You Gotta Play Hurt [Hardcover]

Dan Jenkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1991

Jim Pinch has a job as a globe-trotting columnist for a magazine. From the Swiss Alps to the Cotton Bowl, Jim is in the process of writing his own fictional account of a year in the life of a sportswriter, while perpetuating a love life that involves Will Woodruff and Jeannie Slay.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jenkins, author of Semi-Tough ( LJ 10/15/72), may have come up with his best sports novel yet. You Gotta Play Hurt is all about big-time sports and big-time sports reporting. Jenkins takes the reader on a fun-filled ride through a year in the life of sportswriter Jim Tom Pinch, a veteran columnist for The Sports Magazine , a national weekly in direct competition with a major rival. His job has him covering virtually every major athletic event of the year. From the Winter Olympics in February to the Cotton Bowl the following January, Pinch is at the scene reporting as only he knows how. This is a thoroughly entertaining, well-written, humorous, and detailed look at big-time sports reporting by an author who really knows his stuff. Highly recommended for all major fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/91 as You Gotta Play Here .--Ed.
- Jeffrey Nicholas, V.A. Medical Ctr. Lib. Svce., Castle Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Bawdy, bitter, very funny, and as absolutely tasteless as its subject matter: Jenkins's farewell salute to big-time sportswriting is a tell-all novel that deflates the hype around each and every event, from the Olympics to the Kentucky Derby to Wimbledon. Jim Tom Pinch's job involves hopping from one glamorous sporting event to the next, enjoying the company of Nazi-like Austrian downhill racers, money-whipped American millionaires, egomaniacal college basketball stars, vulgar New York admen, and the insufferable pretensions of his fellow sportswriters. One of Jenkins's (Fast Copy, 1988, etc.) enduring creations, Jim Tom is seemingly the author's alter ego, aging rancorously and sparing no one in a book-length diatribe he's writing (which in fact is the book we're reading). He's fighting a hopeless rear-guard action against journalism's overall decline into Time-Warner-like ``synergistic mediocrity,'' juggling three ex-wives and a wastrel son, and dealing with two younger, lovely, sports-talking, worshipful writers who are both in love with his decaying carcass. The two women and the plot they drag along with them are serious flaws, since Nell and Jeannie are fantasy mates from Playboy and Jim Tom acts just too noble around them to be any fun. Sports fiction that makes the real thing--as purveyed by TV networks and other news media--seem almost beside the point. Some will find it offensive, particularly in sexual and racial matters, but there's nothing in this sprawling comedy that can't be found in the world. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (October 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671683322
• ISBN-13: 978-0671683320
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My brother will never return this book., July 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT (Paperback)

This book is an amazement to me; purely because I don't know how Dan Jenkins keeps coming up with this hilarious stuff. But perhaps I do. As one of the world's best sports writers, he's been everywhere and done everything. He's seen the sports world for what it is -- a lot of fun and excitement to be around when the game is involved; and fall down laughing funny when those around it begin to think that it all actually matters. If you are one of those who confuses sports with reality - don't read this book. It will probably just tick you off. If you are one of us who enjoys sports and actually have lifes -- READ THIS BOOK. You will never watch a sportscast the same way again. If you are one of us who enjoys learning about the ins and outs of big time sports and entertainment, and don't mind the generous portions of sexy humor and humorous sex that Mr. Jenkins does so well -- you've probably already read this book several times, just like me.
WARNING!!! DO NOT LEND THIS BOOK TO LIKE MINDED FOLKS (MALE OR FEMALE). YOU'LL NEVER GET IT BACK.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I laughed till I hurt, December 16, 2004

By 

J. Johnson "Allman Brothers obsessive" (Manassas, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: YOU GOTTA PLAY HURT (Paperback)

Simply the funniest book I've ever read, while still ringing true to life. The picture of big time college football is more accuarate today than when the book was published, and the new corporate face of publishing is a vicious satire of what sportswriting has become.

Only read this is you want to laugh you a@@ off!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest, most honest book about sports ever written., July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: You Gotta Play Hurt (Hardcover)

I never wanted this book to end and couldn't stop myself from finishing it. I received many strange looks from people as I grabbed my side and laughed out loud at Dan Jenkin's comic masterpiece. I couldn't help myself. Adding to the hilarity is the fact that the events and characters are all too real in the world of sports. The puritanical may be offended. Swearing and sex are a part of big time sports. I'm jealous of everyone, sports fan and non sports fan, who will be reading this book for the first time. You will not be disappointed.