Review: Portrait of a Hockey Scribe (2026)

By Gare Joyce

Here's a book that was right in my sweet spot before I opened a page. 

"Portrait of a Hockey Scribe" is the story about how Gare Joyce came into business of writing about hockey. He was the columnist for the Toronto Globe & Mail during much of the 1990s. Meanwhile, I was involved in the NHL in one form or another (public relations and journalism) from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. 

I'm sure our paths crossed along the way. Joyce was close friends with Jim Kelley, a friend and co-worker of mine during that era. There were some group beer-drinking sessions in those days, and no doubt we were all included. But I was closer to Dave Shoalts of the Globe & Mail from that era, so I didn't know Joyce's creation story until now. It comes with some surprises. 

Joyce took the long way to his job in Toronto, as he outlines here. He did go to journalism school, and even worked some desk/clerical work at a newspaper while continuing with his studies. But it's not as if he lived and breathed hockey, which no doubt made him a bit of an exception among Canadian young adults in the field. At one point Joyce became a part-time bouncer at a local bar, and certainly wasn't getting enough sleep. 

The writer eventually hooked on with an independent sports magazine in the Toronto area. Such publications usually seemed like a good idea at the time in big cities, and this one probably qualified. They didn't seem to last too long. There are always stories from such places about how things went wrong, and the author has plenty of them. It's interesting to read such tales from someone who became nationally known. It's not always easy to succeed in the business. 

Joyce's work caught someone's eye at management, as the newspaper ended up hiring him to be the hockey columnist in 1994.  It was quite an upset, since Joyce had never even been in the Maple Leaf Gardens press box before. To demonstrate his orientation in the book, almost all of the chapter titles in the book begin with "Don't" - as in "Don't Let an 82-Year-Old Slip Your Tackle" and "Don't Try Too Hard To Do Too Much Too Soon." The exception is a chapter that starts with "Never" - to be more specific, "Never Drop Your Right Hand." In other words, this is real world stuff from the front lines, and everyone in the business has been through it at some point. 

The focus changes once Joyce reaches "the big time." There are stories about the problems that come with the job, such as near-fights with the people he covered. But other chapters are more typical of a sportswriter's memoir. If you've ever doubted that Jean Beliveau - who could have played hockey in a tuxedo - was just as elegant off the ice and on, a story about an interview with him will erase those thoughts. Joyce's visits to the final game of some Original Six buildings - in other words, Boston, Montreal and Toronto - are entertaining too. The Boston chapter might have been subtitled, "How I watched the final game in the Boston Garden while sitting next to the organist." 

This isn't a short book - about 330 pages - but it's a comfortable read and there are a couple of related surprises at the end. Joyce left his job soon after the Maple Leafs switched arenas in 1999. And basically, the book ends there. If you are counting, that was 27 years ago. So some of the names and events are going to come off on the dated side. What's more, there's not really an update about when he's done in the 21st century. 

As a public service, Joyce has been busy. He's written 14 books, some on hockey and some that were novels. Gare has done some freelance writing for a number of outlets over the years on a variety of subjects, and so he's found a way to write and eat. Joyce also did have a knack for looking for non-traditional angles. That may not be a great fit for a hockey columnist, since that job concentrates mostly on the nuts and bolts of a given season. But it's served him well for the last quarter-century. 

"Portrait of a Hockey Scribe" is an unusual story of someone who is quite willing to look back at his professional life with a critical eye. That makes it worth your time - even if it may not be quite in your individual sweet spot.

Four stars

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Review: Everybody Loses (2026)

By Danny Funt

Here's a snapshot of America today: More people place a bet in a year than read a book.  

That's rather distressing news, since it would be nice to think that reading can be a constructive exercise while gambling is more on the destructive side. It's interesting bordering on ironic, then, to have "Everybody Loses" in the bookstores.  

Danny Funt has written something of a recap of the sports gambling business in this United States, which began on a formal basis with a Supreme Court decision in 2017. You may not like what betting has done to the sports business since then, and that's understandable. On the other hand, as Funt shows here in several ways, the situation is worse than you think.

At the time that gambling on our games became legal, the moral argument for not allowing it had more or less sailed out of port. Casinos and lottery games were growing around the country, and governments were more than happy to take in some of the proceeds - even though it usually proved to be less of a silver bullet for growing debt than was advertised.

