Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive cast-off veterans.

Lewis was in the room with the A's top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever.

Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). Sidearm pitcher Chad Bradford is plucked from the White Sox triple-A club to be a key set-up man and catcher Scott Hatteberg is rebuilt as a first baseman. But the most interesting character is Beane himself. A speedy athletic can't-miss prospect who somehow missed, Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players completely unlike, say, Billy Beane. Lewis, one of the top non-fiction writers of his era (Liar's Poker, Next), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. --John Moe, Amazon.com

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

I love the read about Liverpool, 04 Apr 2008
Hard hitting straight to the point and names all the big names, fantastic reading Graham well done again. If you like reading books set in Liverpool try Soft Target by Conrad Jones its a cracker. Both superb !!

Gripping - gets you by the balls!, 13 Feb 2008
It could have been easy to dislike this book: written by a seasoned tabloid crime hack, it dishes the dirt on how gangsters have tried to muscle in on football - and frequently succeeded. The writer is an unashamed cynic about his own profession, making no apologies for the behaviour of 'Her Majesty's Press' (a phrase nicked, I believe, from the brilliant comedy Hot Metal), but he tells it like it is and, moreover, delivers each fascinating story with a grim humour and an elegant turn of phrase. More than that, he names names - big ones too! Rooney, Gerrard, Owen (oh yes!)...they're all there, Liverpool clearly being the author's area of expertise.

Recently, a proposed book dealing with the seamier side of Wayne Rooney's story, Roo Unzipped, was strangled at birth through fear of legal action, but there is plenty here to reveal the dark side behind the boy wonder (little of it of his own doing, to be fair...but the people who surround him are a different matter).

I guess football and crime are both 'bloke' preoccupations, so female readers might get a little bored, but I for one found it (to coin a literary word that sounds as though it ought to have been a football word) 'unputdownable'.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

I love the read about Liverpool, 04 Apr 2008
Hard hitting straight to the point and names all the big names, fantastic reading Graham well done again. If you like reading books set in Liverpool try Soft Target by Conrad Jones its a cracker. Both superb !!

Gripping - gets you by the balls!, 13 Feb 2008
It could have been easy to dislike this book: written by a seasoned tabloid crime hack, it dishes the dirt on how gangsters have tried to muscle in on football - and frequently succeeded. The writer is an unashamed cynic about his own profession, making no apologies for the behaviour of 'Her Majesty's Press' (a phrase nicked, I believe, from the brilliant comedy Hot Metal), but he tells it like it is and, moreover, delivers each fascinating story with a grim humour and an elegant turn of phrase. More than that, he names names - big ones too! Rooney, Gerrard, Owen (oh yes!)...they're all there, Liverpool clearly being the author's area of expertise.

Recently, a proposed book dealing with the seamier side of Wayne Rooney's story, Roo Unzipped, was strangled at birth through fear of legal action, but there is plenty here to reveal the dark side behind the boy wonder (little of it of his own doing, to be fair...but the people who surround him are a different matter).

I guess football and crime are both 'bloke' preoccupations, so female readers might get a little bored, but I for one found it (to coin a literary word that sounds as though it ought to have been a football word) 'unputdownable'.



A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star, 20 Apr 2008
A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star from very humble and difficult beginnings. I am sure the vast majority of people who have read this will be pulling for Oher to make it to the big stage. The development and changes in the guys life are brought out well by Michael Lewis here, this is a very fine book, he clearly has a knack for writing about sports what with this and Moneyball. I look forward to his next book on football, although I fear we may have to wait longer than I would really like.

As a footnote - Oher declared for the 2008 NFL draft, then changed his mind, giving him another season in college.

Brilliant, 13 Jan 2008
I loved this book. It details Oher's life so far, how he came to be where he is, expalins how the left tackle position has evolved into the one it is now and the importance it carries, and the various colleges that recruited Oher.

Great book, recommend to any american football fan.

Grips like a giant left tackle and won't let go!, 21 Aug 2007
I've been a fan of Michael Lewis since he wrote his first book 'Liar's Poker'. I loved that book, and his ability to make a strange world seem familiar (in that case the world of Wall Street). Having read and enjoyed Moneyball, I got this as a gift from my wish list.

Once I'd read the first chapter where he describes the sudden, shocking demise of a quarterback, I was hooked, even though I have no real clue about how American football actually works. When I occasionally watch the Super Bowl, I spend most of the time saying things like 'where's the ball', 'why has that guy vanished' etc.

Lewis interleaves the story of how quarterbacks and by extension left tackles became much more valuable (in game and money terms), as he did in MoneyBall with the inspirational story of Michael Oher a dirt poor black guy who lucks into a rich white school because of his size and athletic ability.

Lewis has become expert at combining analysis of markets in the unlikeliest places with a more human story. Just occasionally it gets a bit too hokey, but otherwise it's compulsive. Deserves a wider readership than it'll get in the UK.


A Sporting Pygmalion, 20 Mar 2007
Three decades on from the first regular screening of the NFL on Channel 4, there is clearly a sizeable audience for American football in the UK, as evidenced by the overwhelming interest in the Giants-Dolphins regular season game due to be played at Wembley in October 2007. The people who expressed an interest in that game, amongst others, would do well to read this book, but then even non-aficionados will find plenty to interest them, without prior knowledge of the game.

Nominally about the development of the left tackle position, and principally about one player in that position, it transpires to be about much more.

Michael Oher, the real-life protagonist, spent the first sixteen years of his life in the ghetto of West Memphis, Tennessee. Part of the book is dedicated to relating his extraordinary path from those early deprivations, the knife edge he treads between being sucked into the world of drugs and his actual path of salvation through his apparently innate size, strength, speed and sporting aptitude which ultimately furnish him with his ticket out.

Delivered up to a private Christian school by de facto guardian Big Tony, as an indirect result of Tony's mom's deathbed wish, the school's head and sports coaches immediately see an opportunity to use Big Mike's gifts. Although there is some definite self-interest involved, it is of the enlightened variety, and it is to the school's credit that it gives him the opportunities it does, stressing the boy's education as a priority.

Despite Michael's quite shocking backstory, it results at times in some amusing episodes. The fluid state of Michael's identity (too complex to explain here) compels his new foster mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, to engage in a day of to and fro intrigue in order to procure sufficient documentation for him to obtain a driver's licence. Michael and Big Tony's son Steven, also enrolled at the school, are incredulous at the casual attitude of white folks to their possessions - they leave them lying around the school as if nobody is going to steal them! And what's more, for a Christian school, isn't it odd that, unlike at public school, there are no free meals? (For some time, Michael's straitened circumstances are completely unknown to the school.)

But the backstory also provides a fascinating exposé of the scandalous lack of a social safety net for Michael and people like him in the world's number one economy.

A part of the book's strength is that Michael Lewis plays with Oher's story's chronology. This achieves dramatic effect as we are able to share Oher's benefactors' shock at the discovery of some of its details.

The other thing Lewis does well is to intersperse the left tackle development story, also shaken up chronologically, with Michael Oher's, from Bill Walsh's (qualified) invention of the West Coast Offense (pardon spelling here), the role of the linebacker (notably Lawrence Taylor) in suppressing it, and the consequent need to protect the quarterback (exemplified in blood-curdling fashion by the book's opening sequence in which LT is involved in the termination of Joe Theismann's career, an event I, and probably many of my fellow UK-based football fans, recall with a shiver).

