Masters of the Games: Essays and Stories on Sport

by Joseph Epstein

Overview

In this collection, his twenty-fifth book, Joseph Epstein departs from writing about literature and culture to indulge his fondness for the world of sport in all its forms. In these essays and stories on such subjects as saving Joe DiMaggio’s reputation from the clutches of an iconoclastic biographer, marveling at the skills of Michael Jordan, shaking free of an addiction to radio sports talk shows, or contemplating the changing nature of the games he grew up with and played as a boy, Epstein turns writing about sports into an art at once penetrating and highly amusing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442236530
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/09/2015
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Joseph Epstein is the former editor of The American Scholar. For thirty years he taught English at Northwestern University. His essays, short stories, and reviews have appeared in many magazines, both in America and abroad, among them The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Commentary, and the London Times Literary Supplement. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Obsessed with Sport 1

Essays

A Boy's Favorite Author 15

This Sporting Life 31

Confessions of a Low Roller 47

Balls-Up 63

Ep, the Bulls Are Six-Point Dogs 75

The Thrill of Defeat 83

Open Another Can of Quarterback 97

The Old Ball Game 103

Wrigley Field 111

Red Smith 117

Jocks

Joe DiMaggio: Where'd He Go? 127

Michael Jordan: He Flies through the Air 139

Hank Greenberg: Designated Mensch 149

Bob Love: The Unknown Superstar 155

Stories

The Goldin Boys 171

Danny Montoya 195

Out of Action 211

Short Takes

Hats Off 229

A Sartorial Double Fault 233

The Running of the Bulls 237

Best Seat in the House 241

A Super (Yawn) Sunday 245

A Secret Vice 249

Sport Magazine 253

The Agony of Da Feet 257

Opinionations

The Sports Leninist 263

Aren't We Grand? 267

Bored with Baseball? 271

March Sanity 275

The Joy of Not Being There 279

Leave the Kids Alone 283

Don't Hide Your Eyes, Unionize 287

Summing Up

Trivial Pursuits 293

Still Hooked 307

Editorial Reviews

12/08/2014
Chicago-born sportswriter Epstein makes himself the focal point of nearly every essay in this cavalier collection of previously published pieces by the former editor of the American Scholar. A review of David Halberstam’s 1999 Michael Jordan bio, Playing for Keeps, for example, transforms into Epstein’s own memories of growing up a young athlete and sports fan in Chicago. Multiple pieces seem to exist for no other reason than for Epstein to drop Gene Siskel’s name while marveling at the fantastic on-the-floor seats the renowned film critic snagged for him. Mercifully, Epstein includes three solid pieces of fiction set in Chicago in the middle of this collection, the best of which is simply titled “The Goldin Boys,” a coming-of-age story told through the melancholy eyes of a physician whose best boyhood friends were popular twin athletes. Epstein’s eulogy for the long-gone magazine Sport, from which he turned down a $500 writing assignment in 1970, is also worth a read—in part because the author, in a rare moment of humility, admits regret for passing up the gig. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A tribute to sports and its pleasures by one of our master writers.

American Spectator

Masters of the Games, Mr. Epstein's collection of sports-themed essays, memoir vignettes and short stories, shows a writerly approach to sports without the usual clichés. This is not a book about playing catch across the generations. And the simplicity of Mr. Epstein's argument is winning. The essence of sport, he says, is 'the practice of craft at a very high order' married to 'the absence of fraudulence and fakery.'

The Wall Street Journal

The erudite and witty Epstein, former editor of The American Scholar, has from the time of his Chicago childhood been a devoted, habituated sports fan, although in a prolific career, this is his first book on the subject. There are long and short nonfiction pieces here and three related short stories.. .. [T]here is. .. a good deal of eloquence and insight. His opening piece on John R. Tunis, the author of children’s sports books, is especially well done and will stir memories in several generations of mostly male readers. Essays on standout individual sports figures, sometimes in the context of reviews of others’ books, are also quite good. The emphasis is on the Windy City (Michael Jordan, Bob Love, the Cubs) and secondarily on Jewish athletes, including Hank Greenberg, but neither focus is a detriment.

Booklist

Epstein is well-known, well-regarded and remarkably prolific, yet despite an affection for sports that dates back to his Chicago childhood, this is his first book on the subject. Consider it worth the wait.. .. His understanding of the nature of his fandom offers a reflection of our own sporting interests. .. [I]t’s when Epstein personalizes that he’s at his most engaging. Stories about his boyhood predilection for sports and his self-recognized desire for style as opposed to substance on the playing field paint a wonderful portrait of the youthful sports fan of an era bygone.. .. [H]e’s phenomenal when he offers his thoughts on the inherent irrationality of being a sports fan – particularly as the times have changed.. .. Put it all together and it makes for a remarkable collection of one man’s legacy of fandom.. .. Masters of the Games is a book that will draw in the sports fan, with an understanding of the highs and lows that come with loving a game or a team.

The Maine Edge

The erudite and witty Epstein, former editor of The American Scholar, has from the time of his Chicago childhood been a devoted, habituated sports fan, although in a prolific career, this is his first book on the subject. There are long and short nonfiction pieces here and three related short stories. . . . [T]here is . . . a good deal of eloquence and insight. His opening piece on John R. Tunis, the author of children’s sports books, is especially well done and will stir memories in several generations of mostly male readers. Essays on standout individual sports figures, sometimes in the context of reviews of others’ books, are also quite good. The emphasis is on the Windy City (Michael Jordan, Bob Love, the Cubs) and secondarily on Jewish athletes, including Hank Greenberg, but neither focus is a detriment.

Booklist