This 4 day event, takes place at Lord’s, might be of interest to some here.
Mind you, sports writing and Robbie Savage – hmmm. Some good writers and speakers, but him, really !?
http://www.londonsportswritingfestival.com
The London Sports Writing Festival
I’ve just finished, after attending my first ever baseball game in Boston, “Moneyball”.
I was glued to it, a brilliant book, even if you have no interest in baseball.
How a maverick manager with some big (and controversial) ideas, and big cojones to match, got/continues to get way more value out of his players than virtually everyone else.
The characters are fascinating, the stories compelling and inspiring in equal amount and you wonder why no-one thought of it years ago.
I’d also recommend, for great sports related books, “The Game” by Ken Dryden and “Many a Slip” by Gideon Haigh.
I’ll await Mr Savage’s efforts with interest.
Big fan of Gideon Haigh. He’s an artist, and probably the best cricket writer around. His books on the Ashes campaigns since 2005 are little masterpieces of wit, good writing and sound judgement.
Money ball is also relevant if you are a soccer fan of Liverpool fc, or Sam Alladyce. Billy Beene apparently supports West Ham and Big Sam has studied his approach. Fenway Sports Group are big fans, and apparently want to run LFC according to his principles. Though I thought it was buy cheap, odd but brilliant players (Suarez, at the time) rather than over priced middle of the road players (Lovren, Ballotelli, Allen, Moreno, Sakho, Toure….) so maybe I am wrong.
Oh, and I recommend Michael Lewis’s other books – especially at the moment The Big Short, about the causes of the financial crisis.
Another recommendation for The Big Short. I think it’s Lewis’s best.
Lots of great sports books at the moment, many of them well discussed on e Sports Book podcast.