Rating: 
Summary: To be frank, it's a little....sad.
Review: Schapp indulged in a journalist's dream for much of his life: He worked primarily in the 1950-1980 era, when celebrities of all types still mixed and mingled. He wrote words on Namath, Ali, Pynchon and Lenny Bruce. He fell into one fabulous situation after another, was enormously successful everywhere he journied, probably had more good dinners than anyone we'll ever know, talked more, laughed more, smoked more and dranked more. He consumed news and life in amazing proportions. It leaves you a little jealous.And yet, his memoir is a mess. Calling upon himself to make sense of his long career, Schapp struggles to do much more than serve up anecdote after anecdote. Some of them follow logical order; some do not. The title is appropriate; the book is a flash. You glimpse into auras of many impressive names. A shame that these glimpses rarely go much deeper. The format of ESPN's The Sports Reporters television program transformed Schapp into a quipmaker. He's objective enough and not particularly redundant or cliched -- often the largest weakness of most sportswriters. But too many scenes are wrapped in too pretty of bows. In that sense, the book is repetitive: Schapp pens a scene, wraps it up, pens a scene, wraps it up, as if to say, "Item!...ah...so! Item!...ah...so!" It makes you consider the speed of the man's life, the flash, if you will, which blinds one from reflection. That Schapp died so suddenly is in step with the bulk of his life, but it's sad that he never got the time to appreciate what he'd experienced, and maybe write a wiser memoir. Schapp left us with stories, but no real message.
Rating: 
Summary: A Who's Who in Sports
Review: This is a "sort of" autobiography of Dick Schaap, one of the country's most prolific chronicler of sports and the people of sports. It outlines his rise from the streets of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn to his present position as ABC correspondent and host of his own show on ESPN. Schaap tells his life's story, for the most part, as it has been entwined around his meetings, conversations, and friendships with the most famous names in sports. Never have so many names been dropped with such aplomb and in such an entertaining manner. The book is a joy from beginning to end. The chapter called "Collector's Items," a series of recollections of very short humorous and/or ironic encounters with the famous, leads the reader into a fascinating journey through Schaap's life and reveals his remarkable story telling style. Any attempt to mention all the greats and near greats of sports that Schaap refers to in the book would border on the ridiculous. It's enough, I think, to state that he includes always interesting and mostly humorous stories and insights about almost every important (and self-important) sports personality of the past fifty or so years. I absolutely enjoyed this book. If you ever had dreams of getting to know the sports "heroes" of your youth or adulthood, chances are Schaap has actually lived out that fantasy. With his great talent with words, he can carry you along to vicariously do the same.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fitting Finale for a Good Man...
Review: Want to eavesdrop on some of the most fascinating figures of sports, politics, journalism, and theatre? Well bunky, you probably can't. But go ahead and read Schaap's final book (sadly, he passed away recently), and you can experience the next best thing to being there. A gifted writer, and by all accounts an even better human being, Schaap will be missed. Sorely missed. Thank you sir for making the world a bit nicer.
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