Review: The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches (2026)

By Stefano Bizzotto

It's probably not fair to call the United States a "soccer nation" quite yet. However, it's fair to say the game has gained a solid following after about 60 of attempting to grow the sport in both a draw for participants and spectators. That, in turn, has led to Major League Soccer carving out a niche on the sport's calendar. What's more, it's not that unusual for people to have their favorite teams overseas these days. 

In this age of instant communications around the world and the Internet, it's relatively easy to keep track of a team in the English Premier League. Meanwhile, the World Cup is coming back to the United States this year, and that means the rest of the world will be following the games either here or in person.

Following a team from day to day is one thing, but it's a natural but difficult jump to follow the sport's history. There's been about a century of drama taking place in soccer over the years, in part because so many people care so much about outcomes. The game crosses international boundaries in many ways. 

What might be helpful, then, is a book on some of the biggest dramatics that have come up involving soccer over the years. At least that was the goal of Italian journalist Stefano Bizzutto with his book "The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches." The author has covered eight World Cups and several Olympic Games. 

OK, the title promises a little bit more than it can deliver. It is, naturally, only soccer. However, the concept of picking 12 matches - and the definition doesn't have to be strict - that were of particular interest in an historical sense is a fair one.

This begins with a classic story from World War I, of all times and places, that pops up every so often in histories of that conflict. It seems that the two sides enjoyed a moment of silence early in the war during a Christmas truce. Somehow a soccer ball appeared in the area between the two armies - Allies and Germans - in what was called "No man's land." A loosely run soccer game between the sides followed, and gifts between the two sides were later exchanged. It was a rare moment of humanity at an insane period in our history. 

In 1969, tensions between El Salvador and Honduras were at a high point when the two countries played a soccer game in Mexico City. The winner would get a trip to the World Cup. The match was played under tense circumstances but finished without incident. However, soon after that a shooting war between the two sides. About 1,000 people died in the 100 hours of conflict. 

There's plenty of other drama as well. Teams from Croatia and Serbia squared off in 1990 just when Yugoslavia was breaking apart, reigniting old hostilities in that region. Chile and the Soviet Union were supposed to play in 1973, but the Soviets stayed home because of a political situation. Chile won the game by kicking the ball into an empty net with no opposing players on the field. I particularly liked the story of an East German player who joined his team in West Germany for a friendly, only to not come back over the border with his teammates. Those Cold War defection stories are always good ones. 

Some of the chapters work better than others, as you'd expect. There are a couple of other problems here, at least for the American audience. Some knowledge of the history and strategy of the game is assumed along the way here, particularly when it comes to personalities. Such references are easy to skim over. Also, remember that this book was written in Italian at first and then translated to English. That's a tough job as it is, and it's tougher to write for those not so familiar with the subject. The prose comes out a little flowery in spots.

The World Cup will certainly bring in some new eyeballs in the United States for the curious, and those people might wonder about why and how the sports is taken so seriously elsewhere. "The History of the World in 12 Soccer Matches" zips through its list of memorable games/events over the years in soccer in hardly any time. That makes it a reasonable choice for those looking for a primer on the subject. 

Three stars

Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. 

Be notified of news posts on this site via X.com @WDX2BB. 

Review: Big Fan (2026)

By Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski

Way back in 1994, Tom Callahan and Dave Kindred - two veteran sportswriters - had an idea. They would travel the world playing its best golf courses, and then writing a book about their experiences. If you'll notice, the beauty of the plan was that someone else - the publisher at the beginning, the readers at the back end - would be picking up the tab. It worked. They enjoyed the golf, and the readers enjoyed the book. 

Thirty-two years later, Michael Schut and Joe Posnanski came up with a similar idea. Schur is a comedy writer who has worked on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Office" (he also was a performer on the latter). Posnanski has been one of America's top sports writers in his career, with some fine books to his credit. It seems they are friends and both devoted to the idea of having as many good sports experiences as possible. At some point a light bulb went on and they said, we could do a book like this. 

In other words, a good idea is still a good idea - especially if someone else is paying for the experience. 

Schur and Posnanski got to work, figuring out events to see and ways to get there. The resulting book is called "Big Fan," and it's a fun exploration of the wide, wide world of sports. 

Michael and Joe find a university professor who is an expert at the peculiarities of being a big fan of something - teams, players, groups, etc. They come up with a few rules:

1. Life is boring, and sports provide entertainment. 

2. Life is chaotic, and sports provide order.

3. Life is lonely, and sports provide community. 

4. Life is uniform, and sports provide an opportunity for individuality. 

There's something to be said about that. Sports offer a unique spot in the entertainment world in that the outcome isn't pre-planned, like a movie, play or TV show. Think that couple on the Hallmark Channel will get together before the top of the hour? Of course the two of them will. In sports, we don't know what might happen at a given moment, and that's part of the fun. If the outcome isn't what people like, well, it's still not a death in the family in spite of what people might say. Meanwhile, the list of things that can bring an entire region together is pretty short. A sports team can be a common bond that crosses all demographic lines. That's worth something. 

