Trying To Read More This Year? Try a Jeff Pearlman Book On For Size
It’s officially the time of year where sports and reading are at their peak. The NFL Playoffs are underway, the NBA and NHL are both rockin’ the regular season, and the MLB is having one of their most interesting offseasons in years. Then, with all that good stuff goin’ down, tons of folks are flocking to bookstores in hopes of fulfilling their New Year’s resolution to read more. Shit, I was just in Barnes & Noble yesterday and it was like the McRib had just hit the menu again. So, if you find yourself in the unique position where you’re looking to snag a book and happen to dig sports, I’ve got some tippys for you…or just one broad tip.
Read a fuckin’ Jeff Pearlman book!
Pearlman doesn’t do classic, fluffy sports books. There are no pom-poms, no sucking up, and definitely nothing that fits into a PG-rating. Instead, you get the nefarious backstories of the most interesting teams and the public’s most beloved players, complete with behind the scenes pictures and enough cocaine to make Dale Berra blush. It may not be conventional sports writing, but it’s the way he has always done it and is the precise way he rose to fame in the first place.
Back in 1999, when he was writing for Sports Illustrated, Pearlman did an interview with a largely-unknown relief pitcher from the Atlanta Braves. That interview turned out to be one of the most well-known magazine articles of our generation, exposing the subject as a roided-up bigot and homophobe.
Nearly 20 years after publishing, Pearlman’s masterpiece is known as simply, “the John Rocker article”.
From there, the native-New Yorker hit his stride as the go-to guy for unveiling a topic’s underbelly. He would go on to leave the baseball desk at Sports Illustrated for the finger-staining pages of Newsday, eventually exiting print altogether for a title many people dread: full-time author.
In 2004, his career move was justified as HarperCollins — one of the few book publishers I could name with a gun to my head — released The Bad Guys Won, Pearlman’s expose on the 1986 New York Mets. The book actually has a much longer title — which I’ll get to later —and had a profound effect on my life as a baseball fan.
Reading The Bad Guys Won was a life changer for me, no bologna. The year was 2006 and the Mets were literally taking over the state — myself included. You see, as a kid, I’d been an Orioles fan because of Cal Ripken Jr., but that all changed when Rafael Palmeiro was busted for the juice in 2005. It sort of put a bad taste in my mouth, and because I was living the charmed life of 17-year old baseball player, there were definitely other things on my mind.
The 2006 New York Mets changed all that, drawing me back in for good to big-league baseball. After all, they were my hometown team, had young stars up the ying-yang, and I was a free-agent in terms of fandom. The initiation to Mets’ life was also made smooth because by my best friend, Mike Cook, and brother, Corey Pazzalia, who were already major fans. By the time August rolled around, the Mets’ bug was officially living inside me and it was a one-of-a-kind experience rooting in unison with people close to you.
We hit up Shea Stadium a bunch of times, thought Lastings Milledge was the next Ken Griffey Jr., and were devouring anything that had to do with the Amazins’. This is where The Bad Guys Won comes into play, a book that was introduced to me by Corey. The book immediately took hold of me, even though my life was all about the “three B’s” at this point — beer, baseball, and broads. Ironically, that’s exactly what the book was all about and it made the franchise that much cooler to me.
I’ve been a hardcore New York Mets fan ever since. #LGM
Here is the complete Jeff Pearlman catalog:
The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the … Put on a New York Uniform — and Maybe the Best
The Bad Guys Won went on to be a New York Times best seller and a cult-classic among baseball fans. It is still the best Mets’ book ever written and should be front and center on every baseball fans’ bookshelf.
Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero
From there, Pearlman put out another baseball book: Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds And The Making Of An Antihero. It’s a book I’ve never read and probably never will. I’m sure it’s entertaining, but Bonds was getting media coverage like Donald Trump back in the day. At the end of the day, there was a certain level of Bonds-fatigue and I’m still tired.
Even Pearlman has acknowledged that it didn’t perform well sales-wise, and on his (awesome) website, he jokes that the book “can be found on $1 shelves everywhere.”
Spoiler alert, it’s $12.39 on Barnes and Noble.
Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty
Following the disappointment of the Bonds book, JP released a book that is my second-favorite of his works. Ironically, the book tackles the other team that I’m a fan of, the Dallas Cowboys.
Just as Pearlman exposed the wild-partying ways of the 1986 Mets, he did the same thing in Boys Will Be Boys about the mid-90’s Cowboys. It’s a gripping tale and one that you’ll probably finish in just a few days — if not less.
The book put Pearlman back on the New York Times best-sellers list and was selected as one of the best books of 2009 by GQ.
In a genre that produces a lot of garbage, Boys Will Be Boys is firmly on the Mount Rushmore of football books.
The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality
After the second big hit of his book career, Jeff Pearlman went back to the baseball-book tank with The Rocket That Fell To Earth. Similar to his Bonds book, Rocket didn’t quite explode like he had hoped and failed to reach the best-seller list.