The book ultimately operates on several levels: as a biography, as a book about football, and as a social documentary. Despite my personal misgivings about faith schools, the one that takes Michael in impresses with its philanthropy. My one caveat is the revelation at the end of the book that Lewis and Sean Tuohy, ultimately Oher's adoptive father, are old college friends, disqualifying the author from role of neutral bystander.

But it's undoubtedly entertaining and well-written, and Lewis has a fine sense of humour - his comment about Sean Tuohy, that he would know a poem being "as likely as Sylvia Plath hitting a jump shot at the buzzer", had me laughing out loud (on a plane). However, he misses the opportunity to capitalise fully on a mention of Pygmalion on the same page. But that just gives me the opportunity to draw the comparison between the stories of Michael Oher and Eliza Doolittle.

The book ends before Michael's NFL career begins to take shape. Is that too soon? Well, I guess it gives Lewis a chance for Blind Side 2, but in truth the Pygmalion story ended when Michael went off to college. Job done. If you want to know more you can go to First Down, Sports Illustrated or NFL.com. Lewis has told, and told well, the story those guys won't be covering.




A Riveting Story of Resurrection, 29 Jan 2007
Imagine that you are a large (over 300 pounds) African-American teenager who lives in the worst part of Memphis. You never knew your father (and he will soon be murdered). Your mother is addicted to drugs and doesn't do much to provide for you. You have no bed. You don't know where your next meal is coming from. You haven't gone to enough school to know how to do much of anything.

What do you want out of life? You want to be Michael Jordan . . . just like millions of other teenagers. You've spent endless hours on the playgrounds practicing as a shooting guard.

What will you become in a handful of years? One of the most heavily recruited college football players in the United States and a top professional prospect who people are watching as you learn how to be a left tackle.

The story of how Michael Oher made this transition is one of the most amazing, moving, and fascinating real-life stories it has ever been my pleasure to read. Whether or not you like football, you'll find this book to be impossible to put down.

Michael Lewis does a remarkable job in telling the story. Mr. Lewis was fortunate to have a long-term friendship with Sean Tuohy, one of the many people who helped Michael Oher fulfill his potential. As a result, Mr. Lewis enjoyed amazing access to the people involved in Michael's life . . . and eventually got some help from Michael as well.

The Blind Side is four stories in one:

1. Michael's life before he met the Tuohy family.
2. Michael's progress from being ignorant to becoming a highly recruited college football prospect.
3. Michael's adjustment to college.
4. The changes in American professional football that created an irresistible demand for someone with Michael's physical capabilities.

Each of these stories would make a fine book. To be able to pursue all four stories at the same time is an unexpected delight.

But the story's not over. Michael is now a sophomore at Ole Miss. Will he make it to the NFL? You can follow his career and find out. Perhaps other amazing chapters lie ahead. Who knows?

There's another story this book doesn't tell, but implies: The world is full of talented youth who could make great contributions . . . but they need a lot of help from people who care and are determined to help the youth succeed. For ever Michael Oher, there must be millions who languish. How can we change that? You'll be haunted by that question after you read this book.

If you are looking for keen insights into American football that you don't already have, you'll probably be disappointed. Any fan of professional football knows that a team's potential chances of success are only as good as the blocking of the offensive line. Clearly, the left tackle is the best insurance against a maimed right-handed quarterback, something no fan wants. You've probably noticed that the top left tackles get paid almost as much as quarterbacks. The history of how the Bill Walsh-type passing offenses have become so important is something you've lived through.

The professional football material will, however, be helpful to those who don't know football and want to appreciate why people have been going gaga over Michael Oher.

How can you help an at-risk youth today?

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

I love the read about Liverpool, 04 Apr 2008
Hard hitting straight to the point and names all the big names, fantastic reading Graham well done again. If you like reading books set in Liverpool try Soft Target by Conrad Jones its a cracker. Both superb !!

Gripping - gets you by the balls!, 13 Feb 2008
It could have been easy to dislike this book: written by a seasoned tabloid crime hack, it dishes the dirt on how gangsters have tried to muscle in on football - and frequently succeeded. The writer is an unashamed cynic about his own profession, making no apologies for the behaviour of 'Her Majesty's Press' (a phrase nicked, I believe, from the brilliant comedy Hot Metal), but he tells it like it is and, moreover, delivers each fascinating story with a grim humour and an elegant turn of phrase. More than that, he names names - big ones too! Rooney, Gerrard, Owen (oh yes!)...they're all there, Liverpool clearly being the author's area of expertise.

Recently, a proposed book dealing with the seamier side of Wayne Rooney's story, Roo Unzipped, was strangled at birth through fear of legal action, but there is plenty here to reveal the dark side behind the boy wonder (little of it of his own doing, to be fair...but the people who surround him are a different matter).

I guess football and crime are both 'bloke' preoccupations, so female readers might get a little bored, but I for one found it (to coin a literary word that sounds as though it ought to have been a football word) 'unputdownable'.



A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star, 20 Apr 2008
A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star from very humble and difficult beginnings. I am sure the vast majority of people who have read this will be pulling for Oher to make it to the big stage. The development and changes in the guys life are brought out well by Michael Lewis here, this is a very fine book, he clearly has a knack for writing about sports what with this and Moneyball. I look forward to his next book on football, although I fear we may have to wait longer than I would really like.

As a footnote - Oher declared for the 2008 NFL draft, then changed his mind, giving him another season in college.

Brilliant, 13 Jan 2008
I loved this book. It details Oher's life so far, how he came to be where he is, expalins how the left tackle position has evolved into the one it is now and the importance it carries, and the various colleges that recruited Oher.

Great book, recommend to any american football fan.

Grips like a giant left tackle and won't let go!, 21 Aug 2007
I've been a fan of Michael Lewis since he wrote his first book 'Liar's Poker'. I loved that book, and his ability to make a strange world seem familiar (in that case the world of Wall Street). Having read and enjoyed Moneyball, I got this as a gift from my wish list.

Once I'd read the first chapter where he describes the sudden, shocking demise of a quarterback, I was hooked, even though I have no real clue about how American football actually works. When I occasionally watch the Super Bowl, I spend most of the time saying things like 'where's the ball', 'why has that guy vanished' etc.

Lewis interleaves the story of how quarterbacks and by extension left tackles became much more valuable (in game and money terms), as he did in MoneyBall with the inspirational story of Michael Oher a dirt poor black guy who lucks into a rich white school because of his size and athletic ability.

Lewis has become expert at combining analysis of markets in the unlikeliest places with a more human story. Just occasionally it gets a bit too hokey, but otherwise it's compulsive. Deserves a wider readership than it'll get in the UK.


A Sporting Pygmalion, 20 Mar 2007
Three decades on from the first regular screening of the NFL on Channel 4, there is clearly a sizeable audience for American football in the UK, as evidenced by the overwhelming interest in the Giants-Dolphins regular season game due to be played at Wembley in October 2007. The people who expressed an interest in that game, amongst others, would do well to read this book, but then even non-aficionados will find plenty to interest them, without prior knowledge of the game.

Nominally about the development of the left tackle position, and principally about one player in that position, it transpires to be about much more.

Michael Oher, the real-life protagonist, spent the first sixteen years of his life in the ghetto of West Memphis, Tennessee. Part of the book is dedicated to relating his extraordinary path from those early deprivations, the knife edge he treads between being sucked into the world of drugs and his actual path of salvation through his apparently innate size, strength, speed and sporting aptitude which ultimately furnish him with his ticket out.

