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Summary
Summary
Frank Deford is one of the most beloved sports journalists in America. A contributing writer to Sports Illustrated for more than fifty years, and a longtime correspondent on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel , these days, Deford is perhaps best known for his weekly commentaries on NPR's "Morning Edition." Since 1980, Deford has recorded 1,600 of them, and in I'd Know That Voice Anywhere he brings together the very best, creating a charming, insightful, and wide-ranging look at athletes and the world of sports.
In I'd Know That Voice Anywhere , Deford discusses everything from sex scandals and steroids to why, in a culture dominated by celebrity, sport is the only field on earth where popularity and excellence thrive in tandem. This page-turning compendium covers more than thirty years of sports history while showcasing the vast range of Deford's interests and opinions, including his thoughts on the NCAA, why gay athletes "play straight," and why he's worried about living in an economy that is so dominated by golfers. A rollicking sampler of one of NPR's most popular segments, I'd Know That Voice Anywhere is perfect for sports enthusiasts--as well as sports skeptics--and a must-read for any Frank Deford fan.
Author Notes
Benjamin Franklin Deford III was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 16, 1938. He graduated from Princeton University in 1962. He began his career at Sports Illustrated as a researcher. He wrote for Sports Illustrated for more than 30 years, appeared on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel for 22 years, and gave 1,656 weekly commentaries for NPR's Morning Edition. He was a six-time Sportswriter of the Year, a National Magazine Award recipient, a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and the first sportswriter to be given a National Humanities Medal. He wrote both fiction and nonfiction books including two memoirs entitled Alex: The Life of a Child and Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. He died on May 28, 2017 at the age of 78.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
Deford, senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated, has delivered nearly 2,000 commentaries on NPR since 1980. He has a wickedly droll sense of humor, which, when coupled with his encyclopedic knowledge of sports, results in commentaries that are incisive, amusing, touching, or incendiary in various combinations. This collection brings together his favorites, including the 2008 piece, The Super Bard, in which Deford posed as ink-stained wretch Bill Shakespeare and offered a short play featuring a Sideline Wench along with reporters Wilbonstern and Kornheisercranz, who ask Patriots quarterback Tom Brady a question for the ages, Brady, Brady what is afoot with thou? In 2010, he took on FIFA, the incredibly corrupt governing body of international soccer. A 1999 piece ponders the cultural significance of Joe DiMaggio and asks how we mere mortals measure ourselves against our heroes. His tribute to basketball coaching legend Al McGuire, shortly after his passing, celebrates the joyful humanity of the effervescent coach and gently prescribes that we all live life a little more like Al. A rich collection for anyone interested in the sporting life.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Deford is a skilled and versatile writer on sports and other topics who has been associated with Sports Illustrated for over 50 years. In addition, his three-minute sports commentaries on National Public Radio's (NPR) "Morning Edition" have been a staple for many listeners since 1980, with a slight gap from 1989 to 1991, when he edited the ill-fated daily sports newspaper the National. From roughly 2,150 NPR commentaries, Deford has culled 98 to be included in this collection, arranged to provide a mix of subjects and tone. Deford claims the transition from spoken to written word is "99 44/100ths pure," only occasionally editing the originals. A 1983 essay on baseball and language adds a sentence about Bill Clinton's politics, but the pieces mostly hold up on their own. The essays tend to be light and frothy amusing interludes; quick reads that do not go into much depth and generally concern sports' impact on and reflection of our culture. Readers learn that Deford likes human interest pieces and charming characters such as former college basketball coach Al McGuire and does not care for soccer, the NCAA, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, touchdown celebrations, and modern uniforms. -VERDICT Primarily of interest to NPR listeners, regardless of whether they enjoy sports.