Review: Movies With Balls (2024)

By Kyle Bandujo and Rick Bryson

Here's a starting point that's relatively indisputable: Most sports fans like sports movies. Admittedly, there's nothing like real-life drama that can't be made up by any screenwriter. But such films can be a good reminder of why we love sports - the last-second finish, the plucky underdog triumph, the unlikely relationship, and so on. 

Every so often, someone seems to come up with a way to group such movies together in a book. That brings us to "Movies With Balls," a publication from Kyle Bandujo and Rick Bryson.

This one has a particularly interesting genesis story. The two authors wondered during a dull moment what the ticket stubs from some of the great moments in sports movies might look like. In other words, they doodled with tickets from "The Natural," "Bad News Bears," "The Replacements," "Rocky IV," etc. To do that, they looked at comparable events from the time period and went to work. 

They did a lot of work too. There are 26 main movies covered here, plus 11 "second stringers" that missed the cut and only received a paragraph and ticket stub at the end. The authors threw out some of the other motions pictures that could be candidates, such as "Miracle" or "Rudy." Their theory was that since those films are based on real events, they have real ticket stubs and not fake ones. There are a variety of breakdowns of the individual movies included here. That includes a description of the movie itself, the big game/event that climaxes the film, an MVP, an analysis of a key character, some graphics of key plays, a post-movie news conference, and some other notes. 

You'd have to say Bandujo and Bryson really, really, really know these movies to give them this much thought. Lives must have been rearranged on short notice when a network aired "Days of Thunder." What's more, they obviously had a lot of fun with the assignment, and some of the writing makes the reader (meaning me, I guess) laugh out loud.

On the other hand, your level of interest may not match the authors' level. Most sports fans have their favorite movies that forces them to stop what they are doing when channel surfing. They might even have a DVD/VHS copy of a big favorite somewhere in the house. Those particular chapters will come across as interesting and well done.

But if, in the reader's opinion, the movie was watched once and forgotten about, then the level of interest won't match the amount of detail in the book. In my case, that would be such movies as "Kingpin," "The Karate Kid" and "Creed" - worth watching, certainly, but maybe not memorizing. Others might be missed altogether. In such cases, the reader doesn't really know what's going on ... and starts flipping pages quickly. If you've see such movies as "She's the Man" and "Hot Rod," you are unquestionably a major expert in this field.   

Therefore, "Movies with Balls" is something of an accordion when it comes to interest. There are those who will enjoy every page as it hits the sweet spot, and the book will stay near the television set indefinitely for them. ("Look, 'Teen Wolf' and its group of adults trying to look like high school students are on TBS!") Certainly some of the public reviews have been enthusiastic. Others who will skim through it in little time at all. So take a look. If this sounds like it fits your niche, it might be worth your time.

Three stars

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Review: All Roads Home (2024)

By Bryan Trottier with Stephen Brunt

The New York Islanders had one of the great dynasties in hockey history more than 40 years ago. The Islanders ripped off four straight Stanley Cup championships from 1980 to 1983. It might not have been appreciated as much then as it is now, as the Montreal Canadiens had won four straight Cups immediately before the Islanders' run. Still it was a great team and a great accomplishment. No one has duplicated it since then.

Right at the center, literally and figuratively, of those Islanders teams was Bryan Trottier. He was one of the league's best players in his time, a top scorer who also could play some defense too. Trottier had help of course. Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, Billy Smith, Clark Gillies and a great "supporting cast" helped out as well. But Trottier might have been the most valuable player of the bunch. 

It's always good when someone from a great team takes the time to write a book about his sports life. It took Trottier a while, but he finally got around to the task about 30 years after his playing days were over. The book is called "All Roads Home." 

Almost right from the start, Trottier comes across as an extremely modest and good person here. He'd be quick to give the credit to his family for that. It's not a story that pops up in the sports section too often. Trottier was the son of a First Nation (think Native) father and an Irish-Canadian mother. The family bounced around the West of Canada and the United States quite a bit, but Saskatchewan played a large role in the story. There were always chores to be done before and after school for the Trottier kids on the ranch/farm. It wasn't always easy, but the family seemed to have food on the table day after day. 

