Review: Turf Wars (2025)

By DeMaurice Smith

It doesn't take long for DeMaurice Smith to set the tone in his book, "Turf Wars," reviewing his time as the head of the National Football League Players Association. 

Less than a chapter, actually.

You get the idea in the first paragraph of the prologue, when Smith describes the owners as "greedy billionaires who control the league, which makes them some of the lever pullers of our largest society." 

A few paragraphs later, the descriptions continue. "These men do not see the general public as human. They are voters and customers and fans. NFL owners view their own teams' players not as people with families, aspirations, or pride. They are laborers and commodities, nothing more, an army of soldier ants who can and will be replaced by one of the thousands of cheaper options in college football or lower-tier leagues. Owners only pretend to care about a player's remarkable journey to college and the pros."

Those statements bring up a couple of obvious reactions right from the start. Smith covers the 31 owners (the Packers, with their millions of owners, get a pass) with one broad brush stroke there. It's a little difficult to believe that such feelings are so universal through every single owner - even if they are part of the same league. 

Meanwhile, it's a little tough to read, with the anger level quite high. Personally, I think there's plenty of anger out there in our lives as it is. You can turn on a talk show or read a political news release and see that fact demonstrated repeatedly. But plenty of books have been written about the labor relations in sports, and there aren't many moments of good fellowship between sides. 

I was hoping for a little different approach from Smith, who worked in the government's Justice Department as well as for several top law firms. He's a smart guy and a very worthy spokesman for his side of an argument.  

Once Smith gets that venom out of the way, the book changes its tone slightly. The highlights of such publications is usually a description of the collective bargaining agreement between labor and management. Smith led the players through a 132-day lockout in 2011 by the owners, but seems to have outflanked the other side by buying strike insurance for the players. In other words, the labor side could afford to wait for the right deal. Once that little fact came out, an agreement was rather quickly reached.

For the next several chapters, Smith reviews some of the major collisions that took place during his time as a director. In hindsight, some of them seem as if they might have been a little easier to solve. An investigation into Tom Brady and his deflated footballs seems straight-forward enough, but handing out the proper punishment seemed to be a stubbornly elusive goal. You'd think it could have been kept out of the courts.

The Ray Rice case comes up in the detail as well. This one was tough for Smith, who clearly had no stomach for defending someone who hit his fiance in an elevator - and was caught on video tape doing it. But Rice still had rights, and Smith felt bound to defend him. It comes with the territory. 

Then there's the case of Colin Kaepernick, who caused something of a national stir simply by sitting on the bench during the National Anthem. The quarterback is shown to be something of an odd personality, and the story went down some odd hallways. But the biggest of them was when the White House picked up on it, turning Kaepernick into a lightning rod. Later, the pandemic also caused some problems when players disagreed with procedures under difficult circumstances. Aaron Rodgers and Cole Beasley weren't too popular in the NFLPA's offices either. 

Along the road that Smith followed for more than a decade, he made something of a discovery: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was showing signs of mellowing. Goodell always had been a loud advocate for his side of the story during his time on that job, but it sounds as if he realized that he and Smith had more in common than he thought. Smith eventually stepped down from his job before his nervous system and liver collapsed from abuse. 

For those on my side of the tracks in Buffalo, there are only a few references to the Bills in here. Smith criticizes the late Ralph Wilson for not spending close to the cap in the late 2000s (78 percent, less than any team but Kansas City). Terry Pegula is barely touched, as he is portrayed as such a minor player in NFL circles than even Goodell doesn't  talk to him often. Pegula does take a couple of shots for what is called a sweetheart stadium deal. To be fair, the Bills are responsible on the project for cost overruns, which are at hundreds of millions at this point and counting. 

Happily, the book isn't all anger. Smith does take a chapter to talk about his family history, which actually is quite interesting and revealing. It's a nice timeout in the discussion.

"Turf Wars" might have a place in your football library if you have a strong interest in the subject of labor relations in pro sports. If that fits your reading interest, great. Just don't expect to see it read by many others on the beach this summer.

Three stars

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Review: Blood & Hate (2025)

By Dave Wedge 

When I told someone that my parents grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts (and that I spent most of my first five years there), the response was simple and direct: "You have to be tough to live there."

That probably wasn't so true in the 1930s, when my parents were coming of age. But it probably was true soon after that, as some industries like shoe manufacturing started to leave Brockton for destinations overseas. That left some good-sized poverty in its wake, and the area is still fighting that battle. 

Put it this way: Brockton is one of the few cities in the country who might be best-known for boxers. It's two favorite sons, Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler, rank around the top of their all-time respective weight classes (heavyweight and middleweight). Marciano never lost a fight, and Hagler probably only lost because of some questionable scorekeeping. 