Delivered up to a private Christian school by de facto guardian Big Tony, as an indirect result of Tony's mom's deathbed wish, the school's head and sports coaches immediately see an opportunity to use Big Mike's gifts. Although there is some definite self-interest involved, it is of the enlightened variety, and it is to the school's credit that it gives him the opportunities it does, stressing the boy's education as a priority.

Despite Michael's quite shocking backstory, it results at times in some amusing episodes. The fluid state of Michael's identity (too complex to explain here) compels his new foster mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, to engage in a day of to and fro intrigue in order to procure sufficient documentation for him to obtain a driver's licence. Michael and Big Tony's son Steven, also enrolled at the school, are incredulous at the casual attitude of white folks to their possessions - they leave them lying around the school as if nobody is going to steal them! And what's more, for a Christian school, isn't it odd that, unlike at public school, there are no free meals? (For some time, Michael's straitened circumstances are completely unknown to the school.)

But the backstory also provides a fascinating exposé of the scandalous lack of a social safety net for Michael and people like him in the world's number one economy.

A part of the book's strength is that Michael Lewis plays with Oher's story's chronology. This achieves dramatic effect as we are able to share Oher's benefactors' shock at the discovery of some of its details.

The other thing Lewis does well is to intersperse the left tackle development story, also shaken up chronologically, with Michael Oher's, from Bill Walsh's (qualified) invention of the West Coast Offense (pardon spelling here), the role of the linebacker (notably Lawrence Taylor) in suppressing it, and the consequent need to protect the quarterback (exemplified in blood-curdling fashion by the book's opening sequence in which LT is involved in the termination of Joe Theismann's career, an event I, and probably many of my fellow UK-based football fans, recall with a shiver).

The book ultimately operates on several levels: as a biography, as a book about football, and as a social documentary. Despite my personal misgivings about faith schools, the one that takes Michael in impresses with its philanthropy. My one caveat is the revelation at the end of the book that Lewis and Sean Tuohy, ultimately Oher's adoptive father, are old college friends, disqualifying the author from role of neutral bystander.

But it's undoubtedly entertaining and well-written, and Lewis has a fine sense of humour - his comment about Sean Tuohy, that he would know a poem being "as likely as Sylvia Plath hitting a jump shot at the buzzer", had me laughing out loud (on a plane). However, he misses the opportunity to capitalise fully on a mention of Pygmalion on the same page. But that just gives me the opportunity to draw the comparison between the stories of Michael Oher and Eliza Doolittle.

The book ends before Michael's NFL career begins to take shape. Is that too soon? Well, I guess it gives Lewis a chance for Blind Side 2, but in truth the Pygmalion story ended when Michael went off to college. Job done. If you want to know more you can go to First Down, Sports Illustrated or NFL.com. Lewis has told, and told well, the story those guys won't be covering.




A Riveting Story of Resurrection, 29 Jan 2007
Imagine that you are a large (over 300 pounds) African-American teenager who lives in the worst part of Memphis. You never knew your father (and he will soon be murdered). Your mother is addicted to drugs and doesn't do much to provide for you. You have no bed. You don't know where your next meal is coming from. You haven't gone to enough school to know how to do much of anything.

What do you want out of life? You want to be Michael Jordan . . . just like millions of other teenagers. You've spent endless hours on the playgrounds practicing as a shooting guard.

What will you become in a handful of years? One of the most heavily recruited college football players in the United States and a top professional prospect who people are watching as you learn how to be a left tackle.

The story of how Michael Oher made this transition is one of the most amazing, moving, and fascinating real-life stories it has ever been my pleasure to read. Whether or not you like football, you'll find this book to be impossible to put down.

Michael Lewis does a remarkable job in telling the story. Mr. Lewis was fortunate to have a long-term friendship with Sean Tuohy, one of the many people who helped Michael Oher fulfill his potential. As a result, Mr. Lewis enjoyed amazing access to the people involved in Michael's life . . . and eventually got some help from Michael as well.

The Blind Side is four stories in one:

1. Michael's life before he met the Tuohy family.
2. Michael's progress from being ignorant to becoming a highly recruited college football prospect.
3. Michael's adjustment to college.
4. The changes in American professional football that created an irresistible demand for someone with Michael's physical capabilities.

Each of these stories would make a fine book. To be able to pursue all four stories at the same time is an unexpected delight.

But the story's not over. Michael is now a sophomore at Ole Miss. Will he make it to the NFL? You can follow his career and find out. Perhaps other amazing chapters lie ahead. Who knows?

There's another story this book doesn't tell, but implies: The world is full of talented youth who could make great contributions . . . but they need a lot of help from people who care and are determined to help the youth succeed. For ever Michael Oher, there must be millions who languish. How can we change that? You'll be haunted by that question after you read this book.

If you are looking for keen insights into American football that you don't already have, you'll probably be disappointed. Any fan of professional football knows that a team's potential chances of success are only as good as the blocking of the offensive line. Clearly, the left tackle is the best insurance against a maimed right-handed quarterback, something no fan wants. You've probably noticed that the top left tackles get paid almost as much as quarterbacks. The history of how the Bill Walsh-type passing offenses have become so important is something you've lived through.

The professional football material will, however, be helpful to those who don't know football and want to appreciate why people have been going gaga over Michael Oher.

How can you help an at-risk youth today?

Doubt if Robin Friday was the greatest but, 15 Feb 2008
still not a bad way to pass an evening. Obviously a talented bloke but dispersing the book with clippings of Best and Bowles to try and elevate him into their company is a cheap trick. Surely the whole argument is undermined in the first chapter when his twin brother gets picked on teams and he can't. Maybe the twin was the greatest? What I did enjoy about this book was the trip back to when footballers were ordinary blokes and lived in the community, when football matches still had a raw edge to them on and off the pitch and when getting up off your arse and going to the game was the only way to see it.

Over rated, 03 Feb 2008
I was really looking forward to this book with the full story of the enigmatic Friday. I found it to be very disappointing. Its written in a diary style that doesnt work and features lots of comments and quotes that add nothing to the general story. Its riddled with factual errors - scores, fixtures and results - that suggests a lack of proper research.

The worst part for me was Fridays life after he finished playing football. In a page and a half you are taken from 1977 to his untimely death in 1990. What went on his life in this period, the reader can only guess at. If he was as good a player as is suggested, then he surely deserves a better biography than this.

-, 19 Jan 2008
Good football book to read, although it starts rather slow. Personally I would have liked to have read a bit more anecdotes about his off field antics than all those copy and paste match reports from newspapers. All in all an interesting read though.

THE MAN , THE LEGEND., 17 Jan 2008
where do you start? i met the guy several times,usually in the pub on a saturday lunchtime! he was a very aproachable guy and would have a drink and a chat with you. could you do that with any footballers now ?.a more skilfull and inventive player i have yet to see, and thats saying something. the book will paint a pretty good picture of the man for all you poor unfortunates who never had the chance to see him play.! when i think back to seeing him play it still sends a chill down my spine ! enjoy the read .

Genius, 18 Oct 2007
I have been a Reading supporter since the age of 4, when my Dad used to take me to see every home game from around 1970 through to the day Neil Webb left the club to join Portsmouth for 88,000 pounds. Often I used to think it was punishment for not doing my homework, so low was the standard of many of the games, players and (especially) referees.

