans. 4.5 STARS

Peter Golenbock is the king of the oral history genre in sports writing. In his latest book, he actually takes on the histories of two teams, the vaunted Cardinals and the hapless Browns. In addition to the story of the teams, you get a history lesson of the city of St. Louis which is fairly interesting. Mr. Golenbock spends alot of time on the Cardinals from their origins through the World Series years of the 1960's. After that he spends virtual no time on the 70's teams and very little on the 80's teams even though they won a World Series in '82 and made two others. Trying to grab the younger reader, he devotes too much space to McGwire's home run chase which even though it only took place two years ago, has already be written about to death. The chapters on the Browns are mildly interesting if only for the Bill Veeck stories. Overall the book is a decent read and contains some interesting antidotes from Stan Musial, Red Schoendist, Curt Flood, Tim McCarver, Dizzy Dean and others.

Peter Golenbock is known for his oral histories of such teams as the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers, and this latest book on St. Louis baseball is a worthy addition to the collection. The Cardinals have a storied history, from Rogers Hornsby to Dizzy Dean, from Stan Musial to Bob Gibson, and from Lou Brock to Willie McGee. From a ragtag organization to one of the storied franchises in baseball, this book also details the people who owned and managed the Cards, such as Branch Rickey, Sam Breadon, Gussie Busch and Bing Devine. What makes The Spirit of St. Louis even more of a must-read for baseball fans are the sections devoted to the St. Louis Browns. The Browns were at one time the more popular St. Louis ballclub, and George Sisler was as good a player as any who played in St. Louis. Unfortunately, the Browns suffered through mediocrity, until 1944 when they won the pennant. (and played the Cardinals in the World Series!). The decline of the Browns culminating in owner Bill Veeck putting tiny Eddie Gaedel up to the plate is also of interest.

This is the latest in a series of oral history books Peter Golenbock has written about baseball teams. It looks like this time he bit off more than he could chew. Golenbock tries to tackle the histories of both the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns in one book. It would have been better if he would have split these into two books. He misses out on or glosses over several key events in Cardinal history (Musial's retirement, Torre's MVP are examples) as he tries to cram the histories of two teams in one book.

Peter Golenbock, best known as the author of the definitive oral histories of several Major League Baseball teams (most notably the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, and Stengel-era Yankees), swings for the fences and misses, with a book about the short-lived Senior League of 1989-1990.

The Senior League, a failed experiment since consigned to the "amnesia" portion of baseball's memory, established 8 teams in Florida and filled the rosters with 35-and-over major-league castoffs. The bulk of "The Forever Boys" tells their stories. Nearly every story sounds the same: Drugs. Alcohol. Injuries. Myopic management. All the stories are told in an omniscient voice, with phrases so cliched and hackneyed, they rise to the level of "VH1's Behind the Music" art-kisch.

"Forever Boys" is most memorable, perhaps, if you came of baseball age between 1976 and 1983. In the book are the life stories of Pat Zachry and Gary Rajsich, both of whom played in the first baseball game I ever went to. I recognized all the names from my late '70s Topps baseball card collections. Golenbock is at his best when the stories don't have happy endings -- the fall from grace of Sammy Stewart is perhaps the book's most effective writing.

But for every objective look at why a player failed, there are another ten instances of poor research (when Golenbock states that the 1981 Brewers had the best record in baseball before the strike, take out your pencil, cross it out, and write "tenth-best" in the margin. Go ahead!) or subjective reporting. Every game won in the Senior League is a test of wills, or a validation of an entire career, and the screening of Tom Hanks in "BIG" on the team bus becomes an epiphany worthy of James Joyce. Or not.

"Forever Boys" is an excellent source of anecdotes, but is not a keeper for your all-time collection.

I was surprised that this book didn't make Sports Illustrated's recent (12/02) list of the top 100 sports books. I've read three or four of Golenbock's better known titles - this one was the best. Intriguing mix of laughs and bitter memories on the part of a group of over-35 ballplayers who were given one more desperate chance to play professionally (about a dozen years ago).

This was a very interesting book about a very interesting man. Interesting is about the nicest thing I can think to say about Billy Martin. Although his exploits have been legendary, the stuff in this book takes it too a new level. According to the author, Pete Golenbock, Martin has several women going in different cities at the same time. He was supporting an underage girl and her family on the West Coast and engaged on the East Coast. His life, as portrayed in this book, was more out of control than you suspected. Golenbeck caters to our interest in these areas and with life on the field, in the club house and in the owners office. You have to catch your breath periodically when reading about the life of Billy Martin.

