Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

I have to admit – I don’t read a lot of sports books. I’m too busy reading main stream stuff (science fiction and horror) like The Precipice by Ben Bova or Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

I did read The Summer of ’49 by David Halberstam, Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins, The Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle, On a Clear Day They Could See Last Place (a fascinating book on the worst teams in major league baseball history), Men At Work by George Will, and even Pitching In A Pinch, Or Baseball From The Inside, an interesting little memoir by Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson.

But that’s about it.

Once in a while I’ll pick something up off the shelf or take something recommended by a friend (like Bump & Run by Mike Lupica) and then up not reading much of it. I’ll probably go through the same process for The Mad Dog 100 (as infuriating as Chris Russo can be, he is always engaging, so I’ll have to take a look at this) and Who’s Your Caddy by Rick Reilly (his column is the first thing I read in Sports Illustrated every week, so this would be like one long column), but I will never have a lot of time for these nutty exposes by guys like John McEnroe, Dennis Rodman and Darryl Dawkins.

There are a lot of sports book out there and a lot of them are garbage. That’s what a lot of major league baseball general managers are saying about Moneyball, which pretty much deifies Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics, a guy whom – they say – just got lucky.

I’ll tell you, though, the best sports books I ever read were by Dan Gutman – Honus and Me, Jackie and Me, Babe and Me.

I understand that they were written for young teens, but in Honus and Me (a novel about a boy who can magically transport himself to the time of Honus Wagner simply by rubbing his baseball card) Gutman captured the pure essence of baseball and what it was like to be a young fan so enraptured by the sport. It brought be back to my days when all I cared about was baseball.

Jackie and Me was equally as engaging. The same with Babe and Me.

I was so taken with the novels that I brought Honus and Me home for my son, who was only six at the time. He was a budding sports fan who loved to watch football and basketball with his old man.

Well, he loved Honus and Me.

And it opened the door for him.

Dan Gutman became his favorite author. After those three baseball books (he has yet to read Shoeless Joe and Me or Mickey and Me), he read The Million Dollar Shot, The Million Dollar Kick, They Came From Center Field (one of his favorites), and Johnny Hangtime. That just seemed to fuel his reading and he was off on other tangents.

Louis Sachar.

Matt Christopher.

The Guinness Book of World Records.

And of course, like most kids in America, he has read the first four volumes of the Harry Potter saga (but not the fifth, yet, because my daughter hasn’t released her iron grip on it).

That’s great.

Now maybe we will read Shoeless Joe and Me or Mickey and Me together. Can it get any better than that?