Mike Cullity

Bird-Magic book scores a three

For me, few Christmas gifts are more enjoyable than a good read. This year, my brother and sister-in-law gave me "When The Game Was Ours," the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson collaboration with former Boston Globe sports columnist Jackie MacMullan detailing an epic basketball rivalry turned friendship. 

Having grown up in the heyday of the storied Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, I enjoyed reliving the classic NBA battles of the era through the eyes of Bird and Johnson, their two main protagonists. But better yet, MacMullan recounts what happened behind the scenes to illustrate how the unique Bird-Magic relationship has evolved over the last three decades. 

Their story begins in April 1978, when the future Hall of Famers were frustrated second-string teammates on a college all-star squad competing in the World Invitational Tournament. Despite playing behind the stars of the NCAA champion Kentucky Wildcats, Bird and Johnson emerge with admiration for each other's games. But the voluble Johnson and withdrawn Bird did not strike up an instant rapport. 

Instead they became bitter rivals, first in the 1979 NCAA Championship final, in which Johnson's Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State Sycamores, and later in the NBA. Each watched enviously from a distance as the other won an NBA title (Johnson as a Lakers rookie in 1980, Bird with the Celtics in '81), and each followed the other's stats in the papers. Looking back, each acknowledges that the other was his prime motivator. 

Their rivalry reached a fever pitch in 1984 and '85, when the Celtics and Lakers faced off in consecutive NBA Finals. The Celtics prevailed in '84, with Bird garnering MVP honors, but the Lakers evened the score in '85. 

The moment at the heart of the book came three months after the Laker victory, when Johnson and Bird got together at Bird's Indiana home to shoot a TV commercial for Converse basketball sneakers. Ever the competitor, Bird had refused to participate unless Johnson came to him, and Magic, in true Showtime fashion, rolled into rural West Baden with his entourage in three limos. But when the two pow-wowed privately in Bird's basement, they discovered that they had a lot in common.

Although Johnson and Bird never faced each other in another NBA final, they remained fierce rivals while their mutual regard grew. After Johnson was diagnosed with the HIV virus in November 1991, he made sure his agent, Lon Rosen, informed Bird before the press conference in which Johnson announced his condition and retirement from basketball. Told by Rosen that Johnson would be in touch in a few days, Bird insisted on calling his rival right away. "My God," Bird said to his wife, Dinah, after the ever-upbeat Johnson consoled him over the phone. "Magic's gonna die."

MacMullan does a nice job recounting the hysteria, fueled by lack of information, that followed Johnson's HIV announcement. And she's equally adept in relating the tale of the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team," on which Bird and Johnson once again competed as teammates, bringing their story full circle.

One of the book's best passages recounts a pre-Olympic scrimmage in Monte Carlo in which an "East" team led by Bird and Michael Jordan comes back to beat a "West" squad anchored by Johnson, David Robinson and Charles Barkley. "It was the most fun I've ever had playing basketball," Jordan said tellingly.

As far as entertaining reading goes, "When The Game Was Ours" scores a three-pointer in my book.

 

"Game Six" is a winner

If you're a New Englander, the footage of Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk's home run to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is as familiar as clam chowder.

Not so well known, perhaps, is how Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant, the Game 6 starter, reacted after seeing Fisk's iconic 12th-inning blast on TV in the Sox clubhouse. Submerged in a whirlpool icing his arm and smoking a Cuban after seven innings of work that night, Tiant sprung from the tub and raced toward the dugout. Only after reaching it did he realize he was sporting nothing but a jockstrap.

Tiant's celebratory streak is among the rich details author Mark Frost recounts in his recently released book "Game Six." While diehard fans of the Red Sox and their '75 World Series opponents, the Cincinnati Reds, will take particular interest in the book, any fan of sports history will delight in Frost's exploration of this memorable contest, its protagonists and its aftermath.

In "Game Six," Frost applies to baseball the formula that earned him success with previous books on golf, most notably "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and "The Match," in which he breathes life into historical events. While recounting every pitch of Game 6, Frost intersperses the stories of the game's main characters, such as Fisk, Tiant and the stars of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine. He also explores the tales of those who played bit parts in the drama, from obscure Sox reliever Roger Moret to broadcaster Dick Stockton.

Although virtually every reader who picks up this book knows what happened, Frost does a nice job recounting the details that set the stage for Fisk's climactic swat and, ultimately, Cincinnati's come-from-behind victory in Game 7. I particularly enjoyed the book's portrayal of Reds manager Sparky Anderson's mental gymnastics in the eighth inning, when the Red Sox sent lefty Bernie Carbo to pinch hit with two men on base. Although Anderson's gut was telling him to yank his pitcher, righthanded fireballer Rawly Eastwick, and insert southpaw Will McEnaney, Anderson stuck with Eastwick, who served up Carbo's three-run homer to tie the game.

Although the play-by-play provides logical structure, the human tales carry this narrative. Perhaps most compelling is the story of Tiant, the Cuban hurler who rose to stardom after the Red Sox rescued him from baseball's scrap heap. While claiming victories on the field, Tiant experiences personal triumph in the summer of '75 when, before a media throng at Boston's Logan Airport, he reunites with his parents, Luis Sr. and Isabel, who had been trapped in their native land by Fidel Castro's regime. Further from the spotlight, Frost recounts the kinship between Anderson and Carbo, a talented but troubled former Reds outfielder who grew up with an alcoholic father and battled substance abuse himself.

After describing the timely Cincinnati hits - and questionable moves by Red Sox manager Darrell Johnson - that produced the Reds' 4-3 victory in Game 7, Frost explores subsequent events, in particular the demise of baseball's reserve clause and the dawn of free agency, that eventually toppled the Reds and Red Sox from the elite perch they occupied in October 1975. The book also tracks the divergent paths of the Game 6 protagonists into the present day.

As with "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and "The Match," two books I thoroughly enjoyed, my quibbles with "Game Six" are minor. Frost reveals he's not a New Englander when he refers to Boston's North End, the city's well-known Italian quarter, as the "North Side" and places Pawtucket, home of the Red Sox' longtime minor-league affiliate, in Massachusetts rather than Rhode Island. Similarly, he calls the Reds' former playing field "Riverfront Park" instead of Riverfront Stadium. But these foul balls do little to subtract from an enjoyable read.

Some thoughts on "Satchel"

I've been a fan of baseball literature for a long time. As a kid, I used to devour Roger Angell's accounts of life in the big leagues and chuckle over the madcap clubhouse stunts journeyman outfielder Jay Johnstone chronicled. Earlier this year, I checked Roger Kahn's classic, "The Boys of Summer,"
off my lifetime reading list.

My latest baseball read is "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend" by Larry Tye. A former Boston Globe reporter, Tye tackles the life of Satchel Paige, the prolific Negro League pitcher and baseball Hall of Famer.

I had heard a lot about Paige in passing through the years, but I didn't know many details about him before I read this bio. The book didn't reveal too many surprises, but it is a well-researched tome that offers a thorough portrait of the man behind the legend.