A Great Game - Stephen J. Harper

Title: A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & the rise of professional hockey
Author: Stephen J. Harper
Pages: 320
Published: 2013
Challenges: I Love Libraries, Nonfiction Reading
Genre: Non-fiction, History, Sports
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: In the tumultuous beginnings of hockey, the fights were as much off the ice as on it. This engaging new book is about the hockey heroes and hard-boiled businessmen who built the game, and the rise and fall of legendary teams pursuing the Stanley Cup. With a historian’s perspective and fan’s passion, Stephen Harper presents a riveting and often-surprising portrait, capturing everything from the physical contests on the rinks to the battles behind the scenes and the changing social conventions of the twentieth century.

A Great Game shows that many things have stayed the same. Rough play, fervent hometown loyalties, owner-player contract disputes, dubious news coverage, and big money were issues from the get-go. Most important in these early years was the question: Was hockey to be a game of obsessed amateurs playing for the love of the sport, or was it a game for paid professionals who would give fans what they wanted? Who should be responsible for the sport – including its bouts of violence – both on and off the ice?

A century ago, rinks could melt, and by half time the blades screwed to the players’ shoes could be sinking in mud. It was during this time that teams such as the Toronto Professionals of 1908 and the Toronto Blue Shirts of 1914 took turns battling for the city’s very first Stanley Cup. Against the fanatical opposition of amateur hockey leaders, these “forgotten Leafs” would lay the groundwork for the world’s most profitable hockey franchise. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: For the most part, I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the descriptions of the various individuals that were involved in the rise of professional hockey and also those that resisted the change from the Stanley Cup being a challenge cup for amateur hockey players to a challenge cup for the professionals and the resistance from any sort of formation of the professional game.

While there was lots of information that Mr. Harper provided the reader, it was probably too much at times and it felt like he was saying the same sort of things several times.   Maybe it doesn't help that he's a  person that likes to use words a lot (he's the PM of Canada), but I sometimes felt that he didn't get to the point and was maybe a little too verbose at times, when less words would have sufficed to get his point across.  I wish he would have spent a little more time on the team itself rather on the formation of professional hockey in North America.

Bottom line: If you are a hockey fan or a sports fan and are interested in the rise of professional sports and have a general interest in the history of the early 1900s, you might interested in the book and it would be a worthwhile read. Recommended.

Rating: 4/5

Pages for 2014: 1310

Moneyball - Michael Lewis

Title: Moneyball: the art of winning an unfair game
Author: Michael Lewis
Pages: 320
Published: 2011 (originally published in 2003)
Genre: Non-fiction, Sports
Rating: 3.5/5

The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought.In major league baseball the biggest wallet is supposed to win: rich teams spend four times as much on talent as poor teams. But over the past four years, the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records. Last year their superstar, Jason Giambi, went to the superrich Yankees. It hasn't made any difference to Oakland: their fabulous season included an American League record for consecutive victories. Billy Beane, general manager of the Athletics, is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles garnered from geek statisticians and college professors. Michael Lewis's brilliant, irreverent reporting takes us from the dugouts and locker rooms-where coaches and players struggle to unlearn most of what they know about pitching and hitting-to the boardrooms, where we meet owners who begin to look like fools at the poker table, spending enormous sums without a clue what they are doing. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: I read this book because of the movie and also because I had heard about on a sports podcast that I listen to on a regular basis.  The first book of Lewis' that I read was The Big Short and by the end of that one I was ready to finish it, as I felt that the subject was a tad dull and would never read another one of his books.  Well, I caved.  Overall I thought that it was a good read and that it had an interesting subject to talk about.  But, there were times that I had to just slog through the book and read it at times.   A bunch of the book flew over my head in terms of the statistics, but what was interesting to me was the history behind what would become moneyball.   I would recommend the book for those that like to read about the statistical analysis of professional athletes, especially baseball fans.

12084 / 15000 pages. 81% done!

Gretzky's Tears ; Stephen Brunt

From Chapters.ca: Renowned sportswriter Stephen Brunt reveals how "the Great One," who was bought and sold more than once, decided that the comfortable Canadian city where hockey ruled couldn't compete with the slushy ice of a California franchise.

Bobby Orr's career ended prematurely, with tears. Wayne Gretzky's tears, unlike Orr's, announced not an ending but another beginning. Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers had four Stanley Cup victories, but Gretzky may then have had other goals in mind.

Beginning with his dad, Walter, and continuing with Nelson Skalbania, Peter Pocklington, Bruce McNall, Jerry Buss - and with the CBC's Peter Gzowski as chronicler for the eager masses - the enormity of Gretzky's talent attracted all sorts of people who were after a variety of vicarious thrills.

Review: I really quite enjoyed it being as I am a hockey fan and have followed much of the exploits of what happened in regards to the NHL expansion since the mid-1990s and the eventual downfall of the game in the Southern United States. It was not only interesting from from my prospective as a hockey fan, but also as somebody who is interested in history and has been following the news stories in regards to the Phoenix Coyotes, which were once located in Winnipeg and were called the Jets and can recall the moves of various and formation of teams since 1994.

I also liked how Brunt integrated the climate of Canada as a country at the time of the Gretzky "trade" with the events surrounding his departure. While I was alive at the time and probably saw it on the news the day of the event, I recall the Ben Johnson scandal that hit the fan in the next 3 weeks afterwards. Its strange how one recalls certain events and not others, even though both are significant in terms of one's sporting history, especially when they occur within a few weeks of each other.