GIRLS ON GAMES by Elisa Teague

So, what's it like being a woman in the world of gaming?  What progress has been made towards gender equality, and what horror stories do women have?  What great stories do women have from gaming, and what do they experience in the workplace and at conventions?  Girls on Games: A Look at the Fairer Side of the Tabletop Industry by Elisa Teague is a collection of essays by women is various professional positions in the gaming industry (including several essays by Elisa Teague herself).

Girls on Games has a very diverse number of perspectives on what gaming means for women.  Some essays deal with sexism and feminism head-on, as in "What Army Does Your Boyfriend Play?" "Pitching (a Game) like a Girl" and "Being 'Girly' and a Gamer.  Yes, You Can Be Both."  Other times gender barely enters into the discussion.  There are inspiring stories about the love of and experiences in gaming, and awful stories of seixst treatment professionally, at game stores with assumptions that women are there for their boyfriends or don't know anything about the games, or at conventions where, no matter their experience or role there, women are assumed to be "booth babes."  (And one actual "booth babe" has an essay here as well.)  There is even discussion of sexuality, from one company owner who's polyamorous (and a hippie) to the woman who wrote the first transexual character in Pathfinder.  And the "fake geek girl" stereotype comes up an awful lot.

Girls on Games is a very informative and useful book about what it can be like for women in the world of gaming.  There are as many looks at game design and professional advancement as playing Magic: The Gathering at a local store or attending gaming conventions.   And despite the many examples of sexism, the book resists the urge to bash the male gender: There's plenty of praise for good guys in the gaming world, plus the introduction is by Mike Selinker and there are several relevant cartoons from John Kovalic.

There were a few distracting typos in the book, but overall Girls on Games is a very good take on a side of gaming that often doesn't get enough attention.  The tales and experiences here are informative, funny, scary, intelligent, show a love of gaming and offer solutions on how its problems can be solved or improved.  Girls on Games should be a must-read book for anyone interested, personally or professionally, in the world of tabletop games.

Overall grade: A

Reviewed by James Lynch

(who, thanks to Kickstarter, has an autographed copy of the book)

FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS by Ethan Gilsdorf

Plenty of adolescents become obsessed with "geeky" interests in high school, only to drift away from them when other interests and imperatives come about.  But what about returning to those interests -- or discovering how they've changes and what else is there?  Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks is the autobiographical journey of Ethan Gilsdorf as a once and possibly future geek.

As a teenager, Ethan got immersed in Dungeons & Dragons to match his interest in Tolkien and escape from his "Momster" (who became almost a monster after a brain aneurysm) but drifted away from that imaginary world when other things came about (like his first kiss).  Years later, he found himself wondering: With the rise and popularity of geek culture, what else is out there?  What are the geeks like now?  And would those worlds draw him back in?

His exploration of those questions became a quest not only of international travels but also a wide assortment of imaginary worlds.  Ethan explores electronic massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft, engages in live-action role playing (LARPing) in Forest of Doors, goes to the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) massive gathering at Pennsic, attends Dragon*Con and GenCon, helps build a real medieval castle in France, tours where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, and returns to D&D.  Along the way he chats with people about how their interests have affected their lives, searches for that elusive geek love, and wonders about the appeal of these imaginary lands -- and whether he'll return to them.

I wish I enjoyed Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks more than I did.  As a travelogue of the imaginary, Ethan does manage to cover a lot of ground (though skips the massive worlds of superheroes, Star Wars, and Star Trek), discovers a wide variety of fans, and keeps coming up with variants of "Ethan" to name his pretend characters.  However, Ethan's angst about whether or not to return to these imaginary world borders on existential angst and shirt-rending.  This book is of potential interest for people looking to learn about what's out there in the worlds of fantasy (and what the people who immerse themselves in them are like) but could have used a lighter, more objective tone at times.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch

I LOST IT AT THE VIDEO STORE by Tom Roston

For those of us old enough, there was a time when physically traveling to a video store was just about the only way to find and watch movies that weren't in the movie theaters.  Blockbuster had walls of the newest releases, small stores had almost-random assortments of titles, independent stores often had obscure and foreign films, and "be kind -- rewind" was a well-known instruction.  But how did these stores affect filmmakers?  What did they mean for the movie industry, what led to their disappearances, and is there absence a good or bad thing?  Tom Roston assembled over twenty people involved in the film industry and spliced together their interviews in I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era.

This book has Roston's interview subjects chatting about their experiences clerking in video stores, explaining the business side of the direct-to-video market, sharing stories about their favorite video stores, exploring how watching movies on VHS enabled and affected their own films, and what ultimately killed the video store -- and what followed after its demise.  While a few chapters are monopolized by their subject -- one is nothing but Kevin Smith, another is all about Reservoir Dogs -- most of the book consists of a few sentences or paragraphs from the interview subjects, put together in a semblance of a conversation.

