Worst Hockey books ever

[yave1964]

Wonderful write up with opinions about Hockeys best books, figured it don't hurt to ask what books folks have either read or bought that they felt were either overrated or wish they could get their time/money back. On my list:

A Slap Shot original by Dave Hanson. A few original stories that I hadn't heard before but overall a dud.

Gross Misconduct, the Brian Spinner Spencer story. I finished it and found myself disgusted by the source material, by the people involved.

Just about anything ever written by Stan Fischler.

Tough guy, the Bobby Probert biography. Sickening read. Anyone who still has any stars in their eyes and hero worship for these guys just read this. Just a collection of stories blaming everyone else for all of his problems.


That's it off the top of my head. How about yours?

Click to read more...

 

[GummoMarx]

Define worst, as in disturbing content, or just poorly written? Gross Misconduct was riddled with disturbing content, but I would hardly define it as a terrible read, rather a page turner.

Anything Stan Fischler defines poorly written though. There was a Mark Messier biography that made me nauseous as well, can't remember which one though.

 

[kmad]

I have a Bobby Hull biography that was published in 1967.

What's the point?

 

[reckoning]

My vote would go to Bob McCown's The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments. You could honestly take any member off this board, pick 100 of their posts at random, put in a book, and it would be more intelligent than this. A lot of the "arguments" are just different variations of him saying that fighting should be banned. His "lists" aren't much better.

Prime example is his list of the greatest goalies ever. He has Georges Vezina at #5. That's not the problem. The problem was the reasoning he gave for it, which honestly went something like "I don't know much about Vezina, but he must've been pretty good if there's a trophy named after him, so he makes my list."

 

[reckoning]

Gross Misconduct, the Brian Spinner Spencer story. I finished it and found myself disgusted by the source material, by the people involved.

I was disgusted by the source material and people involved in Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, but it's easily one of the greatest non-fiction books I've ever read.

Gross Misconduct was not a pretty picture, but it was a compelling and fascinating one. I thought O'Malley did a brilliant job telling two stories: Spencer's career, and the murder trial.

At the time when the verdict was announced in the papers, I figured it was just a case of an expensive lawyer letting a celebrity get away with a crime, but based on the evidence in the book, I would have come to the same conclusion as that jury. I don't know if Spencer committed that murder, but the prosecution certainly didn't come close to proving it.

But the book is not a hero worship piece either. Spencer had many reprehensible qualities (violent, irresponsible, treated women like dirt, neglected his kids, etc.) and the book doesn't hide any of that from the reader. Tough to read it objectively without getting upset, but definitely a highly interesting book.

 

[Killion]

My vote would go to Bob McCown's The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments.

Yep. First title that popped into my head.

Gross Misconduct was not a pretty picture, but it was a compelling and fascinating one. I thought O'Malley did a brilliant job telling two stories: Spencer's career, and the murder trial.

And ya, agree. Extremely compelling & well written. Movie of the same name came out in 93. Worth watching. Disturbing.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Not the worst but I'm reading Cornered by Ron MacLean and it's stupid. Maybe because it's not a hockey book but it just makes him sound annoying and I don't care about his stupid broadcast career. His stories don't really provide much insight into hockey. Maybe someone who has a passion for media would enjoy it. Or maybe it's not a coincidence that I've seen multiple copies of it at used and thrift book stores despite being a newish book.

If you wanna talk about poorly written then Thunder & Lightning by Phil Esposito is poorly written in terms of structure and grammar but it's probably one of the best and most fun hockey bios ever written despite the poor writing.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Did someone say Stan Fischler?

So much potential... so disappointing and dull.

Plus, it ends with Schultz saying that there should be no fighting in hockey. Now, although I personally disagree, everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I would have respected Schultz' anti-fighting stance if it was based on potential injuries or something along those lines. But his argument was more along the aesthetic lines of, "it's a beautiful game, why ruin it by fighting?"... which, coming from a guy with a career like Schultz' (not that you'd get much of an insight from this book) just reeks of *********. It's like members of Pink Floyd campaigning to get the drugs out of the music scene.

 

[Sens Rule]

Just about anything ever written by Stan Fischler.

Thought he was awesome when I was 12. In hindsight he is a donkey's ass.

