The Book Shelf: Part 1 of 4

Just in time for Christmas, here’s a brief look at some of the books I have read over the last while:

The Black Ace -- An old friend has died and Brad Shade, a former junior hockey star and ex-NHLer, is in Swift Current for the funeral. Of course, he gets drawn into the situation as there may be more to an apparent suicide than what meets the eye. If you are aware of author G.B. Joyce’s history with the citizens of Swift Current, there is more to this book than meets the eye, too. (Penguin, 362 pages, soft cover, Cdn$22.00)

Boy On Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard -- John Branch, a writer with The New York Times, wrote a three-part series on Boogaard, a WHL and NHL enforcer, for his newspaper. That led to this book, a thoroughly engrossing and unsettling look into the life on and off the ice of a giant of a man-child who wanted only to fit in and not be lonely. You need to read this book and then ask yourself why there still is fighting in hockey. You also might ask yourself how many positive drug tests it takes before the NHL, NHLPA or teams will intervene in the life of a troubled player. (HarperCollins, 371 pages, hard cover, Cdn$32.99)

Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? (The Improbable Saga of the New York Mets’ First Year) -- That first year was 1962. Casey Stengel was the manager and he’s the one who coined the book’s title. Pulitzer Prize-winner Jimmy Breslin, the legendary New York newspaper columnist, takes us inside the Mets’ world, and it‘s hilarious and touching, all at the same time. Sheesh, Richie Ashburn could have returned for a second season with the Mets, but he chose to join the Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcast crew and took quite a paycut to do so. This is a quick and terrific read that should be on the must-read list of any sports fan. (Kindle)

City of Fallen Angels: A Mike Ward Mystery -- Mike Ward is a journalist for a wire service. He is Canadian and has been writing from Europe in the pre-Second World War years. But now he has been assigned to Los Angeles and all its glitter and its grunge. Yes, there has been a suicide, or was it a murder? Author Howard Engel gives the reader characters who are rich and dialogue that is richer. (Kindle)

Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football -- The New York Jets allowed author Nicholas Dawidoff access to all corners of their operation during the 2011 season -- they gave him everything he needed, including a security code, a locker and a desk. He attended meetings, stood on sidelines, watched games with co-ordinators. The result is one of the best sports books I have read. It especially provides the reader with a real feel for the brutality of pro football, not only with the injuries, but with the lack of job security for players and coaches. If you get the opportunity to read this book, do so. (Little, Brown, 485 pages, hard cover, Cdn$32.00, US$29,00)

A Drink Before The War -- Dennis Lehane is a favourite of mine, and he doesn’t disappoint with this book that introduced us to private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. The action takes place in Boston, so, yes, there are politicians involved. It’s Lehane’s ability to turn a phrase and to capture the seamy side of Boston in all its stinking glory that allows this book to rise to the top. This is good stuff, really good stuff. (Harper, 323 pages, soft cover, Cdn$12.99) 

The Drop -- I don’t know that anyone writes about the mean streets of Boston better than the afore-mentioned Dennis Lehane, and that is in evidence here. There are gangsters and bartenders and love and a puppy, all wrapped up into a nifty, grungy story. This one isn’t long so is perfect for a cold winter’s night. (Kindle)

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt -- Michael Lewis, perhaps best known in sporting circles as the author of The Blind Side and the terrific Moneyball, has turned to Wall Street for his latest book. He has been here before, especially with Liar’s Poker, a book that read like a novel but was about his time as a trader, so the ground isn’t unfamiliar. But, like Liar’s Poker, Flash Boys is so fantastic that the reader thinks it has to be fiction. Making Flash Boys even more interesting is that the hero, if he can be called that, is Brad Katsuyama, a Canadian who, in the beginning, works for the Royal Bank of Canada and wants only to do the right thing. (Kindle)

Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts -- Author Gare Joyce, who knows his way around more hockey arenas than he no doubt cares to admit, is a draft geek, no matter the sport. But with hockey in his veins, he is partial to the NHL draft. Thus, he spent the 2006-07 season inside the world of NHL scouts and the resulting book, which was published in 2008, is a terrific read with great insights from a number of perspectives. The reader gets a feel for life as a scout, some of which isn’t especially comfortable, and for the pressures on teenage hockey players as they strive to reach the NHL. (Kindle)