The likes of the Wagstaff Brothers, Bobby Hunt, Wayne Wanklyn, Roger Joslyn hardly made it worthwhile getting out of bed for. However Robin Friday was. Signed from (if I remember correctly) non-league Hayes for about 5 grand, he was so far ahead of the rest of the players in the division it wasn't funny. Tall, gangly, no shin-pads, bow legs he didn't look like a footballer but the skill he had would have taken anyone's breath away.

I was hoping someone would have some footage of the goal he got against Tranmere. It was 5-0 (to put the record straight) - I think John Murray got a hat-trick and Friday got 2 in the top of the table clash (we were third and they were fourth); I remember before the game (I was only 10 at the time), talking with my Dad and Uncle about what the score might be ("2-1, 1-0, 3-1") but nothing could prepare us for the game we were about to see.

Reading were awesome. What I remember most about the game (it was an evening match) was the way the people (us included) in the stands got behind the team. The roar of "READING, READING, READING" from EVERYONE in the ground was amazing, especially when we had got used to 4 thousand a game crowds with only the South Bank crew making any organised noise at all.

Now the goal. I remember Friday a long way out getting the ball - I remember him connecting almost with his back to goal, and I remember the ball hitting the back of the net with the goalkeeper nowhere. There was a picture in the Reading Evening Post the following day of Clive Thomas who was reffing the game, his head in his hands, not able to believe what he had just witnessed. I am sure you can still probably find a copy of the picture somewhere in the archives. Thomas said it was the best goal he had ever seen.

I went to see Friday's last game for Reading, away to Oxford. By that time he had agreed terms with Cardiff for something like 33 grand. He was rubbish in that game. I never saw him play for Cardiff so the book helps enormously in this sense as it describes the brilliance he still used to show every week.

Years later after his death I was talking to a guy that used to be in the Drugs Squad. He said he was chasing after some druggie in the Central London one day, finally managing to catch up with him in Trafalgar Square. He spun the druggie round and saw a face he recognised. "Wait a minute, it's Friday isn't it? Robin Friday?" whereupon he took the bag of heroin from Friday's hand, went to the nearest drain and dropped it down between the gaps in the grating. "On your way. That's for the goal you scored against Tranmere", and he let Friday go. Whether it's true or not I don't know but it makes for a good, albeit sad, story.

When I heard he had died alone in some squat of an overdose I was really sad. I was really disapointed to see that the Evening Post only had a small article on the back page about him the day after he died. A disgrace. There should have been a national holiday.

I am glad this book exists, but at the same time saddened that there is no real footage of the man in action. Now there is a camera at every game in the land. SO for those of you that never saw him play, still buy the book because it is really a very good read. And for those that did see him play, then this book will give you goosebumps as you cast your minds back 30 years and realise how lucky you were.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

I love the read about Liverpool, 04 Apr 2008
Hard hitting straight to the point and names all the big names, fantastic reading Graham well done again. If you like reading books set in Liverpool try Soft Target by Conrad Jones its a cracker. Both superb !!

Gripping - gets you by the balls!, 13 Feb 2008
It could have been easy to dislike this book: written by a seasoned tabloid crime hack, it dishes the dirt on how gangsters have tried to muscle in on football - and frequently succeeded. The writer is an unashamed cynic about his own profession, making no apologies for the behaviour of 'Her Majesty's Press' (a phrase nicked, I believe, from the brilliant comedy Hot Metal), but he tells it like it is and, moreover, delivers each fascinating story with a grim humour and an elegant turn of phrase. More than that, he names names - big ones too! Rooney, Gerrard, Owen (oh yes!)...they're all there, Liverpool clearly being the author's area of expertise.

Recently, a proposed book dealing with the seamier side of Wayne Rooney's story, Roo Unzipped, was strangled at birth through fear of legal action, but there is plenty here to reveal the dark side behind the boy wonder (little of it of his own doing, to be fair...but the people who surround him are a different matter).

I guess football and crime are both 'bloke' preoccupations, so female readers might get a little bored, but I for one found it (to coin a literary word that sounds as though it ought to have been a football word) 'unputdownable'.



A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star, 20 Apr 2008
A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star from very humble and difficult beginnings. I am sure the vast majority of people who have read this will be pulling for Oher to make it to the big stage. The development and changes in the guys life are brought out well by Michael Lewis here, this is a very fine book, he clearly has a knack for writing about sports what with this and Moneyball. I look forward to his next book on football, although I fear we may have to wait longer than I would really like.

As a footnote - Oher declared for the 2008 NFL draft, then changed his mind, giving him another season in college.

Brilliant, 13 Jan 2008
I loved this book. It details Oher's life so far, how he came to be where he is, expalins how the left tackle position has evolved into the one it is now and the importance it carries, and the various colleges that recruited Oher.

Great book, recommend to any american football fan.

Grips like a giant left tackle and won't let go!, 21 Aug 2007
I've been a fan of Michael Lewis since he wrote his first book 'Liar's Poker'. I loved that book, and his ability to make a strange world seem familiar (in that case the world of Wall Street). Having read and enjoyed Moneyball, I got this as a gift from my wish list.

Once I'd read the first chapter where he describes the sudden, shocking demise of a quarterback, I was hooked, even though I have no real clue about how American football actually works. When I occasionally watch the Super Bowl, I spend most of the time saying things like 'where's the ball', 'why has that guy vanished' etc.

Lewis interleaves the story of how quarterbacks and by extension left tackles became much more valuable (in game and money terms), as he did in MoneyBall with the inspirational story of Michael Oher a dirt poor black guy who lucks into a rich white school because of his size and athletic ability.

Lewis has become expert at combining analysis of markets in the unlikeliest places with a more human story. Just occasionally it gets a bit too hokey, but otherwise it's compulsive. Deserves a wider readership than it'll get in the UK.


A Sporting Pygmalion, 20 Mar 2007
Three decades on from the first regular screening of the NFL on Channel 4, there is clearly a sizeable audience for American football in the UK, as evidenced by the overwhelming interest in the Giants-Dolphins regular season game due to be played at Wembley in October 2007. The people who expressed an interest in that game, amongst others, would do well to read this book, but then even non-aficionados will find plenty to interest them, without prior knowledge of the game.

Nominally about the development of the left tackle position, and principally about one player in that position, it transpires to be about much more.

Michael Oher, the real-life protagonist, spent the first sixteen years of his life in the ghetto of West Memphis, Tennessee. Part of the book is dedicated to relating his extraordinary path from those early deprivations, the knife edge he treads between being sucked into the world of drugs and his actual path of salvation through his apparently innate size, strength, speed and sporting aptitude which ultimately furnish him with his ticket out.

Delivered up to a private Christian school by de facto guardian Big Tony, as an indirect result of Tony's mom's deathbed wish, the school's head and sports coaches immediately see an opportunity to use Big Mike's gifts. Although there is some definite self-interest involved, it is of the enlightened variety, and it is to the school's credit that it gives him the opportunities it does, stressing the boy's education as a priority.

Despite Michael's quite shocking backstory, it results at times in some amusing episodes. The fluid state of Michael's identity (too complex to explain here) compels his new foster mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, to engage in a day of to and fro intrigue in order to procure sufficient documentation for him to obtain a driver's licence. Michael and Big Tony's son Steven, also enrolled at the school, are incredulous at the casual attitude of white folks to their possessions - they leave them lying around the school as if nobody is going to steal them! And what's more, for a Christian school, isn't it odd that, unlike at public school, there are no free meals? (For some time, Michael's straitened circumstances are completely unknown to the school.)

