Find out what it's like to have the “best job in town” in Dave Perkins’ telling and hilarious new memoir, Fun and Games: My 40 Years Writing Sports.
Perkins was once told by a bluntly helpful university admissions officer: “You don’t have the looks for TV or the voice for radio. You should go into print.” Which he did, first at the Globe and Mail, and then for 36 well-travelled years at the Toronto Star.
In Fun and Games, Perkins recounts hysterical, revealing, and sometimes embarrassing personal stories from almost every sport and many major championships. After 40 years of encountering a myriad of athletes, fans, team managers, and owners, Perkins offers unique observations on the Blue Jays and Raptors, 58 major championships’ worth of golf, 10 Olympic Games, football, hockey, boxing, horse racing, and more.
Learn why Tiger Woods asked Perkins if he was nuts, why he detected Forrest Gump in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and why Super Bowl week is the worst week of the year. Perkins exposes the mistakes he made in both thought and word — once, when intending to type “the shot ran down the goalie’s leg,” he used an “i” instead of an “o” — and to this day, he has never found a sacred cow that didn’t deserve a barbecue.
“Few can spin a yarn with the wit and clever turns of phrase that Perky can.” — Shi Davidi, Sportsnet
“Anyone who worked with Dave Perkins knew him to be the epitome of a newspaper man: smart, fun, tough-minded, and good-hearted. Those who never had the good fortune to share a road trip or a press box with him can read these well-told tales, many from a romantic era of print journalism now changing at a rapid pace, and feel like they were there for every interview, story, debate, cigar, and post-work beer.” — Michael Grange, Sportsnet
Take a look at some pictures from the Fun and Games Toronto launch!
Haven’t picked it up yet? Check out an excerpt here to see what you’re missin’!
