Synopses & Reviews
"[Deford is] sports writing’s Sinatra." — San Francisco Chronicle
Frank Deford is one of the most beloved sports commentators in America. A contributing writer to Sports Illustrated for more than fifty years, he is also a longtime correspondent on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
These days, Deford is perhaps best known for his weekly commentaries on NPR’s Morning Edition. Beginning in 1980, Deford has recorded over two thousand commentaries, and in this collection he brings together the very best, creating a charming, insightful, and wide-ranging look at athletes and the world of sports.
In I’d Know That Voice Anywhere, Deford discusses everything from sex scandals and steroids to Americans’ perennial nostalgia for Joe DiMaggio and why, in a culture dominated by celebrity, sports is the only discipline on earth where popularity and excellence thrive in tandem. He considers the similarities between Babe Ruth and Winnie the Pooh, why football reminds him of Venice, and how the Olympics are like Groundhog Day—or like an independent movie filled with foreign actors you’ve never heard of. He considers the prevalence of cheating in the classroom among student-athletes and why academic whistle-blowers are castigated as tattletales, pens a one-size-fits-all sports movie script, and even delivers Super Bowl coverage in the style of Shakespeare. A rollicking sampler of one of NPR’s most popular segments, I’d Know That Voice Anywhere is perfect for sports enthusiasts—as well as sports skeptics—and a must-read for any Frank Deford fan.
Review
"Frank Deford definitely is worthy of a spot on the Mt. Rushmore of sportswriters...As always, Deford’s writing is glorious, hitting all the notes from funny to emotional to profound...Once again, his words make sports come alive." Ed Sherman, Chicago Tribune
Review
"An eclectic collection...[Deford] could make a shopping list interesting to read." Budd Bailey, Buffalo News
Review
"Deford...has a wickedly droll sense of humor, which, when coupled with his encyclopedic knowledge of sports, results in commentaries that are incisive, amusing, touching, or incendiary in various combinations...A rich collection for anyone interested in the sporting life." Booklist
About the Author
The author of eighteen books, Frank Deford has worked in virtually every medium. He is senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated, where his byline first appeared in 1962. A weekly commentator for NPR's Morning Edition, he is also a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. As a journalist, Deford has won the National Magazine Award for profiles, and has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. Voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times, he was also cited by The American Journalism Review as the nation's finest sportswriter and was twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. He has been presented with a Christopher Award and awards for distinguished service to journalism from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University. Deford and Red Smith are the only authors with more than one piece in The Best American Sportswriting of the Century, edited by David Halberstam. For his radio and TV work, Deford has won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award.