Events Calendar
In This Section
Friendly faces return for downtown holiday market
The Heldenfiles: Actor Bernsen back in Akron
Dapper TV hero Gene Barry stage star dies at 90
Lewis Black, a bright star of dark comedy, coming to Akron
Cedar Point hikes ticket price for 2010
'Wicked' actors don't let scuffle stop the show in Cleveland
Humbert concert aids food bank
Most Read Stories
Mom of Steelers player, ex-Coventry High star charged with assault in Akron VFW melee
Tiger tales to surface in Akron?
Increased police patrols, checkpoint planned for Summit County
Don't try to understand, just enjoy it
Akron man guilty of threatening to throw woman into lake
Officer struck by fleeing car after hearing shots downtown
Woman sues over drink-fueled leg amputations
Blogs:
Pets:
Roto-Rooter Crew Rescues Trapped Dog
The Heldenfiles:
Thursday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns 13, Steelers 6 — Browns should enjoy this moment
Akron Zips:
Ianello named head coach
Tribe Matters:
Aeros 2010 staff in place
Cleveland Browns:
Mangini doesn't give Quinn a pass
Kent State Sports:
Cam Joyce leaving Kent State
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Portland Trail Blazers
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeye Football – Present and Future
Varsity Letters:
Orrville confirms Miller’s commitment
All Da King's Men:
A Recession Proof Industry
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Very Disappointing
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (87) New CMS Report Shows Higher Expenditures for Health Care Because More People Will Be Enrolled on the Exchange
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Car Chase:
The AM Gizmo—aPerfect Gift for Collector Car Drivers
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Loan Modification – You Qualify!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Miranda asks about a place sacred to the Indians where magnetic fields converge.
Sound Check:
On the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Genetic Discrimination
Akron Gamer:
Obsessive compulsive gaming
New book compiles late David Halberstam's articles
Published on Sunday, May 11, 2008
EVERYTHING THEY HAD By David Halberstam
(Hyperion, 448 pages, $24.95)
Even if you have no interest in sports, you can enjoy David Halberstam's graceful writing about them.
Halberstam, who was killed in a car crash last year at age 73, won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1964 for his coverage of the Vietnam War, and was nominated as a finalist this year in the history category for The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.
He elevated any subject he tackled — war, politics, history and sports — with his eloquence and ability to find what was not obvious.
No one was better at combining narrative storytelling with reporting. His books read like good novels. Who else could have made it impossible to put down a book on a baseball team from decades past or a group of rowers trying to make the 1984 Olympic squad?
He works that magic in Everything They Had, a compilation of articles he wrote for other publications.
Halberstam covers the expected, such as baseball, football and basketball, and the esoteric — fishing, fencing, fitness — and why people are interested in sports beyond the betting line.
In Sports as a Window of Social Change, he talks about his dual roles as serious writer and sports writer, saying that although the worlds rarely connect, ''sports has been an excellent window through which to monitor changes in the rest of society. . . . ''
He also sees sports as a way the nation has bolstered a short history and ongoing search for an American culture.
In Baseball and the National Mythology, he points out that ''Washington is not the ideal spot for Camelot, and our politics are more given to venality, drudgery, boredom and frustration than to beautiful people and soaring ideas, so it is not surprising that we turn to sports for our myths.''
In writing about Michael Jordan at the peak of his career, Halberstam watches as he handles a crowd waiting for him to leave a hotel and board the Chicago Bulls bus. He describers Jordan as being in ''Michael Mode,'' smiling, signing autographs and moving quickly through the sea of loving fans.
''I have not seen fame like this in almost 30 years,'' Halberstam writes, comparing Jordan to Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy and Mick Jagger.
Then Halberstam goes on to point out that almost 45 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league sports, Jordan became one of only two black American athletes (the other was Magic Johnson) who had become true crossover heroes, beloved by both black and white fans.
Everything They Had is a book to savor and to which to frequently return.
— Mary FosterAssociated Press
EVERYTHING THEY HAD By David Halberstam
(Hyperion, 448 pages, $24.95)
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
