On sports books

I was reading Svend Fransen’s commentary about former football players who publish their biographies in time for Christmas. And I agree that while some are good, most… let’s just say that we should save the trees! They have no right! They have no shame. And Wayne Rooney... you are only 23 years old. What have you done?

Ahem.

But there are a lot of good sports books out there. Reading Grant Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment, fills in a lot of the missing stories of what went on with that team. I couldn’t follow the LA Galaxy on a daily basis and relied on them making the headline news (when they did). When Alexi Lalas was fired and Ruud Gullit let go, I wondered why? At that time, Lalas was the face of American soccer (damn that word). I mean it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something was really wrong but nothing ever came out to expound on what happened. It was all speculation. The book explains what happened and why it happened. More importantly, did it change my view on David Beckham?

Yes, it does in a way but I remain a fan. After all, who is not without fault?

I have several football jerseys with names on them – Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, and Jeremy Toulalan to name a few. And Becks, yes, I do have his LA Galaxy. Even when he played for Manchester United, how could I not respect the player? He was more than the set piece king.

I don’t loathe Beck for what happened. I just shake my head in disappointment. I already agreed with Alex Ferguson’s comments about letting Golden Balls go to Real Madrid. That meant not dealing with the Beckham circus. I bought his autobiography and it is well, food for the masses. Not bad.

But if I wanted well-written, incisive, and behind the scenes pieces then I would have gotten other fare.

The Beckham Experiment is turning out to be one of my favorites because football in America is so below the radar that it also is quite revealing on how the sport is viewed and how players cope with the lack of attention and meager pay (except for a few).

After reading Let Me Tell You A Story – that was somewhat disappointing – The Beckham Experiment is a refreshing change that is way more interesting and well written. And unlike books like Jack McCallum’s Seven Seconds or Less or Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules, this one features a lot of the front office machinations that make one understand how a team is run and put together.

Someone asked me if I only read sports books... no, I don't. I read lots -- advertising, thrillers, fiction, non-fiction, war and adventure, fantasy, biographies/autobiographies. and funny stuff.