John Feinstein (1955–2025)

December 9, 1977; Los Angeles Forum. Straight into a game between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets, a fight breaks out. Rudy Tomjanovich (Rockets) runs in to try and calm things down, separate the guys involved. He will be brutally stopped by Kermit Washington (Lakers) who, seeing him coming from the back and assuming he would assault him, threw him a punch straight into the face. It's an horrible image, well-known by NBA fans: Tomajanovich flinch, then collapse on the court. He curl show more himself up. Blood is spilling all around him. A eerie silence pervades the arena. It's a shock, and, following these barely 10 seconds of violence, the face of American basketball will never be the same again. The NBA will never be known as it was until then.

Fights, back then, were common. We were still in the dark age of the league. Born in 1946, the big names usually associated with the NBA (Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan...) were not playing yet. Games were physical and aggressive, leading to constant and recurring fights (41 in 1976 alone!). Violence, in fact, was doing more than giving a bad reputation to the sport, it was also such a problem that drastic measures had been implemented to address these players having a reputation for being brawlers on the court (e.g. fees increased from $500 to $10,000, suspensions were extended from 5 days only to undetermined period -Washington will receive 60 days).

However, the episode Tomjanovich-Washington, by its brutality, went beyond, way beyond, a mere fist fight. The powerfulness of the punch remains difficult to grasp: Tomajanovich will be rushed to A&E, with his face so deformed by the impact (his skull was dislocated, spinal fluid dripping into his mouth) that he will necessitate 5 surgical operations to have it back. If, two decades later, he would make history as the coach who will lead the Houston Rockets to win their first NBA championship (in 1994, with Hakeem Olajuwon...) the punch will also mark the end of his career as a player. Kermit Washington, him, would be no less affected. Living under constant threat, as a player he would be considered a burden, shipped from team to team like an unwelcomed parcel no one wants to deal with, until his retirement, when no one would want to employ him as coach or assistant either, the punch he threw that night having turned him into a pariahs for the league.

John Feinstein, sports journalist and writer, does more that retelling the event. He gives us to see its consequences, moving and surprising, for the two men involved. He doesn't spare difficult questions either -for instance, in tackling the racism which will invite itself into the affair (Tomjanovich was White, Washington was Black, and this was a nasty cocktail in the 1970s' USA...). He retells, also, how such punch would radically change the NBA, a league which became since then extremely severe against any form of violence. Thing is, if violence is never acceptable in sports, when it involves athletes of such physical strength it's more than intolerable, it's very dangerous too.

Here's a nice read, then, too detailed maybe, repetitive at times, but, rich in interviews and point of views which will fascinate sports fans, even beyond basketball. There are some other sports, for sure, that could learn a great deal from such harrowing history... show less

I don't read a lot of sports books, but I have always enjoyed John Feinstein's writing, so when "a bestseller from 20 years ago" popped up on this year's BingoDog card, I settled on this bestseller. The subject is the 2002 U.S. Open golf championship (*), and Feinstein is less interested in the golfing itself than in the event as a logistical matter. What goes into putting on one of the year's four major golf events?

(* -- Note that the U.S. Open is a "championship;" not a "tournament." The show more folks at the United States Golf Association are very prickly about that.)

Among our principal characters is David Fay, who had been executive director of the USGA since 1989. One of Fay's longtime goals had been to hold a U.S. Open at a public course instead of at a private club.

His target course was the Black course, the most challenging of the five courses at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. Bethpage Black had opened in 1936, and was designed by A. W. Tillinghast, one of the great golf architects of the era. Sixty-plus years of wear and tear had left the course looking rather ragged, but Fay believed that with proper care and maintenance, Bethpage Black could once again be a course worthy of a major championship.

Fay had to convince the rest of the USGA leadership that holding the event at any public course was possible, and there were good reasons to be opposed to the idea. Negotiating contracts with the state of New York would be a more drawn-out process than negotiating with the owners of a private club, and a club without members would complicate the recruitment of the hundreds of volunteers who help make a U.S. Open happen.

The entire undertaking becomes even more of an ordeal because of increased security demands after 9/11. Volunteers, vendors, staff, and players had to go through more background checks, and the private security company that was hired rarely provided the number of officers called for by their contract.

We're halfway through the book before the actual sport appears for the first time, when the first round of qualifying tournaments begins. And as the book shifts focus to the game, my interest began to drift. I recognize a lot of the golfers' names -- this was the peak of the Tiger Woods hullabaloo era, and it was hard not to be more aware of golf than usual in those days -- but their backstories and individual bits of drama didn't interest me much.

Still, Feinstein is a good enough writer to make even the golfing part of the book at least mildly interesting, and he never lets his focus shift entirely away from the organizing and logistics challenges that the tournament presents. Where is everyone going to park? If we're going to save time by starting half of the golfers on the 10th hole, how do we get them all from the clubhouse to the 10th tee? Do we have enough volunteers? Do we give in to NBC television's requests to start Sunday play at hour X, even though we'd like to start earlier because there's a good chance of rain that afternoon?