The Book Shelf: Part 3 of 4

A brief look at some of the books I have read over the last while:

Keepers of the Game: When the Baseball beat was the best job on the paper – Author Dennis D’Agostino has written a fascinating oral history of Major League Baseball and the newspaper business. D’Agostino has spoken with 23 men – including Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun – who either were or are on the baseball beat for daily newspapers. Some of these men are the greatest baseball writers of their time and their stories make for wonderful reading. The book opens with a wonderful forward by the legendary Dave Anderson. As an aside, D’Agostino is married to Los Angeles Times hockey writer/columnist Helene Elliott. (Potomac Books, Kindle, $16.25)

Last King of the Sports Page: The Life and Career of Jim Murray – Written by Ted Geltner, it is just that, a look at the life, times and career of Murray, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist who is mostly remembered for his work with the Los Angeles Times. But he was more than that because he also was a Hollywood-type reporter at one time – he covered the movie scene for Time magazine – and also was in on the ground floor when Sports Illustrated got started. (Kindle, $16.01)

League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth – Written by ESPN investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wade and Steve Fainaru, who are brothers, this book accompanies the two-hour Frontline special that appeared on PBS-TV in October. The TV special was heavy-hitting; the book is that and then some. The book opens with the devastating story of former Pittsburgh Steelers centre Mike Webster and goes from there. It details the moves the NFL made to keep concussion-related information from players, the battles between experts, especially those who were in the NFL's hip-pocket and those who weren't, and what would become the race between interested party to get their hands on the brains of deceased players. History will show that the TV show and this book played an important role in the concussion story. Read this book and you will never, ever look upon the NFL the same way again. (Crown Archetype, 416 pages, Kindle)

Live By Night – No one does Boston gangsters any better than Dennis Lehane. This one isn’t up there with his best – Mystic River; Gone, Baby, Gone – but it’s still pretty damn good. Start with Joe Coughlin, the son of a Boston police captain who takes the wrong fork in the road, and throw in South Florida and Cuba and you’ve got an entertaining read. Oh yes, there’s also a touch of baseball here. (William Morrow, soft cover, 402 pages, US$16.99, Cdn$18.99)

Mulligan’s Stew – The ubiquitous Terry David Mulligan tells his story and, yes, it’s interesting if a little shallow. Uhh, the book is shallow, as in thin, but his life has been anything but. Mulligan actually started out in the RCMP before heading off into radio and then TV and movies. Yes, there is some name dropping in here but, all in all, it’s a quick and interesting read. Glen Schaefer, an entertainment writer at the Vancouver Province, helped with the writing. (Heritage, soft cover, 221 pages, Cdn$19.95)

The Murder Room – The Vidocq Society was started by three men, each a crime fighter in his own way, and eventually grew to involve almost 200 members and associates. It would meet and attempt to solve cold cases. This is an intriguing look at the society, focussing primarily on two members – forensic artist Frank Bender and profiler Richard Walter. More than anything, though, this is a window in the evil that lives in our world. Author Michael Capuzzo tends to over-write at times, and the story jumps around a bit, but, still, this is an intriguing if scary read. (Gotham Books, soft cover, 439 pages, Cdn$19.50, US$17.00)

Northern Light: The enduring mystery of Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him – It somehow is only fitting that Roy MacGregor, one of our country's great essayists, has an obsession with Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven artist, and what happened to him in July 1917. MacGregor, who spent a lot of his young life in what had been some of Thomson’s haunts, explores Thomson's demise from every angle and then some in what is a thoroughly engrossing read. You don't have to know anything about Thomson or landscape art to enjoy this book, although, in the end, it will leave you wondering what really happened. (Vintage Canada, soft cover, 358 pages, US$19.50, Cda$22.00)