But the backstory also provides a fascinating exposé of the scandalous lack of a social safety net for Michael and people like him in the world's number one economy.

A part of the book's strength is that Michael Lewis plays with Oher's story's chronology. This achieves dramatic effect as we are able to share Oher's benefactors' shock at the discovery of some of its details.

The other thing Lewis does well is to intersperse the left tackle development story, also shaken up chronologically, with Michael Oher's, from Bill Walsh's (qualified) invention of the West Coast Offense (pardon spelling here), the role of the linebacker (notably Lawrence Taylor) in suppressing it, and the consequent need to protect the quarterback (exemplified in blood-curdling fashion by the book's opening sequence in which LT is involved in the termination of Joe Theismann's career, an event I, and probably many of my fellow UK-based football fans, recall with a shiver).

The book ultimately operates on several levels: as a biography, as a book about football, and as a social documentary. Despite my personal misgivings about faith schools, the one that takes Michael in impresses with its philanthropy. My one caveat is the revelation at the end of the book that Lewis and Sean Tuohy, ultimately Oher's adoptive father, are old college friends, disqualifying the author from role of neutral bystander.

But it's undoubtedly entertaining and well-written, and Lewis has a fine sense of humour - his comment about Sean Tuohy, that he would know a poem being "as likely as Sylvia Plath hitting a jump shot at the buzzer", had me laughing out loud (on a plane). However, he misses the opportunity to capitalise fully on a mention of Pygmalion on the same page. But that just gives me the opportunity to draw the comparison between the stories of Michael Oher and Eliza Doolittle.

The book ends before Michael's NFL career begins to take shape. Is that too soon? Well, I guess it gives Lewis a chance for Blind Side 2, but in truth the Pygmalion story ended when Michael went off to college. Job done. If you want to know more you can go to First Down, Sports Illustrated or NFL.com. Lewis has told, and told well, the story those guys won't be covering.




A Riveting Story of Resurrection, 29 Jan 2007
Imagine that you are a large (over 300 pounds) African-American teenager who lives in the worst part of Memphis. You never knew your father (and he will soon be murdered). Your mother is addicted to drugs and doesn't do much to provide for you. You have no bed. You don't know where your next meal is coming from. You haven't gone to enough school to know how to do much of anything.

What do you want out of life? You want to be Michael Jordan . . . just like millions of other teenagers. You've spent endless hours on the playgrounds practicing as a shooting guard.

What will you become in a handful of years? One of the most heavily recruited college football players in the United States and a top professional prospect who people are watching as you learn how to be a left tackle.

The story of how Michael Oher made this transition is one of the most amazing, moving, and fascinating real-life stories it has ever been my pleasure to read. Whether or not you like football, you'll find this book to be impossible to put down.

Michael Lewis does a remarkable job in telling the story. Mr. Lewis was fortunate to have a long-term friendship with Sean Tuohy, one of the many people who helped Michael Oher fulfill his potential. As a result, Mr. Lewis enjoyed amazing access to the people involved in Michael's life . . . and eventually got some help from Michael as well.

The Blind Side is four stories in one:

1. Michael's life before he met the Tuohy family.
2. Michael's progress from being ignorant to becoming a highly recruited college football prospect.
3. Michael's adjustment to college.
4. The changes in American professional football that created an irresistible demand for someone with Michael's physical capabilities.

Each of these stories would make a fine book. To be able to pursue all four stories at the same time is an unexpected delight.

But the story's not over. Michael is now a sophomore at Ole Miss. Will he make it to the NFL? You can follow his career and find out. Perhaps other amazing chapters lie ahead. Who knows?

There's another story this book doesn't tell, but implies: The world is full of talented youth who could make great contributions . . . but they need a lot of help from people who care and are determined to help the youth succeed. For ever Michael Oher, there must be millions who languish. How can we change that? You'll be haunted by that question after you read this book.

If you are looking for keen insights into American football that you don't already have, you'll probably be disappointed. Any fan of professional football knows that a team's potential chances of success are only as good as the blocking of the offensive line. Clearly, the left tackle is the best insurance against a maimed right-handed quarterback, something no fan wants. You've probably noticed that the top left tackles get paid almost as much as quarterbacks. The history of how the Bill Walsh-type passing offenses have become so important is something you've lived through.

The professional football material will, however, be helpful to those who don't know football and want to appreciate why people have been going gaga over Michael Oher.

How can you help an at-risk youth today?

Doubt if Robin Friday was the greatest but, 15 Feb 2008
still not a bad way to pass an evening. Obviously a talented bloke but dispersing the book with clippings of Best and Bowles to try and elevate him into their company is a cheap trick. Surely the whole argument is undermined in the first chapter when his twin brother gets picked on teams and he can't. Maybe the twin was the greatest? What I did enjoy about this book was the trip back to when footballers were ordinary blokes and lived in the community, when football matches still had a raw edge to them on and off the pitch and when getting up off your arse and going to the game was the only way to see it.

Over rated, 03 Feb 2008
I was really looking forward to this book with the full story of the enigmatic Friday. I found it to be very disappointing. Its written in a diary style that doesnt work and features lots of comments and quotes that add nothing to the general story. Its riddled with factual errors - scores, fixtures and results - that suggests a lack of proper research.

The worst part for me was Fridays life after he finished playing football. In a page and a half you are taken from 1977 to his untimely death in 1990. What went on his life in this period, the reader can only guess at. If he was as good a player as is suggested, then he surely deserves a better biography than this.

-, 19 Jan 2008
Good football book to read, although it starts rather slow. Personally I would have liked to have read a bit more anecdotes about his off field antics than all those copy and paste match reports from newspapers. All in all an interesting read though.

THE MAN , THE LEGEND., 17 Jan 2008
where do you start? i met the guy several times,usually in the pub on a saturday lunchtime! he was a very aproachable guy and would have a drink and a chat with you. could you do that with any footballers now ?.a more skilfull and inventive player i have yet to see, and thats saying something. the book will paint a pretty good picture of the man for all you poor unfortunates who never had the chance to see him play.! when i think back to seeing him play it still sends a chill down my spine ! enjoy the read .

Genius, 18 Oct 2007
I have been a Reading supporter since the age of 4, when my Dad used to take me to see every home game from around 1970 through to the day Neil Webb left the club to join Portsmouth for 88,000 pounds. Often I used to think it was punishment for not doing my homework, so low was the standard of many of the games, players and (especially) referees.

The likes of the Wagstaff Brothers, Bobby Hunt, Wayne Wanklyn, Roger Joslyn hardly made it worthwhile getting out of bed for. However Robin Friday was. Signed from (if I remember correctly) non-league Hayes for about 5 grand, he was so far ahead of the rest of the players in the division it wasn't funny. Tall, gangly, no shin-pads, bow legs he didn't look like a footballer but the skill he had would have taken anyone's breath away.

I was hoping someone would have some footage of the goal he got against Tranmere. It was 5-0 (to put the record straight) - I think John Murray got a hat-trick and Friday got 2 in the top of the table clash (we were third and they were fourth); I remember before the game (I was only 10 at the time), talking with my Dad and Uncle about what the score might be ("2-1, 1-0, 3-1") but nothing could prepare us for the game we were about to see.

