Greed and Glory

April 30, 2018
Sporting News editor Deveney (Fun City) wonderfully captures some of the boldest and outrageous events and personalities of 1980s New York City. While New Yorkers remember the chaos of the city ruled by Mayor Ed Koch, Deveney recalls how they cheered when the Cinderella baseball team, the New York Mets, won the 1986 World Series, and the New York Giants dominated the Super Bowl. The use of cocaine went unchecked, be it by Wall Street traders or athletes, including stars Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Lawrence Taylor. Developer Donald Trump, new owner of the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, sued the mighty NFL in a failed attempt at a merger and lost millions. Graft and corruption tainted the Koch administration, which was rocked by political scandal and a weak response to the AIDS epidemic, while U.S. attorney Rudolph Giuliani’s intense targeting of organized crime resulted in convictions of many mobsters. In the final chapter, Deveney writes that by the second week of October 1987 “there was some grim feeling around the American economy”on Wall Street ahead of Black Monday. Brash and colorful, Deveney’s tabloid-style prose perfectly captures the greed, glory, and decay of a glittering metropolis.