Armed with all of that, Schur and Posnanski take that information and essentially throw it away. They are in the business of having some fun, and they get to work by starting at the World Darts Championship in London. The World Chess Championship (which answers the question, where did the Chess Hall of Fame go when it left Miami - the answer is St. Louis). A pickleball tournament. A NASCAR race, where they run into a woman who loves motorsports despite being blind. Wrestlemania. A Liverpool soccer game. A warehouse full of sports cards. Wemby (I don't need to add "San Antonio Spurts center" to that.) Taylor Swift.

The episodes are occasionally interrupted by a short contributions from people who are fans of one thing for another. Almost anything is fair game - puzzles, cars, mascots, bands, actors, board games, needlepoint, candy bars, etc. One "anonymous" contributor is a sports writer from New York who lives and dies with all things St. Bonaventure athletes. Mike Vaccaro, come on down. Your devotion to all things Bona is appreciated here in Western New York.

Don't like a particular subject? You could jump ahead a bit. But don't. Schur and Posnanski are good enough tour guides that they can make any of the experiences reasonably interesting. One of my favorites along the way came in a chapter on crossword puzzles, which introduced us to another comedy writer who is unbelievably good at word play. At one point she was called on to come up with punning restaurant titles for a project, and her list of suggestions is downright breathtaking. (Then again, I like such wordplay.)  

I'm not familiar with Schur's work, although he clearly knows his way around a well-constructed one-liner. Posnanski's touch is tailor-made for this sort of assignment. His articles and books are usually good-natured and friendly without any malice. A little anger sometimes can be useful in the journalism business, but we don't have to consume it every day. 

"Big Fan" doesn't completely come together into a whole, but that's fine. This is the story of two guys inviting people along while they have fun. If you've ever gone to a new stadium or arena and taken a long walk around the building to see what it's like, you'd probably enjoy this trip.

Four stars

Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money from qualifying purchases.)

Be notified of new posts on this site via X.com @WDX2BB. 

Review: Death of a Racehorse (2025)

By Katie Bo Lillis

Live long enough, my fellow sports fan, and you'll realize the popularity of a particular sport is not guaranteed to last forever. The landscape in tastes shifts slowly, bordering on imperceptibly. But after several years, it's easy to look back and try to figure out what happened.   

Exhibit A for this particular discussion is horse racing as a spectator sport. It was a major player in the sports and leisure business for many decades, dating back to the 19th century. But it more or less has faded, due to a number of factors. As author Chuck Klosterman points out in his book on football, horses were a huge part of everyday life around 1900. But as American life became more urban and more motorized, the four-legged animals faded out of view in many cases. 

Then throw in the rise of other sports, mostly pro football but certainly basketball and hockey too. By the 1950s, horse racing was still in a niche, but a good-sized one. But then it lost its monopoly on gambling to other activities, such as casinos. The sport never did really embrace television properly, either. Eventually, newspapers stopped covering the tracks on a regular basis, and the days of television sportscasters showing the finish of a race on the 11 p.m. news ended quietly. The Triple Crown races are about the only exceptions left, unless you are around Saratoga in the Adirondacks in late summer.

In recent years, there's been a new issue that has come along. While it's always been tempting to cheat in some manner in horse racing, technology in scientific research has come a long way in this area. When we see horses in the starting gate, we don't know how many of them have received a little help in the form of drugs. The horses certainly aren't talking. It can make spectators - read "bettors" - wary of following the results if it might not be a fair fight. 

That's where we are today, and it's something of a starting point of Katie Bo Lillis' excellent book, "Death of a Racehorse."  

Ellis takes us through a tour of the industry that is thorough and convincing. Our guide in portions of the book is Bob Baffert, one of the most successful trainers in the racing business. He's very good at what he does, and he's an outsider to the ownership side of the business that sometimes feels like it's straight out of a 19th-century PBS program. Baffert's problem is that he has had some slip-ups along the way, and has been penalized for it. 

He's at the center of the first section of the book. That's followed by a recap of a major investigation that tried to reel in some "big fish" who were cheating in an attempt to have better living (in the form of wins) through racing. Then in part three, Lillis moves on to efforts to police the industry better, in part through a federal program. That's not easy in a world where laws can change from state to state and jurisdictional collisions are almost inevitable. 