The Notorious Bacon Brothers: Inside Gang Warfare on Vancouver Streets – If you live in B.C., you are well aware of the Bacon brothers – Jamie, Jarrod and Jonathan. And you know full well of all the blood that has been shed as the various gangs, including the mighty Hells Angels, battled for control of the drug trade on the Lower Mainland, in Prince George, and in Kamloops and Kelowna. Author Jerry Langton does a good job of outlining the history of gangs in B.C., and all those involved. In fact, you really do need a scorecard in order to keep track of all the players. But he does make some logistical errors involving the location of some Lower Mainland areas; also, there isn’t a Tim Hortons within crawling distance of the Aberdeen Mall in Kamloops. And if you’re looking for a whole lot of background on the Bacon boys, including just how much their parents knew, that really isn’t here. Still, as a straight-up, easy-to-read book explaining all that’s gone down, including the Surrey Six shooting that really shook things up, this is a pretty good read. But if you are a follower of reporter Kim Dolan in the Vancouver Sun, there won't be much here that is new. (Wiley, Kindle)

Over The Line: Wrist Shots, Slap Shots, and Five-Minute Majors – The acerbic and colourful Al Strachan provides the reader with 265 pages of anecdotes, bon mots and tales from the world of the National Hockey League. . . . Of “radio people,” he writes: “They’re biased and proud of it. That’s why the continent is full of stations calling themselves The Fan or The Team. I don’t know an any called The Truth.” . . . Strachan thinks Don Cherry should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame and that Gary Bettman shouldn’t be the commissioner of the NHL. If you follow the NHL, you will enjoy this one. (McClelland & Stewart, soft cover, 265 pages, Cdn$19.99)

Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story – This apparently is the first biography of Vin Scully, the legendary radio voice of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, and it’s a fun and entertaining read. Author Curt Smith writes in something of a different voice, and it takes a bit to get used to it. But once you get into the rhythm, it’s great. “The sound of (Scully’s) voice,” actor Robert Wuhl once said, “like the sound of your dad coming home and throwing his keys on the kitchen table, is the sound of comfort and security for so many of us.” Ain’t that the truth. (Potomac Books, hard cover, 264 pages, US$29.95; actually found this one at a Walgreens in Bellingham, Wash., for $5. Perhaps my best buy of 2013)

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Richard Doerksen, the WHL's vice-president, hockey, presents the Scotty Munro
Memorial Trophy, which goes to the regular-season champion, to a representative
of the Portland Winterhawks late in the regular season. Just wondering, but might
that be Mike Johnston in disguise? (The picture arrived via Twitter on
Wednesday evening. Nice to know someone has a sense of humour.)

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Jeremy Williams (Swift Current, 2000-04) signed a one-year contract with Västerås (Sweden, Allsvenskan). He had six goals and nine assists in 28 games with Sierre (Switzerland, NL B) and 17 goals and 13 assists in 24 games with Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Germany, 2. Bundesliga) this season. . . .

F Brad Moran (Calgary, 1995-2000) signed a one-year contract with Linz Black Wings (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). He had five goals and three assists in 37 games with Växjö (Sweden, Elitserien) and five goals and 10 assists in 14 games with SaiPa Lappeenranta (Finland, SM-Liiga) this season. The head coach of Linz is Rob Daum, who coached, either as the head man or as an assistant, with Prince Albert, Swift Current, and Lethbridge.
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Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River and Shutter Island, just to name two terrific books, is from Boston. He has written a piece for The New York Times that is headlined Messing With the Wrong City. . . . It is good and it is right here.
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F Adam Lowry of the Swift Current Broncos is the Eastern Conference’s player of the year. Lowry, who has played for the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps since the WHL season ended, signed with the parent Winnipeg Jets of the NHL earlier this week. He was a third-round selection in the 2011 NHL draft. . . . Lowry, a son of Victoria Royals head coach Dave Lowry, had 88 points, including 45 goals, this season. As Bruce Luebke, the radio voice of the Brandon Wheat Kings, pointed out on Twitter, Lowry scored 21.8 per cent of the Broncos’ goals and was in on 42.7 per cent of them.
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The Western Conference’s player of the year will be revealed today. I wasn’t given a vote, but had I, it would have gone to Tri-City Americans F Justin Feser.
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I’m not about to pretend that the late Herb Brooks and I were friends, but we did spend a few intermissions talking hockey in the late, great Crushed Can in Moose Jaw. He loved nothing better than to while away the time talking about our game. . . . So I was pleased to see that St. Cloud State University has announced it will rename its National Hockey and Event Center in honour of Brooks. The facility is to be known as the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
From College Hockey News: “Brooks coached the 1986-87 Huskies (25-10-1) to third-place at the NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship. And, acting on a promise he made to the late hockey great John Mariucci, Brooks worked with St. Cloud State officials to elevate Husky Hockey to a NCAA Division I program. He also helped secure construction funding for the arena that bears his name. . . . The $14.7-million renovation and expansion, including a four-story atrium, expanded suites, club-level seating and more, is expected to be complete by mid-June. A campaign to fund remodeled locker rooms and a training area for men's and women's hockey is under way. Plans call for additional suites, club lounges and further development of a concert and event-ready facility.”
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Sunaya Sapurji of Yahoo! Sports takes a look right here at Travis Green, the 42-year-old interim head coach of the Portland Winterhawks, as he prepares to take his (and Mike Johnston’s team) into the Western Conference final against the Kamloops Blazers.