A good gauge on popularity is the number of reviews that a book receives from readers. Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won both have over 200 reviews between Amazon and Barnes and Noble, while Rocket and Bonds havereceived just a quarter of that. And, while Rocket and Bonds do have a solid, 4-star rating on Amazon, they are the only two books in Pearlman’s catalog that aren’t 4.5-or-better.
With that said, I’d be more inclined to read this one over Bonds…
Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton
It’s funny, Jeff Pearlman always seems to bounce back after having putting out a book that under performs. In 2011, he followed Rocket with a highly-controversial biography of one of Chicago’s most beloved sports figures, Walter Payton.
The book was well-marketed by Pearlman, as well as intensely researched. In fact, JP did more than 700 interviews over the course of this book. All told, Sweetness had the makings of a masterpiece and was highly anticipated by the public.
However, sometimes people have a tough time dealing with the dark side of their heroes.
For me, I can relate to this feeling. First with Rafael Palmeiro, then with my childhood basketball idol — Allen Iverson. Every time I see Iverson drunk in public or missing appearances, it brings me further and further away from his playing days…and that sucks.
But with Sweetness, it was a little different. Walter Payton wasn’t around to disappoint his fans, so they could just remember his playing days. But, the book came out with Payton’s dark side and fans wanted to keep their blinders on. How dare Jeff Pearlman do actual research!
It got ugly.
Fans burned Pearlman’s book, media bashed him, but Mike Ditka took the cake by spitting on his name. When all was said and done, Pearlman would say Sweetness was his “most painful book” but also his “most rewarding book”.
Sweetness is Pearlman’s second-highest rated book on Barnes and Noble and was a well-read worldwide. In terms of our popularity test, the book has 175 reviews across the aforementioned platforms.
Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and The Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
I’ve talked in earlier articles about “playing the hits” — basically promoting the stuff that is popular and people want to hear. It’s something that is proven to work and something that Jeff Pearlman is obviously aware of. The Mets play in the biggest American media market and the Cowboys are America’s team. He’s trying to get the biggest audience possible and in his book following Sweetness, he went back to that same formula with Showtime.
This is the third Pearlman book I read and one of my favorite basketball books of all time. Besides Basketball Junkie by Chris Herren/Bill Reynolds and The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, there isn’t a more enjoyable hoops book out there.
In Showtime, Pearlman is up to his old tricks giving readers the real backstory to the 1980’s Los Angeles Lakers. I’ll tell you this as a pure fact: this book is more entertaining than the new Lakers/Celtics 30 for 30 and goes much further down the rabbit hole.
Did you know that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hated white people?
Neither did I, at least before reading this book.
The LA Times gave the book a rockin’ review and it became an instant New York Times best seller. Of all the books Pearlman has written, Showtime is the only one to have more than 200 reviews on Amazon alone — 4.5/5 stars.
Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre
Following the resounding success of Showtime, Jeff Pearlman went on a 2.5-year deep dive to the woods of Mississippi to research Brett Favre. What came from his research? Well, according to Pearlman, Gunslinger is “best book I’ve ever written”.
Before it hit stores, Pearlman went on a lengthy tour promoting the book. I had a chance to see him on The Herd with Colin Cowherd and as corny as it sounds, it was an honor. They’re both in my Sports Media Top Five, so seeing them engaging each other was TV gold (to me, at least).
I haven’t gotten around to reading the full book yet, but I did read an excerpt from Gunslinger in an issue of Sports Illustrated and it lived up to the hype.
This is the most recent book by Pearlman, although he is working on a USFL book as we speak.
Unfortunately, that is all for the Pearlman book catalog. However, there is so much more quality content of his you can get your hands on.
Sticking with the book audience, Pearlman has a written-interview series called The Quaz which is super interesting. Personally, I enjoy when he features other writers but he doesn’t discriminate in terms of his subjects. If you can’t find one you like, you’re probably not a human being.
In addition, he also has a podcast interview series, Two Writers Slinging Yang, which features tons of legit names from the writing world.
The folks at @ocweekly named Two Writers Slinging Yang its best podcast of the year. Find out what you're missing—right here. https://t.co/aJZyxH72ln pic.twitter.com/wVVvqoJeJD
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) December 28, 2017
Besides his written interview series and podcast, I stumbled across a movie that he did called Book Whore. It hasn’t blown up like it should have, however, it’s impressive because he probably did it for less than $1,000.
The film is definitely on a small budget but it’s totally free and only 39 minutes long. If you enjoy books, marketing, or Jeff Pearlman in general, you should definitely give it a watch.
These days you can find Jeff on Twitter, where he is very active, or on his website, JeffPearlman.com. He has a USFL book coming out soon, so in addition to the catalog I know you’re going to check out, keep your eyes peeled for his new book!