The shrinking nature of the sport has meant less money to be earned. That in turn has increased the pressure on trainers to win races, even if it can be left unsaid. The race tracks need horses in good condition in order to fill out their cards and keep the customers coming. And if the customers stop, then there is less demand for horses in the form of breeding - the place where the owners can cash in on a big way. No wonder some chemists keep busy in the form of creating designer drugs that might have the effect of changing the odds. It's hard for the authorities to keep up with it all.   

Let's throw in one other issue. Horse racing can pop up in the news these days for an extra reason - a surprising death on the track, usually during a race. It seems there's a rash of them every so often, and that strikes a nerve - not without some justification - with those outsiders who consider horses more like pets than livestock. There's some anger when even a small percentage of the horses in a given race have an insides that resemble pharmacies. Someone has to raise the issue, since those animals don't have a voice in the discussion. 

Lillis covers national security issues for CNN, and she's obviously knows how to conduct an investigation. But she has always loved horses, and she's always been a fan of Thoroughbred racing. Here the author lays out the facts thoroughly and calmly. It's not a story that is covered in the mainstream media much any more, unless someone like Baffert receives a long suspension. Therefore, this will fill in a void for those seeking information about what has been going on a bit under the surface. 

No, "Death of a Racehorse" is by no means escapist reading. But it does take a good-sized look at relevant issues in the Sport of Kings. Those who are hoping that a level playing field will help horse racing regain a bit more relevance should be impressed by what's between the covers of the book.

Five stars

Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money from qualifying purchases.)

Be notified of new posts on this site via X.com @WDX2BB.

Review: Football (2026)

By Chuck Klosterman

Say the name "Klosterman" to some avid readers, and the first name of "Chuck" no doubt will come up a few times. Chuck Klosterman has become something of a cultural commentator, a good gig if you can arrange it. He's written several books, starting with music-related subjects and broadening his range as he's gotten older. Klosterman even has some novels to his credit, and has written for several top media outlets. 

Say the name "Klosterman" to football fans, at least the older ones (guilty), and the reaction is a different one. Don Klosterman was a player in the 1950s, mostly remembered as a backup quarterback, who eventually moved into the front office. Don was the general manager of a few NFL teams, including one that won the Super Bowl in 1971 (Baltimore). 

Now, by coincidence, Chuck Klosterman is moving into Don's territory with a book called "Football." Talk about worlds colliding. I have no idea if the two Klostermans are even faintly related, but it's a bit fun to see their lives intersect this way.

This is a roundabout way of asking the central question about whether traditional football people like Don would pick up and enjoy this book from Chuck. And the answer is, yes - if they are willing to be a bit open-minded on the subject. For this hits some unique territory.

"Football" reads more like a collection of essays that have something to do with football. We're not headed on a straight line here. Some of the chapters have titles like "The Semantics of GOAT Herding," "This Is Still Your Father's Oldsmobile," "Nuclear Football" and "A Rose by Any Other Name Would Not Impact the Rose Bowl." Meanwhile, the first sentence of the book is "This is a book about football, written for people who don't exist." 

And away we go. After explaining that initial concept - no easy task - we soon get into issues that you probably haven't considered very often. For example, football is about the only sport that is extremely difficult to duplicate at lower levels of competition. For a legitimate football game, you need 22 players minimum, referees, equipment, etc. That's not going to happen very easily. A touch football game can break out on Thanksgiving morning in a neighborhood, but without the physical side of the game it's not a close approximation of the experience. I suppose hockey is close to that level of specialization. But a pickup basketball game is still basketball - just not played as skillfully. A 12-foot putt for birdie translates well to the hacker and the pro. And so on.

Soon we jump from the concept of "America's Team" (Dallas Cowboys) to football as close to a religion in Texas. From there it's on to determining the greatest football player at a given point in the sport's history (spoiler alert: quarterbacks eventually take over). Or perhaps you're more likely to be wrapped up in a discussion about race in football, translated into the question, "How many quarterbacks in the NFL in an ideal setting should be black?" Should it mirror the ratio of the population as a whole, or should it reflect the ratio of other positions in the game? Hmm.

Ever ponder why football in America has four downs, while Canada uses three? Klosterman has. He points out that in the game's formative years, the number of downs was essentially up for grabs. The U.S. version gave a boost to a grind-it-out approach to offense, while Canada's version led to a more wide-open game. Interestingly, a three-down rule came first. 

The price tag that comes with football also comes up here, which leads to a discussion of injuries - specifically concussions. Players now realize when they start playing an advanced level of football full-time that there is a risk of problems down the road with brain function. The rewards for success in the National Football League are enormous, as the pay is life-changing for generations. For many, that assumed risk is worth it for the chance at riches. Could that change? And will a majority of mothers eventually prevent their baby sons from trying to become football players? 