But opening up betting on our sports events was a little different. People figured to start betting on matters that nothing to do with the final score, a category that started with point spreads but moved into areas like "prop bets" and "parlays" that tie a string of potentially unrelated events together in an attempt bettors to gamble more money. Sure enough, that's the case. So-called experts or "touts" are happy to offer advice on how a particular game might play out, but they usually don't publish an honest review of their results - and it's probably below the breakeven line of more than 50 percent right. 

There were also fears that that the fans would become more cynical, that they would suggest that foul play was at work when actions by players and officials caused them to lose money. That's difficult to quantify, but certainly the stories of death threats and the like toward players - particularly on social media - have made the rounds. You can't strike out or drop a pass or shank a drive without knowing about possible repercussions any more. 

With so many types of gambling, it's easy to guess how easy it is to fix an outcome. A player can quietly miss a few shots and throw away some passes and change a point spread for the first half. It allegedly happened in some University at Buffalo basketball fans a few years ago, so it can happen almost anywhere.  

We've also seen how news outlets are anxious to play ads (and more ads) for the bookmakers and post odds near game schedules, and noticed how the leagues themselves have invested in those companies after decades of saying they were sticking up for the integrity of the games. It's tough to tune out, and Funt outlines it nicely.

But there's even more to the story, as it outlined in the book. For example, you've probably seen advertising for special introductory offers for opening accounts, such as "First Bet Free." What you don't know unless you've been there is that the offer comes with enough catches to keep a team of lawyers occupied. 

You also don't know what happens to winners. Yes, some people do win consistently for one reason or another. But sometimes the company notices, and immediately limits the amount of money a bettor can gamble on a particular sport. The companies prefer losers, thank you. If that means making big losing bettors part of a VIP club that gives them bonuses and benefits to keep them around, well, that's not a problem. Yes, it would be nice if a company would notice that an individual is betting most of his income on games, but that gets in the way of profit and loss statements. 

The number of addicted gamblers is adding up quickly too. It's gotten far, far too easy to be able to bet on games, thanks mostly to phones. You almost don't even notice the losses adding up. It's particularly true for men in the 18-29 age group, who are full of false confidence that they know more than the experts setting the lines.  

And it's all been done in a haphazard way. After all, other countries like England have been allowing sports betting for many years. You might think it would be ask someone in authority over there about the pitfalls of starting such an operation here. Didn't happen. 

It's all rather ugly. Funt occasionally gets bogged down in legal and governmental bureaucracy (and accompanying anagrams) involved in the subject, but that's unlikely to be objectionable to those reading it. The research is solid, and the background stories are through and interesting. 

Someone once asked me if there was anything that could get in the way of the "gravy train" that is pro sports in this country. I said gambling might represent the biggest potential roadblock, particularly if game fixing became more common. There's a spot for athletic entertainment that has prearranged outcomes - it's called professional wrestling - but much of the attraction of pro sports to fans and - more importantly - television network is that it's real life drama. That disappears if people don't believe everything is on the level.

Those with an interest in the subject will find "Everybody Loses" to be a very good guidebook to where we've been and where we're going.

Four stars

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Review: Miracle Gold, Four Stanley Cups ... (2025)

By Ken Morrow with Allan Kreda

It's to realize why a book by Ken Morrow might be of interest to hockey fans. After all, he had about three of the greatest months in hockey history. 

Morrow became nationally known as one of the members of the United States hockey team in 1980. You might have heard of the Miracle of Lake Placid. That team instantly became celebrated, and - as we might have guessed - the memories of a group of mostly college kids winning the gold medal will be cherished for a lifetime. That applies to those who merely watched in the stands or on television. 

Morrow was a member of that team, and he's one of the most recognized players outside of the stars like Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig. The reason is that he was the only player to wear a beard. It's not easy for a defensive defenseman to stand out otherwise.

From there, Morrow took less than a week off, and reported to duty with the New York Islanders. Those were the Islanders who had established a reputation at that point as "Tomorrow's Champions." They had spent most of the late 1970s as a contender, but the Montreal Canadiens of that era weren't about to let anyone else take the Stanley Cup home during that era. However, the Canadiens had slipped due to departures in 1980, and the league was ripe for a new champion. 

Morrow was a good-sized addition to the Islanders, who were happy to have another steady defenseman on the roster. They made some other key acquisitions in that season, and went on to win their first championship in 1980. In other words, Morrow had won a gold medal and a Stanley Cup in three months. 

That time period serves as the centerpiece for Morrow's book, "Miracle Gold, Four Stanley Cups, and a Lifetime of Islanders Hockey."  (There aren't many titles on this website that can match that one for length.) While it's nice to read Morrow's perspective on some history-making events, his version is on the thin side. 

