What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States [Paperback]

Dave Zirin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1931859205 | ISBN-13: 978-1931859202

“Zirin is America’s best sportswriter.”—Lee Ballinger, Rock and Rap Confidential

“Zirin is one of the brightest, most audacious voices I can remember on the sportswriting scene, and my memory goes back to the 1920s.”—Lester Rodney, N.Y. Daily Worker sports editor, 1936–1958

“Zirin has an amazing talent for covering the sports and politics beat. Ranging like a great shortstop, he scoops up everything! He profiles the courageous and inspiring athletes who are standing up for peace and civil liberties in this repressive age. A must read!”—Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

“This is cutting-edge analysis delivered with wit and compassion.”—Mike Marqusee, author, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties

Here Edgeofsports.com sportswriter Dave Zirin shows how sports express the worst, as well as the most creative and exciting, features of American society.

Zirin explores how Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flash-time show exposed more than a breast, why the labor movement has everything to learn from sports unions and why a new generation of athletes is no longer content to “play one game at a time” and is starting to get political.

What’s My Name, Fool! draws on original interviews with former heavyweight champ George Foreman, Olympian and black power saluter John Carlos, NBA basketball player and anti-death penalty activist Etan Thomas, antiwar women’s college hoopster Toni Smith, Olympic Project for Human Rights leader Lee Evans and many others.

Popular sportswriter and commentator Dave Zirin is editor of The Prince George’s Post (Maryland) and writes the weekly column “Edge of Sports” (edgeofsports.com). He is a senior writer at basketball.com. Zirin’s writing has also appeared in The Source, Common Dreams, College Sporting News, CounterPunch, Alternet, International Socialist Review, Black Sports Network, War Times, San Francisco Bay View and Z Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Popular sportswriter and commentator Dave Zirin is editor of The Prince George's Post (Maryland) and writes the weekly column "Edge of Sports" (edgeofsports.com). He is a senior writer at basketball.com. Zirin's writing has also appeared in The Source, Common Dreams, College Sporting News, CounterPunch, Alternet, International Socialist Review, Black Sports Network, War Times, San Francisco Bay View and Z Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Haymarket Books (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931859205
• ISBN-13: 978-1931859202
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Zirin was named one of the "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World" by Utne Magazine. He writes about the politics of sports for the Nation magazine, and is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM satellite's popular weekly show, "Edge of Sports Radio," as well as a columnist for SLAM Magazine, the Progressive, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. Zirin's previous books are What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States; Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports; The Muhammad Ali Handbook; and A People's History of Sports in the United States.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Zinn of Sports July 1, 2005

By Robert Kall VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'm not a sports fan. I have sports ADD, but I love this book. Think of it as a People's history of Sports, like Howard Zinn's book, People's history of America.

Dave Zirin, a sports commentator for Air America Radio, takes you through some of the history of how sports and sports stars have helped change America for the better, about the integration of all-white, racist baseball, about how Mohammed Ali helped move the cause of African Americans forward...

I started browsing this book out of curiosity and discovered it was intensely fascinating and moving, that at times, it touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes.

I've become a Dave Zirin fan.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Plea to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart--Book Him! July 14, 2005

By Diane Fairbank

Format:Paperback

Dave Zirin writes with a piercing wit, a passion for justice, and an encyclopedic knowledge of sports and figures of resistance. He has a great way of imparting information--you learn as you laugh. A zinger that you wish you'd thought of on just about every page! Read the blurbs and you can't not read the book. I hope very much that Jon Stewart books him ASAP.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm no fool.... July 21, 2005

By DC Teacher

Format:Paperback

...so I know that this is one of the finest books of essays I've read in the past few years. One can only wonder why this book has not been written before. Zirin makes it apparent that he had no shortage of material from which to cull these informative, socially conscious, and well-crafted essays. To whom would they not appeal? Sports fans, the politically aware, athletes--young and old, history buffs, teachers, and avid non-fiction readers will all find something in this book to interest and inform. To live in this sports-obsessed society and not be aware of the way resistance, militantism, social awareness, and social activism have played a part in sports is possible, but, with the publication of this book, simply unnecessary now.