Summer in Southern New England: beach, umbrella, sand, sun, blanket, pool, fried clams, Del’s Lemonade, grilling, sailing, ice cream, Bristol’s 4th of July Parade.
And a good book.
Graphic novel, thriller, mystery, biography, historical fiction, science fiction, romance. It makes no difference so long as you can lose yourself in the pages — and occasionally doze with the open book slowly rising and falling on your chest with every breath.
Of course, we have sports books as well to read. Here are my suggestions for these lazy, hazy days. Pack one for your next trip to the beach or to the lounge chair in your backyard. Let me know what you are reading at mszostak@ripr.org.
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball Keith O’Brien, Pantheon Books, 440 pages, 2024
O’Brien, a New York Times best-selling author, takes us on the long and winding road of Pete Rose’s baseball, gambling and philandering careers. From his childhood in Cincinnati to his seasons with the hometown Reds to his banishment from baseball, it’s all here. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Rose, baseball’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and singles (3,215), is also the game’s most flawed hero. He should be in the Hall of Fame, but his addiction to gambling — he started pitching pennies as a kid and later wagered on horses, dogs, and games — led to his betting on baseball, an unpardonable transgression that slammed the door to Cooperstown in his face.
Rose surrounded himself with a colorful cast of groupies, bookies, go-fers. O’Brien interviewed dozens of relatives, friends, teammates and opponents. Tommy Gioiosa of New Bedford, like Rose a scrappy ball player, was among them. Gioiosa met the Reds star by chance at spring training. Before long he was part of Rose’s inner circle living a life beyond his wildest fantasies. He drove Rose’s expensive cars, picked up his mistresses, placed his bets. He also served time in federal prison.
Rose, 83, is a regular at card shows, living off his autograph. How did he come by his nickname? Read the book.
The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II
Buzz Bissinger, HarperCollins, 455 pages, 2022
World War II in the Pacific was a bloody, horrific campaign one island at a time on the way to Japan. Buzz Bissinger, who gave us Friday Night Lights, provides gritty details of amphibious assaults, jungle warfare, a fanatical enemy and the U.S. Marines who uprooted them from their coral caves, especially on Okinawa.
Bissinger focuses on a group of former college football players still in their 20s from Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Fordham, California, Brown and other big-time programs at the time. Yes, Brown was a football school in the 1920s and ‘30s. John J. McLaughry, Jr., a son of Providence and Brown football coach Tuss McLaughry, was the star blocking back and linebacker for the Bruins – now known as the Bears – and plays a prominent role in this story.
Sixty-five Marines from the 29th and 4th Regiments — 56 with college football experience, 16 drafted or offered contracts by NFL teams, 5 captains and 3 All-Americas — decided to settle bragging rights on the field. On Christmas Eve, 1944, 1,500 Marines ringed the Guadalcanal parade ground, which had been mostly cleared of coral shards. Regimental bands played. The Mosquito Network broadcast the action throughout the Pacific. Stateside newspapers mentioned the contest. Two-hand touch devolved into all out tackle football. No pads. Players were bloodied from the hard hitting and the coral field. Two hours and four quarters later, the game ended. Final score: 0-0. Perfect.
Bissinger’s Mosquito Bowl story covers only 10 pages. The rest of his book describes the esprit de corps of the Marines and true heroism at the gates of hell. Of the 65 participants in the Mosquito Bowl, 15 died on Okinawa. John McLaughry survived. He coached football at Union and Amherst, returned to Providence and coached at Brown from 1959 to 1966. He directed the school’s summer and special programs until retiring in 1979. He died in 2007 at the age of 90.
All In: An Autobiography Billie Jean King, Alfred A. Knopf, 481 pages, 2021
Tennis star, social activist, visionary, leader, humanitarian, businesswoman, outspoken champion for equal rights. Billie Jean King has packed a lot into her 80 years. She shares details from the hard courts of Long Beach, Calif., her 39 Grand Slam championships — 20 at Wimbledon — her Battle of the Sexes showdown with Bobby Riggs that attracted 90 million viewers, her public disclosure of her sexuality and the price she and many close to her paid at a time when society still considered gay and lesbian people deviant. And much, much more.
This is a fascinating look at one of the most prominent figures of the last 100 years, a founder of the Women’s Tennis Association, World Team Tennis, and the Women’s Sports Foundation. BJK is a smart, feisty woman whose impact extends far beyond the tennis court.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics Daniel James Brown, Penguin Books, 404 pages, 2013
If you have seen the movie or the PBS documentary but have not read the book, you are missing out. For The Boys in the Boat is more than a feel-good-underdog-triumphs story. Yes, the University of Washington eight won Olympic gold in Berlin. But to get there they had to overcome economic hardship during the Great Depression, perform manual labor to pay their college expenses, trust each other and their coach, row faster than their bitter rival from the University of California and crews from the elite East. Finally, they had to dig deep to beat Hitler’s Aryan Supermen.
Rowing was a major sport in the 1930s. Thousands packed the shore when Washington and Cal raced in Seattle. A train rolled alongside so lucky spectators could follow the action. Races were broadcast on the radio. In those days oarsmen were sports heroes,
I love this book, especially its genesis. Judy Willman approaches Brown, her neighbor, and says her father wants to share a story. Brown trudges across a field to visit Joe Rantz. What a story he told! When I finished, I thought scholarship athletes in college today should be forced to read this to understand how fortunate they are.
The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness and the Making of Modern Sports Michael Waters, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 354 pages, 2024
Gender identity and sports is a hot topic in this Olympics year. You may not believe this, but the same was true in 1936. Michael Waters takes us back to those pre-war days during the Great Depression when sex, gender and transition concerned sports officials here and abroad. The more things change, the more they remain the same, right?
The backdrop here, of course, is the Berlin Olympics and Adolf Hitler’s attempts to purge German society of anything that would detract from his desired Aryan purity.
Story Days: Highlights from Four Decades Covering Sports Bill Reynolds, Stillwater River Publications, 282 pages, 2023
The late, great Bill Reynolds was a familiar face and by-line in the pages of the Providence Journal from the mid-1980s to 2021. He died last year at the age of 78.
This collection compiled by his partner Liz Abbott is a partial installment of Bill’s Greatest Hits. It’s a book you can pick up, read a column or two, put down and return to a few days later. It’s full of people stories. One example: In 1991 he visited Tommy Gioiosa, Pete Rose’s go-fer I referenced above, at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania. Read it, and the other 64 gems in these pages.
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments Joe Posnanski, Penguin Random House, 377 pages, 2023
Another put-it-down-go-for-a-run-pick-it-up book. Joe Posnanski loves baseball. His The Baseball 100 from 2021 belongs on every fan’s bookshelf, if such a thing still exists. His latest volume is a lineup of famous and not-so-famous stories starring famous and not-so-famous players from the annals of hardball. All are entertaining.
Go Up for Glory Bill Russell, Coward-McAnn-Berkley Medallion, 170 pages, 1966
Bill Russell wrote this little memoir after the 1965 season, when the Boston Celtics won their eighth championship. I still have the paperback copy that I read when I was a high-school junior.
Russell was smart, opinionated, funny and committed to winning. Eleven championships in 13 seasons with the Celtics are proof. He also was a champion for civil rights and never hesitated to speak out about the discrimination and prejudice he saw all around him.
This is a perfect read in the wake of the Celtics’ 18th championship season and Russell’s death in 2022. It’s more than a book about basketball.
This list should get you started. If you want more, read anything by John Feinstein, David Maraniss, Leigh Montville, Dan Shaughnessey, or the late David Halberstam, Frank Deford, Roger Angell or Roger Kahn.