My vote would go to Bob McCown's The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments. You could honestly take any member off this board, pick 100 of their posts at random, put in a book, and it would be more intelligent than this. A lot of the "arguments" are just different variations of him saying that fighting should be banned. His "lists" aren't much better.

Prime example is his list of the greatest goalies ever. He has Georges Vezina at #5. That's not the problem. The problem was the reasoning he gave for it, which honestly went something like "I don't know much about Vezina, but he must've been pretty good if there's a trophy named after him, so he makes my list."

Not the greatest book... but not near the worst either.

I was disgusted by the source material and people involved in Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, but it's easily one of the greatest non-fiction books I've ever read.

Gross Misconduct was not a pretty picture, but it was a compelling and fascinating one. I thought O'Malley did a brilliant job telling two stories: Spencer's career, and the murder trial.

At the time when the verdict was announced in the papers, I figured it was just a case of an expensive lawyer letting a celebrity get away with a crime, but based on the evidence in the book, I would have come to the same conclusion as that jury. I don't know if Spencer committed that murder, but the prosecution certainly didn't come close to proving it.

But the book is not a hero worship piece either. Spencer had many reprehensible qualities (violent, irresponsible, treated women like dirt, neglected his kids, etc.) and the book doesn't hide any of that from the reader. Tough to read it objectively without getting upset, but definitely a highly interesting book.

I just watched the Theo Fleury story on HBO. It was quite similar. Theo is certainly not shown as a hero... nor a villian. Mostly as a very angry and messed up guy.

I really thought the documentary movie was amazing. And so much of Theo talking. Theo is a very bold person. I will say bold.

I own the book.... and I got it for my brother for X-Mas... still have not read it... but now I am certainly going to read it.

Did someone say Stan Fischler?

So much potential... so disappointing and dull.

Plus, it ends with Schultz saying that there should be no fighting in hockey. Now, although I personally disagree, everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I would have respected Schultz' anti-fighting stance if it was based on potential injuries or something along those lines. But his argument was more along the aesthetic lines of, "it's a beautiful game, why ruin it by fighting?"... which, coming from a guy with a career like Schultz' (not that you'd get much of an insight from this book) just reeks of *********. It's like members of Pink Floyd campaigning to get the drugs out of the music scene.

I read the Big bad Bruins several times... then all his later writings are incredibly negative on Orr. Then I find Orr had a falling out with him.

Fischler writes ****. He writes whatever he wants to suit his myopic agenda. It becomes more obvious when you are no longer twelve!

 

[Big Phil]

My vote would go to Bob McCown's The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments. You could honestly take any member off this board, pick 100 of their posts at random, put in a book, and it would be more intelligent than this. A lot of the "arguments" are just different variations of him saying that fighting should be banned. His "lists" aren't much better.

Prime example is his list of the greatest goalies ever. He has Georges Vezina at #5. That's not the problem. The problem was the reasoning he gave for it, which honestly went something like "I don't know much about Vezina, but he must've been pretty good if there's a trophy named after him, so he makes my list."

Yeah, I came here to post this book. Bob McCown has no business writing a book about hockey. He put Phil Housley - Phil Housley! - as the best player to never win a Stanley Cup. Unreal. But coming from such an arrogant host to begin with I can't imagine him taking any advice at all.

Never read Probert's book. But I might. You know, it's sad, because as time goes on the more you learn about Probert outside of the rink the worse of a person he is portrayed as being. People speak about Tim Horton as a good man for example. But Probert? It isn't exactly universal.

 

[WADEugottaBELAKthat]

Bump. Add Tales of a First-Round Nothing: My Life as an NHL Footnote by Terry Ryan.

Terry Ryan basically spends a few hundred pages trying to charm his old teammates by name-dropping, like, all of them. All the while simultaneously and retroactively convincing himself that his was a career not wasted. Because of like, the stories, man. His hockey fables were uninspiring and unintelligent. Nobody cares about your lame music tastes dude. Nobody cares about your ball hockey team. Nobody cares about your weak-ass high school crushes.

 

[Ace36758]

I ordered “Brett: his own story” a while back. It’s about Brett Hull’s career up until about 1992. There’s some interesting content, but it’s one of the most poorly written books I’ve ever read. I think it must have been targeted for children.

