Category: Sports

  • A friendship forged in fire

    Paul O’Connor, intrepid journalist and discerning reader, reviews a new book about the long-lasting friendship between two very different American heroes. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE WINGMEN: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams. By Adam Lazarus. The Citadel Press. 232 pages. $29, hardcover. There’s no explaining friendships. Often, people…

  • An unlikely success story and the sorry state of college football

    Paul O’Connor, a fine journalist himself, doesn’t tell us in this review, but I happen to know that he went to a little college in the Midwest, one at South Bend, Ind., that has quite a football tradition of its own. My only connection with the University of Michigan is that my high school (no…

  • Striking out

    What’s wrong with Major League Baseball? Paul O’Connor, a longtime fan, takes a look at two books published decades ago that warn us about the problems facing the sport now – and no, it’s not all about the pandemic. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor BALL FOUR: THE FINAL PITCH. By Jim Bouton. Audible Studios. 1970.…

  • It might be … it could be …

    Did you know it’s only a few days until the major league baseball teams start spring training? Tom Dillon is well aware that it’s almost time for a new baseball season, so he figures it’s also time for a review of a new baseball book. MY CUBS: A LOVE STORY. By Scott Simon. Blue Ridge…

  • Dean, Mike and Jimmy

    Yes, I went to Wake Forest College/University (it changed names midway through my student days). But Wake Forest had moved from Wake County to Winston-Salem in the 1950s, and although as a student I quickly learned that beating Carolina, especially in basketball, was a Big Deal, and even though we still talked about the ACC’s…

  • A gold-medal book

    I don’t know how this book got under the stack on my table, languishing for months while I read and listened to lots of others. I do know that I’m glad I retrieved it recently, after having seen it listed as one of the best books of the 21st century so far. It deserves that…

  • Going downhill

    One night, many years ago, I saw Tom Dillon ski down Summit Street in Winston-Salem. So when he asked to review a book about skiing and snow, I wasn’t surprised. As he points out, this book has some important things to say even to the non-skiers among us. Reviewed by Tom Dillon DEEP: THE STORY…

  • Root, root, root for the home team

    What better time than summer to read a book about baseball? Paul O’Connor took a break from his wanderings this summer to visit an Iowa town and team featured in a new book he’s been reading about minor-league baseball. CLASS A: BASEBALL IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYWHERE. By Lucas Mann. Pantheon Books. Hardcover. 315 pages.…

  • Much more than a baseball story

    Paul O’Connor has strong opinions, and one of them is that he loves to hate the New York Yankees. As a Notre Dame grad, he also has some, shall we say, feelings against the University of Michigan. But he managed to put his prejudices aside to review a new audio version of a memoir by…

  • A real American baseball hero

    Paul O’Connor, Briar Patch Books contributing editor, is on the road this summer. He’s had a little time to read and reflect on the national pastime, his own particular passion for the St. Louis Cardinals, the greatest Cardinal of them all – and life in America. By Paul T. O’Connor STAN MUSIAL: AN AMERICAN LIFE.…