Morrow grew up in the Flint, Michigan, area and quickly began a love affair with hockey. It led him to Bowling Green, where he helped that college program achieve some national recognition - including an appearance at the Frozen Four. The Falcons didn't win it all, but they did have plenty of talent. Morrow's teammates included future NHLers Mike Liut, George McPhee and Brian MacLellan.  

Then came 1979, and Morrow already had decided to try out for the U.S. Olympic team that summer. He knew that making the team was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and might help him - a fourth-round draft choice of the Islanders - in a possible professional career. Morrow made the team, and he was off on a long ride. Ken added three more Stanley Cups to his trophy case - making it four in a row - and played until knee injuries ended his career in 1989. (He hadn't been able to play more than 70 games in a season after 1982-83).

That all has the makings of a quite respectable book, but something got lost in the translation. Morrow comes across as a very nice guy who has good thoughts about just about everyone he encountered. The descriptions of people he's encountered along the way come off as rather dry and one-dimensional. Later on, the chapters on the Islanders' championships are basic recaps of games with occasional comments thrown in. It's a difficult assignment to make such descriptions interesting, particularly 40-plus years later. It was odd, too, that Morrow's time as the Islanders' director of pro scouting (since 1992) was more or less ignored.

Morrow and co-author Allan Kreda probably sensed the book needed to be filled out, and enlisted a number of people to help. Therefore, there are several comments from a variety of people added along the way. It took some effort to round up the comments and the other voices help a bit, but many of them don't add much to the story past adding praise to those involved. This book also takes some time to get to the main story and is a bit slow to end. There's a foreword by Denis Potvin, an introduction by Kreda, a prologue and epilogue by Morrow, an afterword by Stan Fischler, and some acknowledgements. It all managed to get to 300 pages, although it's fair to note that the pages aren't a chore to read.  

"Miracle Gold" seems to have found its niche on the reading list of huge Islanders' fans rather quickly - based on reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and it's easy to see why. They want to be reminded of the greatest era in the team's history, and they'll enjoy this. The same applies to those seeking more information about Lake Placid and 1980. Others might not be so enthusiastic.

Three stars

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Review: The Game (2026)

By Peter King

One of the best parts of becoming a young journalist is that he or she gets to sit around and talk with older journalists about their jobs. Most do so happily, asd they are story-tellers at heart. Chances are good that they wouldn't be in the business if they didn't fit that qualification. Those veterans are happy to talk about experiences in the past and present, and wrap them up in bows with the perspective that comes with many years on the job. 

That brings us to Peter King. He's been lucky enough - and he'll admit to that - to have been in the right place at the right time to collect such stories. Peter started working for newspapers, but eventually graduated to Sports Illustrated magazine when its influence was huge. Then it was on to NBC Sports near the end of his formal career. Therefore, he was perfectly placed to go to places even the average reporter didn't have the chance to see. 

Now he's gone back into his files and paperwork - his professional life, really - to examine those stories and bring them up to date. The result is "The Game" - a book that checks in at about 592 pages, and every single one of them is entertaining (at least if you follow follow even semi-closely).

Yes, King had some professional advantages at certain points along his career. When someone from SI called requesting an interview, chances are good that the message was returned rather quickly. When he had an idea to do something unusual, the concept was at least considered. 

In this review of his personal football history, every year from 1984 to 2023 gets a chapter - with a main story and a sidebar included. Add it up and you get a chatty, user-friendly history of pro football in that time period. It wouldn't be fair to call it the "modern era" (that probably should go back to at least 1967), but certainly it covers a period of spectacular growth. 

He starts out with this days with Sam Wyche, then coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, who was one of the great characters of the football business. Wyche was nice enough to leak the names of the guys who the Bengals would take in that year's NFL draft. King wound up giving two of the top picks a ride to the team's offices from the airport. 

Ride with John Madden on a coast-to-coast bus ride? Check. Spend time with Deion Sanders in his playing days as he outlined his philosophy about publicity? Yup. Watch the Cleveland Browns prepare to leave their longtime home, and see Reggie White prepare as a free agent to leave Philadelphia and wind up in, of all places, Green Bay? Of course. Listen in on a team's work during the NFL Draft? Watch an NFL quarterback prepare for a game? Be with a head coach as he puts together a gameplan? All that too. You get the idea. 

There are even stories about people you don't know about. That includes the woman who has done considerable research into football players and their brain injuries, and the people behind the rise of NFL Films. As mentor Paul Zimmerman told King early in his career, "Stay away from the crowds." 