 

[Tarantula]

Two books by the same "author" come to mind, bought through a scholastic book club when I didn't shave yet:
Hockey Stars of 1975, and Hockey Stars of 1976, both written by Stan Fischler. The colour photo on the cover of the 76 one features Claire Alexander and Dave Schultz.

I cannot toss them however, even at the 40 yr mark due to some of the cool BW photos each book has. Only reason to keep those ones.

 

[Megahab]

I have a Bobby Hull biography that was published in 1967.

What's the point?

Gretzky has an autobiography thay came out in 1989 or 1990 and it was awesome. Only book I've read twice.

 

[Peiskos]

Did someone say Stan Fischler?

So much potential... so disappointing and dull.

Plus, it ends with Schultz saying that there should be no fighting in hockey. Now, although I personally disagree, everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I would have respected Schultz' anti-fighting stance if it was based on potential injuries or something along those lines. But his argument was more along the aesthetic lines of, "it's a beautiful game, why ruin it by fighting?"... which, coming from a guy with a career like Schultz' (not that you'd get much of an insight from this book) just reeks of *********. It's like members of Pink Floyd campaigning to get the drugs out of the music scene.

The guy was just looking to get paid, people will write books about anything if it means a nice juicy pay cheque. Even if the book contradicts their own actions and the way they made a career in the past.

If I was a former NHL enforcer sure I'd write a book denouncing fighting and to get it out of the sport, there are many people who agree with that kind of sentiment and people will read it, there's a market for it. Classic opportunistic book $$$

 

[Chili]

The Final Call: Hockey Stories From A Legend in Stripes by Kerry Fraser

It`s there in the title, self appointed legend.

When I read the book was hoping to find out the guy wasn`t as enamored with himself as he came across at times on the ice. Didn`t happen.

I remember when Bobby Clarke called hin the best referee in the league early in his career, went to his head and it seems like it`s still there.

I do enjoy his radio hits on TSN690 and Chris Nilan often humbles him.

 

[The Panther]

There was a Mark Messier biography that made me nauseous as well, can't remember which one though.

I hope you're not talking about Jeff Klein's excellent book, Messier (2005)!

Stan Fischler's 1988 updated Hockey's 100 was pretty dire. Anyone who ranks Kevin Lowe that high clearly has some issues. Like all "intelligent" hockey fans, Fischler also hates Orr and Gretzky.

Speaking of Gretzky, I was going to say his 1990 (?) "autobiography" (really written by Rick Reilly) is one of the worst. There are a few interesting paragraphs where he gets in his digs against (surprisingly) Sather and (unsurprisingly) Pocklington, but basically it's a puff-piece. Reilly later said he had to re-write it about 6 times before it was "just bland enough" for Gretzky. Let's all hope Wayne does another one soon, now he's more removed from the game.

I skipped through Theoren Fleury's book a few years ago and came away very unimpressed. It seemed to me his intention was basically to roast everyone he ever played with or for by dishing all the dirt he could remember. Exposing his abuse was important, but trashing every other person to get headlines was not.

And finally, there's this...

 

[Chili]

Two books by the same "author" come to mind, bought through a scholastic book club when I didn't shave yet:
Hockey Stars of 1975, and Hockey Stars of 1976, both written by Stan Fischler. The colour photo on the cover of the 76 one features Claire Alexander and Dave Schultz.

I cannot toss them however, even at the 40 yr mark due to some of the cool BW photos each book has. Only reason to keep those ones.

I still have the Hockey Stars of 1975 as well. Parts of it were written by others, including Fischler`s wife Shirley. Interesting that there are articles on street hockey and table hockey included (influenced by Fischler being the World Table Hockey Assoc. commisioner). According to the book both CBC and CBS covered table hockey tournaments in the early 1970`s.

 

[Tarantula]

True enough, not a lot of meat otherwise on the players though. Stan did write a better one that had a whole chapter to each player earlier.

How about some horrible hockey fiction? I think it was called the Dynamite Flynns or something to that effect where two twins play for the Toronto Redshirts and of course one of them runs astray and into the clutches of their arch rival, who has a player named named Newton who has a axe to grind with both. Compelling reading, not so much. Bought it through the scholastic book program in the 70's.

 

[Tarantula]

Leslie McFarlane, googled it and seems like it is out of stock on Amazon.