Trottier seemed to avoid some of the abuse and discrimination in sports that often comes with an Aboriginal background. (For more on that sort of life, read Ted Nolan's book.) It should be noted that Trottier was a very good player right from his teen-age years. He dropped out of school to concentrate on hockey, and finished as a second-round draft choice of the Islanders in 1974. It took him a year to reach the NHL, but he was an almost immediate smash in the pros. Bryan had 95 points in his rookie year, and in his third season he started a streak of five straight 100-point seasons. 

After staying with the Islanders through 1990, the relationship suffered from a genial split. Trottier became a free agent, and had some offers before deciding he wanted to play with Mario Lemieux. Good move. The Penguins won Stanley Cup in 1990-91 and 1991-92, bringing Trottier's total as a player to six. Not many NHL players can say that; no wonder he was once named one of the NHL's top 100 all-time players. 

Trottier moved into the coaching business after that, and he had the usual career there with a lot of different stops. The best one came in 2000-01, when he was an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche. That was Stanley Cup No. 7, as the air he breathed became even more rare. The worst stop might have been his one chance at serving as a head coach with the New York Rangers. It came in 2002, and it was odd for Islanders fans to see one of their greatest players coaching the team's biggest rival. The job only lasted 54 games. 

That brings us to an important point of the book. There's no score-settling here, no anger. Obviously 54 games aren't much in trying to evaluate a head coach, but Rangers' general manager Glen Sather gets off without a quick slash in passing from Trottier. Bryan's first two wives receive similar treatment - generally good words and no bad ones.

That's part of a wider discussion that can be made about Trottier's book. There are surprisingly few stories about his teammates and coaches, which is why we're reading in the first place. The playoff wins go by quite quickly.

A couple of other portions of Trottier's story are missing completely. If memory serves, he was involved in some sort of scam with an agent and at some point declared bankruptcy. Several hockey people were robbed that way, and it might be instructive to others to hear what happened there. Bryan also was hired as an assistant coach of the Buffalo Sabres in 2014 under Nolan. The head coach was fired at the end of that season, and so was Trottier. There's not a word about that entire experience in the book. The Sabres were in turmoil then, and it would have been interesting to hear about what happened from an inside perspective. 

If Trottier was your favorite player growing up, you were in good company. Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings wore Trottier's No. 19 in the NHL, and eventually joined Bryan in the Hall of Fame. There's enough material in "All Roads Home" that shows Trottier was worthy of such admiration during his hockey life. The omissions are a little troubling, but the autobiography still ought to please those who took enjoyment of watching Trottier at his peak.

Three stars

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Review: The Magnificent Seven (2025)

By Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiberii

Final Four Weekend in men's college basketball in an appropriate time to be reading "The Magnificent Seven." 

It's a book about the so-called "blue bloods" - the class teams that seem to be good year after year after year. Would it be a Final Four without them?

Not really. The history tells the story about Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina and Connecticut. In the 2000s, there have been exactly two years in which none of those seven teams reached the Final Four - 2013 and 2019. Footnote: No one reached that round in 2020, due to the pandemic. 

Therefore, when picking up a copy of the book, there's a good chance that it's going to be relevant. Sure enough, Duke popped up in the Final Four this time around. The Blue Devils lost in the semifinals, but represented themselves well until the final minutes of a loss to Houston. It happens, especially against good teams. 

Mark Mehler and Jeff Tiberii probably could have written a book on these seven universities that could have served as a major doorstop. They wisely cut the size down to have a breezy, often fun look at the teams, all of which won four NCAA titles in the course of three decades. (That was the standard for inclusion; Villanova, Michigan State and Louisville were the near-misses.)

If there's a common denominator besides winning on this list, it's a great coach that set the standard. Sometimes that coach is followed by other great coaches, once the tradition was established, and sometimes he is not. 

Jim Calhoun set the stage for Connecticut's run after his arrival  in 1986; Dan Hurley has followed in his footsteps nicely. Mike Krzyzewski's record at Duke puts him with the all-time greats. You might have heard about Bobby Knight at Indiana. Kansas' first basketball coach was James Naismith, who merely invented the game. He's also the only coach in Jayhawks' history to have a losing record. Roy Williams and Bill Self have done better. Adolph Rupp became a legend at Kentucky, Rick Pitino and John Calipari had success of their own there. North Carolina plays in a facility named after Dean Smith for a reason, and John Wooden set an impossibly high standard for success at UCLA - as his successors often discovered the hard way. Yes, they all had great players, but the coaches were the constant in their runs of success. 

