Gods at Play

June 1, 2020
A heavily credentialed and well-traveled sportswriter spins yarns about the old ballgames. Golf. Tennis. Boxing. Baseball. Basketball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird. Bill Walton. Arthur Ashe. Jackie Robinson. Roberto Clemente. Pete Rose and the rest of the Big Red Machine. Newspaperman and magazine profiler Callahan rounds the bases as he chronicles his close encounters with many of the most prominent athletes of the last half-century. Fans of the author will recognize the meandering yet readable storytelling style and some of the same characters from The Bases Were Loaded (And So Was I). A young Callahan commiserated with an elder Red Smith; at their best, these pieces recall that legend of the press box's outside-the-lines approach, if not exactly his unassuming mien on the page. Certainly, this part-memoir, part-profile compilation reflects a time before social media, when athletes needed sportswriters. The underside of close, personal access is that writers who ingratiate themselves with sources sometimes cut deals about what makes it into print, which could raise questions about motive and veracity. The narrative spell is also periodically broken when Callahan includes long, sometimes-tinny quotes from athletes. Still, just as the best sportswriters put a topcoat on memory, allowing us to appreciate the plays and players more than when we first saw them, the author's skill at showing public figures in private moments is evident, and he spares readers the usual arguments about who was the greatest to lace up a pair of sneakers. Particularly intriguing are Callahan's portraits of Bill Walsh and Tiger Woods. In 2018, writes the author, "the new Tiger was a better guy. Standing on the practice green or striding down the fairway, he actually chatted with golf's brigade of good young players who, almost to a man, had been drawn to the game by him." Sports fans will find a smooth and pleasant ride on this trip back in time.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 12, 2020
Sportswriter Callahan recalls the most memorable moments from his career with grace and humanity in this resonant memoir. Callahan’s career began in 1966 in the Baltimore Evening Sun’s newsroom, followed by stints at papers in San Diego, Calif.; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Washington, D.C., before a tenure at Time magazine. Rather than focus on individual games, Callahan homes in on anecdotes that reveal the inner lives of the men and women who played them. For example, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explains how, ashamed of his height in his youth, he looked to the Empire State Building as a positive role model; Muhammad Ali told Callahan, “My destiny is at stake,” in an intimate moonlit conversation about an upcoming fight with George Foreman; and baseball great Pete Rose shared that his white teammates disdained him, (“they called him a hotdog for trying to do things he couldn’t”) while his Black teammates “treated me like a human being.” Callahan’s seamless mixture of tales from his own career and wisdom gleaned from the athletes he covered makes for a strong offering all-around. The book works as both a paean to sportswriting’s glory days and a lyrical reminder that athletes have rich lives away from the stadium lights.