To Absent Friends - John Feinstein

"Junior"

1955-2025

The news of the death of author/sportwriter John Feinstein last week at the age of 69 was certainly a shock.  Feinstein was a longtime reporter and was still a contributing sports columnist (he filed his last column of the Post the day before he died) for the Washington Post, but he is perhaps best known as the author of over fifty books and novels.

His most renowned  book was 1985's "A Season On the Brink" which describes that season for the Indiana University men's basketball team, and which vividly described the profane and volatile temperament and coaching methods of its head coach, Bobby Knight.  It topped the best seller lists for over four months, and opened the door for Feinstein to write many other books on such varied topics as professional golf, pro tennis, the history of Army-Navy football game, minor league baseball, and the basketball program's of the NCAA's Patriot League.  He also authored a series of sports themed mystery novels for young adult readers, one of which won an Edgar Award.

For years I would hear Feinstein on an almost weekly basis as a guest on Tony Kornheiser's old radio show, but he stopped appearing once Kornheiser went to an exclusive podcast format.  I had assumed that the two had had a falling out of some sort, and I wasn't far from wrong, as I learned in reading about him after his death.  It seems that John "Junior" Feinstein was not an easy guy to get along with.  He could be abrasive and he always had to be right and to dominate every conversation in which he was involved.  In eulogizing Junior on his podcast on Monday with guest Michael Wilbon, both men praised him for being a great writer and reporter, but as a friend, there were times when you just had to step away from the friendship.  Sometimes you stepped away for few days or weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes for a few years.  When he asked the Post sports editor for a six month leave of absence to write the Knight book, sports editor George Solomon said sure with the thought of "let him bother Knight for six months instead of bothering me."

About that nickname Junior.  I always thought that it was just a thing with Kornheiser, but I learned in his obit that the name was bestowed upon him by consensus in the Washington Post's sports department because Feinstein's comportment was similar to that of volatile and abrasive tennis star John McEnroe, Junior.

I have read a number of Feinstein's books, probably five or six of them, and found each of them to be very, very good.  Strangely enough, I never read "A Season on the Brink", mainly because of my great dislike of Bobby Knight, so perhaps I should do that soon.  My friend Fred says that it is a great book, although it will probably make me detest Knight even more that I already do.

RIP John Feinstein.

The Books of 2014

One of the (many) joys of retirement is having the time to read as many books, and as many kinds of books as you want.  In 2014, I read 43 books.  Yes, I actually keep track of such things.  And, yes, I will confess that there were some, but not many, among those 43 books, that I either skimmed, or never finished, because, I am doing this for my pleasure, and if I find I'm not enjoying it, I toss it!

Anyway, looking back at the list one more time, here are some recommendations for you, just in case you missed them the first time around, or if perhaps I didn't mention them in an earlier Grandstander post.

Non-Fiction

"Their Life's Work" by Gary W. Pomerantz.  A book about the Pittsburgh Steelers dynastic teams of the 1970's.  If you are a life-long Steelers fan and think that there is nothing more that could possibly be said about these teams (as I did), think again.  It has been called the football version of Roger Kahn's classic "Boys of Summer", and a higher compliment could not be paid.   You will gain new respect for Chuck Noll and Joe Greene after reading this.  A definite MUST READ for football fans in general and Steelers fans in particular.

"One Summer - America, 1927" by Bill Bryson.  The always entertaining Bryson takes a look of momentous and (seemingly) mundane events that occurred over the course of the summer of 1927.  Fascinating, informative, and immensely readable.

"Pedstrianism" by Matthew Algeo.  A look at a spectator sport that swept America in the late 19th century, made celebrities of the athletes, and even led to the use of performance enhancing drugs, but then disappeared from the landscape of the American sporting scene almost as quickly as it appeared.  

"Where Nobody Know Your Name" by John Feinstein.  A look at life in baseball's minor leagues over the course of one season.  Feinstein focuses on about a dozen minor league folks: players, managers, an umpire, and even a broadcaster.  Fabulous book that will reinforce your knowledge, in case you've forgotten it, that ANY player who makes it to the Major Leagues has truly earned it.


"FDR's Funeral Train" and "The Hidden White House" by Robert Klara.  Remarkably detailed and endlessly fascinating books on Presidential history by Klara.  The first one describes the funeral train that left Warm Springs, GA in April 1945 with the dead body of President Roosevelt and traveled to Washington DC and Hyde Park NY and back to Washington in the space of four days, and how one Presidency ended and another began.  The second describes the renovation and rebuilding of the White House that took place during the Truman Administration from 1949-52.

