Customer Reviews

On the Road: And Inside View of Life with and NHL Team

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

My title says it all. There were so many spelling mistakes and/or typos (including the one above in the bio of Tie Domi) that I gave up half way through the book. If the author and/or the publisher couldn't bother to produce a quality book I couldn't be bothered finishing it.

In the rough and tumble world of hockey what Berger produces is a fluff piece. I wanted to know what life was like on the road for an NHL team during a season but all i got from it was Berger's panoramic views from the window seat in the airplane. Who gives a crap what the city skyline was like? Instead of offering us a hard hitting account, he offers us with buddy buddy schmoozing with a couple hockey players and the coach. It was obvious that the players didn't want him around. Hardly ever did Berger give us accounts of him being with the players hangining out after the game or on days off. The closest thing to it was talking with Doug Gilmour on the street but he left in a hurry to go see his momma.(I thought he was supposed to detail the players and the team not his momma.) If i was going to request access to cover a team, i would lay down what i wanted to accomplish for the book and if i couldn't come to an agreement with the team, then i wouldn't produce a fluff piece just to let the world know i was around some hockey players. If Berger's goal was to remain buddies with the players and management, then what he should of done was chronicle another team not so close to his heart.

This is what happens when a radio reporter tries to write. Never have I read a more boring book in my life. Here's some typical portions from the book: "I got up. I ate breakfast and read the newspaper. There was a story about so-and-so. Then I went to the rink for practice. I talked to so-and-so about the game that night. Then I went back to the hotel. I was bored, so I went to a movie. When the movie was over, I went back to my room, grabbed my things and went to the rink." It goes on and on like that. Really, folks, give this subject to someone who can actually WRITE and tells you about all the drinking and #$%@?! that goes with hockey people when they travel AND THEN you will have a book! I covered the NHL for a long time. I know of what I speak.

What a huge disappointment this book was. Berger has such an interesting topic to start off from (travelling with the Leafs) but he ends up babbling about senseless details. Berger subscribes to the idea that he doesn't want to write a kiss-and-tell expose' on the inner workings of a team. Thats fine, but instead we end up with him droning on about how the flight into LAX comes in from the Pacific ocean, and then you can see the coast, and then the smog, and then more lights. And then it was a bumpy landing. And then I put the book down. There's plenty of other good books which actually relate good hockey anectdotes without getting into the players' personal lives. Dick Irvin does a masterful job of telling his stories and Tod Hartje's book is a great inside look at hockey in Russia. Those books have a great flow and excitement to them just like a game. Berger's book is like sitting in the penalty box all night long.

One wonders how Berger defines "life,", since this supposed "inside view of life with an NHL team" in fact consists almost exclusively of descriptions of airports, driving routes, views from hotel windows, and arena color schemes, interspersed with game reports as colorless and cursory as wire-service clippings; he relates almost nothing about what the members of an NHL team do, think, or feel on the road. Berger claims to be respecting the players' privacy, but one soon wonders if the Leafs were even there. Nor is the book improved by being infested with superfluous hyphens and other authorial solecisms, though some of Berger's frequent malapropisms inadvertently provide comic relief from the tedium.

Like a bad referee, Howard Berger makes his personal presence all too focal in what is purported to be an account of life on the road with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is what he had for dinner last night, where he took a walk, or how he almost got into accident on the 401 years ago relevant to the topic? This book could be halved by ommitting Berger's unprofessional ramblings and sophomoric level of editorializing, neither of which have anything to do with NHL hockey. The handful of interesting anecdotes or interviews are scattered between, and his sporadic game descriptions are written as if they were high school book reports. If this book had an editor, that person did a horrific job on spelling, punctuation and grammar as well, sadly reinforcing the stereotype that most sports writers (and hockey fans) are dolts -- thanks a lot, whoever you are. Berger does successfully convey the monontony of endless team travel -- I wouldn't want to be stuck on a plane or bus with him for any length of time. As far as hockey writing goes, Berger should have no fear of ever being mistaken for Ken Dryden, Roy MacGregor or Dick Irvin, Jr. I recommend any book (for adults) by these latter authors for fascinating, thoughtful, intelligent, and humorous chronicles of the real NHL.

Howard Berger wrote a fascinating book here. He's combined hockey with life on the road. Those looking for pure hockey (Dick Irvin books, etc.) might feel disappointed, but they're missing Berger's aim here. Life on the road is indeed drab at times, and more than anything, Berger conveys more humanity than most sports books I've read. I enjoyed it immensely. My biggest criticism is the book would've benefitted from a proofreader.

Ths book is the chroicle of a man living a dream. His ethusiasm for the team, which is what makes him such a great Leafs reporter (for Toronto Sports station The FAN 590) coms ut prectly in the book. I wish that I had a chance to do someting like he does, but reading the book brings it really close, which is great.

How this book got written is BEYOND ME. It was boring. It was written by a radio guy. It gets into the monotonous details of NOTHING. You wanna go on the road with a hockey team? Who cares what the author saw at the movies between the morning skate and game time! What we want to know is what go-go bars they were in and why! We want people. We want dirt. Yeah, that's what happens on the road in pro sports...but he didn't have the guts to break the old credo of "What happens on the road stays on the road." Think of this as a black-lined secret government document for sports.

Perhaps the most incredibly inane hockey book ever written