Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book || ahh ...sweet memories...
Written: Feb 12 '08 (Updated Feb 13 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Introduction, history lesson, photographs, stories, covers... it is 99-44/100 percent great stuff..!!
Cons: Truncated stories, uhhmmm ...that is about all.
The Bottom Line: Sports has the power to touch your heart, your spirit, your soul. Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book does just that, in spades, on nearly every page. Thank me later...OK..??
sleeper54's Full Review: Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book
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The world of sports is a life-long journey, from throwing the ball back and forth with Dad to wondering, as an octogenarian, if this is the year the Cubs will finally get to the Series. In between can be decades of our own play of 'the game', any game; years of shepherding our kids through the highs and lows of their sports participation; a lifetime of cheering on our school teams, city teams, even our national teams.
If you are a baby-boomer or a younger sports fan, you grew up with Sports Illustrated as your companion and interpreter for sports beyond your local area. While there are other 'sports magazines' none seem to have the consistently broad coverage; in words, pictures, and memories; of Sports Illustrated.
Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book was first published in 2004, which just happened to be the fiftieth anniversary of the magazine's first issue; clever marketing that.
A brief introduction by Frank Deford melds his own youth and coming of age, and perhaps yours, with that of SI. Perhaps the most important point he makes is that SI once seemed to be the voice of 'American sports'. It retained that unchallenged 'voice' well into this cyber-age. Only in the last decade or so has the power and reach of cable networks (including that four-letter one), the Internet, and every sports junkie blogger out there began to contest SI's place in the sports world.
Longtime senior SI writer Richard Hoffer leads off with an extended examination of the founding of SI and early challenges met and overcome. Time, Inc. co-founder Henry Luce was looking for an investment opportunity for some excess corporate cash. He simply wanted to develop "another good magazine". I found it amusing other possible ideas included Highway Magazine, Quitting Time, and Railroad Fan Magazine. Let's pause to give thanks to those who supported a sports magazine.
The Photographs
Divided into decades (the 50s, the 60s, etc.) Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book brings many SI classic photographs and some new-to-me gems to light:
- Jackie Robinson dancing down the third base line in the '55 World Series.
- A boxer leaping into his trainer's arms as his KO'd opponent is being tended to in the foreground.
- A two page spread of a fumble in a UCLA-Cal football game, all eyes wide-open, focusing, following the elusive pigskin bouncing free.
- Lew Alcindor skyhooking ...every other player seemingly glued to the floor.
- Texas women's track team members in starting blocks, hair piled impossibly tall in beehive bouffants, better suited to the Spring Formal than a cinder track.
- A grainy black-&-white photo of a masked terrorist on a Munich balcony.
- 'Sweetness', aka Walter Payton, airborne over two pages and over the opponent's defensive line.
- Tiger Woods driving from the tee box, all eyes focused on him, on the ball.
Sports Illustrated has always been known for their top drawer photography. To quote a respected stock photo web site blurb: "Year in and year out, SI is the gold standard by which still sports photography is judged." These photos will do nothing to rid you of that belief.
The Stories
Frank Deford makes the point in his introduction that SI freed sportswriting from the constraints "of its cramped column quarters". Now a longer storytelling style was possible, "...personal, but the writer's persona rarely intrud(ing)".
Thirty-some SI stories are excerpted here, with accompanying photos. Sports Illustrated stories have always dug deeper than the agate type and stats found in a daily newspaper. The heart and soul of an athlete or coach are often laid bare in the magazine. Animals and events can even seem to take on a personal feeling, and value in an SI story:
- Supermex and the Gringos, 1968, introduces golfer Lee Trevino.
- The Bird Who Fell to Earth, 1986, paints the true wackiness of Mark Fidrych in the midst of his one amazing season.
- Gifts That God Didn't Give, 1981, paints a picture of Larry Bird and his drive to perfect his game.
- Pure Heart, 1990, is the tale of a first, and (years later) a last, meeting with a red stallion named Secretariat.
- Then My Arm Glassed Up, 1965, is a contribution by John Steinbeck(!). His story, rejecting the idea of submitting a contribution to SI, still turned on the theme of sports, competition, and meeting your own personal standards. Yeah, that is one measure of 'sports'. Steinbeck's 'rejection letter' fit perfectly in the magazine and in this book.
My only fault of this section? The stories are truncated, just short beginnings (it seems) of each story. Arrggghhhh..!! Several make me want to go find the full stories.
The Paintings
A short sampling of paintings/drawings that have been used over the years is included. It is interesting but ...would not be missed if left out.
Perhaps I am a bit hasty. A foldout page produces a three-page spread of a parody of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel painting. At the center of it rests God with Babe Ruth touching the hand of God. It is an interesting interpretation of various facets of sports applied to an artistic touchstone.
The Covers
There is a reason dessert is saved for the end. 2,585 covers are reproduced here, covering the fifty years from 1954 to August 1984. No bigger than a small postage stamp, each full-color image adds its frozen-in-time moment to the long timeline history of sports in America, even our own personal 'sports timeline'.
Sprinkled throughout the section are lists and pictures of various 'cover' subjects. The sport most represented..?? Pro football with 519 followed by pro baseball with 510. Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali lead the field of athletes who have made the cover three or more times. The problems of substance abuse, recreational drugs and steroids, are featured on nine covers.
Yes, yes, yes ...The swimsuit issues draw their own section, with slightly larger pictures. Who would have thought that when Christie Brinkley 'went cover' back-to-back-to-back in 1979-1981 that Elle Macpherson would tie her record in 1986-1988..?? Now there is trivia that makes sports so interesting..!! A record that will probably never be broken. Gawd I love sports.
The Bottom Line
Hmmm. I have really blabbered on, much longer than I would have thought necessary. But just like a good movie, a good dog, or a good game, some things you just want to keep talking about.
If you have ever touched a ball, if you have ever 'played to win', if you have ever cried at an animal story, if you are a human, you will find moments in here that will wick the memory and emotions of moments long past into your thoughts and your memories of where you were in your life at those sports moments.
Sports has the power, to touch your heart, your mind, your spirit. Sports has the power to touch your soul. A good book can do the same thing. Sports Illustrated: The 50th Anniversary Book does just that, in spades and on nearly every page. You can thank me later. OK..??
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