Thomas Hauser on Sports

About

Thomas Hauser is best known as Muhammad Ali’s biographer and for his recording of the contemporary boxing scene. Booklist called Hauser “the most respected boxing journalist working today and perhaps the best ever.” Robert Lipsyte said Hauser is “the best boxing writer of our time.” Still, Hauser’s love of sports began not with boxing but with baseball. Long before he turned to the sweet science, America’s national pastime had captured his heart. His childhood allegiance was to the New York Yankees.

Growing up in the suburbs of New York, he cheered for the Giants in football and Knicks in basketball. In college, the often-hapless Columbia Lions became his cause.

Thomas Hauser on Sports brings together Hauser’s articles on sports other than boxing. It combines personal memories with issue-oriented commentary and an intimate look at some of the most remarkable athletes of modern times. Hauser has dealt one-on-one with Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Arnold Palmer, Pete Rose, Arthur Ashe, Wilt Chamberlain, and other giants of sports. He has crossed swords with the likes of Marvin Miller and Howard Cosell. Thomas Hauser on Sports is a remarkable journey that begins in the days of Hauser’s youth and follows the games we play into the era of steroids and multi-billion-dollar television contracts.

Author

Thomas Hauser is the author of forty-four books. His first work, Missing, was made into an Academy Award–winning film. He later authored Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, the definitive biography of the most famous fighter ever. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism.

Praise

“Strongly recommended for the quality of the work as well as the informal overview it provides of sports over the last 40 years.”
—Booklist

“Thomas Hauser is a rare writer who puts sports in the context of American life.”
—Jerry Izenberg

Contents

A Word of Introduction

When the World Was Young
A Yankee Fan Grows Older
“Hello, Kid”: A Conversation with Babe Ruth
When Time Stopped for Baseball
The Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played
Hero
Jerry Izenberg: An Appreciation
Bill Bradley Remembered
Wilt Chamberlain (1936–1999)
Ted Williams (1918–2002)
Howard Cosell (1918–1995)
Arthur Ashe (1943–1993)
Are Baseball Players Happy?: A Personal Memory of Marvin Miller
Arnold Palmer at Seventy-Five
The Political Side of Arnold Palmer
Invite Everyone to the Dance
The Ten Greatest Moments in American Sports
The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
Extreme-Ultimate-No-Holds-Barred Fighting
Sport Magazine and Those Total Encyclopedias
Upset ! ! !
Larry Merchant: Play 42
Black and White and Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year”
Hypocrisy at West Point
West Point Revisited
Tim McCarver
If Disaster Strikes
The NFL Overtime Rule
Roar, Lion, Roar: Columbia Football
Columbia Basketball
Columbia Baseball
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop: A Sports Fan Is Painted by LeRoy Neiman
Mickey Mantle: A Personal Remembrance
Marv Albert: “Yesss!”
Pete Rose: A Meeting Remembered
Baseball’s Steroid Problem
In the Press Box
Courtside with David Diamante
I Could Always Hit a Baseball
Destroying the High Temple
Long Ago at Madison Square Garden