I didn't create a alert either.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I ordered “Brett: his own story” a while back. It’s about Brett Hull’s career up until about 1992. There’s some interesting content, but it’s one of the most poorly written books I’ve ever read. I think it must have been targeted for children.

ok so i haven't read it since i got it for christmas in 1991, back when it was titled "brett: shootin' and smilin'," but nine year old me really enjoyed that book.

 

[BadgerBruce]

Many people are unaware that Foster Hewitt penned a substantial number of “novels” aimed at teenagers. Last Christmas, my eagle-eyed and (foolishly) indulgent better half gifted me a copy of “Hello Canada! and Hockey Fans in the United States,” published in 1950 by Thomas Allen.

After Christmas Day turkey was out of the way and the entire clan entered a tryptophan-induced state of near coma, I sat down and began to read.

Oh my.

143 pages of storytelling so without a single redeeming quality. Ostensibly “historical fiction,” the story is centred around a small town in the Ottawa district that ends up playing host to a junior hockey team run by a few crusty old patriots who want the club to represent Canada in the Winter Olympic Games in 4 years time.

It’s an essay — a horrid, preachy, tell-and-never-show essay — and absolutely one of the worst books ever written. I’m not exaggerating— I’m reasonably certain that if the Bulwer Lytton contest had existed in 1950, this book would have been a consensus winner.

I still can’t blast the memory of the book’s final pages from my memory — Hewitt covers this mythical Olympic experience, the entire voyage across the Atlantic, something like half a dozen games — in 5 pages. And then the book ends with two lists that have absolutely nothing to do with the story, including the OHA Memorial Cup winners.

Lord, what I’d give to have those 90 minutes back! If you stumble upon a copy of this book and wish to add it to your collection of vintage sports writing, by all means do so.

But don’t read it. Just don’t.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

True enough, not a lot of meat otherwise on the players though. Stan did write a better one that had a whole chapter to each player earlier.

How about some horrible hockey fiction? I think it was called the Dynamite Flynns or something to that effect where two twins play for the Toronto Redshirts and of course one of them runs astray and into the clutches of their arch rival, who has a player named named Newton who has a axe to grind with both. Compelling reading, not so much. Bought it through the scholastic book program in the 70's.

Was part of the Hockey Action Series by A. James Rennie?

I remember reading them as a grade schooler. The story of an up and coming star, Brodie Something or Something Brodie, tried to make the NHL...

 

[Killion]

Many people are unaware that Foster Hewitt penned a substantial number of “novels” aimed at teenagers. Last Christmas, my eagle-eyed and (foolishly) indulgent better half gifted me a copy of “Hello Canada! and Hockey Fans in the United States,” published in 1950 by Thomas Allen.

After Christmas Day turkey was out of the way and the entire clan entered a tryptophan-induced state of near coma, I sat down and began to read.

Oh my.

143 pages of storytelling so without a single redeeming quality. Ostensibly “historical fiction,” the story is centred around a small town in the Ottawa district that ends up playing host to a junior hockey team run by a few crusty old patriots who want the club to represent Canada in the Winter Olympic Games in 4 years time.

It’s an essay — a horrid, preachy, tell-and-never-show essay — and absolutely one of the worst books ever written. I’m not exaggerating— I’m reasonably certain that if the Bulwer Lytton contest had existed in 1950, this book would have been a consensus winner.

I still can’t blast the memory of the book’s final pages from my memory — Hewitt covers this mythical Olympic experience, the entire voyage across the Atlantic, something like half a dozen games — in 5 pages. And then the book ends with two lists that have absolutely nothing to do with the story, including the OHA Memorial Cup winners.

Lord, what I’d give to have those 90 minutes back! If you stumble upon a copy of this book and wish to add it to your collection of vintage sports writing, by all means do so.

But don’t read it. Just don’t.

.... Good Lord. Unaware that Foster fancied himself an author & speak of the Devil... was just discussing him here on another thread... his "List" of All Time Greats compiled in 1980. Marking, like a pedantic school teacher Howe, Morenz, Richard, Beliveau, Hull & Orr, Gretzky. Um.... Interesting. Not Cricket to be taking shots at an Icon, Sacred Cows so I'll leave it at that.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

not the worst, but man, Bobby Orr's biography was so humble that it couldn't be anything but bland. There's a few interesting anecdotes but so much of it is him praising everyone except himself.