the breaks of the game....

Rest in Peace, David Halberstam (1934 - 2007)
Harvard graduate, NY Times reporter, Pulitzer by the age of 30, essential works on Robert and John F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War and the American Media... Summer of '49 and The Teammates, two amazing reads about Baseball in the Golden Age and the meaning of friendship... but it is The Breaks of The Game that stands out. It is still possibly the best book ever written about baseketball or any American sport. More than that, it uses the uniqueness of a team (the 1978 Portland Trailblazers) and of an individual (Bill Walton, when he was still an enigmatic, supremely talented athlete and not the hyperbolic voice of ESPN's nba coverage - "THROW IT DOOOOWWWN BIG FELLAH") to examine American culture and society. If you own it, pull it down and give it another read (as I'm about to do) and if you don't have a copy - order one and enjoy...
Mr. Halberstam - you will be missed

**edit** more Halberstam - from the Boston Globe, 'Day Spent with One of the Greats' (spending a day talking with Ted Williams is near the top of my list of 'things to do when I get to heaven/hell' - whichever place people like myself and Mr. Williams come to reside)

in the beginning...

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
call me Ismael...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
for as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a gangster
back in the days when I was a teenager/before I had status and before I had a pager...