Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines

Reading this book literally changed my life. I changed my major in college to journalism when i read this account of Schaap's life and his work. This book is a must read for sports lovers, people who enjoy great stories and people who love great writing.

Dick Schaap has forgotten more about sports than I will ever know. He knows everybody from A to Z. Any sports junkie would enjoy this book. We can live out our sports interviews though the eyes of Dick Schaap. Get well Dick, I miss you the ESPN's the SportsReporters..

Beautiful writing. I laughed and smiled and laughed. I've met Dick and he is clearly visible through his words. Reading this book was a great turn on! Charming!

In 1992, I interviewed Dick Schaap for a story I wrote in Sports Collectors Digest. We talked about his life as a reporter for newspapers, magazines, and TV and I was amazed at the vast number of people he has come in contact with and befriended. In his autobiography, he amazes me even more. This book is well-written, extremely frank, and funny. He's opinionated and honest, two qualities that have helped him rise to the top of his profession. And what a storyteller! For sheer name-dropping, this book is over the top. I wish even more that I could be Schaap's valet for a year to see who he sees and attend the events he attends! Now, about that table at Rao's . . .

This is a "sort of" autobiography of Dick Schaap, one of the country's most prolific chronicler of sports and the people of sports. It outlines his rise from the streets of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn to his present position as ABC correspondent and host of his own show on ESPN. Schaap tells his life's story, for the most part, as it has been entwined around his meetings, conversations, and friendships with the most famous names in sports. Never have so many names been dropped with such aplomb and in such an entertaining manner.The book is a joy from beginning to end. The chapter called "Collector's Items," a series of recollections of very short humorous and/or ironic encounters with the famous, leads the reader into a fascinating journey through Schaap's life and reveals his remarkable story telling style. Any attempt to mention all the greats and near greats of sports that Schaap refers to in the book would border on the ridiculous. It's enough, I think, to state that he includes always interesting and mostly humorous stories and insights about almost every important (and self-important) sports personality of the past fifty or so years.I absolutely enjoyed this book. If you ever had dreams of getting to know the sports "heroes" of your youth or adulthood, chances are Schaap has actually lived out that fantasy. With his great talent with words, he can carry you along to vicariously do the same.