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So, what are you reading?
I'm reattempting Scruton's Fools, Frauds and Firebrands. Has been collecting dust for far too long.
The Game, by the recently departed Ken Dryden. It has a reputation as unquestionably the best hockey book of all time, and possibly the greatest sports book of all time, and while I understand where this comes from, the whole thing comes off as a bit overrated. The first thing you need to know about Ken Dryden is that he isn't a typical athlete. His career was remarkably short for a Hall of Famer. He was 23 when he made his debut in the 1971 playoffs, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Stanley Cup before he was technically even a rookie. He retired at age 31 following the 1978–1979 season. He only played 7 full seasons and the aforementioned playoffs of an eighth, having sat out the 1973–1974 season due to a contract dispute and his desire to finish his legal training, and won Stanley Cups in six of those seasons.
As Dryden didn't have a typical career, it stands to reason that he wouldn't write a typical sports book. Athletes usually write standard memoirs, talking about their childhoods and how they got into sports before spending the bulk of the time on their professional careers, and then a nod towards their personal lives and what they've been up to since retiring. Then there's the tell-all memoir, which is exactly the same as the standard memoir except the athlete has some controversial aspect to his life and there's a chapter that deals with the controversy. The Game touches on some of this but doesn't dwell on it; if you didn't know anything about Dryden's career before reading it the book isn't going to fill in the blanks for you. Instead, he ostensibly focuses on a week in the 1978–1979 season but really uses it as a jumping off point to discuss various subjects related to being a professional athlete.
Well, more like related to be being Ken Dryden, because I don't see most athletes having his level of insight, and, as I said, his experience was atypical. One gets the impression that he didn't particularly want to be a pro athlete and just sort of lucked into the job. Almost every review of this book talks about how it discusses "the pressures of being a pro athlete", and while this is certainly part of it, this aspect is overstated, as the pressure he describes isn't universal. The book's biggest strength is that Dryden is candid to a degree that was unheard of at the time. He talks about how being part of a dynasty directly led to his decision to retire, as the thrill of winning had been replaced by the fear of not living up to expectations. He talks about how players have to push for higher salaries even though it ruins the game. Most importantly, he talks about how being a professional athlete necessarily means peaking early in life and becoming alienated from having any semblance of a normal life progression. As he puts it, you go from extended adolescence to premature middle age. When he retires at 31, he knows that whatever he does with the rest of his life he will always be "former" or "ex". He realized that he didn't even want to be a lawyer but always stuck to the idea so he could pretend that hockey was just what he was doing while he could before he got his real career on track, but as the reality of not having hockey becomes clear he admits that was just an excuse.
And he's aware of all the contradictions. The book's second greatest strength is that he knows how to write, but he's aware that he has the image of an intellectual, so of course this will be expected of him since people have been calling him "articulate" his whole career. And he's aware of how image can be manufactured by both players and the media (at one point he says that if you want to cultivate an image as a theatergoer then go to the theater once after a good game and tell a journalist about it, and people will assume you're really into theater). And he's aware that most NHL players have to work hard to stay on rosters and that the ones who are good, like teammate Guy LaFleur, have a "love of the game" that he simply doesn't.
The reason I say this is overrated is because, for all his insight, there's nothing universal about anything he says. Most athletes are lucky to win one championship and don't have to deal with the expectations that come with having won five. There simply aren't than many dynasties, and even on dynasties, most of the players are only there for a short period. He says early in the book that retirement was a difficult thing to consider because he had always assumed that his playing days would end when a coach told him in the fall that he didn't make the team; but that didn't happen, and now he has to decide how and when to make his exit. Well, the same is true for most pro players; they don't make the team out of camp, or get waived, or don't get signed to new contracts, or whatever. Even the ones lucky enough to announce their retirements have usually played as long as they realistically can. I could go on, but very little of Dryden's concerns would appear to be common to pro athletes as a whole.
The other reason it's overrated is because it just isn't that fun to read. Dryden is a good writer, but he's such a good writer that he's more quotable than readable. When everything a guy says is profound it's hard to just get lost in the book. I think sportswriters overrate this because they're usually nerds who can't play sports at all and spend their careers trying to make sense of guys who live up to "dumb jock" stereotypes, so when a guy like Dryden comes along and shows he's one of them they all start drooling over his profound insights and pretty words. There are also several boring sections where he's not musing on personal stuff and trying to give one the atmosphere of a dressing room by quoting players and narrating the antics and whatnot, and it's pretty boring. Maybe when I'm done with this I'll have rated it higher, but I don't know what this book is supposed to say about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This is not surprising, goaltenders have the reputation of being weirdo loners as far as pro athletes go.
That said, I've already wanted to read that book for a while and none of your caveats seem like deal-breakers to me. I'll probably pick it up soon.
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