-John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Please, let's face it, where there are games, people will bet. It's idiotic to run away from that fact. Indeed, in many countries, national lotteries are based on soccer results. In a grown-up place like England, you can walk into any neighborhood betting shop and get a wager down on just about any event, including even, say, the British Open and Wimbledon. And, you know, I haven't heard a single suggestion that Phil Mickelson or Anna Kournikova haven't won the championships because gamblers have gotten to them. But the American sports leagues love to maintain this fiction that gamblers are a threat to their games. By making a big fuss about this, the leagues can then shout about what a wonderful job they're doing in saving their games from fixes. It's like the guy sitting on the street corner waving his arms. "What are you doing? "I'm keeping the elephants away." "I don't' see any elephants." "See, I'm keeping them away." The NFL, the NHL, the NBA and baseball are doing a great job of keeping the elephants away. The players in our professional leagues simply make too much money, which is why what few attempted fixes there are invariably involve poor college kids with no pro future. Yet, the leagues have a whipping boy. It would be as if President Bush regularly talked about the threat to America of the Bolsheviks or the Barbary pirates. Excerpted from Sweetness and Light by Frank Deford All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. xiii |
| 1 Mass and Class, Together | p. 3 |
| Words to Play By | p. 5 |
| Our Indecent joys | p. 8 |
| Sisters, 1 and 1-A | p. 10 |
| By the Seat of Their Pants | p. 12 |
| The Groundhog Games | p. 15 |
| Back in the Day | p. 18 |
| 2 Sports Are in the Union, Too? | p. 23 |
| Spittin' Image | p. 25 |
| The Other Winnie-the-Pooh | p. 28 |
| Little Big Man | p. 31 |
| Stoodint Athaleets | p. 33 |
| The Real Bad Guys | p. 35 |
| The Volunteer State | p. 38 |
| 3 The Pursuit of Sports | p. 45 |
| Baseball's Sad Lexicon | p. 47 |
| To an Athlete Leaving Young | p. 50 |
| The All-Purpose Sports Movie | p. 52 |
| The Other Sports Violence | p. 55 |
| Another Way to Win | p. 58 |
| Par for the Course | p. 60 |
| 4 The Super Bard | p. 65 |
| Worse Even Than Us? | p. 69 |
| Where Have We Gone? | p. 71 |
| Me and Paul | p. 74 |
| Bad Bubbly | p. 76 |
| We're Number 33! | p. 78 |
| Trading Up | p. 80 |
| 5 Football Are Us | p. 85 |
| The Victim | p. 87 |
| Euro Exceptionalism | p. 89 |
| I Can Work Longer Than You | p. 91 |
| The Snakes in the Garden of Sports | p. 93 |
| Chicago | p. 95 |
| Put an End to It | p. 98 |
| 6 Give and Go | p. 103 |
| Pretty Good | p. 105 |
| Mister Misses | p. 107 |
| His Refuge | p. 109 |
| You're It is Out | p. 111 |
| The Last in the Line | p. 113 |
| Hailing Proudly Too Often | p. 115 |
| 7 Kept Men | p. 121 |
| Seashells and Balloons | p. 123 |
| Keeping the Elephants Away | p. 126 |
| Real vs. Reality | p. 129 |
| That Sunday of Ours | p. 132 |
| Play a Fore | p. 135 |
| Home Alone | p. 137 |
| 8 Match Play | p. 143 |
| Up to Speed | p. 146 |
| Did He Say That? | p. 148 |
| Da Boys Will Be Boys | p. 150 |
| Time to Go | p. 152 |
| A Good Aim | p. 154 |
| Deliverance | p. 156 |
| 9 Who Needs War? | p. 161 |
| Headmaster | p. 163 |
| Girl Watching | p. 165 |
| Too Much to Care | p. 167 |
| Namesake | p. 170 |
| The Patriots Act | p. 172 |
| The Forgotten (Well, Briefly) | p. 175 |
| 10 All Guys All the Time | p. 179 |
| Loyal (Sports) Alumni | p. 181 |
| The Old Butterfly | p. 183 |
| Sound Off | p. 185 |
| Past-ism | p. 187 |
| Let's Give 'Em a Hand | p. 189 |
| Southern Comfort | p. 191 |
| 11 Artful | p. 195 |
| Gone Fishin' | p. 197 |
| Nouveau Heart and Mind | p. 200 |
| Little Big Man | p. 202 |
| Life in the Time of Drugs | p. 204 |
| GMs and ADs | p. 206 |
| End of a Love Affair | p. 208 |
| 12 Presidential Exploitation | p. 213 |
| Wistful Day | p. 215 |
| Fat Chance | p. 218 |
| Game Changer | p. 221 |
| There's No "I" in U.S.A. | p. 223 |
| Gimme That Old-Time Momentum | p. 225 |
| Mulligans | p. 227 |
| 13 The Other State U's | p. 231 |
| The Fenway Park Address | p. 234 |
| Getting to Know You | p. 236 |
| Patriot Games | p. 238 |
| August Song | p. 241 |
| The Rev. Mr. Coach | p. 243 |
| Used to Be | p. 246 |
| 14 Blessed Are the Pure | p. 251 |
| Speaking of Sports | p. 253 |
| Life Among the Idle Fans | p. 256 |
| Juiced | p. 259 |
| Don't Tie One On | p. 262 |
| Paying Through the Noseguard | p. 264 |
| Sweetness and Light | p. 267 |