1955 In Sport: A Year Like None Other

Rating:
Summary: Not Just Nostalgia
Review: Sport magazine got it right; I could read it as a kid and yet never felt talked I was being talked down to. This anthology captures the spirit before "Moneyball." The Doak Walker chapter practically carried the book to the cashier for me; I'd been interested in the Texas legend since Dan Jenkins' "I'll Tell You One Thing," and it's very instructive for like me who had assumed the NFL began with Johnny Unitas. The Mickey Mantle piece is very interesting, and I recommend it particularly to Jason Giambi for this challenging coming season. The tinted photographs make the book worth coming back to, and it fits in your pocket for road trips (unlike Underworld).

Rating:
Summary: Classic Year, Classy Magazine
Review: Sport Magazine set the bar for all others. This collection of reprints celebrates the year of 1955, a year of anti-dynasty where championships were celebrated in Brooklyn, Syracuse, Cleveland and Detroit. Most of the articles are from 1955 or 1956. The one on Arnold Palmer is from 1958 and two articles are from the sixties. This gives the collection a touch of historical perspective in keeping with the spirit of Sport Magazine which usually had one article per issue looking at the past. There is a nice color portrait preceding each article and all are reprinted word for word.

Each entry is worth reading. My favorites were Frank Graham Sr. on the Brooklyn Dodgers, the great Arnold Hano on Doak Walker and John M. Ross on Sugar Ray Robinson. The memories of going to the candy store with my allowance in hand to buy Sport Magazine on the date each new issue came out returned to me as I read this book. I was just as excited to see the names of the writers as the athletes they were writing about. A most rewarding experience.