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 enlarge | Author: Mark Bowden
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $12.58
You Save: $10.42 (45%)
New (36) Used (14) Collectible (7) from $11.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 1723
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 087113988X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.332640973
EAN: 9780871139887
ASIN: 087113988X
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Over 600,000 Feedbacks Posted!!! Brand New, In-house and ready to ship!!! We are a 5 star seller!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 16-19 of 19 | | « PREV | | |
 The Raymond Berry Biography in Disguise May 14, 2008
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
What you have here is not so much a book about the game but rather some feather duster treatment of a few of the people who played in it ... and a whole lot about Raymond Berry which, combined with the Epilogue, constitute the only redeeming features of the book.
You will read about John Unitas but there are certainly better books about him. You will read about Sam Huff, but oddly in this volume you will not read a word about the 1960 documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite called "The Violent World of Sam Huff" which will tell you more about the player than anything you'll find between the pages of The Best Game Ever. You'll find out about the tenacious kid who took a lucky picture of the final score in overtime but who really cares? And you'll soak a little in the late 1950's nostalgia assuming you are interested in how many people watched television back then.
To tell the truth, if it weren't for the Epilogue featuring some transcribed conversations among Colt veterans this would be a 1.5 star book. And without the Berry story, there would be virtually no book at all. The author handles language well enough. He just didn't produce anything close to The Best Sports Book Ever.
 What a magnificent book! May 14, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Mark Bowden has a proven record as an exciting writer of history. The Best Game Ever is his best book ever. He makes the 1958 NFL title game come alive. I have memories as a high school senior of watching this game on television. The game's black-and-white starkness is imbedded in my memory. Mr. Bowden makes this memory come alive in all its vivid character. His lively style is more that of an analytical journalist than an academic historian, and he offers insights that I have not read elsewhere. The photos of this cold-weather game offered in the book made me want to bundle up in spite of the fact that it is 90 degrees in San Antonio (my home) today. Every football fan should be grateful for this book.
 A Playbook of Mixed Success May 11, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
The 1958 NFL championship game between the Colts and Giants has been chronicled and debated so much over the past 50 years that another book would seem to be past redundant.
But author Mark Bowden runs a fly route past the typical coverage and places the contest in a context of the NFL's evolution in the decade after the Second World War and relives the era through sketches of the participants, some who remain familiar names and others whose glory had faded like the print on the pages of sports sections in old newspapers.
The book is an nice primer to new fans and a decent stride down the sidelines to paydirt for those who have read extensively on this classic contest.
 Don't Believe All the Legends! May 8, 2008
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
Raymond Emmett Berry did not have one leg shorter than the other; his father was NEVER called "Ray" by anyone except this author; and he went to Schreiner Junior College because he weighed 151 pounds his senior season in high school and, more importantly, because former Paris Junior College head football coach Chena Gilstrap had just moved to Kerrville as the new Schreiner head coach.
Coach Gilstrap was a life-long friend of both Raymond Emmett--his family name and his "Paris, Texas" name--and his father, Mark Raymond Berry, who was always called "Raymond," "Coach," or "Mr. Berry" by everyone who knew him. Another life-long friend was Gene Stallings--the Texas A&M, Alabama, St. Louis Cardinals coach--who replaced Raymond as the left end at Paris High School after Raymond graduated.
Why couldn't the author just ask Raymond to clarify some of those "legends" and errors instead of just copying them from some old newspaper story? Although they distract from the story--especially if you are Raymond Emmett's cousin, revered his father, and your brother played for Coach Gilstrap at UT Arlington--the story of the game itself is worth every minute of this read. Although I'm obviously somewhat biased, it was certainly the greatest NFL football game I ever saw!
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