Rating: 
Summary: Queenan?s heart in the right place
Review: "True Believers" is a fairly short book, but it took me a few weeks to get through it. This is not a reflection on the quality of author Joe Queenan's writing but on the subject matter.Sports itself, as Queenan insistently and correctly reminds us, is more than "just a game", contrary to what some anti-sports bluenoses think. "How could you possibly compare the fate of the rain forest to the fate of the Philadelphia 76ers?" Queenan demands of his therapist. "You need to get your priorities straight." And he means it too, and rightly so. But while a proper treatment of the games themselves often requires volumes of material, sports FANDOM is a fairly lightweight topic scarcely worth the 200-plus pages of space that Queenan devotes to it. I got through the book by treating it as a series of disjointed articles, rather than as a number of points comprising an overall theme. And yet Queenan scores so many bulls-eyes through his observations about the art and practice of sports fandom that it's impossible for me to withhold praise for his effort. Foremost among his welcome observations is that it's OK to hate. You can't love a team or a specific athlete without being able to hate the object of your adoration. It's OK to hate the team that you root for, and the players on that team, if you feel that they've betrayed you. In fact, this hatred can be of the most extreme and virulent quality as long as it's never actualized. Queenan deplores fan violence and in the same breath goes on to state, "But to deny that one has ever seriously contemplated killing the place kicker is to deny one's own humanity. A fan who hasn't at least thought about killing the place kicker is really no fan at all." YES! Thank you, Joe Queenan, for giving me the freedom to fantasize about committing mayhem on pig-headed and fastball-stubborn Felix Rodriguez and namby-pamby lisping doughboy Tim Worrell, the two San Francisco Giant relief pitchers who smugly and treacherously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2002 World Series, ROBBING the Giants and their fans of the first world championship in the team's West Coast history. In fact, Rodriguez and Worrell would both repeat this perfidy in the 2003 Division Championship against the Florida Marlins. Is there an entrance to hell gaping widely enough to admit them? For that matter, one may properly allow one's passion for sports to interfere with his relationship with God, as well. Queenan is frank in acknowledging that he has never forgiven God for allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to choke away the 1964 pennant. Why should I forgive God for the 2002 World Series? I watched it with my 77 year-old father, who will probably never have another chance to see the Giants win a world championship. Queenan's point is that it is the very uniqueness of the skills possessed by the world's best athletes - far more distinctive than those possessed by other professionals - that give the games an epic quality that overshadows that which we call "real life". He estimates that there about 5,000 athletes in the world that are the subject of intense scrutiny - think of how small this number is in comparison to the numbers of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and social workers who are doing the so-called important work. After paying respect to family, money and career, Queenan ruefully observes, "But it's hard to relate to them viscerally. No matter how hard you try, you're never going to find 65,000 complete strangers willing to stand in subzero temperatures cheering for your bank statement." Small wonder that we venerate the athletes as gods and that they look down upon us as subjects. In turn, it's equally small wonder that we curse them when they fail us. Queenan also gives us an interesting chapter on the intensity of the British football fan. And by the time I finished reading his piece on the Notre Dame mystique, a chapter entitled "Fans Who See Green", I wished that I had been born Irish and Catholic. My main criticism of the book, other than its length, is that too much of it reads like an instructional manual. Queenan devotes too much time to explaining how-to and how-NOT-to follow sports. But he's too dogmatic. Both the sports fan's paradise and the sports fan's purgatory have many mansions, and each fan must follow his own path. It's rank Pharisaism for Queenan to insist that his is the only way. But the release of a book on "True Believers", on fans who love too much regardless of how they are rewarded, was timed perfectly, in light of the recent failures of both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, baseball's perennial also-rans with ever-loyal fan bases, to make it to the World Series. Both teams found a way to blow late-inning leads in the deciding games. How many Red Sox fans; how many Cub fans, Viking fans, Saints fans, Falcons fans, Vancouver Canuck fans etc. will die of old age waiting for the prize that never comes? How many have died already? Queenan pays proper homage both to the fans who stick around for more punishment and to those who break the cycle of hope and letdown, as one would break a drug habit, by giving up on their team. Chapter 9 of this book is entitled "Fans Who Walk Away". And as I finish the book, I am still left wondering which direction I am going to take with the San Francisco Giants.
