Let's Go to the Videotape: All the Plays and Replays from My Life in Sports

This is a real page-turner, written in a light vein and laugh-out-loud funny! There are also a few surprises in store for the many fans of the Don Imus radio show, whose impression of Warner may be only from the few minutes he is allowed for his sports reports there. Warner doesn't mince words, but a lot of what he has to say is pretty deep, once you get past the laughs.

I really enjoyed this book. It's for fun and it's a quick read, but the author also makes the reader think. "CHANGE THE RULES!" An entertaining book doesn't HAVE to be only for laughs...this one will also make you say, "Hm-m-m-m-m!" I would recommend it to anyone. Even my wife(who yells, "Isn't there anything ELSE on?", whenever I turn on a TV sporting event)loved it. It has enough substance outside of the sports environment to make a book that's even interesting to sports HATERS!

You won't regret the few bucks you'll spend for "Let's Go To The Videotape!"


"Gimme a break"   September 4, 2001
Warner Wolf is an endearing character and a fabulous sportscaster. Never one to pull a punch, Mr. Wolf makes it his lifelong ambition to correct all idiotic rules and misnomers in modern sports. The problem is that he does it much better as a television personality than as a writer. I have no problem with opinionated people, but in a novel at least some effort should be made to offer the arguments of both sides before tendering the author's opinion. Also, there are so many chapters that are no more than a few paragraphs long. I found that to be somewhat tedious. It is more enjoyable to read a book where the author spins the story around many similar events and ties them together rather than penning numerous disjointed anecdotes. Nothing more is revealed here than many of Mr. Wolf's fans do not already know so they will be disappointed. The argument about the admission of Pete Rose into baseball's Hall of Fame hardly ranks up there with the exclusion of Galileo from the Catholic Church. Gimme a break!


It's Warner Lite! Very Light   July 2, 2001
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

"Let's Go to the Videotape" consists of 112 short anecdotes, observations and stories packed into 303 pages. To say that "Let's Go" is quick reading is to overstate the obvious. If this compilation had no weaknesses other than brevity, it could be highly recommended. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Mr. Wolf is an entertaining and very popular TV sports newsman. I looked forward to his 11:00 PM slot on NYC's Channel 2 for years. He is also a very able-and serious- public speaker. Mr. Wolf is in a different element here and his writing skills fall resoundingly short of his broadcasting abilities. Is this for a lack of effort? To be specific, many of the "chapters" could have easily been combined into a more concise format. Also, the grammar, or lack of same, cries out for an EDITOR! Did Warner, or his ghostwriter, ever notice the spell check icon? This is an affliction common to many books these days. Editing is an expense to be cut! More importantly, Warner (the publisher) should either invest in a fact checker or Warner (the author) should refresh his memory.i.e: 1) He mistold the tale of Mickey Mantle's 1956/1957 holdout by $40,000- a fortune in those days. 2) The "Bad News" Barnes basketball player was Jim, out of Texas Western (now Texas El Paso) and later the Knicks. 3) Chapter 84 ("Hello Allie") utterly glosses over how unpopular Allie Sherman was during his disastrous tenure as coach of the NY football Giants. The franchise needed 20 years to recover from that clown and his disastrous trade of the great Sam Huff. The author blew that one! If I had read with a red pencil, I could compile a longer list, but I'm certain the point is made. This is lightweight stuff. No harm no foul but no red meat either. I can't resist a closing pun: If you paid full hardcover price for this one, YOU LOST!