American Pastimes Review

I had never heard of Red Smith when I started this, but bought American Pastimes to help fill the dreaded baseball off-season. This is a collection of his (daily) columns on all things sport - first hand accounts of Dizzy Dean's World Series, Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, the passing of legends such as Wagner and Big Train Johnson, Bobby Thompson, all the way through Curt Flood and Reggie Jackson.

There are also mentions of the Olympics, Tour de France, football, basketball and other unimportant sports. Seriously, Smith was especially enamored with the horses and boxing and his contemporary accounts of Secretariat, Ali, and Marciano are still fresh.

Highly recommended, and supports The Library of America.