Rating:
Summary: Queenan¿s heart in the right place
Review: "True Believers" is a fairly short book, but it took me a few weeks to get through it. This is not a reflection on the quality of author Joe Queenan's writing but on the subject matter. Sports itself, as Queenan insistently and correctly reminds us, is more than "just a game", contrary to what some anti-sports bluenoses think. "How could you possibly compare the fate of the rain forest to the fate of the Philadelphia 76ers?" Queenan demands of his therapist. "You need to get your priorities straight." And he means it too, and rightly so. But while a proper treatment of the games themselves often requires volumes of material, sports FANDOM is a fairly lightweight topic scarcely worth the 200-plus pages of space that Queenan devotes to it. I got through the book by treating it as a series of disjointed articles, rather than as a number of points comprising an overall theme. And yet Queenan scores so many bulls-eyes through his observations about the art and practice of sports fandom that it's impossible for me to withhold praise for his effort. Foremost among his welcome observations is that it's OK to hate. You can't love a team or a specific athlete without being able to hate the object of your adoration. It's OK to hate the team that you root for, and the players on that team, if you feel that they've betrayed you. In fact, this hatred can be of the most extreme and virulent quality as long as it's never actualized. Queenan deplores fan violence and in the same breath goes on to state, "But to deny that one has ever seriously contemplated killing the place kicker is to deny one's own humanity. A fan who hasn't at least thought about killing the place kicker is really no fan at all." YES! Thank you, Joe Queenan, for giving me the freedom to fantasize about committing mayhem on pig-headed and fastball-stubborn Felix Rodriguez and namby-pamby lisping doughboy Tim Worrell, the two San Francisco Giant relief pitchers who smugly and treacherously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2002 World Series, ROBBING the Giants and their fans of the first world championship in the team's West Coast history. In fact, Rodriguez and Worrell would both repeat this perfidy in the 2003 Division Championship against the Florida Marlins. Is there an entrance to hell gaping widely enough to admit them? For that matter, one may properly allow one's passion for sports to interfere with his relationship with God, as well. Queenan is frank in acknowledging that he has never forgiven God for allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to choke away the 1964 pennant. Why should I forgive God for the 2002 World Series? I watched it with my 77 year-old father, who will probably never have another chance to see the Giants win a world championship. Queenan's point is that it is the very uniqueness of the skills possessed by the world's best athletes - far more distinctive than those possessed by other professionals - that give the games an epic quality that overshadows that which we call "real life". He estimates that there about 5,000 athletes in the world that are the subject of intense scrutiny - think of how small this number is in comparison to the numbers of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and social workers who are doing the so-called important work. After paying respect to family, money and career, Queenan ruefully observes, "But it's hard to relate to them viscerally. No matter how hard you try, you're never going to find 65,000 complete strangers willing to stand in subzero temperatures cheering for your bank statement." Small wonder that we venerate the athletes as gods and that they look down upon us as subjects. In turn, it's equally small wonder that we curse them when they fail us. Queenan also gives us an interesting chapter on the intensity of the British football fan. And by the time I finished reading his piece on the Notre Dame mystique, a chapter entitled "Fans Who See Green", I wished that I had been born Irish and Catholic. My main criticism of the book, other than its length, is that too much of it reads like an instructional manual. Queenan devotes too much time to explaining how-to and how-NOT-to follow sports. But he's too dogmatic. Both the sports fan's paradise and the sports fan's purgatory have many mansions, and each fan must follow his own path. It's rank Pharisaism for Queenan to insist that his is the only way. But the release of a book on "True Believers", on fans who love too much regardless of how they are rewarded, was timed perfectly, in light of the recent failures of both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, baseball's perennial also-rans with ever-loyal fan bases, to make it to the World Series. Both teams found a way to blow late-inning leads in the deciding games. How many Red Sox fans; how many Cub fans, Viking fans, Saints fans, Falcons fans, Vancouver Canuck fans etc. will die of old age waiting for the prize that never comes? How many have died already? Queenan pays proper homage both to the fans who stick around for more punishment and to those who break the cycle of hope and letdown, as one would break a drug habit, by giving up on their team. Chapter 9 of this book is entitled "Fans Who Walk Away". And as I finish the book, I am still left wondering which direction I am going to take with the San Francisco Giants.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect analysis of the American sports fan.
