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

by Tom Callahan

Overview

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."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324021971
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	365,117
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Callahan, a former senior writer at Time 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.

Table of Contents

Prologue In the Confusion 1

Chapter 1 The Empire State Building, the Redwood Trees 5

Chapter 2 Whatever Clemente Had to Do, Wherever He Had to Do It 39

Chapter 3 Black Men Scare White Men More Than Black Men Scare Black Men 83

Chapter 4 I Can Define a Gerund. Can You? 107

Chapter 5 Blind Mother, Dead Father, or Blind Father, Dead Mother? 123

Chapter 6 6 Down like Arthur, and 4 Across like Ashe 133

Chapter 7 Hard, Sad, Used. It Was a Convention of Hitchhikers 155

Chapter 8 How Did Secretariat Work This Morning? The Trees Swayed 175

Chapter 9 Joe Montana. Joe Montana. Joe Montana. Who Is He? 191

Chapter 10 Thomas! A Voice from the Past! Bob Cousy! 237

Epilogue Regular Monkeys 253

Acknowledgments 263

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

"The best sports book on the market is "Gods at Play" by Tom Callahan. Buy it, read it, and thank me later."

Boston Globe - Dan Shaughnessy

"You’re almost guaranteed to learn something new about many sports legends ... [Callahan] has been intimately involved in the sports world since the 1960s and has plenty of tales to tell and wisdom to dispense."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Joshua Axelrod

"Gods at Play has a beguiling charm."

Wall Street Journal - David M. Shribman

"Sometimes, a book comes along that hits the reader’s sweet spot – a book that you enjoy from beginning to end, and are a little sorry that it has ended. For me, at least, Gods at Play by Tom Callahan was such a book. ... Not everyone will love it like I did, but most will enjoy it thoroughly."

Buffalo Sports Page - Budd Bailey

This is an audiobook for sports fans, particularly fans of sporting events large and small over the past half century. As a sports journalist, Callahan worked throughout the country over his long career. Listeners will hear a mix of memoir and behind-the-scenes stories, all delivered by Danny Campbell. Combining anecdotes about greats like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Roberto Clemente, and Arnold Palmer growing beyond being athletes and tales of interactions with other outstanding writers and broadcasters, this is a fun, revelatory listen told with perfect pitch. While emotions might have gotten the better of a lesser narrator, Campbell keeps Callahan’s words at the forefront. Get reacquainted with some of sports’ biggest legends by listening to GODS AT PLAY. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile

This is an audiobook for sports fans, particularly fans of sporting events large and small over the past half century. As a sports journalist, Callahan worked throughout the country over his long career. Listeners will hear a mix of memoir and behind-the-scenes stories, all delivered by Danny Campbell. Combining anecdotes about greats like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Roberto Clemente, and Arnold Palmer growing beyond being athletes and tales of interactions with other outstanding writers and broadcasters, this is a fun, revelatory listen told with perfect pitch. While emotions might have gotten the better of a lesser narrator, Campbell keeps Callahan’s words at the forefront. Get reacquainted with some of sports’ biggest legends by listening to GODS AT PLAY. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile

2020-05-18
A heavily credentialed and well-traveled sportswriter spins yarns about the old ballgames.

Golf. Tennis. Boxing. Baseball. Basketball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird. Bill Walton. Arthur Ashe. Jackie Robinson. Roberto Clemente. Pete Rose and the rest of the Big Red Machine. Newspaperman and magazine profiler Callahan rounds the bases as he chronicles his close encounters with many of the most prominent athletes of the last half-century. Fans of the author will recognize the meandering yet readable storytelling style and some of the same characters from The Bases Were Loaded (And So Was I). A young Callahan commiserated with an elder Red Smith; at their best, these pieces recall that legend of the press box’s outside-the-lines approach, if not exactly his unassuming mien on the page. Certainly, this part-memoir, part-profile compilation reflects a time before social media, when athletes needed sportswriters. The underside of close, personal access is that writers who ingratiate themselves with sources sometimes cut deals about what makes it into print, which could raise questions about motive and veracity. The narrative spell is also periodically broken when Callahan includes long, sometimes-tinny quotes from athletes. Still, just as the best sportswriters put a topcoat on memory, allowing us to appreciate the plays and players more than when we first saw them, the author’s skill at showing public figures in private moments is evident, and he spares readers the usual arguments about who was the greatest to lace up a pair of sneakers. Particularly intriguing are Callahan’s portraits of Bill Walsh and Tiger Woods. In 2018, writes the author, “the new Tiger was a better guy. Standing on the practice green or striding down the fairway, he actually chatted with golf’s brigade of good young players who, almost to a man, had been drawn to the game by him.”

Sports fans will find a smooth and pleasant ride on this trip back in time.

Kirkus Reviews