If a reader is particularly interested in one of the seven schools, a little digging should produce a library filled with possibilities. But that reader might not know that much about the other six universities. That's the fun part - it's not so in-depth that a reader can get lost in the weeds. You are almost sure to learn a few things about all of the programs included here, which is the idea. Mehler and Iberii also are willing to be judgmental when necessary. They've done plenty of research and talked to some people on the record in order to obtain some fresh perspectives. 

Sure, a 240-page book like this on such history-filled programs might be Basketball Lite for some. The guess here, though, "The Magnificent Seven" will be a fun and informative read that won't overwhelm most people. That's the goal of a book like this, and it succeeds nicely that way. 

Four stars

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Review: The Front Runner (2025)

By Brendan O'Meara

Fifty years?

Yes. Fifty years.

It has been a half-century since Steve Prefontaine died in an auto accident in Oregon in 1975. That means he'd be 74 in 2025.  

For those who weren't around yet to know who Steve Prefontaine was, it's tough to explain. He might have been one of the greatest runners ever produced by America. Steve, or as most people called him, "Pre," held almost all of the United States' records in distance running at one time or another. 

But it wasn't a case of what Prefontaine did. It was how he did it. Steve really was a front-runner. He usually took the lead in races rather quickly, and buried the hopes of the competition in virtually no time at all. None of this last-second sprint to the finish stuff for Prefontaine. Most of his races were well over well before that. It's almost as if he were saying, "Do you have what it takes to stay with me? No? Bye."

Prefontaine remains something of a legend in track circles, with some books and two movies covering his career. Now Brendan O'Meara has revisited that era with his comprehensive book, "The Front Runner."  

This starts at the beginning, with Prefontaine's family life. It sure sounds like it wasn't exactly a household filled with love and happiness. "Mommy Dearest" had nothing on Steve's mother, who used to beat him when he did something that was perceived to be wrong. Sometimes the mother asked her husband to take care of disciplinary business with a strap. Steve's older sister (nine years) often protected her little brother, taking the hits in his place.

It's easy to think of Frank Shorter while reading this. Shorter had what looked like a peaceful childhood from a distance, but the future Olympic marathon champion had a monster of a father who tried to abuse most of the residents of a small town. Running became an escape for Shorter and Prefontaine, as they literally could run away from their troubles - at least for a while. Were there many other runners who, pardon the expression, followed that path?

It took a little while for Prefontaine to figure out what sport would be a good fit for him once he reached the high school years. Eventually, though, Steve ended up in running, and - what do you know? - when he started winning races, the beatings stop. That sounds a particularly effective motivating force. Prefontaine quickly moved up the ladder, and by the time of high school graduation he was clearly on a different level than any one else in his native Coos Bay, Oregon - and perhaps most places in the country. 

By the time he arrived at the fabled running program at the University of Oregon with its legendary coach Bill Bowerman, Prefontaine was ready for the next step. Here's how good he was: Steve was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 19 in 1970. Prefontaine rampaged his way through the college ranks with the goal of reaching the Olympics. He did make the 1972 American team that went to Munich, and finished fourth in the 5,000 meters. That spot is always a good news/bad news spot. Fourth in the world in anything is very impressive, but no one remembers who finished fourth in an Olympic event. 

Prefontaine finished up his eligibility at Oregon after that, which must have been something of an anti-climax. Today he'd be making enough money from outside sources that he could continue to run competitively for many more years. But back in those primitive (or, if you prefer, just plain stupid) days, athletes in the so-called Olympic sports had strict rules about compensation or almost any kind. Most athletes had to get on with the rest of their lives by finding work, just to pay the bills. 

Prefontaine fought the old system as best he could, and caused a few cracks with his words and actions. Again, ever the front-runner. While his death in 1975 stopped his personal quest in that area, the Amateur Athletic Union lost most of its power to determine eligibility by the end of that decade. Remember the first rule of amateurism: it's a way to keep money out of the hands of the people who actually earned it. Maybe Prefontaine would have gone on to win an Olympic medal or set a world record, the two missing ingredients on his resume.  

Author Brendan O'Meara certainly put in an effort for this one. He found more than 100 people who sat down for interviews on the subject of Prefontaine, and mined a variety of other sources. Obviously some of the people who were part of Steve's life back then aren't around to talk about it now. But I can't say the finished product is missing anything obvious in that sense. 