Reading were awesome. What I remember most about the game (it was an evening match) was the way the people (us included) in the stands got behind the team. The roar of "READING, READING, READING" from EVERYONE in the ground was amazing, especially when we had got used to 4 thousand a game crowds with only the South Bank crew making any organised noise at all.

Now the goal. I remember Friday a long way out getting the ball - I remember him connecting almost with his back to goal, and I remember the ball hitting the back of the net with the goalkeeper nowhere. There was a picture in the Reading Evening Post the following day of Clive Thomas who was reffing the game, his head in his hands, not able to believe what he had just witnessed. I am sure you can still probably find a copy of the picture somewhere in the archives. Thomas said it was the best goal he had ever seen.

I went to see Friday's last game for Reading, away to Oxford. By that time he had agreed terms with Cardiff for something like 33 grand. He was rubbish in that game. I never saw him play for Cardiff so the book helps enormously in this sense as it describes the brilliance he still used to show every week.

Years later after his death I was talking to a guy that used to be in the Drugs Squad. He said he was chasing after some druggie in the Central London one day, finally managing to catch up with him in Trafalgar Square. He spun the druggie round and saw a face he recognised. "Wait a minute, it's Friday isn't it? Robin Friday?" whereupon he took the bag of heroin from Friday's hand, went to the nearest drain and dropped it down between the gaps in the grating. "On your way. That's for the goal you scored against Tranmere", and he let Friday go. Whether it's true or not I don't know but it makes for a good, albeit sad, story.

When I heard he had died alone in some squat of an overdose I was really sad. I was really disapointed to see that the Evening Post only had a small article on the back page about him the day after he died. A disgrace. There should have been a national holiday.

I am glad this book exists, but at the same time saddened that there is no real footage of the man in action. Now there is a camera at every game in the land. SO for those of you that never saw him play, still buy the book because it is really a very good read. And for those that did see him play, then this book will give you goosebumps as you cast your minds back 30 years and realise how lucky you were.

FOOTBALL MAGIC!!!, 30 Sep 2008
This book is a must read for both parents and players attempting to improve on your teaching and learning ability.

The book goes through a STEP BY STEP guide on how to improve ball skills and teaches any youngster or oldie the correct way to improve and enhance your chances of playing in a high standard.

IT REALLY WORKS!!!

Rubbish Football Skills, 19 Sep 2008
Football Skills an unessential book all it tells you is how to play football I absolutely hated it and I only read 1 page. What you need to play football.You only read this book if you like football. Every football fan knows how to play football and what you need to play football.

Only read this book if you like football.

I recommend this book for no one .

Does what it says on the tin !, 13 Nov 2007
Superb. As a dad who wanted to improve his son's footballing abilities this very simply, easy to read book proved ideal. Full of good advice and picture demonstrations I would totally recommend it.

Probably aimed at helping 4-7 age range it concentrates on the child's all round game from shooting, passing to heading.

An ideal first purchase for Dad's (and Mum's) enjoy spending an hour or so at the local park with their budding superstar's.

Fabulous Read!!, 03 Jun 2008
I think all the other reviews say enough so I'll try to keep this short and simple. Even speaking from the perspective of a baseball illiterate limey, I must say that I found this book very very interesting indeed.... and most enjoyable. This was the first book of Michael Lewis' that I read and I have subsequently went on to read a number (not all) of his other works..... all of which have been equally as good. If you are interested in sports and/or the area athlete/player recruitment then this book will more than pique your interest..... some of the best money I have ever invested!!!

Major League Analysis, 04 Apr 2008
Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, takes as its central focus the exploits of the Oakland A's and their svengali general manager Billy Beane. Ignoring conventional baseball wisdom, he and Paul DePodesta have developed a whole new strategy, using the groundbreaking work of the likes of Bill James, for competing in the big leagues on a fraction of the budget of teams like the New York Yankees.

In essence this very readable book can be divided into two distinct styles, the personal and the scientific. When Lewis addresses the history and use of baseball theory, that is to say statistical analysis in the judging of players and games, he creates a sense of an almost academic approach to a national passtime. While this could be utterly confusing to a non baseball fan, to anyone with an interest in the game his discussions come as something of a revelation and can only serve as a starting point to further reading.

But where this book really comes into its own is in the personal stories and psychology of Billy Beane and his team. While it is made abundantly clear that Beane is no ordinary GM, the insight this book provides into the workings of a front office and its relationship with both the playing staff and management is utterly compelling.

All in all, for a baseball fan this is an absolute must read and for everyone else, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

... you'd really want to love baseball, 14 Nov 2007
While the book has interesting insights into pro sport, it's very American. I found it a struggle.

Not just for baseball fans, 30 Aug 2007
The book is centred around the Oakland A's baseball team, but as someone who had only ever seen one baseball game in his life, it was still a fascinating book. The narrative is about how the team can consistently outperform other teams which have more funds to pay for players etc.. Michael Lewis does not labour the analogy of their approach to other fields, and its left to the reader to think how the same ideas may be applied elsewhere. Even if you have never seen a baseball game you would be able to enjoy this book.

Superb book (better if you understand baseball however), 13 May 2007
This was a great read; fascinating and thought provoking about professional baseball. It's great to see how a team has overcome a lack of financial clout to be able to still compete and to use educated statisticians rather than ex-players who go on hunches and their experience (that they believe to be a global one).

If you don't understand the game however, some of it may pass you by!

Very recommended.

I love the read about Liverpool, 04 Apr 2008
Hard hitting straight to the point and names all the big names, fantastic reading Graham well done again. If you like reading books set in Liverpool try Soft Target by Conrad Jones its a cracker. Both superb !!

Gripping - gets you by the balls!, 13 Feb 2008
It could have been easy to dislike this book: written by a seasoned tabloid crime hack, it dishes the dirt on how gangsters have tried to muscle in on football - and frequently succeeded. The writer is an unashamed cynic about his own profession, making no apologies for the behaviour of 'Her Majesty's Press' (a phrase nicked, I believe, from the brilliant comedy Hot Metal), but he tells it like it is and, moreover, delivers each fascinating story with a grim humour and an elegant turn of phrase. More than that, he names names - big ones too! Rooney, Gerrard, Owen (oh yes!)...they're all there, Liverpool clearly being the author's area of expertise.

Recently, a proposed book dealing with the seamier side of Wayne Rooney's story, Roo Unzipped, was strangled at birth through fear of legal action, but there is plenty here to reveal the dark side behind the boy wonder (little of it of his own doing, to be fair...but the people who surround him are a different matter).

I guess football and crime are both 'bloke' preoccupations, so female readers might get a little bored, but I for one found it (to coin a literary word that sounds as though it ought to have been a football word) 'unputdownable'.



A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star, 20 Apr 2008
A fascinating and moving insight into the growth of a potential NFL star from very humble and difficult beginnings. I am sure the vast majority of people who have read this will be pulling for Oher to make it to the big stage. The development and changes in the guys life are brought out well by Michael Lewis here, this is a very fine book, he clearly has a knack for writing about sports what with this and Moneyball. I look forward to his next book on football, although I fear we may have to wait longer than I would really like.

As a footnote - Oher declared for the 2008 NFL draft, then changed his mind, giving him another season in college.