Fiction

I read a number of novels over the course of the year, including those from perennial favorites Jonathan Kellerman, John Sandford, Jeffery Deaver, Carl Hiaasen, and even Agatha Christie, but I want to focus instead on the works of Max Allan Collins.

I have written about the incredibly prolific Collins in this space on many occasions.  I first discovered him in 2013 when I read one of his "historical mysteries" called "The Titanic Murders", and I have been hooked ever since.  He has written literally hundreds of novels and short story collections, and, frankly, not all of them are to my taste, but I enjoy his aforementioned historical mysteries, and I absolutely love his series of of private detective novels involving the character of private eye Nathan Heller.

Heller started as a Chicago police officer in the early 1930's and then became a PI. The stories are written as first person "memoirs" of Heller's, and they recount his numerous cases involving real historical figures such as Al Capone, Frank Nitti, John Dillinger, Huey Long, Bugsy Siegel, Charles Lindberg, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Ruby, and Jack and Bobby 
Kennedy (yes, Heller gets involved in the JFK assassination!).  You have to suspend disbelief when you consider that ONE guy could be involved in the investigation of seemingly every major crime of the twentieth century, and even Collins agrees that this is ridiculous, but once you do, you are in for some very entertaining reading.

In 2014, I read ten books by Collins.  Six of those were Nate Heller novels.  In all, Collins has written fifteen Nate Heller novels and published three collections of Heller short stories. I have read all but four of those novels and all of the short story collections, and my goal for 2015 is to finish reading the Heller Canon in its entirety.

You don't have to read these novels in order of publication, but if you want to start, I would suggest that you start with the first one, "True Detective", wherein Nate gives you a lot of his biographical detail which is helpful as you read subsequent novels.  After that, you can pretty much dive in anywhere along the way.

If you like mystery and detective fiction, you won't be sorry.

Here's to great reading for everyone in 2015!

Book Review - "Where Nobody Knows Your Name"

Okay, baseball fans, put his one on your "Must Read" list, and do it sooner, rather than later.

John Feinstein has written about a million books about sports, all different sports, basketball, football, golf, baseball, and they are all good.  He even wrote one about professional tennis several years back that was terrific, and I could pretty much not care less about professional tennis.

Anyway, this one, as the sub-title tells you, is about "Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball". Feinstein spent the 2012 baseball season following the International League (IL) and focusing on the fortunes of nine individuals....six players, two managers, and an umpire.  

For you Pirates fans out there, one of the players he follows is former Bucco Nate McClouth.    McClouth's story is one of the more successful ones.  You may recall that the Pirates released McClouth in early May of that year.  He was unemployed for a few weeks, was able to sign a minor league deal with the Orioles, and ended up being a starter and a post-season hero for the O's that year.

Two of the pitchers he follows, Brett Tomko and Scott Elarton, were guys who had had pretty old success in the majors, but were now in their late thirties and struggling to try for "one more shot" in the big leagues.  So was 2005 World Series hero Scott Podsednik.

Along the way, Feinstein also give you what e calls "Slices of life" about other people he ran into during his year in the IL.  One of these slices is about Dean Treanor, manager of the Pirates Triple-A affiliate Indianapolis.  There is a terrific story about how Treanor was able to deliver the news to his star player that year, Starling Marte, that he was getting "the call" to  Pittsburgh.   In fact, there are several stories in the book about managers who get to tell players that they are going to the Big Club.  It is the best part of their jobs.

I found the stories of the managers really interesting.  Like the players, they, too, long for their shot at the Majors, but winning and losing are not important in running a minor league ball club.  The needs of the major league team are paramount.  For example, Matt Hague's and Jaff Decker's brief stays in Pittsburgh don't add much more than warm bodies to the Pirates for the few days they were here, but their absence in Indianapolis makes a world of difference to how Dean Treanor's Indy team fares on the field.  

Another example.  When Pawtucket won the IL championship at the end of the '12 season, 63 different players had passed through their roster that season, and of the players that were there when the IL Championship was won, only seven had been on the roster  on Opening Day.

We all think that the life of a major league ballplayer is pretty cushy, but one lesson that this book brings home, time and again, is that for every Andrew McCutchen and his multi-year, multi-millions contract, there are 50 or 100 Matt Hagues out there who are struggling to achieve their lifelong dream of a major league career, a career that most of them will never have.

If you are a baseball fan, you really need to read this book.