Customer Reviews

Not Till the Fat Lady Sings: The Most Dramatic Sports Finishes of All Time

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Some reviews complained about the DVD, but I found it to be the best thing
of all. As the book states, some of the sports events in the text have
similar endings, for example a homer in the bottom of the 9th, or a shot at
the buzzer. It would get repetitious and monotonous to see that time after
time on a video program. In the book, however, some games might have similar
circumstances in the end, but they are made incredibly interesting with
commentary, stats and history. And some endings were bizarre, like when the
band came on the field in the Cal-Stanford game, or a fist fight between
some autoracers. I thought the producer of the DVD picked a great,
well-rounded selection of games, some bizarre, some the classic last minute
scoring, some slow, but exciting comebacks. As whole there was a nice
variety of game endings to round out an good program to view. The book was
excellent too. Great choices, writing and photos, above all, the photos.
It's a nice gift too. I gave a copy to my father, who loved it as much as I
did.

The book is fun, an action packed DVD comes with and there is the greatest sports legend in broadcasting, Jim McKay, who narrates the game endings, which are close calls and suspenseful endings that are unfathomable. Great sports writing and photography. Only criticism is I didn't think Don Larson's Perfect Game in 1956 was exactly a dramatic finish like the rest of the games. The other 49 definitely are.

If you buy this for the book, you'll be okay, although it isn't great. If you wanted a DVD that shows all the plays as they happen (including original play-by-play) you will be greatly disappointed.

The book by itself is standard fare as a list of great finishes. Each "finish" (and some of the "finishes" are more like comebacks than single moments) is given a page or two with pictures (many of which do not actually include the great moment) and basic information. I guess it's nice to have that all in one volume. However, the great disappointment is the DVD. First, of the 50 finishes in the book, only 20 of them make it to the DVD, leaving 60% of the book without any filmclip. Secondly, as much as I like Jim McKay, he does a voice-over on every filmclip, and the original call is left out. This is extremely annoying. One of the great things about any exciting finish is the original call and original excitement, not a "newsreel" account of what happened. The DVD is like watching a poor version of the nightly sports report. Finally, contrary to what other reviews suggest, the DVD gives every ending away simply by the title of the clip, which is identical to the "chapters" of the book. It won't matter if you watch the DVD first when the clip title ("Laettner's Buzzer Beater", "Flutie's Hail Mary", for example) gives away what is going to happen.

All in all, the idea of the book/DVD is far greater than the actual product. If I was clearly informed of what I was buying, I wouldn't have spent the money.

As a sports nut, this made a hit with me. Loved the games they chose and the photos. The DVD was a blast. Action packed, everything you'd want to see: Baseball, football, basketball, golf, hockey, Olympics. Beautiful book!

This book that comes with a DVD is almost as good as being at a actual sporting event, and you get an expert to come along with you to provide commentary (I am referring to Jim McKay, the DVD narrator). There's dozens of the greatest final plays from the most exciting games in sports history both in the book and DVD. The idea here is that you don't know who's going to win, "not till the fat lady sings" (when it's over) These are the games you always hope to see, but almost never do, the real thrillers, the comebacks the close ones. Many sports are covered, not just the "big three"--baseball, football and basketball. There is golf, hockey, soccer, boxing, NASCAR, horse racing, Olympics. The pages are big and colorful with marvelous photography and statistics. I wish there had been some figure skating and track and field. One other criticism is there aren't too many women's sports, but the excitment, the sports writing and the just great photos made up for what it lacked. You'll be tired after you watch the DVD, which really got my adrenaline going.

Unfortunately, I didn't. I picked it up at a Borders, and I thought it would be a great addition to "And The Fans Roared" & "And The Crowd Goes Wild". As others have pointed out, the DVD is a HUGE dissapointment. Only 20 of the 50 moments are on there, and it is all voiced over. If you listen closely on the basketball clips, not only do they have fake crowd noise, but they have the sound effect of basketball shoes squeeking on the floor, even when they show a clip of a timeout!

So if you are like me and others, and are looking to buy this for the DVD, beware!

My husband got this book mostly for the DVD. Like the other reviewer, he thought he would be getting all 50 great sports moments on the DVD. Instead, there are only 20. And if that's not bad enough, none of the 20 clips have the original play-by-play call or the roar of the crowd in the background. Instead, you get Jim McKay calmly narrating over the film clip. This TOTALLY misses the excitement and drama of these classic sports moments. It's really not worth watching. Very disappointing.
The book seems to be pretty good so if that's your reason for buying, no problem.

Not too many sports book support a theme. This one is about the greatest finishes, which I've never seen in book form. There are 50 games and most sports are represented, even women's soccer and the Women's US open when Brandy Chastain pulled off her jersey in front of the cameras in a celebratory jester. The book ranks the best final moments 1-50, according to a sportswriters poll. The writing is reasonably good, in particular the interesting sidebars, a very nice touch to the inspirational stories of men and women who would not accept defeat, right down to the final buzzer. The photos, however, far overshadow the text. Most of them are Associated Press sports photographs, which are just outstanding. To see Yogi Berra jump on Don Larsen, after his no hitter in 1956, or to witness the accolade of the US Hockety team when they beat Russia in 1980...that's what the thrill of victory is all about and this book pulls it off. The DVD is narrated by Jim McKay, who in his senior years, is as sharp as ever. He recounts some of the greatest, game-winning plays that defied the odds. Overall, the book was excellent and so was the DVD. It's a lot for the money too, a beautiful over-sized book and a DVD, which both really work together to tell the whole story. Hope the author will do more like this. It's a great way to read and actually witness sports history.

This book bought back some memories of great games, but I also learned about some others I didn't know about like the recent 2003 Fiesta Bowl (amazing finish) and the 1950 U.S. Open, which was inspirational. The DVD is what I really liked. There are the best finishes, many with the original narrations I've never heard before. It was fabulous to hear Jim McKay recount the game endings, many of which had me on the edge of my chair the whole time. You just don't know who's going to triumph. I was glad the script writers of the DVD didn't give away the endings. I recommend playing the DVD first, since the book DOES tell you who wins and looses, but when watching the DVD, the excitement of not knowing the outcome is intact. The whole package, DVD and book, was a real treat. I'll most likely give it as gifts, since it's so unique and the book is gorgeous, a real show piece with outstanding sports photography and insightful side notes, score boxes, some trivia and lots of information I didn't know about some of the greats in sports.