Review: Another humorous read by Joe Queenan. If you are a somewhat intelligent sports fan and not one of those people who show up blind drunk at a Mets game with your girl, so that she can flash her derrier tatoo at the Phillies left-fielder, then you'll identify with Queenan's take on the life of a sports fan. This book isn't written for the fan who runs around at an NFL playoff game on a frigid day with his shirt-off, but for the fan who hopes that "shirtless" guy just leaves him alone so that he can watch the game.
Queenan uses his usual style of humor and self-deprecating wit to explain and analyze the behavior, and by his admission the sometimes unexplainable behavior, of fandom.
A quick easy read for any sports fan with a sense of humor and an ability to say "it's only a game" even when you know that this really isn't true.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it from a Tigers Fan
Review: As a Detroit Tigers fan(and living in Cleveland, no less)I can understand exactly what Joe Queenan is going through. Yes, I've been alive to see the Tigers win a World Series, but they are and have been for quite a while the laughing stock of baseball. Like Queenan says, why do we like teams if they continually lose and are an embarassment to the sport? I have no idea, but I wear the Old English 'D' on my hat with pride, nonetheless. I was born and raised in Michigan, and three of my senior relatives were Tigers fans, so again, to paraphrase Queenan, I have the geographical acceptance, plus I'm 'carrying the torch'.
No matter how much your team infuriates you, you can't give up on them. You just CAN'T.
The best part of this overall excellent book is the story on the last page. That made me smile more than anything else he wrote. A perfect story and the embodiment of the idea that hope springs eternal, tomorrow's another day, even the Cubs may win the Series one year. Maybe even the Tigers.
Rating:
Summary: Painfully Funny . . .
Review: As a long suffering fan of both the Philadelphia Eagles AND the Boston Red Sox (how this came to pass is too excruciating to recount - suffice it to say that despite the geography, the author would approve) - as well as being an afficiando of Queenan's scathing writing - I found "True Believers" to be both hilarious and disturbingly parallel to my own infatuation with sports, from the amount of time spent watching/obsessing, the lengths to which one will go to attend a crucial game (Queenan writes of returning to Philly from France to watch the Phillies ill-fated attempt at winning the National League pennant in 1976), and the superstitions and routines a fan resorts to in the midst of good fortune (Queenan cites his combined reliance on a statue of a toad with regular visits to a less than helpful psychiatrist to extend an unprecedented run by Philadelphia sports teams). Queenan is also dead on target with his assement of front-running fans. My only complaints about this book are minor: 1) I was not thrilled to learn about Queenan's infatuation with Notre Dame - he uses his father's Irish-Catholic influence as reason for his allegiance to the Fighting Irish while summarily trashing him elsewhere in the book. On the other hand, his description of South Bend as a never-ending strip of motels is dead-on. 2) After discussing the relative merits of various sports announcers, he concludes the chapter by stating, "And don't get me started on Brent Musberger." I really wish he had, as I would have loved to have heard Queenan tee off on The Man Who Would Be Brent. 3) If Queenan thinks the Red Sox are lovable losers, he hasn't sat in Fenway Park during a Sox-Yankees series. Those qualms aside, Queenan manages to simultaneously infuriate, entertain, and stimulate his intended audience with his laugh-out-loud observations. If you've suffered through indignities like the 1978 American League playoff game or the 2003 NFC Conference Championship, this book is "must" reading.
Rating:
Summary: Discover Your Inner Irrational Fanaticism
Review: Back in the nineties I read a fascinating, dead-on article in GQ about Jets fans (of whom I am one). That article was entitled "The Worst Sports Fans in History". Joe had Jets fans pegged, and his current work, much more introspective and comprehensive, gives priviledged access into the mind of a certified sports maniac -- and in so doing -- of ALL us sports maniacs. Being a fan of the Mets, Knicks and Jets, I am in regular need a hug. Joe, in this book, gave me a kick in the face instead. In spite of his disgust for things I love so dearly, he's put together one of the most entertaining and disturbingly honest books on sports fandom. His anecdotes are hilarious, his pain is palpable, and his honesty is refreshing. A breezy read -- I picked it up to read on a business trip, but after flipping a few pages, was done only hours later -- in short, it's going to be a gift to everyone I know. It's not just for sports fans -- though for honest fanatics (not you stinkin' front-runners), this is required reading to be sure. I think it's an especially good read that non-sports fans would get a real kick from. In fact, I think people who don't really understand what it means to be a sports fan will LOVE the humor and insight into what it means to be a fan. That's how accessible and fun his book is.
