Mordecai Richler selected all the pieces included here. Together they give us an intimate portrait of a man who admired the players and prized the struggle. Throughout his life, he nurtured his obsession with sports, writing brilliantly on ice hockey, baseball, salmon fishing, bodybuilding, and wrestling, for such publications as GQ, Maclean's, and The New York Times. His encounters with Pete Rose, Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe are by turns moving and uproarious. There are wonderful pieces here about Ring Lardner, Hank Greenberg and lady umpires. Full of irony and irrepressible wit, this is a book for all fans of Mordecai Richler.