Review by Budd Bailey An interesting character, this Phil Mickelson. He can be funny, smart, mysterious, petty, giving, loyal, cocky and generous – all in the same week, or so…
Book Review: Phil
Review: Role of a Lifetime
Review by Budd Bailey The idea in the game of basketball is to score more points than the opposing team and win the game, one way or another. There might…
Book Review: Swagger
Review by Budd Bailey Jimmy Johnson can be a difficult personality to love. After all, this was someone who jumped from coaching the University of Miami (Florida) after a great…
Book Review: Freedom to Win
Review by Budd Bailey When it comes to emotion and drama in international hockey games, the standard was set in 1972 in the Super Series between Canada and the Soviet…
Book Review: The Lineup
Review by Budd Bailey Paul Aron has given himself quite a challenge, and it’s revealed in the subtitle to “The Lineup.” It reads, “Ten Books That Changed Baseball.” Fans of…
Review: In the Inner Sanctum
Review by Budd Bailey There probably isn’t a better boxing writer out there than Thomas Hauser. He’s been out there forever, it seems, writing about the Sweet Science. Much of…
Book Review: Baseball Prospectus 2023
Review by Budd Bailey There have been baseball seasons without the Baseball Prospectus, of course. We’re only in the 28th edition of the annual publication. But we certainly weren’t as…
Book Review: Game of Edges
Review by Budd Bailey Perhaps the biggest overall story about professional sports these days might be the most underreported story as well. Not surprisingly, it’s about money. It’s almost always…
Book Review: Boom Town
Review by Budd Bailey “Boom Town” recently popped up in a recently circulated article on the best sports books of our time, basketball division. I hadn’t heard about it, but…
Book Review: Baseball at the Abyss
Review by Budd Bailey Let’s go back in time almost a century, to the baseball offseason of 1926-27. It was almost a bad news/good news time when it came to…
Review: Coach K
Review by Budd Bailey In the spring of 2022, it was relatively easy to be tired of Mike Krzyzewski. The longtime Duke basketball coach had announced in the summer of…
Book Review: A Damn Near Perfect Game
Review by Budd Bailey There probably is a good book floating around in Joe Kelly’s head. “A Damn Near Perfect Game” isn’t it. The hard-throwing right-hander has had an unusual…
Book Review: The Cap
Review by Budd Bailey It might be the most important day in American sports history that no one notices, let alone celebrates. The day is October 8, 1982. The National…
Book Review: Never Ask “Why”
Review by Budd Bailey You’d have to call this one of the biggest surprises of the sports book year: a memoir by Ed Garvey, the executive director of the National…