On the negative side, the book turns into a defense of the person traveling with Martin the day of his fatal accident. You'll recall that Christmas Day story that told how his friend from Detroit was behind the wheel when it happened. You may recall later on (after consulting with his lawyer, no doubt) the driver suddenly became the passenger. Strangely, the lone eyewitness decided he was actually sitting elswhere in the vehicle after he had time to think about it. Along comes Golenbock to the rescue with photos, medical reports and diagrams showing how Billy was actually the driver. Sorry, I'm not that interested. Let the courts decide that one. The book should have been shorter than it was. I came away with the idea that intimate information was shared with the author in return for his public defense of Martin's passenger/chaffeur. It was a disjointed way to end the otherwise interesting book. But then, Martin's death was a disjointed way to end an otherwise interesting life.

Compard to David Faulkner's bio on Martin, this one by Golenbock has more insider details about Martin's life that make it the more interesting read. What does it in, unfortunately is Golenbock's peculiar analysis. Like so many people who like to ultimately elevate Billy the man higher than he deserves, more time is spent blaming George Steinbrenner for all of Billy's problems off the field. And it soon gets to the point where Golenbock actually performs what was once the impossible and makes you think he's too harsh on Steinbrenner. The bottom line is that Billy Martin, unlike his friend Mickey Mantle, never came to terms with what drinking and carousing could do to his life and for that, he had only himself to blame for not checking into the Betty Ford Clinic like Mantle did. Billy kept drinking not because of George Steinbrenner, but because of who he was, and that was a person with no morals whatsoever.

Without generating undeserved sympathy for the man, this book documents the sad life of Billy Martin, the extent to which his troubles were self-inflicted, and his tortured relationship with George Steinbrenner. The insecurities of both of these men feed on each other's, with each convinced that the other is out to upstage and destroy him, and each ultimately proving the other right, time after time. The years have provided an interesting postscript, however. Just as Martin's early death seemed almost inevitable because of his inability to confront and defeat his demons, author Golenbock ends the book with a forecast of inevitable doom for Steinbrenner, predicting with certainty that his many shortcomings will stop the Yankees from ever again achieving respectability. Golenbock was wrong, of course. Steinbrenner's late 90s Yankees are among baseball's all-time great teams, guided by a superb manager with no apparent interference from above. Perhaps Steinbrenner did in fact learn something from Martin's sad demise.

Not long before Personal Fouls came into existence, there was a question-and-answer survey in a leading magazine that tested how much you, as a man, fit into the cultural mainstream of society and how likely you were to come out on top. I do not remember all of it, but there was one part that had since stuck in my mind, and it consisted of four items (only one was THE CORRECT ANSWER) to choose from: It is not how you win,__________________. Guess what that so-called response was supposed to be?! IT IS WHETHER YOU WIN!

This, among other factors, is why I never grew particularly fond of the 1980's, and I was an NC State student at the end of that decade. Yes, Jim Valvano was a successful coach when it came to winning numbers, and yes, Jim Valvano would take chances with his coaching decisions in order to maintain those figures. Though Jim Valvano came up short on pleasing everybody, Golenbock's assertions that his failure to make everyone happy is because he was corrupt and Golenbock's attempts to tie him in directly with the win-at-all-costs mentality from the past are both out of place.

I am not going to say that Jim Valvano was a saint, but I think that he was an individual who, in his own capacity, tried to give those from lower socioeconomic statuses an opportunity to better themselves. It is unfortunate that though many from these groups would later come to be success stories, there were still those self-destructive individuals who would take a turn for the worse and end up as personal and financial fiascoes.

I conclude by saying that perhaps, at the very worst, Coach Valvano was a good man who faced enormous obstacles to maintaining his level of success and thus decided to try dealing with the pressure-mounting circumstances by making promises which, over the course of time, were becoming increasingly difficult to keep.

big time college basketball at its best! my cousin was recruited by mr. valvano and i can say without any doubt that this book is factual and its a pleasure to see a writer that was willing to tackle the billion dollar ncaa industry. ncsu found a way to keep up with their hated rival, unc, on the basketball court by recruiting players that could barely read and promising them that they would not have to attend classes, just play ball! on top of this, the so called lack of institutional control allowed the players to accumulate large sums of cash by selling their tickets and basketball shoes. after a complete investigation by the ncaa, ncsu was placed on a severe probation that their basketball program has yet to fully recover.

the most ironic part of the story is that jim valvano is still viewed a saint by the wolfpack faithful as one can see in the other reviews of this book.

Highly recommended!

I read "Personal Fouls" when it was first released. My brief assessment: along with John Feinstein's "A Season on The Brink" it is the best sports volume ever written! Not only is he the best sports author in America, but Peter Golenbock is also an extremely brave man: as you can read by the previous customer reviews, it is not easy or pleasant to tell the truth about a local hero who has become something of a martyr since his premature death from cancer.

Is it purely coincidental that all of the people who trashed this book live in North Carolina?