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Title: Flashing Before My Eyes : 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines by Dick Schaap ISBN: 0-380-97512-2 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Schaap's warm stories will interest and Sports fanatic
Comment: After a half century of listening and telling, Dick Schaap finally tells his own story in this long overdue memoir of a legendary journalist. He has wined and dined with some of America's most revered icons, both on and off the record, and the amount of stories he has to tell rivals a bible-preaching minister minister.
This 300 page auto-biography is a vast collection of stories told by Schaap, who thanks to his unbelievable amount of friends probably drops more names then the Hollywood walk of fame and the basketball, football and baseball hall of fames combined.
His status as one of the most distinguished and respected journalists of the 20th century represent his true versatility in print and television journalism and after all his stories of running the town with Muhammad Ali, drinking with Billy Crystal, smoking a joint with Joe Namath, playing tennis with Johnny Carson and talking women with Wilt Chamberlain, Schaap finally tells his own story in this warm and intimate memoir
In 50 years of journalism, Schaap has worked for ESPN covering sports, ABC where he was a sports correspondent, a theater critic for "World Wide News Now" and reported human interest and political stories for "20/20," was the author of more than 30 books, including 2 New York Times Bestsellers and has won six Emmys for his work in television. Schaap is the only man to vote for both the Tony Awards, which recognizes achievement in performing theatres, and the Heisman Trophy, which recognizes the best player in college football.
Schaap takes the reader through his childhood first at his birthplace in the flat bush section of Brooklyn in 1934 and where he spent the majority of his adolescence in Freeport, Long Island, which Schaap described as a "blue collar clam digger's town." He described his early affinity for sports and how he bleed Brooklyn Dodger blue. At the age of 15 Schaap was hired at the local paper to cover local sports, adding that he was very overpaid and often opened the paper in excitement and closed it in embarrassment.
A child prodigy in the field of sports journalism, Schaap also excelled in his academics and attended Cornell University at the age of 17. While Schaap admits the early start in the job market accelerated his career, it also left him socially inept and extremely shy, which contributed to "many failed relationships and 2 bitter divorces." Schaap went on to study at Colombia University eventually became the editor of Sport upon receiving his master's degree. His knowledge of how to use the English language to depict a story or scene continued to serve him well as he worked for several prominent New York newspapers including the New York Herald Tribune and Newsweek magazine.
Schaap was also one of the pioneers in ushering a new era of journalism style, which Schaap described as new journalism, using emotion and vocabulary to tell a story rather then concentrating on its news value.
This book would appeal to anyone with a faint interest in sports and entertainment. Reading "Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines" is like sitting by a fireplace or having a drink at a local tavern and hearing old stories about American heroes from the 50's to the present. A true behind the scenes account of American pop culture, this book will enlighten those with an interest in 20th century America and will serve as the basis of how to tell a good story.
The memoir is not told in chronological order, which at times is confusing to keep track of but at the same time holds true to Schaap's fireside chat style of writing. While Schaap briefly talks of his marriage problems, he certainly does not give them the attention that he does to his tales of shooting the breeze with many of America's most famous athletes, political figures and celebrities. This book can seem very loosely put together, but the reader must take into context Schaap's health problems while writing this book. It is clear he wanted to tell his story before his time ran out. Sadly, Schaap finished just in time, as he died 6 months after the publication date from complications of hip replacement surgery.
Dick Schaap was one of the best writers sports journalism has ever had and more importantly its best listener. The exact opposite of Howard Cosell, (Schaap discusses his feelings on the broadcaster in one chapter, in both a positive and negative light) Dick Schaap always felt that the story was important then him, something nearly lost in today's world of self-promotion where sports journalists are now known as sports personalities and make their living on their opinions instead of utilizing prose to explain a story.
Through the profession of journalism, Schaap has made more acquaintances and friends then most people can dream of. Most of his patrons were famous, some where not, but what makes everyone want to talk to Schaap is his ability to listen and interpret one's story.
Rating: 2
Summary: To be frank, it's a little....sad.
Comment: Schapp indulged in a journalist's dream for much of his life: He worked primarily in the 1950-1980 era, when celebrities of all types still mixed and mingled. He wrote words on Namath, Ali, Pynchon and Lenny Bruce. He fell into one fabulous situation after another, was enormously successful everywhere he journied, probably had more good dinners than anyone we'll ever know, talked more, laughed more, smoked more and dranked more. He consumed news and life in amazing proportions. It leaves you a little jealous.
And yet, his memoir is a mess. Calling upon himself to make sense of his long career, Schapp struggles to do much more than serve up anecdote after anecdote. Some of them follow logical order; some do not. The title is appropriate; the book is a flash. You glimpse into auras of many impressive names. A shame that these glimpses rarely go much deeper.
The format of ESPN's The Sports Reporters television program transformed Schapp into a quipmaker. He's objective enough and not particularly redundant or cliched -- often the largest weakness of most sportswriters. But too many scenes are wrapped in too pretty of bows. In that sense, the book is repetitive: Schapp pens a scene, wraps it up, pens a scene, wraps it up, as if to say, "Item!...ah...so! Item!...ah...so!" It makes you consider the speed of the man's life, the flash, if you will, which blinds one from reflection. That Schapp died so suddenly is in step with the bulk of his life, but it's sad that he never got the time to appreciate what he'd experienced, and maybe write a wiser memoir.
Schapp left us with stories, but no real message.
Rating: 5
Summary: The sports reporters
Comment: Dick Schaap knew everybody (who is/was somebody) in the world of sports! Wow, what a life. Dick Schaap is the reason that I get up every Sunday morning to watch the Sports Reporters on ESPN. Dick is gone, but the show and his memory lives on! Get the book and enjoy all the wonderful sports stories..trust me, Dick knew them all!
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Title: I'm Back for More Cash : A Tony Kornheiser Collection (Because You Can't Take Two Hundred Newspapers intothe Bathroom) by Tony Kornheiser ISBN: 0812968530 Publisher: Villard Pub. Date: 20 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Dick Schaap as Told to Dick Schaap: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines by Dick Schaap ISBN: 0380820153 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Outtakes: Dan Patrick by Dan Patrick ISBN: 0786885394 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 10 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Great Ones by Jim Murray ISBN: 1883792568 Publisher: Los Angeles Times Pub. Date: 15 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.45 |
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Title: A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy a Year Inside College Football's Purest Rivalry by John Feinstein ISBN: 0316278246 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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