Book Shelf: Bill Russell Offers Look Into Red Auerbach's Life
In Boston, Marc Spears noted Basketball HOFer Bill Russell and author Alan Steinberg have written "Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend." The book, about Russell's "close relationship" with late Celtics President RED AUERBACH, is due out May 5 (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/12). In Providence, Kevin McNamara wrote there is "another side" to Auerbach, and Russell, the "greatest Celtic of them all, ... wants people to know about it." Russell: "Everybody knew he was a great coach and a great executive but he also knew how to be a great friend. ... I wanted to honor him and our friendship but also tell the people, and especially his kids, what a good guy he was. We worked together for 13 years and that developed a lifelong friendship" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 4/15).
PAPA BEAR: CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS' Ed Sherman wrote Chicago Tribune columnist MELISSA ISAACSON's book, "SWEET LOU: LOU PINIELLA, A LIFE IN BASEBALL," is an "interesting portrait of the Cubs manager." Isaacson "talks to everybody and anybody to get all sides of the man," and the end result portrays Piniella "as a complex individual." There is the "fire that is his trademark" in the book, but there also is "plenty of compassion as you see the care in which he handles players" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 4/13).
INSIDE PITCH: In Boston, Michael Silverman wrote N.Y. Times writer BRUCE WEBER's "AS THEY SEE 'EM: A FAN'S TRAVELS IN THE LAND OF UMPIRES," is the "best baseball book I've read in a long time." Weber "gives the reader a sympathetic peek behind the mask, as well as a thorough recounting of the history of men in blue." Silverman noted Weber "attended JIM EVANS' umpiring school and not only did he get first-hand experience in the physical grind and mental vise umps must endure but he gets to know the back stories of the young umpires-in-training." Weber also umpired an Angels-Giants '07 Spring Training game (BOSTON HERALD, 4/12).
GALAXY OF INTRIGUE: REUTERS' Claudia Parsons reported SI writer GRANT WAHL has written, "THE BECKHAM EXPERIMENT," which is due out in July. Book publisher Crown Publishing Group in a statement said Wahl in the book "provides a detailed account of [Galaxy MF DAVID BECKHAM's] aspirations and worries about his American adventure, his interactions with Galaxy teammates making as little as $12,900 a year, his icy relationships with" Galaxy F LANDON DONOVAN and former Galaxy President & GM Alexi Lalas. The statement also said that the book would "reveal the story of how Beckham's management company, 19 Entertainment, 'engineered a shadow takeover of Galaxy'" (REUTERS, 4/15).
MORE THAN A GAME: Retired LPGAer AMY ALCOTT appeared on CBS’ “The Early Show” this morning to promote her new book, “THE LEADERBOARD: CONVERSATIONS ON GOLF AND LIFE.” The book includes conversations with PRESIDENT CLINTON and actor JACK NICHOLSON. Alcott said it is “about how golf intersected with their lives and what’s compelled them to play it.” Alcott: “Golf is the toughest thing to master. People who do things -- and they do them really well -- they find golf just so tempting because they want to master it and it’s not a sport you can master" (“The Early Show,” CBS, 4/16).
UNDER REVIEW: In DC, David Broder noted PAUL DICKSON's book, "THE DICKSON BASEBALL DICTIONARY, THIRD EDITION," contains 10,000 entries in a "974-page doorstop of a volume." Dickson is a "generous editor, supplying as many definitions as each word requires in baseball lingo," as there are "15 baseball meanings for hook, 13 for slot, 11 each for break, jump and cut" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/9)....The FINANCIAL TIMES' Stefan Stern wrote LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe's book, "THE WINNING MIND: DEVELOPING INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND DELIVERING WINNING RESULTS," is a "fairly conventional business book." But Coe in detailing his career as a U.K. track athlete "succeeds in presenting an intimate view of one of sport's great competitors" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 4/14).
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