Boys in the Boat - 9 Americans and their Quest for Olympic Gold (Daniel Brown, 2014)

Book club selection (via POC; session held (via Zoom) September 6, 2021).

A glimpse of faraway Seattle (distant in time and geography) - useful.

A view of the Depression, the dust storms, the national mood.  Hoovervilles.  Genuine "hard times."  Useful context for the 1930s.  How the perception of "hard times" has evolved.

Many of the 1930s Washington stories resonated with stories we were hearing about the Depression when growing up in 1960s Iowa - vivid memories - and relatively fresh, the Depression didn't end until WWII.  (It would be like us today talking about events from late 1990s.)  They wouldn't have been surprised to hear of children in Washington working like adults, folks doing without, they were doing their version of the same.  Describes a hand-cranked cream separator.  Laying asphalt - classic summer job.  Making do.

Just before embarking for Berlin - author describes the 1936 heat wave as the rowers spend time in NYC.  EMG family always talked about that summer - crop wilted, dragging mattresses onto lawn to be able to sleep.  (At age 7, he thought it was an adventure.)

While in NYC hotel - author mentions the rowers meeting Joe Fortenberry (captain of Olympic basketball team) - Antiques Roadshow tells us he was credited with the first slam dunk, and with prompting a rule change to outlaw defensive goaltending.  Hitler required outdoor basketball - gold medal game was played in sand in a driving rainstorm.  Appraised his gold medal at $100-150k.

Pocock as a mystical figure - compares to who?  Horse whisperers.  Author says Pocock's grandfather worked on Stanley's Lady Alice!

History of rowing; how it doesn't start, but becomes, elite.  Development of shells.  This was interesting.

Got a little carried away at the end - Hitler watching the US overtake Germany as a harbinger of WWII outcome.  But OK.

A view of rowing as a sport of national interest - interesting and it was hard to believe - this is the early 1930s, not that long ago.  Boxing, baseball, horse racing, ? Then I see the movie "After Office Hours" on TMC - 1935 - in theater lobby, Clark Gable et al are discussing the races at Poughkeepsie!

Big Hair and Plastic Grass - A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s (Dan Epstein, 2010)

My brother Charlie sent this one along, it was published by St. Martin's Press (where Kate worked).

The subject matter and era are hard to beat for someone like me - I have more coherent memories of 1970s baseball than any other decade (including the current one). Plus we were collecting baseball cards in those days at a pretty fast clip, at least at the beginning of the decade. So this was highly enjoyed.

The author has a chapter for each year in the decade during which he summarizes the divisional races, playoff and World Series outcomes, major events during the year.

The far more interesting part of the book - though unfortunately just four of the chapters - is where he takes off on various themes: those round multi-purpose stadiums; AstroTurf; colorful uniforms; haircuts; stadium promotions (featuring, of course, dime beer night at Cleveland Muni and disco demolition at Comiskey Park).

A couple items of note:

I read that the wire "baskets" on the Wrigley Field fences were installed in 1970 following a bunch of drunk and/or stoned folks storming the field following an April game (supposedly a bunch of antiwar protesters in town). Also a discussion of how seedy the Wrigley area was in those days, much changed now.

Folks were distraught that Dave Kingman struck out 140 times in 1972 (he hit higher totals later in his career). You can tell baseball has changed, our own Diamondbacks feature a third baseman who has the three highest single-season strikeout totals of all time (topping out at 223). And they just gave him a contract extension last off-season.

Crazy times. It's difficult to imagine any current player involved in a wife-swap, pitching a game while on LSD, etc.

:07 Seconds or Less (Jack McCallum, 2006)

This book was a Christmas gift from Christopher (he being aware of my enjoyment of our local NBA team). The premise was that a SI writer would stick around the team for the entire season - not a particularly original idea, but it is unusual for a professional sports team to allow this sort of thing these days. The author has done a bunch of NBA writing over the years. And I liked it because the subject matter is highly interesting to me (last year's Phoenix Suns team was surprisingly successful playing an unorthodox style through a bunch of injuries).

McCallum finds guys like Eddie House (now exiled to New Jersey) pretty entertaining, and I did too. The author mostly hung around with the coaching staff so it was interesting to have that perspective. The head coach (Mike D'Antoni) is at the Tatum & Shea Starbucks like clockwork; last year he hired his brother (Dan) as an assistant. And Dan likes me, because he gave me a sweet autograph (via CPG intervention).

Part deux of the gift was two tickets to the Mavericks game on April 1. Should be v. good.