If that weren't enough, King even puts plenty of work into his appendix (the end of the book, that is to say). He has his list of the 100 most important people in NFL history, starting with George Halas, Pete Rozelle, Paul Brown, Joe Carr, and Vince Lombardi. The reasoning seems solid. By the way, O.J. Simpson checks in as the top Buffalo Bill on the list at No. 45, while Bruce Smith is No. 67. OK, I might have switched Buck Buchanan and Deacon Jones from their spots of No. 99 and "just missed," but it's a close call. 

King also comes up with a list of favorite locker room moments - bumping into Richard Nixon in one in the 1980s tops that list  - and his nominees for the five most underrated players. Bills' fans will be happy to know that Steve Tasker tops that list, and perhaps surprised that Antoine Winfield Sr. of the Bills made it too.

In the "best game I saw" section King opens by writing "Apologies to the Bills' 1992 wild card comeback from a 35-3 deficit, which is too easy." But he compensates by picking the Bills-Patriots game that was right after Damar Hamlin's injury in January 2023, highlighted by Hyheim Hines's two kickoff returns for touchdowns. King quotes Sean McDermott from that day: "When people can put their agendas aside for the greater and common good, how good we can be when we do that."

There's even a crossword puzzle in here. King likes crossword puzzles. A lot. They are a little tough to do on a Kindle version of a book. 

If you like books from superb sports reporters that serve as the valedictory address of their careers, we've got a couple of really good ones coming in the fall. Baseball's Peter Gammons was almost sweet in its love of the game. "The Game" from football's King is more scattered in its approach, but even more entertaining. You can count on both books being in my "best of 2026" list at the end of December.

Five stars

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Review: Be On That Hill (2026)

By Seth Wickersham

It's fair to say that Seth Wickersham is a little underrated in the world of sports writing. That's in spite of the fact that he has written a couple of books - "American Kings" and "It's Better to be Feared" - that were both terrific. Both received five-star ratings here for what it's worth. 

But Wickersham is remembered more for his work for ESPN. He's a senior writer there, having arrived for the outlet after graduating from college in 2000. It was easy to keep track of him at first, because ESPN was producing a magazine so that was an obvious outlet for him. When that publication died, Wickersham simply moved smoothly over to the website.  

That's not a particularly easy spot.  ESPN sometimes gets a little too caught up in marketing hype for its various enterprises. In other words, it can be easy to wonder if stories get covered because the company is broadcasting its games somewhere. But it's easy for the network to point at Wickersham's work (as well as some others) and say "See? We do journalism here too." And that's true. Sometimes you may have to search for his stories, but that's a worthwhile project. 

A quarter-century isn't a bad excuse to look back at a body of work, and Wickersham had the chance to do exactly that with "Be On That Hill." It's an anthology of some of his favorite stories. (In case you are wondering, the title comes from a lyric of Bruce Springsteen's song, "Darkness on the Edge of Town.")

For someone associated with football, Wickersham throws a curveball at us with a good-sized story about a person who could be called an "extreme climber." In other words, he goes up the face of steep mountains without special equipment. That's a long way from the world of the NFL, and it may not be able to lure in his usual readers.

Happily for some, the subjects become more "conventional" for the rest of the 400-plus pages of text. There are profiles of such people as Sean McVay, Andrew Luck, Patrick Mahomes, Richard Sherman, and Tom Brady. Wickersham throws in a few change-ups along the way, which is nice. Care to know the backstory of the song "We Will Rock You" by Queen and how it came to be so popular at sporting events? It's here. There is a tale of the person who is in charge of euthanizing injured race horses at tracks, an conversation with Kobe Bryant's Colorado prosecutor after the basketball star's accident death, a (mostly) gay rugby team in the San Francisco area, and a relationship turned ugly between a NASCAR driver and his girt friend. I particularly liked a piece on an almost legendary if rare football book by Bill Walsh detailing what went into the job of head coach in the NFL.  

Some investigative stories are also included here. There is a seriously deep dive into what went into the not-so-simple transfer of the NFL's Rams and Chargers to Los Angeles. The anthology also contains a look at the demise of the Patriots' dynasty, which obviously covers some similar territory to his book on the New England franchise. Such stories do feel a little dated and complicated at this point, but it's impossible not to be impressed by the work involved. 

"Be On That Hill" is on the long side at more than 400 pages of text, and the "mostly but not completely" attempt to emphasize football may not work completely for a few. However, those who take the time will find plenty of rewards along the way, and no doubt will take the time to seek out his work after finishing it. 

Four stars

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