It is occasionally difficult to keep track of the many, many USGA officials, state officials, and Bethpage staff, much less a few dozen golfers who eventually enter the story. But even if you've forgotten which level of management Frankie Terwilliger might be a part of, the thrust of the story is always clear, and I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at a side of the event that most people never have to think about. show less

Based on Feinstein's occasional reporting on public radio, I hoped A Good Walk Spoiled would provide a weightier sense of the game. Not so much the athletic aspects as its place in culture, perhaps even how golf's influence varies between peoples and across eras. Feinstein usually brought that perspective to his radio stories, and his commentary interested me despite typically not having a particular interest in the sport he was reporting on.

A ready window into cultural influence of any show more activity is the argot, of course: expressions used by fans and players, the gold standard being when a phrase enters common language and is regularly used by speakers unaware of its origins. Nautical terminology a classic example, especially in English (even the American variety). Feinstein shared a good many phrases, but there weren't many that I recognized from everyday speech. Still, it's interesting to come across idiomatic expressions like "fire at the flag" or "Sunday player", or even "a Watson par", and wonder whether I'll recall the meaning next time I overhear it.

The format certainly allowed for a detailed understanding of both a tournament or even a day's round, while also putting these into the context of a professional golfer's year. Much of the detail escapes me now, so many names and events were unfamiliar at the time I read it and didn't become familiar from the book.

A fundamental picture of the game was its manifestation in the PGA Tour (four Majors and myriad minor tournaments); and the distinct species of professional golfer surrounding it (touring pro and club pro). Club pros teach golf as a vocation, but do not usually earn money playing the game. I realise now I was misunderstanding when someone referred to a "golf pro", thinking it was someone on the Tour. It could have been, but more likely they meant the club pro at their Country Club. Likewise, it was unexpected but not wholly surprising to learn that -- like popular musicians -- there are far, far more professional golfers who eke out a living than there are familiar household names who make it as "stars" and pull down big money. And few of those big names, it would seem, are club pros.

Perhaps the clearest insight the book provided was golf's business model, dominated by the PGA Tour. The televised shows are full of commercials for themselves (that is, for the PGA Tour, and the course featured that day) because sponsors pay for the broadcast, and the ads are then used to feature the business bringing viewers (and players) the game itself -- not the sponsors, but the Tour. Utterly at odds with other sports, especially in the U.S., where ad revenue is what pays the broadcasters, and so the leagues, and the ads focus on sponsors rather than the game. That said, I see no evidence this approach makes the PGA any less beholden to its sponsors than business models followed by any other league.

"Each major has a different tradition that in some way waters down its field [of competitive players]. But those traditions are also part of their charm." [422] Notably, one of those traditions was on display at Shoal Creek in 1990, when the Birmingham (Alabama) club founder & president remarked that black players wouldn't be welcome as members, as "that's just not done in Birmingham."

//

Four Majors of PGA Tour
1 - Masters: always at Augusta, in Spring; staid & proper (run by MASTERS)
2 - British Open: rotates (10 courses?), in May (run by BGA)
3 - US Open: rotates (multiple courses, several are "repeats"), in Summer and brutal - fast greens, high rough, pins in extremely difficult locations (run by USGA)
4 - PGA Tournament: rotates, mid-August (run by PGA) show less

Heed my warning. If you like football, you will not be able to put this book down until you finish. I am the last person you would ever expect to read a book about football, but let me tell you, this book is every bit as good as watching a real game.

Like Mike Lupica’s Game Changers, this is the first book in a series called Triple Threat where you have an athlete that excels in football, basketball and baseball. The Walk On is about Alex, the new kid in town who wants a spot on the show more varsity football team. He’s a freshman, but his QB skills are stellar. Good enough to be a starter. Standing in his way is the head coach, whose son is the current QB. Coach Gordon manages the team with an iron fist. No one questions his authority or judgment. No one changes his calls on the field. No one talks to reporters behind his back. What Coach doesn’t know is that you can only hold back the truth for so long and school reporters, Christine and Steve, will stop at nothing to get it out in the open.

Feinstein used to be a reporter and he loves to infuse journalism into his sports fiction. In this case, it creates an effective way for a slime ball coach to get caught through some tough investigating. An interesting twist is that Matt Gordon Jr. is nothing like Matthew Gordon Sr. Matt sees what his father is doing to Alex and must stage injuries in order to get field time for Alex. This drama plays out about half way through the book when they are down 14-0 at half-time in a game they have to win. 1st and 2nd string QBs go down, forcing Alex into the game. It’s edge of your seat, people. Then just when you think the coach is starting to mellow, BAM!, his bad judgement gets in the way again. This time he’s going down.

Great book for all ages. Get in a locked room and read it. show less