Title/Author:
“The Average Joe’s Super Sports Almanac” by Steve
Riach
Tags:
Sports, history,
trivia, humor
Publish date:
April 3, 2018
Length:
224 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (Very
good)
Review:
At times, it is
refreshing to read a book that is simply filled with interesting stories and
facts. Instead of delving into a
particular athlete, team or sport with minute detail, “The Average Joe’s Super
Sports Almanac” takes short stories, little-known facts and other tidbits of
information on a variety of sports and melds them together into a fun, quick
easy read.
Steve Riach uses his many years of covering a variety of sports to collect many entertaining facts and stories on various sports – mostly the main four team sports in North America and some Olympic stories as well. The subjects vary widely – from examples of excellent sportsmanship (the Olympics are the source of many of these anecdotes) to funny quotes to unusual facts.
To illustrate the
variety of topics, here are three facts that the reader will learn while reading
this book. First, one of the most memorable golf meltdowns occurred on April
14, 1996 when Greg Norman lost a big lead in the final round of the
Masters. Coincidently, April 14 is also
when two other tragedies occurred: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the
sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Second,
the athletes with the most Instagram followers is LeBron James with over 26
million followers. Other athletes with
large followings on social media are Stephan Curry, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ronda
Rousey and Dwayne Wade. Third, the only member of any sports Hall of Fame born
on a train was Rod Carew.
These types of unusual facts, along with some humorous quotes (who can forget Latrell Sprewell rejecting a $29 million contract from the Timberwolves because “I’ve got my family to feed”?) and stories of the origins of several sports make the book a fun one to not only read in short bursts but also one that can be used to settle bets or instigate a debate. This latter idea will most likely happen after the readers learns the author’s choices for the greatest teams in the four major sports (I agreed with three of his four choices).
Any sports fan, no
matter how big a fan he or she is, will enjoy this book that is a quick and
easy read that can be finished easily in one sitting or enjoyed in short
bursts, depending on the preference of the reader. Because so many sports are
covered in this volume, no matter which sport readers prefers, they are sure to
find something interesting about their favorite game.
I wish to thank Harvest House Publishers for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
Buying Links:
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