"The Front Runner" portrays a man who in a sense could be called track and field's James Dean. Prefontaine and Dean were both big, charismatic stars as a young age who were taken from us too soon. The book might have lost a little of its potential audience after 50 years, but those in running circles who are looking for the full story will enjoy this thoroughly.

Four stars

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Review: Legends and Soles (2025)

By Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian

The cover of "Legends and Soles" raises an unusual question by the standards of autobiography. Who exactly is this "Sonny Vaccaro," the author of the book? 

That's not exactly an easy question to answer. Sonny was one of the great characters of the basketball world for decades, filling a variety of roles. He'd pop up in references to the game off the court, where he was quite influential in a number of ways. It takes a book to sort of answer the question of his identity, and this is that book.

Vaccaro grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and became something of a hustler in the sports world. That is to say, he put together a high school all-star basketball game that often attracted some of the best players in the country to participate. Vaccaro also used his "recruiting" talents for a basketball camp, in which top players squared off against each other while the nation's best coaches enjoyed the chance for "one-stop shopping" when it came to scouting and recruiting. 

After a while, Vaccaro knew everyone in the college basketball business. When Nike was just starting up and wanted to get into the apparel and shoe business for something other than track, Vaccaro became something of a representative for the company. Sonny seems to have gotten the idea that the way to start was to pay the coaches a fee and have them hand out free gear to the players. The coaches, who were relatively unpaid at the time, jumped at the chance. It was revolutionary. Nike got off to such a good start that it became the preeminent outfitter of college basketball teams in the country - much to the disappointment of the more established businesses in that area. Just Do It, indeed.

That eventually led to the biggest moment in Vaccaro's professional life. In 1984, Nike wanted to move into the area of player endorsements in a big way. The usual technique was to sign several players and hope one of them would break into the public eye. Vaccaro says he was the one that suggested the company go all in on one player, giving him the year's entire marketing budget. But it had to be a special player, and Vaccaro thought Michael Jordan was that player. He'd bet his job on it, he said.

Yeah, that worked out pretty well. There's a great story about how agent David Falk changed the terms of the deal with Nike in order to take more money in direct payments and less from royalties from a unique called "Air Jordan." Oops. That little contract change cost his client millions - not that Jordan was ever hurting from a financial  standpoint. The whole story received the Hollywood treatment in the movie "Air," which is quite watchable considering it's not exactly an action thriller.

Vaccaro and Nike eventually went their separate ways - in other words, Sonny was fired. He landed with another athletic goods company, Adidas, which was mostly connected with European soccer but had little presence over here. Vaccaro spent his time looking for the next big thing, and found one of them when he was still a ways from high school graduation. Kobe Bryant eventually signed with Adidas. Another star did get away, though, when LeBron James received a lower-than-expected offer from Vaccaro's bosses with Adidas in Germany and went to Nike. The two sides split up after that. 

Vaccaro did a little more marketing work, and then opted to spend his time working on a class action lawsuit against the NCAA. Ed O'Bannon was the lead plaintiff in the suit. It took a while, but O'Bannon and Company won. That opened the door to direct payments to college players, which has led to a massive change in college sports which is still sorting itself out years later. 

There is plenty of name-dropping here, as you might expect. A couple of generations of top players took part in Vaccaro's game. Sonny also made plenty of friends among the coaching fraternity, which you'd expect when you deliver money from almost nowhere. There also is some serious score-settling along the way, with Nike founder Phil Knight and basketball coach George Raveling (who was the best man at Vaccaro's second wedding before things between the two men fell apart). It's a little ugly to read this from someone who seems to have hugged every basketball name he's ever met, but it's part of the story - and it's his book.

People such as Vaccaro seem to work in the shadows a bit (that often happened to people who liked their gambling back then), and sometimes the truth can be a little cloudy. It is worth noting that Sonny's co-author is Armen Keteyian, who has an excellent reputation as a reporter. If Keteyian is involved, it seems more likely that the story is pretty close to the straight scoop.

Think of "Legends and Soles" this way: it definitely would be worthwhile to spend some time with Sonny over dinner, hearing his stories. As for those who couldn't figure out how to do that (including me), this is a good substitute. The audience for the book might be small, but it will entertain those who pick it up and zip through it.

Three stars

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