Their stories are connected. While Dave Wedge's book, "Blood & Hate," centers on Hagler's days as an up-and-coming boxer, the Marciano connection is a strong one - even though the two boxers never had a chance to meet. Two brothers, Goody and Pat Petronelli, were part of Rocky's support staff  during his days as a boxer. They were there when Marciano retired as the first undefeated heavyweight champion in 1955, and they stayed in the boxing business after that. As for Marciano, he died in an airplane crash in January, 1969. 

Soon after that, Hagler's family moved from the mean streets of Newark - and they were really mean in the 1960s - to the less-mean streets of Brockton. Young Marvin (the Marvelous part came much later) had some fights on the street along the way, and dropped into the Petronellis' gym at the age of 15. Hagler quickly became wrapped up in boxing and its local stories about the legendary Marciano. Soon Marvin dropped out of school and split his time between real work and boxing training. 

Eventually, Hagler began to climb up the ladder - first through the amateur ranks, where he learned his craft. Then it was on to the pros, where the success stories in the 1970s started to pile up. Most of his fights took place in either Brockton or Boston, and he quickly proved too good for local competition. The only blemishes to his record were a draw in Seattle against Ray Seales, a former Olympian, and losses to two Philadelphia fighters in Philadelphia. Ahem.   

Soon Hagler was considered by most as the uncrowned middleweight champion. As Joe Frazier told him after Hagler complained about his difficulty in getting fights, "You have three strikes against you - you're Black, you're a southpaw, and you're good." A 1979 title fight against Vito Antuofermo resulted in a controversial draw, and it was back to the drawing board for almost a year. 

Hagler received another title shot in 1980, this time against new champion Alan Minter in London. The Marvelous One finally gained a championship there, but the fight is mostly remember for a riot that broke out after its conclusion. The white nationalists in the crowd that supported Minter weren't too happy about the outcome. That's where Wedge's story ends, more or less. An epilogue covers the rest of Hagler's life quite quickly.

The story of this portion of Hagler's life is covered nicely enough. Throughout the 1970s, the boxer was something of a curiosity, in that he never could get the right break in order to claim his rightful spot on the top of the boxing world. He certainly deserves plenty of credit for climbing out of poverty and not getting too discouraged to point of giving up on his dream. 

There are a few issues with the book worth noting. It would have been nice if this biography had covered all of Hagler's life instead of ending with the title win. Hagler lost a controversial decision in 1987 to Sugar Ray Leonard, and then more or less disappeared. It would be interesting to know what happened in the later stages of his life. At 222 pages of aired-out text, Wedge certainly had room to go a longer distance.

It's a little odd that the author's note contains a line that "dialogue has been recreated for dramatic effect based on interviews, research and historical fact." After all, it is a nonfiction book. Wedge also is a Brockton native, and his affection for his hometown sometimes comes through in a partisan way. Then again, seeing how I have good memories of the place (visits to grandparents, etc.), I like it too.

"Blood & Hate" is a close-up look at the formative years at a great boxing champion. It should work nicely for his biggest supporters, and boxing fans in general should find this worth at least a look.

Four stars

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Review: Make Me Commissioner (2025)

By Jane Leavy

If you haven't noticed lately, the sport of baseball is in a bit of trouble. 

Yes, people are still coming out to the ballpark in most cases, franchises continue to grow in value (this is important mostly to owners, I guess), and some breathtaking athletic talent is still on display on a regular basis.  

Yet television ratings have dropped, even in the playoffs. There's a perception that the games have turned dull in many cases, due to the fact that there are too many walks, strikeouts and home runs during the game (more doubles and triples, please). The hospitals are full of pitchers having Tommy John surgery, as the push toward velocity has carried a price tag. The analytics used in determining how best to win games may be an effective tool, but it's hard to call them welcoming to the overall audience. 

Major league baseball has tried to respond to some of the issues surrounding the game with action, and some of the steps have worked nicely. The pitch clock has done wonders for picking up the pace of the game, giving everyone involved an extra half-hour of their lives back for every game they watch. MLB also has installed the use of a "ghost" runner at second base at the start of extra innings, which follows the example of other leagues. Some purists don't like it, but they should know that hardly anyone (and that includes players, coaches, umpires, and fans) wants to watch a regular-season game that goes into the 14th inning. Or even the 12th. And maybe the 10th. 

Jane Leavy wants to help. If the name is familiar, at least to regular readers of this space, it's because she's written three acclaimed biographies of all-time greats of the game: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. But she supposedly wasn't anxious to dive back into the sport and its troubles at this particular time.  