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The QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan recently changed hands for $3.4 million. The P.E.I. Rocket now is for sale and is said to have a price tag of $3.5 million hanging from its cap. Speculation in hockey circles is that a WHL owner was approached to see if his team was available and he said, yes, for $9 million. Hmmmm. . . .
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F Markus McCrea, 21, has committed to attend Selkirk College and play for the Saints, who are located in Castlegar and play in the B.C. Intercollegiate League. McCrea, from Canyon Lake, Calif., spent three seasons (2008-11) with the Everett Silvertips. He has played the last two seasons with the USHL’s Lincoln Stars and Youngstown Phantoms, totaling 38 goals, including 22 goals, in 108 games. McCrea plans to enroll in Selkirk’s Business Administration program.
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Who will be the No. 1 selection in the NHL’s 2012 draft? “To me, (Seth Jones) is as clear-cut a No. 1 as you can be,” former NHL GM Craig Button told Kevin Allen of USA TODAY Sports. . . . Jones, of course, is finishing up his first major junior season with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. . . . Allen’s complete story is right here.
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In Red Deer, the Rosetown Redwings beat the Kenora Thistles 8-0 in Allan Cup play. The Rosetown roster is full of former WHLers, starting with head coach Keegan McAvoy and including the likes of F Shane Endicott, D Derek Endicott, F Dean Beuker and F J.J. Hunter. . . . Greg Meachem of the Red Deer Advocate reports that today’s quarterfinals feature Rosetown (1-1) against the Stony Plain Eagles (0-2) and the Fort St. John Flyers (1-1) against Kenora. . . . The Clarenville, Nfld., Caribous (2-0) and Bentley Generals (2-0) are through to the semifinals. . . . The championship final is to be televised by TSN on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. MT.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Spokane Chiefs announced Wednesday that assistant coach Jon Klemm is leaving the club “citing the desire to be closer to his family.” . . . Klemm was the Chiefs’ captain when they won the Memorial Cup in 1991 and later went on to an NHL career that included two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche. He returned to the Chiefs as an assistant coach in 2009 and has filled that position for four years. . . . According to a Chiefs’ news release, Klemm “will return to Dallas after getting married this summer. His four teenage children live in Chicago.” . . . "I will get more opportunities to see my kids and see my son play hockey. I haven't seen him play in three years. This move gives me flexibility in the winter months," Klemm said. . . .

The OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs have moved assistant coach Darren Keily to director of hockey operations — he also is assistant GM — and signed Jeff Reid as assistant coach. Reid, who has a lot of junior B and junior C coaching experience, has worked in the OHL as an assistant coach with the Owen Sound Attack (2007-10). He will work alongside head coach Todd Gill, who has completed two seasons with the Frontenacs.
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The WHL’s playoff situation:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
THIRD ROUND
Edmonton (1) vs. Calgary (3)
Series opens tonight in Edmonton; all games on Shaw TV, with Dan Russell calling the play.
Kristen Odland of the Calgary Herald sets the scene right here.
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WESTERN CONFERENCE
THIRD ROUND
Portland (1) vs. Kamloops (3)
Series opens Friday in Portland.
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WEDNESDAY’S GAMES:
No games scheduled.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT (16):
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT (5):
None


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