Cassell's Sports Quotations Book

"Chess is the gymnasium of the mind", said Lenin. Scottish soccer fans welcome the Russian team at the 1982 World Cup with a banner proclaiming "Alcoholism versus Communism". American humorist George F. Will said that American football "combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings". Cassell's Sports Quotations contains 3,000 such gems. It indexes them neatly, mostly by theme, although a number of particularly famous sportsmen and women get their own entries, from baseball player Hank Aaron to footballer Gianfranco Zola (these entries contain quotes about as well as by their subjects). There are even a few entries reserved for commentators: John Arlott, for instance, and the gaffe-machine himself, David Coleman--"Don't tell those coming in now the result of that fantastic match. Now, let's have another look at Italy's winning goal".You can't include all the classics--where is George Best's "I spent most of my money on birds and booze; the rest I just squandered", or the immortal Coleman's breathless comment on an Olympic sprinter, "He spreads his legs and shows his class"? Nevertheless, the compiler, David Pickering, has made a remarkably broad and international selection. A huge variety of sports and games are covered, from backgammon and ballooning via lacrosse and surfing to tenpin bowling and wrestling ("I don't know what it is, but I can't look at Hulk Hogan and believe that he's the end result of millions and millions of years of evolution"). There are also entries on curious subjects such as "artificial grass", "biting", "mixed metaphors", "village sports" and "willpower". Take the one on agents as an example: there is football manager Joe Kinnear's verdict, "Dogs. Worms. Vermin"; or basketball player Pat Williams' "What do you have when you've got an agent buried up to his neck in sand? Not enough sand"; and perhaps the harshest, American football player Jerry Reynolds, "If God had an agent, the world wouldn't be built yet". For the sports fan, this isn't so much a book as a treasure house. --Simon PriestlyRead More