What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States

...so I know that this is one of the finest books of essays I've read in the past few years. One can only wonder why this book has not been written before. Zirin makes it apparent that he had no shortage of material from which to cull these informative, socially conscious, and well-crafted essays. To whom would they not appeal? Sports fans, the politically aware, athletes--young and old, history buffs, teachers, and avid non-fiction readers will all find something in this book to interest and inform. To live in this sports-obsessed society and not be aware of the way resistance, militantism, social awareness, and social activism have played a part in sports is possible, but, with the publication of this book, simply unnecessary now.

Finally! A sportswriter for the rest of us: Ordinary folk angry at Bush, upset over Iraq, disgusted by racism...and always rooting for the home team. Jackie Robinson! John Carlos! Barry Bonds! Etan Thomas! Toni Smith! They're all here and they're all part of sports and resistance in the United States. Muhammad Ali, too...just don't call him Cassius Clay or you'll make Zirin's baby cry. The only problem with this book is that more people aren't reading it. Zirin makes politics fun and drags sports back from the brink of corporate oblivion. The laughs alone are worth at least ten bucks.

Dave Zirin writes with a piercing wit, a passion for justice, and an encyclopedic knowledge of sports and figures of resistance. He has a great way of imparting information--you learn as you laugh. A zinger that you wish you'd thought of on just about every page! Read the blurbs and you can't not read the book. I hope very much that Jon Stewart books him ASAP.

Zirin tells it like it is. He has an amazing ability to combine love of the game with hard-hitting commentary. Racism, corporate greed, moral hypocrites, and two-bit hustlers (err, politicians), Zirin takes them all on, sparing no punches. And he does it with a wit that will keep you rolling (even his acknowledgements page cracked me up. I hope someday we can see the deleted erotic references to Dick Cheney). Zirin tells the forgotten history of sports: of Lester Rodney's campaign to desegregate pro sports (in the 1930s!), the history behind John Carlos and Tommy Smith's raised fists at the 1968 Olympic Games (did you know the white athlete standing next to them ran into the stands to grab a Black Solidarity pin when he saw what was happening?), and brings it up to the present with stories of althetes standing up for justice today. Zirin reminds us that athletes should be respected for their heads as much as their hearts. In the process, he rekindled a love sports I haven't felt since I was a teenager watching the 6th game of the '86 series.

I'm not a sports fan. I have sports ADD, but I love this book. Think of it as a People's history of Sports, like Howard Zinn's book, People's history of America. Dave Zirin, a sports commentator for Air America Radio, takes you through some of the history of how sports and sports stars have helped change America for the better, about the integration of all-white, racist baseball, about how Mohammed Ali helped move the cause of African Americans forward... I started browsing this book out of curiosity and discovered it was intensely fascinating and moving, that at times, it touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I've become a Dave Zirin fan.