I am third
By Gale Sayers

Devon Hurley

My book is called I am third and it's written by Gale Sayers. The price of the book is $...and u can find this book in any book store.
I am third is about the football player gale Sayers .He plays football with his friends every day. He grew up in a poor house with barely any food. That didn't stop him from playing football though. He played no matter what. One time he tried to tackle some one and he got kicked in the mouth and he was spiting out blood his brother played football too. He was older then Gale. Gale was a starter on the high school football team with his brother he only got to play with his brother one season because he was a senior when Gale was a freshman. Gale was a good player. He was like1st or 2nd best in the country. He wanted to go to a four year college to play football. Mississippi State was in other sports besides football like track and basketball. He broke the long jump record for track. His mom and dad were always working on something. Gale's dad was tall and had long legs. His dad worked hard every day and only got 40 dollars a day. His mom was at home watching all the kids. All the kids in the neighbor hood were on the football team. After gale went to college he was going to go to the pros either the chiefs or the bears. on draft day the Chicago bears picked Gale Sayers the first day of summer training he met Brian piccolo. Brian was a white person and Gale was a black person they didn't really get along at first of race but after they started playing together. The coach put them in the same room partner. When gale was voted rookie of the year Brian starts to get sick and has to go to the hospital and he finds out he has cancer and has to stay in the hospital for the rest of the season. Later he goes home and is recovering but he gets cancer again a in his chest and dies from cancer. later gale plays the best game of his career he scores 6 touchdowns.

This review is on the book called "I Am Third". In this book it tells mostly about Gale Sayers' football career and some of Brian Piccolo's or Pic. The reason this book is called "I Am Third" is because he says that "God is 1st,my friends are 2nd,and I am 3rd". To understand this book you might have to know a little about football. If you like football stories I would reccomend you read "I Am Third".

I really never liked sports, but this book really moved me because it was a story of two men very different yet very alike. They were both very talented, over the past few months i've been doing so much research and Gale and Brian. I also am planning to do a important report on them, the frienship that they had was great. BUY THIS BOOK!! and the movie Brians song!I loved both. I love Ya Gale and Brian GOD BLESS!

Forget the epic novels of today. Forget all the great fiction that has been written in the course of history, for it has absolutely nothing on the story of New York City Patrolmen Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie. This is the story of their lives and their tragic deaths, murdered by back-shooting cop-killers on the 27th of January, 1972. This is, without a doubt, the most true-to-life, compelling, and it is probably the saddest book you will ever read. Period.

You can quibble about the thirteen sports stories picked for "It's Not Over 'Til It's Over" as "the Most Magnificent, Heart-Stopping Sports Miracles of Our Time," but just keep in mind that Al Silverman can certainly write a similar book in the future. For the record, here are the selections: (1) 1908 Merkle Forever: New York Giants vs. Chicago Cubs; (2) 1923 The Battle of the Century: Dempsey vs. Firpo; (3) 1937 A Supreme Day for Tennis: Don Budge vs. Gottfried von Cramm; (4) 1951 The Most Theatrical Home Run: Bobby Thompson and Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds; (5) 1958 Sudden Death: The Colts vs. the Giants; (6) 1960 Head on, the Generations Collide: Hogan, Palmer, and Nicklaus at the U.S. Open; (7) 1964 Chosen by the Gods: Billy Mills in the 10,000 Meter Olympic Final; (8) 1968 The Game of Fames: Harvard-Yale football; (9) 1971 They Left it on the Table: Frazier-Ali I; (10) 1975 Body English: Cincinnati Reds vs. Boston Red Sox; (110 1980: Do You Believe in Miracles?: U.S. vs. USSR hockey; 1992: Weep No More, My Lady: Duke-Kentucky basketball; and (13) Awesome! World Cup: U.S. vs. China.

Already I can hear you quibbling. Yes, the U.S. Olympic hockey team winning the gold medal in 1980 was a miracle as was what Bily Mills did in Tokyo in 1964, but does anything else on the list qualify? After all, Thompson had already hit a home run off of Branca in the National League playoff in 1951 and when Christian Laettner hit the winning shot at the buzzer in 1992 he was on the defending national champions and had not missed a shot from the floor or the line all day. That was certainly the greatest college basketball game of time and you also have the greatest baseball game (1975) and football game (1958) on the list as well, but none of those are miracles. Heart-Stopping might be the key part of the equation here when all is said and done.

The test for this book is quite simple. If you are a sports fan there should be a point in this list where you have not simply heard of these events, you have witnessed them (I pick up the list at 10). When you read those stories you have your best opportunity to determine how well Silverman not only retells the story but provides added dimensions that enhance your appreciation of a great sports moment. You can then make the assumption that Silverman is doing just as fine a job talking about those older events. However, that logic should be irrelevant as soon as you begin reading the book, when Silverman begins with the story of a loser, who is presented as being a "romantic hero, whose name continues to stand the test of time." The story of the Merkle [erection] matters because it represents the opposite end of the spectrum from the hero of the moment. The fact that Silverman picks this particular story to begin his stroll through sports history sets the tone for the rest.

Each story ends with an epilogue, printed in italics, which gives the event the perspective of history. But the history of the players, the teams, the events, and all the rest is woven into each of these thirteen stories. For me the story that stands out is the Duke-Kentucky game, probably because I watched it twice last month when ESPN was showing it during this years NCAA tournament. You understand what this came meant for the Kentucky program that had been on probation for three seasons and the Duke program trying to repeat as champions. Silverman uses quotes from the participants and reporters provided at the time and long after the game to bring out the nuances. The shifting angles of the story match the frantic breakneck pace of the game. But compare this with the stately grace he uses to tell about Arnold Palmer coming from way behind to beat Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus to win his first U.S. Open. "It's Not Over 'Til It's Over" is a pleasant nostalgic review of history by a first-rate sportswriter. He will even make you enjoy the stories about sports you do not particularly care about.

Once uopn a time this is the way baseball history used to be written: Take one old sportswriter, slap together some anecdotes, attack your enemies, protect your friends, kiss the rear ends of the powerful, call it history. Fortunately, we're all much wiser now. So much of Lieb's work has been disproven that books like these really deserve to be considered works of fiction. Interesting as a historical document, but useless as history. Absolutely everything covered by this book has been covered much much better elsewhere.