Suitably inspired, Leavy has written a much different book than she's written before when it comes to baseball. The title is "Make Me Commissioner," which shows we're in entertaining territory here. After all, the job of sports commissioner is about one-quarter fun and three-quarter drudgery. Leavy concentrates on the part that does not include labor negotiations and television revenues (although the latter might be boosted if they'd make some changes to the sport's incomprehensible blackout policies). She's loosened from the restrictions of serious historical work, throwing in a variety of personal material along the way that works rather well. Leavy was one of the pioneering women to break the glass ceiling when it came to covering baseball. That's not surprising, since her grandmother brought her to Saks Fifth Avenue when Jane was a child and bought her ... a baseball glove. Who knew it had them for sale, even then?

Opening the book sends us off on a journey of variety of places. We look at everything from performance analysis centers for youngsters to the play of the Savannah Bananas. We hear from Bill Lee, Rich Hill, Joe Torre, Alex Bregman and Dusty Baker. Eventually, we get to the last chapter that contains something of an informal list of what might improve baseball's future. It's fair to say there are a few spots along the way that aren't engrossing, but that's probably going to happen in any book that takes a task like this fairly seriously.

Overall, the ideas are interesting. There are those who follow baseball who are so tied to tradition that they would like to see the starting batteries announced by megaphone before the game once again. But that's no way for the business to keep up to date. Is there a way to cut down on all of the walks, strikeouts and home runs? Perhaps the fences should be higher, and the ball should be bigger and heavier. That might lead to more balls in play and more action (plus fewer arm injuries). If robotic umpiring on balls and strikes is coming (and it is, in some form), will that help the product? Would a firm salary cap make the sport more competitive? I liked the idea of dedicated some of the money earned by MLB from gambling interests to be immediately turned around and invested in youth development of the game - particularly in inner cities. And how about free admission for kids under 10 in MLB games, at least in designated sections? 

It's also fun to see Leavy draw on some of her own experiences, which means conversations with some of the friends made along the way. It's good to hear some stories about a woman who was a big baseball fan before that was accepted. She obviously learned a few things about the use of profanity in baseball along the way, a reflection of a more loose writing approach than usual to the subject.  

Maybe all of Leavy's concepts for improvement aren't workable, but "Make Me Commissioner" at least starts a discussion of how to improve things by exchanging ideas. We need to do more of this, not less.      

Four stars

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Review: The Playing Lesson (2025)

By Michael Bamberger

Michael Bamberger has the bug. The golfing bug, that is. 

He's always enjoyed all of the various parts of the sometimes addictive game, which doesn't put him in a particularly small club. But Bamberger had something else going for him. He could write - and that eventually landed him a job at Sports Illustrated magazine. That led to several good golf books, including one called "Men in Green" - profiles of golf's greatest generation. If you couldn't be one of the best players in the world, playing the best golf courses in the world, well, hanging around people who are wasn't a bad substitute. 

What's more, there would be the odd fringe benefit - like personally playing some interesting courses. How many people take "business trips" in which carrying golf clubs along is part of the deal?

Bamberger now is in his mid-60s, and is a writer for Golf.com. Last year, he decided to take a look at golf in a variety of different ways. From there, Bamberger was off on a journey through the golfing world - almost literally. He takes the reader along for the pleasant ride in "The Playing Lesson."

The supposed goal - "excuse" might be a better word - for the author was to experience golf in a variety of new ways. Therefore, Bamberger volunteered to work at a tournament. He was a caddie at another. Michael took part in several pro-ams on the men's and women's tours at various levels. He talked to a variety of people along the way, including instructors and equipment pros.

On one level, this gives Bamberger a chance to offer opinions on the golf scene, past and present. It's a complicated situation at the moment, with the LIV and PGA Tours fighting for attention, power and money (those three items go together). The viewpoints are offered in no particular order, along the lines of a typical long conversation with someone. 

On the other hand, this is a chance to feed a golfer's universal quest: play better. So Bamberger is always on the lookout for tips on improving his game from anyone who will stop to think about it. Who couldn't use a little advice on putting from Brad Faxon, one of the best n the golf business among pros in that particular aspect of golf? 

It's all goes down quite smoothly, like a fast round of golf on a perfect summer day. Bamberger is good company, with a lifetime of memories to draw from. There are only a couple of occasions when the story bogs down a little bit. One is a good-sized discussion on equipment specifications, which is a little dry for most. The ending is something of a tribute to his love of golf and to those who helped develop it in his life, which some might find a little syrupy.

The people who published "The Playing Lesson" obviously aren't fools. They put it in the stores shortly before Father's Day - and no doubt it was turned into a gift many times around the country. The recipients no doubt offered a big smile in return for the present, and promised to start reading it soon ... right after finishing 18 holes. (Take it from a guy whose father fit that description well.) 