Brilliant, 13 Jan 2008
I loved this book. It details Oher's life so far, how he came to be where he is, expalins how the left tackle position has evolved into the one it is now and the importance it carries, and the various colleges that recruited Oher.

Great book, recommend to any american football fan.

Grips like a giant left tackle and won't let go!, 21 Aug 2007
I've been a fan of Michael Lewis since he wrote his first book 'Liar's Poker'. I loved that book, and his ability to make a strange world seem familiar (in that case the world of Wall Street). Having read and enjoyed Moneyball, I got this as a gift from my wish list.

Once I'd read the first chapter where he describes the sudden, shocking demise of a quarterback, I was hooked, even though I have no real clue about how American football actually works. When I occasionally watch the Super Bowl, I spend most of the time saying things like 'where's the ball', 'why has that guy vanished' etc.

Lewis interleaves the story of how quarterbacks and by extension left tackles became much more valuable (in game and money terms), as he did in MoneyBall with the inspirational story of Michael Oher a dirt poor black guy who lucks into a rich white school because of his size and athletic ability.

Lewis has become expert at combining analysis of markets in the unlikeliest places with a more human story. Just occasionally it gets a bit too hokey, but otherwise it's compulsive. Deserves a wider readership than it'll get in the UK.


A Sporting Pygmalion, 20 Mar 2007
Three decades on from the first regular screening of the NFL on Channel 4, there is clearly a sizeable audience for American football in the UK, as evidenced by the overwhelming interest in the Giants-Dolphins regular season game due to be played at Wembley in October 2007. The people who expressed an interest in that game, amongst others, would do well to read this book, but then even non-aficionados will find plenty to interest them, without prior knowledge of the game.

Nominally about the development of the left tackle position, and principally about one player in that position, it transpires to be about much more.

Michael Oher, the real-life protagonist, spent the first sixteen years of his life in the ghetto of West Memphis, Tennessee. Part of the book is dedicated to relating his extraordinary path from those early deprivations, the knife edge he treads between being sucked into the world of drugs and his actual path of salvation through his apparently innate size, strength, speed and sporting aptitude which ultimately furnish him with his ticket out.

Delivered up to a private Christian school by de facto guardian Big Tony, as an indirect result of Tony's mom's deathbed wish, the school's head and sports coaches immediately see an opportunity to use Big Mike's gifts. Although there is some definite self-interest involved, it is of the enlightened variety, and it is to the school's credit that it gives him the opportunities it does, stressing the boy's education as a priority.

Despite Michael's quite shocking backstory, it results at times in some amusing episodes. The fluid state of Michael's identity (too complex to explain here) compels his new foster mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, to engage in a day of to and fro intrigue in order to procure sufficient documentation for him to obtain a driver's licence. Michael and Big Tony's son Steven, also enrolled at the school, are incredulous at the casual attitude of white folks to their possessions - they leave them lying around the school as if nobody is going to steal them! And what's more, for a Christian school, isn't it odd that, unlike at public school, there are no free meals? (For some time, Michael's straitened circumstances are completely unknown to the school.)

But the backstory also provides a fascinating exposé of the scandalous lack of a social safety net for Michael and people like him in the world's number one economy.

A part of the book's strength is that Michael Lewis plays with Oher's story's chronology. This achieves dramatic effect as we are able to share Oher's benefactors' shock at the discovery of some of its details.

The other thing Lewis does well is to intersperse the left tackle development story, also shaken up chronologically, with Michael Oher's, from Bill Walsh's (qualified) invention of the West Coast Offense (pardon spelling here), the role of the linebacker (notably Lawrence Taylor) in suppressing it, and the consequent need to protect the quarterback (exemplified in blood-curdling fashion by the book's opening sequence in which LT is involved in the termination of Joe Theismann's career, an event I, and probably many of my fellow UK-based football fans, recall with a shiver).

The book ultimately operates on several levels: as a biography, as a book about football, and as a social documentary. Despite my personal misgivings about faith schools, the one that takes Michael in impresses with its philanthropy. My one caveat is the revelation at the end of the book that Lewis and Sean Tuohy, ultimately Oher's adoptive father, are old college friends, disqualifying the author from role of neutral bystander.

But it's undoubtedly entertaining and well-written, and Lewis has a fine sense of humour - his comment about Sean Tuohy, that he would know a poem being "as likely as Sylvia Plath hitting a jump shot at the buzzer", had me laughing out loud (on a plane). However, he misses the opportunity to capitalise fully on a mention of Pygmalion on the same page. But that just gives me the opportunity to draw the comparison between the stories of Michael Oher and Eliza Doolittle.

The book ends before Michael's NFL career begins to take shape. Is that too soon? Well, I guess it gives Lewis a chance for Blind Side 2, but in truth the Pygmalion story ended when Michael went off to college. Job done. If you want to know more you can go to First Down, Sports Illustrated or NFL.com. Lewis has told, and told well, the story those guys won't be covering.




A Riveting Story of Resurrection, 29 Jan 2007
Imagine that you are a large (over 300 pounds) African-American teenager who lives in the worst part of Memphis. You never knew your father (and he will soon be murdered). Your mother is addicted to drugs and doesn't do much to provide for you. You have no bed. You don't know where your next meal is coming from. You haven't gone to enough school to know how to do much of anything.

What do you want out of life? You want to be Michael Jordan . . . just like millions of other teenagers. You've spent endless hours on the playgrounds practicing as a shooting guard.

What will you become in a handful of years? One of the most heavily recruited college football players in the United States and a top professional prospect who people are watching as you learn how to be a left tackle.

The story of how Michael Oher made this transition is one of the most amazing, moving, and fascinating real-life stories it has ever been my pleasure to read. Whether or not you like football, you'll find this book to be impossible to put down.

Michael Lewis does a remarkable job in telling the story. Mr. Lewis was fortunate to have a long-term friendship with Sean Tuohy, one of the many people who helped Michael Oher fulfill his potential. As a result, Mr. Lewis enjoyed amazing access to the people involved in Michael's life . . . and eventually got some help from Michael as well.

The Blind Side is four stories in one:

1. Michael's life before he met the Tuohy family.
2. Michael's progress from being ignorant to becoming a highly recruited college football prospect.
3. Michael's adjustment to college.
4. The changes in American professional football that created an irresistible demand for someone with Michael's physical capabilities.

Each of these stories would make a fine book. To be able to pursue all four stories at the same time is an unexpected delight.

But the story's not over. Michael is now a sophomore at Ole Miss. Will he make it to the NFL? You can follow his career and find out. Perhaps other amazing chapters lie ahead. Who knows?

There's another story this book doesn't tell, but implies: The world is full of talented youth who could make great contributions . . . but they need a lot of help from people who care and are determined to help the youth succeed. For ever Michael Oher, there must be millions who languish. How can we change that? You'll be haunted by that question after you read this book.

If you are looking for keen insights into American football that you don't already have, you'll probably be disappointed. Any fan of professional football knows that a team's potential chances of success are only as good as the blocking of the offensive line. Clearly, the left tackle is the best insurance against a maimed right-handed quarterback, something no fan wants. You've probably noticed that the top left tackles get paid almost as much as quarterbacks. The history of how the Bill Walsh-type passing offenses have become so important is something you've lived through.

The professional football material will, however, be helpful to those who don't know football and want to appreciate why people have been going gaga over Michael Oher.

How can you help an at-risk youth today?

