We Only Played Home Games: Wacky, Raunchy, Humorous Stories of Sports and Other Events in Michigan's Maximum Security Prison

Rating:
Summary: A look inside a prison and the games prisoners play
Review: Recently, Sports Illustrated and ESPN ran features on San Quentin prison and its Giants baseball team. It was noted the San Quentin Giants only played home games.

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm published this book in December 2001. Maybe he should attempt to collect from the above stated venues for stealing his idea and "only home games" line. Those pieces ran well after Oakie Brumm's book.

Leonard "Oakie" Brumm is a respected high school hockey coach in the Milwaukee area. My father-in-law claims to know him. It's possible, as both men come from Michigan's Upper Peninsula--an area where hockey is a major sport and the fanaticism of hockey fans exceeds even the fanaticism found in Minnesota.

But the book is about a job Oakie Brumm had for four years in Marquette, Michigan (a major UP city). The book details Oakie's tenure as Recreation Director for the Marquette State Prison, a maximum security facility. Oakie was hired a year after the Jackson State Prison riot in downstate Michigan. The Warden at Marquette wanted to prevent the same scenario to play out in Marquette. Thus, the hiring of Brumm as recreation director.

You might ask what would incite a sane individual to apply for such a job. The truth is, the job came looking for Brumm. Brumm had coached in Alaska and Wyoming previously, which the warden knew. Brumm had come back to Marquette to work in his family's construction business. And it was while doing road work that the warden would stop and ask Brumm to apply for the job; it was his for the taking.

Brumm was naturally hesitant to take the job. Who in their right mind wants to work inside a maximum security facility? But his wife urged him to take the job. Women love job security and financial security and working for the state in maximum security wasn't bad.

This was indeed a special job. Brumm reported only to the warden. He was told never to tattle on the prisoners to the guards ("screws"). Brumm needed to win the prisoners' trust if he was going to get them to co-operate. As the warden stated, "If the screws can't catch them, we'll get more screws."

The job also was tailor-made for a "self-starter." There was no job description and no agenda and no direction. The warden had never hired a recreation director before and had no idea where Brumm should start.

And certainly politics and bureaucracy come into play. Some activities, such as miniature golf, are viewed as turning the prison into a country club. And the deputy warden warns Oakie, "Just make sure no one kills someone with those clubs." The bureaucratic irony comes when the assistant deputy warden tells Brumm, "Get some more clubs." Seems miniature golf had become so popular that many complained they couldn't get time on the course. It is also ironic that baseball bats were already on the grounds, but bringing golf clubs into the prison was seen as dangerous.

Oakie Brumm writes with candor and honesty and openness. He doesn't sugar coat and he tells what life inside the prison was like, even the details of "prison love." Brumm uses the language of the prison in his book. But don't fear about not knowing the language; Brumm includes a "Glossary of Marquette Prison Terms." Read through the glossary before reading the book for a better understanding while reading the book. One caution I would make is that if you don't wish for your children to know about the harsh realities in life, or in prison life, you may want to monitor their reading of this book or at the very least be willing to discuss and concerns or questions they have while reading this book. Brumm is frank and forthright in his relaying not only the games played inside the prison with rules and regulations and scores kept, but also the games cons played in all areas of prison life. While such frankness may be shocking, it is an untainted portrait of life inside a wall where all games, competitive or not, intramural or inter-institutional, are all "home games." This book is an education in the realities of life in prison and of those serving time in prison.

(Originally published on BookIdeas.com.)

Rating:
Summary: Traditional sports and life in prison
Review: We Only Played Home Games: Wacky, Raunchy, Humorous Stories Of Sports And Other Events In Michigan's Maximum Security Prison by Leonard "Oakie" Brumm is not a book for the faint-hearted. We Only Played Home Games is replete with sometimes disturbing, sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes outrageous anecdotes, about a warden who used team sports to sublimate inmate dissention - or in other words, get the prisoners to focus on something other than escaping or tearing each other apart. We Only Played Home Games is fascinating, informative, unique, and reveals traditional sports and life in prison in a much different light than can be found in typical prison memoirs or traditional penology studies.

Rating:
Summary: Traditional sports and life in prison
Review: We Only Played Home Games: Wacky, Raunchy, Humorous Stories Of Sports And Other Events In Michigan's Maximum Security Prison by Leonard "Oakie" Brumm is not a book for the faint-hearted. We Only Played Home Games is replete with sometimes disturbing, sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes outrageous anecdotes, about a warden who used team sports to sublimate inmate dissention - or in other words, get the prisoners to focus on something other than escaping or tearing each other apart. We Only Played Home Games is fascinating, informative, unique, and reveals traditional sports and life in prison in a much different light than can be found in typical prison memoirs or traditional penology studies.