Rating:
Summary: Discover Your Inner Irrational Fanaticism
Review: Back in the nineties I read a fascinating, dead-on article in GQ about Jets fans (of whom I am one). That article was entitled "The Worst Sports Fans in History". Joe had Jets fans pegged, and his current work, much more introspective and comprehensive, gives priviledged access into the mind of a certified sports maniac -- and in so doing -- of ALL us sports maniacs. Being a fan of the Mets, Knicks and Jets, I am in regular need a hug. Joe, in this book, gave me a kick in the face instead. In spite of his disgust for things I love so dearly, he's put together one of the most entertaining and disturbingly honest books on sports fandom. His anecdotes are hilarious, his pain is palpable, and his honesty is refreshing. A breezy read -- I picked it up to read on a business trip, but after flipping a few pages, was done only hours later -- in short, it's going to be a gift to everyone I know. It's not just for sports fans -- though for honest fanatics (not you stinkin' front-runners), this is required reading to be sure. I think it's an especially good read that non-sports fans would get a real kick from. In fact, I think people who don't really understand what it means to be a sports fan will LOVE the humor and insight into what it means to be a fan. That's how accessible and fun his book is.
Rating:
Summary: Great book except for one thing....
Review: Being a fan of Philadephia sports and its teams, I enjoyed this book very much. Overall the book was filled with stories that made me laugh out loud and with points of view that I could relate to. The chapter on my all time favorite team, the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame, was right on target except for one glaring flaw. It seems the author is very attached to his hometown of Philadelphia as well he should be. It is with that same attachment that I take exception to his characterization of my hometown of South Bend, IN as being next to or in the same vicinity of the "deepest, darkest pit of hell" (p.95). I'm sure Mr. Queenan's hometown of Philadelphia has it own areas similar to the deepest, darkest pit of hell as well. He never seems to mention them however. Sure, South Bend has certain areas like that but overall it was a great place to grow up. Furthermore, if the author is characterizing the campus itself as the deepest darkest pit of hell, he shouldn't call himself a Notre Dame fan.
Rating:
Summary: Joe Queenan, Sports Fan
Review: Humorist Joe Queenan is a true sports fan. No writer could boil down what it means to be a true fan to its very essence, as he does in "True Believers," without having the years of hopes and disappointments of being a loyal follower burned into his very soul. In the book, Queenan puts his lifetime of sports fan agony to very good use, using it as the basis for what is essentially one long rant about fans, both good and bad. His pen is as sharp as ever, and it is delightful to see him use it on such deserving people as front-running fans and slobs who make spectacles of themselves at the stadium. Mostly, however, Queenan ruminates on what it is that can make an otherwise sane, rational person (such as himself) a hopeless maniac on game day. Though he's a Philadelphia fan (Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, Flyers) he speaks enough universal truth that his book can be enjoyed by anyone who is also hopelessly hooked on sports.
Rating:
Summary: Joe Queenan, Sports Fan
Review: Humorist Joe Queenan is a true sports fan. No writer could boil down what it means to be a true fan to its very essence, as he does in "True Believers," without having the years of hopes and disappointments of being a loyal follower burned into his very soul. In the book, Queenan puts his lifetime of sports fan agony to very good use, using it as the basis for what is essentially one long rant about fans, both good and bad. His pen is as sharp as ever, and it is delightful to see him use it on such deserving people as front-running fans and slobs who make spectacles of themselves at the stadium. Mostly, however, Queenan ruminates on what it is that can make an otherwise sane, rational person (such as himself) a hopeless maniac on game day. Though he's a Philadelphia fan (Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, Flyers) he speaks enough universal truth that his book can be enjoyed by anyone who is also hopelessly hooked on sports.
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