Doubt if Robin Friday was the greatest but, 15 Feb 2008
still not a bad way to pass an evening. Obviously a talented bloke but dispersing the book with clippings of Best and Bowles to try and elevate him into their company is a cheap trick. Surely the whole argument is undermined in the first chapter when his twin brother gets picked on teams and he can't. Maybe the twin was the greatest? What I did enjoy about this book was the trip back to when footballers were ordinary blokes and lived in the community, when football matches still had a raw edge to them on and off the pitch and when getting up off your arse and going to the game was the only way to see it.

Over rated, 03 Feb 2008
I was really looking forward to this book with the full story of the enigmatic Friday. I found it to be very disappointing. Its written in a diary style that doesnt work and features lots of comments and quotes that add nothing to the general story. Its riddled with factual errors - scores, fixtures and results - that suggests a lack of proper research.

The worst part for me was Fridays life after he finished playing football. In a page and a half you are taken from 1977 to his untimely death in 1990. What went on his life in this period, the reader can only guess at. If he was as good a player as is suggested, then he surely deserves a better biography than this.

-, 19 Jan 2008
Good football book to read, although it starts rather slow. Personally I would have liked to have read a bit more anecdotes about his off field antics than all those copy and paste match reports from newspapers. All in all an interesting read though.

THE MAN , THE LEGEND., 17 Jan 2008
where do you start? i met the guy several times,usually in the pub on a saturday lunchtime! he was a very aproachable guy and would have a drink and a chat with you. could you do that with any footballers now ?.a more skilfull and inventive player i have yet to see, and thats saying something. the book will paint a pretty good picture of the man for all you poor unfortunates who never had the chance to see him play.! when i think back to seeing him play it still sends a chill down my spine ! enjoy the read .

Genius, 18 Oct 2007
I have been a Reading supporter since the age of 4, when my Dad used to take me to see every home game from around 1970 through to the day Neil Webb left the club to join Portsmouth for 88,000 pounds. Often I used to think it was punishment for not doing my homework, so low was the standard of many of the games, players and (especially) referees.

The likes of the Wagstaff Brothers, Bobby Hunt, Wayne Wanklyn, Roger Joslyn hardly made it worthwhile getting out of bed for. However Robin Friday was. Signed from (if I remember correctly) non-league Hayes for about 5 grand, he was so far ahead of the rest of the players in the division it wasn't funny. Tall, gangly, no shin-pads, bow legs he didn't look like a footballer but the skill he had would have taken anyone's breath away.

I was hoping someone would have some footage of the goal he got against Tranmere. It was 5-0 (to put the record straight) - I think John Murray got a hat-trick and Friday got 2 in the top of the table clash (we were third and they were fourth); I remember before the game (I was only 10 at the time), talking with my Dad and Uncle about what the score might be ("2-1, 1-0, 3-1") but nothing could prepare us for the game we were about to see.

Reading were awesome. What I remember most about the game (it was an evening match) was the way the people (us included) in the stands got behind the team. The roar of "READING, READING, READING" from EVERYONE in the ground was amazing, especially when we had got used to 4 thousand a game crowds with only the South Bank crew making any organised noise at all.

Now the goal. I remember Friday a long way out getting the ball - I remember him connecting almost with his back to goal, and I remember the ball hitting the back of the net with the goalkeeper nowhere. There was a picture in the Reading Evening Post the following day of Clive Thomas who was reffing the game, his head in his hands, not able to believe what he had just witnessed. I am sure you can still probably find a copy of the picture somewhere in the archives. Thomas said it was the best goal he had ever seen.

I went to see Friday's last game for Reading, away to Oxford. By that time he had agreed terms with Cardiff for something like 33 grand. He was rubbish in that game. I never saw him play for Cardiff so the book helps enormously in this sense as it describes the brilliance he still used to show every week.

Years later after his death I was talking to a guy that used to be in the Drugs Squad. He said he was chasing after some druggie in the Central London one day, finally managing to catch up with him in Trafalgar Square. He spun the druggie round and saw a face he recognised. "Wait a minute, it's Friday isn't it? Robin Friday?" whereupon he took the bag of heroin from Friday's hand, went to the nearest drain and dropped it down between the gaps in the grating. "On your way. That's for the goal you scored against Tranmere", and he let Friday go. Whether it's true or not I don't know but it makes for a good, albeit sad, story.

When I heard he had died alone in some squat of an overdose I was really sad. I was really disapointed to see that the Evening Post only had a small article on the back page about him the day after he died. A disgrace. There should have been a national holiday.

I am glad this book exists, but at the same time saddened that there is no real footage of the man in action. Now there is a camera at every game in the land. SO for those of you that never saw him play, still buy the book because it is really a very good read. And for those that did see him play, then this book will give you goosebumps as you cast your minds back 30 years and realise how lucky you were.

FOOTBALL MAGIC!!!, 30 Sep 2008
This book is a must read for both parents and players attempting to improve on your teaching and learning ability.

The book goes through a STEP BY STEP guide on how to improve ball skills and teaches any youngster or oldie the correct way to improve and enhance your chances of playing in a high standard.

IT REALLY WORKS!!!

Rubbish Football Skills, 19 Sep 2008
Football Skills an unessential book all it tells you is how to play football I absolutely hated it and I only read 1 page. What you need to play football.You only read this book if you like football. Every football fan knows how to play football and what you need to play football.

Only read this book if you like football.

I recommend this book for no one .

Does what it says on the tin !, 13 Nov 2007
Superb. As a dad who wanted to improve his son's footballing abilities this very simply, easy to read book proved ideal. Full of good advice and picture demonstrations I would totally recommend it.

Probably aimed at helping 4-7 age range it concentrates on the child's all round game from shooting, passing to heading.

An ideal first purchase for Dad's (and Mum's) enjoy spending an hour or so at the local park with their budding superstar's.






Football For Dummies, 27 Apr 2005
This is a great book for people who want to learn more about football.

Though I already knew a considerable ammount about the game this book is an excellent point of reference and is great for explaining football to friends and relatives who aren't so knowlegable. And it was full of little humourous anecdotes and facts about the sport. The author has a pretty entertaining take on things too, which makes it a good choice especially for those new to football.

I'd recomment it to anyone interested in the sport, not just dummmies.

FOOTBALL FOR DUMMIES, 26 Feb 2005
Very entertaining and interesting - like a load of people in UK I watch NFL and have a basic grasp of the idea and rules of the game - I bought this book to enjoy watching more - it is perfect for this - this book takes you from the basics up to advanced strategies and plays without ever feeling a chore. This is the only book I've ever felt the need to recommend. Very, very good.

Very Helpful book, 08 Jan 2005
I have just recently taken an interest in American Football. I found the game enjoyable but from time to time something would happen on the field and I didn't understand the reason behind the decision. I read the reviews for this book on Amazon.com. I have to say that this really is a great place to start for people that don't understand the rules and regulations behind the game. I now find myself watching and anticipating plays as the players line up. This book looks in detail at what each player is meant to be doing, and when.
This book teaches the basics of the game without being patronising, it is a fantastic book that I am so glad I bought.

This Book is the best guide to the nfl., 20 Feb 1999
This book was a very good one. It had everything in it. If you wanted to find a bit on information fast, this is a book where you can do it.

This Book is the best guide to the nfl., 20 Feb 1999
This book was a very good one. It had everything in it. If you wanted to find a bit on information fast, this is a book where you can do it.