Review of “Marinovich”

This was one of those books that I wish I didn’t let sit in my TBR pile for so long. Former USC and Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich has penned a memoir that is very different than other books in this genre. This is my review.

Title/Author: “Marinovich: Outside the Lines in Football, Art and Addiction” by Todd Marinovich with Lizzy Wright

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: Todd Marinovich was seemingly born to be a football player. Not only did he show great promise as a quarterback in his days playing youth football, his father was Marv Marinovich, a former NFL player and coach. While he achieved success in high school and college football (the latter at USC) and was a first round draft pick of the then-Los Angeles Raiders, there was a demon Todd was battling: addiction. This memoir is a very good account by Todd of his struggles battling the disease.

I used “disease” because that’s how Marinovich described it for both himself and his father, although that didn’t occur until near the end of the book. He said Marv’s addiction (what he always called his father, never “Dad” or something similar) was physical conditioning and coaching while his was drugs and alcohol. While his story is not unique, this was written with quite a different tone than other sports memoirs. 

This is because Marinovich doesn’t focus on his childhood or his playing career. Due to his addiction, his time with the Raiders was brief, but did have some good games. After several attempts at recovery, he caught on in the Canadian Football League, but that didn’t pan out. He played one season in the Arena Football League and was named Rookie of the Year but like with all his other football teams (even at USC) he never could stay away from drugs.

Instead of football, Marinovich concentrated on telling the darker side of his struggles. He gives some very detailed and painful accounts of his arrests, failed rehabilitation sessions, and failed relationships including with his family. Even though he currently is living a decent life in Hawaii coaching youth football and crafting his artistic talent, he makes it clear that addiction is something he is still fighting every day. This is what makes this such a powerful book. It’s clear that he has many regrets and knows his issues but is trying every day to overcome them. Todd Marinovich must receive at least some praise for opening up like this to the world. 

I wish to thank Ben Bella Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.  

Link: https://benbellabooks.com/shop/marinovich/ 

Review of “Baddest Man”

This book grabbed my interest because of the author. Mark Kriegel wrote excellent biographies on two of my favorite childhood athletes, Joe Namath and Pete Maravich.  Knowing this and also that he covered boxing for a New York City newspaper during Mike Tyson’s era, I felt this would be an excellent book on him - I wasn’t disappointed.

Title/Author: “Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson” by Mark Kriegel

Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review: Mike Tyson is probably the most talked about boxer in the history of the sport aside from Muhammad Ali. His life has taken so many twists and turns. Despite all that has been already said and written about him, this book by bestselling author Mark Kriegel is excellent in not only its portrayal of Tyson, but also in its ability to make even those readers who think they can’t read anything new about him will find something they didn’t before.

While the book is about his life from his childhood in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn to his 91-second knockout of Michael Spinks in 1988 to unify the heavyweight championship of boxing, the prologue will grab a reader right away. Kriegel writes about Tyson, the father who is watching his daughter at a tennis match. From just this passage, it will be clear to readers that this will not be a typical sports biography.  

From there, Kriegel takes the reader on a journey that will not only reveal much about Tyson, but also provide in-depth looks at a variety of topics: poverty, crime, gang activity, the media’s love of celebrity issues, the crookedness of the boxing business and its characters, the greed of the 1980’s and so much more. None of these topics will be new to anyone, but the depth to which Kriegel writes about these topics, especially the business side of the sport, is excellent. It should be noted that Kriegel was a long time boxing writer for the New York Daily News, so his knowledge of this side of the sport is well-grounded.

While the fights Tyson had in the ring as an amateur, his failed attempt at making the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, and those as a professional are well covered (including the famous bout with Spinks), the work on Tyson’s life outside the ring is what makes this book so good. Kriegel writes about the myths on Tyson, especially in his days in Brownsville and those when he was taken in and mentored by Cus D’Amoto. Also noteworthy is Kriegel’s accounts of Tyson’s marriage to actress Robin Givens, his relationship with her mother Ruth Roper , his lack of business acumen when dealing with Jim Jacobs, Bill Clayton and especially Don King. If one remembers this time as a tangled, salacious time for what Tyson was doing, the reader will find out even more twists as Kriegel navigates then through all of the lies, deception, stories and craziness.

But one conclusion that one will make, no matter their view on Tyson as a person, is that it’s very clear that he was a person who lacked the love and support he wanted and would accept it from whomever would provide it. Nearly every person mentioned in the previous paragraph was doing that in some way and Tyson was always seeking it, no matter what it would do to him later.

Since this book only covers Tyson’s life up to that June 1988 night in Atlantic City and the anticipation that accompanied it, I am hoping Kriegel writes a sequel covering some of the other events that made Tyson such a compelling character. This book is highly recommended for any reader who wants to read about any aspect of Mike Tyson’s first 22 or so years of life. 

Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552034/baddest-man-by-mark-kriegel/ 

Review of “The Golf 100”

Having read many books over the years of “the greatest” whatever, I found this one a little different, mainly due to avoiding saying how one era was better than another. This is explained in my review of this book, “The Golf 100” 

Title/Author: “The Golf 100: A Spirited Ranking of the Greatest Players of All Time ” by Michael Arkush

Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review: Anytime a book will try to list the greatest athletes or teams in any sport, it will generate debate by readers. Many will disagree with the author and many will argue amongst themselves about who should be ranked where. This book by Michael Arkush, an accomplished golf writer, is one of the better ones that takes on this task.

What I like best about this book is that Arkush bases his rankings and opinions on how each golfer fared against their competitors during their era and their gender. He didn’t try to compare Tiger Woods against Bobby Jones or Anika Sorenstam against Babe Diedrikson. If the golfer was great during their time and won major tournaments (this was Arkush’s main measuring stick) they would make these rankings. 

Why he used this logic in grading these legendary golfers was best said by one of the all time greats, Bobby Jones:  “I think we must agree that all a man can do is beat the people who are around at the same time he is. He cannot win from those who came before any more than he can from those who may come afterward.”

Of course, this book would not be as good as it was without the excellent stories told about each golfer. Whether it was about Old Tom Morris and the early days of the sport, Mickey Wright’s swing that many consider to be the most pure one ever, or some of the biggest errors of judgement made that cost some of these great players even more major victories. Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson both rank fairly high on this list but Arkush would often refer to their bad moments, especially Norman. He also would mention when he felt golfers actually were underachieving despite all the wins they racked up. 

Even with these criticisms of golfers, this was one of the best books on ranking athletes I have read. Between the avoidance of comparing different eras, the excellent stories on eac one and the conversational style of the writing, it is one that is recommended for any golf reader.

I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own. 

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Golf-100-Spirited-Ranking-Greatest-ebook/dp/B0D8KBRHHR/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0