Klosterman saves the best discussion for last. The National Football League essentially has used college football as its minor-league feeder system for its talent. But college football is changing almost by the hour these days. He points out that several changes have come to the sport in the past handful of years, including the transfer portal and the NIL financial deals. These have been great for the athletes, who have been making money for others for that century, Will we get to the point where college football will be reduced to the big schools that can make it work financially? We'd lose something if that happened. But some schools have to be wondering if the football business should be a part of their primary function, which is education. There are no guarantees that we're headed on the right road. 

"Football" is on the messy side, as you may have guessed, and Klosterman hasn't seen a tangent that he's not willing to explore. But there's something nice about going for a ride with an active mind. The book isn't for all fans by any means, but the intellectually adventuresome members of the audience should find plenty to ponder here. 

In other words, Don might have liked it. 

Four stars

Learn more about this book from Amazon.com.  (As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.)  

Be notified of new posts on this site via X.com @WDX2BB. 

Review: LIV and Let Die (2023)

By Alan Shipnuck

It's never too late to go back and take a look at origin stories in the world of sports, particularly when they are still relevant today. That certainly applies to the LIV golf league, which has been fighting for attention and publicity for the last four years. 

It took an odd combination of events for the LIV (Roman Numerals for 54, or 18-under par on the par-72 golf course) to begin play on some of the world's golf courses in 2022. It's still around, still trying to fight the more established golf leagues, like the PGA Tour of America, for talent and sponsors. Those first couple of years are nicely reviewed by golf writer Alan Shipnuck in "LIV and Let Die."

There has been talk forever about trying to come up with better ways to present professional golf to the public. The problem, to some extent, is that the players are essentially independent contractors with very different interests and incentives. A union, like the ones in team sports, isn't completely practical in that setting. The superstars don't really have much in common with the guys who are simply happy to make the cut this week. On the other hand, a pro tour is survival of the fittest in some ways. If you don't play well and at least make the weekend cut, you go home empty-handed - even if you are one of the players who attracts crowds. 

The plans for something new started to bubble in 2019, but Covid-19 pushed some of it back. Then in 2020, Saudi Arabia and its Public Investment Fund (a huge supply of cash created by oil sales) started talks about creating a new circuit. The Middle Eastern nation is long on dictatorial rules by short on human rights for its citizens, which has caught the attention of many. A golf league was one way to attract attention to its efforts to improve the public image of the country. Phil Mickelson called the technique "sportswashing," which is rather creative. 

Representatives starting throwing around big money at established players in order to lure them to LIV play. Big money, indeed. Dustin Johnson supposedly signed for a guarantee of $150 million to jump in the summer of 2022. Others, such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, eventually joined that crew, as did Mickelson - even though he was more of a drawing card than a top competitor at that point in his career. 

LIV did eventually take off, even if the process was predictably bumpy. The lawyers got rich on this, of course, and the Saudis spared no expense - even by their standards - to make the idea work. Shipnuck is one of the most well-connected reporters on the golf circuit, and he has great fun reportedly on all of the back-and-forth conversation between people and their organizations. It doesn't sound like the hard feelings were healed during that time period. That led to some major changes in how the PGA Tour operated, including more money for the top players who hung around in the form of different schedules, guarantees and bonuses

Shipnuck - who wrote a fun biography of Michelson a while ago - has to stop at some point, and he does so in 2023 when the PGA Tour and LIV negotiated the starting framework to some sort of merger between the two sides. Since the book was published, not much progress has been made on bringing the two sides together. Let's face it - the PGA had a major advantage in this battle. Its weekly results reached the masses of golf fans out in the public. Some stars may be gone to LIV, but the "star-making machinery" that Joni Mitchell used in a far different context creates new heroes to come along with each golf season. It's difficult to follow the LIV tour in America without some effort, especially because of the time zone changes featured in a worldwide tour. Jon Rahm, not surprisingly, is the leading money winner on that tour in the last two years, but you might be hard-pressed to find someone who knew that fact for sure. 

This is not the usual golf book in some spots. For example, a chapter is devoted to the history of the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia, which doesn't come up much in books otherwise filled by bogeys and birdies. A few other spots offer some difficult reading. Happily, Shipnuck has a nice touch for navigating through the corridors of golf power to explain what the heck was going on. Considering that golfers aren't often quote machines for media members, the stories of some of these pros and their attitudes are sometimes eye-opening. And he doesn't waste too much time telling the story here, keeping things brisk.     

It's hard to say where this will wind up, and when. It's obviously in everyone's financial interest to work together to establish a structure that is relatively equitable for everyone. In the meantime, "LIV and Let Die" is a good place to go for the background on these squabbles. Possible readers, however, should know that it's more of a business book than golf book in some ways, so keep that in mind. 

Four stars

Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.)  

Be notified of new posts on this site via X.com @WDX2BB.