If you love sports as much as I do (I'm especially a fan of baseball, hockey, and swimming), you'll probably love this book. It's interesting and well-written and delves into just about any sports and personal relationship" or "sports and societal relationship" that you can think of.

In fact, there are probably plenty you'd never really thought about, such as how sports help fans heal after a calamity, like a shooting or terrorist act (see Vegas and NYC). Or the role sports plays in the "Make a Wish Program." Or even the role of fantasy baseball or fantasy football.

Very informative and, as an added measure, it alerted me to other "sports and society" type books.

Highly recommended!!

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.) ( )

Fans get a bad rap in popular culture, as lazy, fat, stupid and just sitting around watching TV all day. But the reality is more complex - and optimistic. Fans are part of a group, those that support this team or that player, which strengthens social bonds and makes them happier. This, and other correlations to increased interest in physical activity, are part of author Olmsted's Socratic explanation to his friend, Dr. Kristie, about the benefits of following team sports.

I picked this up because I'm an avid fan, primarily of team sports such as football, but also of tennis and the Olympics. I could relate to a lot of what Olmsted discussed in the beginning and end of the book, when he talked most about the psychology of fandom and the bonding that can occur between generations. That certainly has been my experience: I went to the Super Bowl to watch the Giants play the Patriots in 2012, and it was as much to spend time with my father over something we both loved as it was to watch my team play.

There were a couple of things that kept me from outright loving the book. First, I wasn't the audience. The set up - that he's talking to his friend and explaining all the benefits of fandom - basically makes it so he's talking to non-fans wanting to understand what makes these people tick. Added to that, the middle of the book, explaining how sports makes us "more understanding" seemed to me to be portraying fans as white males. There's a chapter on Title IX and watching women's sports, as well as one on integration talking about Jackie Robinson and other Black athletes that talks about how it changes fans' views on race. All well and good - but what about women fans or Black fans? How did that impact them? What changes - like including women's clothing lines and adding bathrooms to sports complexes - have impacted women following sports? I don't think it was intentionally done to dis anyone, but was more a blind spot for Olmsted, a white male, to address those aspects from that point of view. In other places, he quoted from female fans, so it wasn't like it was a blatant, purposeful erasure by any means, just something that pulled me out of the text a little.

The book stays light and surface-y in its presentation while quoting from several other books and journal articles to prove his point, which was a downside for me - again, already a fan - but may not bother other readers. Still, I'm glad I read it and it's something I can recommend to people who look at me cross-eyed when I say I got season tickets to the NY Giants this year and am looking forward to the camaraderie that comes with enjoying it with my family and thousands of strangers to boot. And by the way, after "we" won the Super Bowl, I felt the highest euphoria I've ever experienced in my life. ( )