If you fit into the world in which golf plays a big part of your life, then it will be as good as a birdie on a tough par-4. 

Four stars

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Review: Beyond Fast (2025)

By Sean Brosnan with Chris Lear and Andrew Grief

Welcome to the world of cross-country running. It's familiar, yet different. 

Most of us are familiar with running in competition, mostly in the form of events on a track (hence, track and field). A group of runners line up together, go a particular distance, and find out which one is the fastest. Conditions usually are ideal for running in terms of elevation, with flat surfaces and no elevation.

Cross country is a different animal. It comes from a childhood game in England in the middle of the 19th century, as kids would run through the countryside chasing their friends. Conditions in the current incarnation of the sport are often not ideal, since hills are expected and surfaces can vary. I once saw a 5-kilometer race held in a park that had a layer of snow on the grass in a sub-freezing temperature, which meant it didn't take much for the course to become a sea of mud. Guys turned up at the finish line crying. You wouldn't believe how many shoes got left behind on turns.

Cross-country events usually are staged in the fall while their track counterparts go in the spring. There are no formal NCAA championships in XC, the usual abbreviation. It's not in the Olympics, either. Cross country isn't associated with big crowds;  usually it's family, friends, and runners past and present watching.

Sean Brosnan takes us into the world of high school cross country in his book, "Beyond Fast." It's the story of how, in automotive terms, he took a team from 0 to 100 almost overnight. 

Brosnan had more or less wandered through life until he arrived at Newbury Park High School in 2016. He had been a very good runner, but not quite good enough to challenge for national fame and glory. Brosnan loved running through, and he bounced around the country looking for information and the chance to interact with the best in the business. Eventually, he landed at a high school that had been decidedly mediocre. It hadn't reached the state finals in California cross country in about a quarter of a century. 

He promised he'd change all that right from Day One, and then went about the business of doing it. There was plenty of work involved, as there always is with running. But the athletes bought in, and - sure enough - some success followed. Suddenly it was cool to be a runner, and Newbury Park got better and better. Good runners became relatively great runners, and the rest of the group was inspired to try to keep up as best as it could. One of those runners was an Olympian in 2024, and the team won three straight unofficial high school national championships - breaking records for scholastic athletes along the way. Brosnan does something of a play-by-play about how it all happened. 

The book generates one key thought along the way. Go to any area in the country, and you'll find a school and a program that is something of a dynasty in something. There's a good coach behind it in most cases, but it's tough to know how much credit to give him or her. After all, the athletes are the ones doing the work. Almost certainly, success breeds success in high school sports. It's cool to be on a state champion, and the younger kids who are top athletes might pick that sport over a less successful one.

From there, Brosnan obviously needed a little help for his methods to succeed. The proper attitude and support from parents and athletes are necessary. When Brosnan decided to take his team to a higher elevation for training during four weeks of summer vacation, the runners had to be willing to do it and their parents had to be on board financially (as well willing to do some driving to see their kids every so often). It sounds like Newbury Park is in a reasonably wealthy area, and that must have helped. But some family vacations and summer jobs might have been sacrificed. This might have been a perfect spot for Brosnan to try out his methods. The coach pounded the message that his runners could be great if they did the work, and many wound up that way by any standard.

Along the way in those championship years, Brosnan had to deal with Covid-19 for a couple of them. Even in a sport involving somewhat solitary runners, the coach's drive for excellence may have bent (but not broken) the rules just a little bit. He certainly fought for his athletes with administrators and sanctioning groups along the way.

Brosnan teamed up with Chris Lear and Andrew Grief for the writing of this book. It's a straight-forward account of the rise of the Newbury Park program and of his life, which is far from conventional. Some of the runners themselves even have the chance to express their stories along the way, which is a nice touch. 

The story that's printed ends in 2022, when Brosnan decided to leave high school coaching to take a similar job at UCLA. But this book is coming out in 2025, so what happened in the meantime? Brosnan only lasted a year coaching the Bruins' distance runners before UCLA fired him. He has said he believes he was fired because there were allegations that he tampered with runners from other schools before they entered the transfer portal. It's tough to tell about what happened there; this isn't the Alabama football program when it comes to media scrutiny. There's no sign that Brosnan has landed a full-time coaching job in the two years since his departure from Westwood. That's all a little disquieting from a distance.    

"Beyond Fast" ought to interest those who have a strong connection with cross country, particularly at the high school level. It's always good to read about how championship teams come together. More casual readers, though, might get a little bogged down at the description of training schedules and races. In other words, the book falls into a very cozy niche without room for most. 

Three stars

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