Gods at Play: An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in American Sports

Tom is an American treasure as much as the Gods he wrote about. You will not be able to put the book down – I just finished it at 4:30 AM.
You have seen the sporting events – now he tells you the rest of the story.

Any sports aficionado, like myself, whose life spans the time stretching from radio through black and white television to the internet will find this book a welcome panacea to the anxiety induced by politics and pandemic. Tom Callahan’s career as a newspaper beat writer and columnist as well as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated during its golden era allowed him access to virtually any major sporting event or personality.. Therefore, he has accumulated a treasure trove of anecdotes during the past half century. This space is too brief to relate the myriad of stories, both humorous and poignant, which he shares in the book but all are insightful and will remind the reader of the joy which a lifetime of sports can offer to those who simply observe. Perusing this book was one of the few pleasures of 2020 for me. Those in doubt about picking up the book should begin with the Epilogue which is reminiscent of the great Roger Angell at his best.

This book gives an inside perspective on the personalities of many famous athletes of the 40’s through 60’s.
As an established sports writer with great credibility in the sports world and particularly with many of the famous athletes over the three decades, Tom Callahan has been able to provide some insight and background on what made these athletes as accomplished as they were.
When many sports books frame the athletes in statistics and comparisons, this book focuses on attitudes and accomplishment in and out of the sports world. Few sports books give a better look at the personalities of many athletes known only by performance measures.
The closest comparison for this books, in my opinion, would be “teammates” by David Halberstam.
Strongly recommended.

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