Gods at Play, Tom Callahan
Gods at Play, Tom Callahan
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Gods at Play
An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in American Sports

Author: Tom Callahan

Narrator: Danny Campbell

Unabridged: 9 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/27/2020

Synopsis

A beautifully observed narrative of American sport: character, grit, tragedy, unremarked heroism, and, always, the illuminating story behind the story.

As a columnist for Time magazine, among many other publications, Tom Callahan witnessed an extraordinary number of defining moments in American sport across four decades. He takes us from Roberto Clemente clinching his 3,000th, and final, regular-season hit in Pittsburgh; to ringside for the Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight in Zaire; and to Arthur Ashe announcing, at a news conference, that he'd tested positive for HIV. There are also little-known private moments: Joe Morgan whispering thank you to a virtually blind Jackie Robinson on the field at the 1972 World Series, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar saying he was more interested in being a good man than in being the greatest basketball player.

Brimming with colorful vignettes and enlivened by Callahan's eye for detail, Gods at Play offers surprising portraits of the most celebrated names in sports. Roger Rosenblatt calls Callahan "the most complete sportswriter in America. He knows the most and writes the best."

About Tom Callahan

Tom Callahan, a former senior writer at Time magazine and sports columnist at the Washington Post, is the author of nine books, including The GM and the New York Times bestseller Johnny U. He lives in Reston, Virginia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rick on October 06, 2020

A tough one to review. Callahan is a fine writer at the organic level. He knows metaphors and similes, and brings sports to life with verve and frequent (and sometimes obscure) allusions. Impressive. He's also apparently met every major sports figure since the mid 1960s, and remembers his conversati......more

Goodreads review by Donna on December 03, 2020

Thanks Goodreads for my copy of Gods at Play:An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in Sports by Tom Callahan. I was really torn between giving this book a 3 or 4 stars. Some of the stories of sports greats were very illuminating and I enjoyed them immensely. The problem was much of the book read li......more

Goodreads review by Tom on May 10, 2021

Tom Callahan is one of the best sportswriters that ever lived and in this book he discusses his career and some of the stories and people he met. You'll learn more about Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana, Tiger Woods, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench,......more

Goodreads review by Jim on July 05, 2022

I really wanted this book to be more than it is. I wouldn’t say don’t read it because it has some funny tales, some heart-wrenching stories and some interesting “tales told out of school.” Still, it’s parts don’t really add up to the total. Callahan has lived a life most sports fans can only dream o......more

Goodreads review by Writemoves on January 08, 2021

I was not familiar to Tom Callahan or his sports writing prior to this book. I did enjoy this book with stories about Muhammed Ali, Pete Rose, Arthur Ashe, Oscar Robertson, Roberto Clemente, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and many others. The stories were not recaps of what the various athletes di......more

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