There are times I Lost It at the Video Store would have benefited from simply letting its subjects talk uninterrupted instead of mixing their thoughts together.  That said, I really enjoyed this book.  It supplies a first-hand look back at a now-vanished, once-dominant place that had its own culture and impact on many greats in cinema, as well as thoughtful disagreement on whether its vanishing is for better or worse.  This is an informative and entertaining look back at the virtually extinct place that was the video store.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

FROM BALLET TO THE BATCAVE AND BEYOND by Yvonne Craig

When Yvonne Craig died, her passing got relatively little coverage because folks seemed to know her as Batgirl from the third season of Batman and the green Orion slave girl Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Before."  She actually had a long career in show business, and she shared that history, plus a bit more, in her autobiography From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond.

This book takes a very conversational tone, as Yvonne shares her stories about growing up, working in show business, and the good and bad Hollywood people she's met and worked with along the way.  As the title suggests, the early chapters are about Yvonne's experience with ballet, as she was a professional ballerina and traveled the country as part of a dance troupe.  (Ironically, a recurring theme in her movie and television career is how difficult dance scenes were to do.)  Eventually she got "discovered" and began working in television and film, from pilots that didn't get picked up to a star or extra in movies and roles in series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and her two most famous "geek" roles.  She also shares non-salacious details about her love life (including dating Elvis) and talks about the assorted show business folks she really loved -- and, in some cases, really hated, whether they were egomaniacs, unprofessional, or lecherous.

From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond is a nice, light read.  People who only know Yvonne Craig from her two famous roles will be impressed and surprised to learn how much work she did -- and how arduous the quest for roles could be (as well as what it was like in the days of live television).  It takes a long while to get to the chapter on Batman, but that's the longest, most detailed chapter in the book.  And while some are covered in great detail -- her acting career, the pets she's had -- other areas (like her departure from acting, the husband who was the love of her life, her leaving acting and becoming a real estate agent) are touched on very briefly.  From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond can be superficial, but it's also a nice look at an actress who was more than most people knew.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

Mary Roach, BONK

Science and sexuality have an uneasy history together, with taboos and repression often interfering with research and understanding.  But that has changed (largely) in modern times, and a wide variety of methods are used in the scientific community to figure out some of the science behind sex.  Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach explores several of these avenues of exploration; and it does so with intelligence, understanding, and a profound sense of humor.

Bonk is, in a sense, all over the map of how sexuality is explored by scientists today.  There are explanations and discussions of anatomy (including genitals, various treatments for impotence, and how to measure stimulation), mechanical, er, assistants (from whether vibrators increase overall sensitivity to coital imaging) to mysteries and debates (the impact hormones and pheromones have on humans, how people with spinal damage and no sensation below their waist can still experience orgasms).  Roach travels around the globe (Canada, Egypt, Taiwan) and goes back in time -- research-wise -- to find out what has been done and what is being done.

Bonk could have been dry stuff -- some authors can even make sex boring -- if it wasn't for Roach's sense of humor as well as her intelligence.  Roach keeps an open mind, but that doesn't stop her from sometimes being incredulous about what she learns or encounters, or making wry or goofy comments on the material: "Shafik won my heart by publishing a paper in European Urology in which he investigated the effects of polyester pants on sexual activity.  Ahmed Shafik dressed lab rats in polyester pants."

While Bonk takes an open and frank approach to the subject matter, there are plenty examples here of repression and fears that stifled this sort of research (and still can today: Several scientists mention the difficulty of being taken seriously or getting approval for their work, while the aforementioned Shafik, who works and lives in Egypt, fears the impact of the repressive Muslim Brotherhood).  But Roach demonstrates that the scientific exploration of sexuality can be serious and playful at the same time -- and, in the end, very illuminating.  Bonk is that rare creature: an informative scientific work that's also witty and entertaining.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

Asa Akira, INSATIABLE

Many books about pornography tend to be either cautionary tales about how the industry destroys people, or shameless self-promotion.  The title Insatiable: Porn -- A Love Story should tell you which direction Asa Akira's biography leans, but this atypical book manages to be a honest, unapologetic look at one star's life, highs and lows together.

Insatiable isn't organized chronologically (except for one chapter that's Asa's journal entries for a year) or by subject.  Instead, the book bounces around like Asa's randomly remembering things and chatting about them.  There's plenty of discussion of sex -- from what she enjoys personally and professionally, common tricks and signifiers of the adult industry (baby wipes are a giveaway), and her brief jobs as a hooker and dominatrix -- but there's also what she does outside the bedroom or studio.  The chapter "Craigslist" is more about the death of an ex-boyfriend than answering an ad of Craigslist, "Food Porn" is actually about breaking a diet with pizza, and high school stories involve drugs and shoplifting.  And the sexual and non-sexual sides come together often, such as when Asa learns an ex-boyfriend is shooting gay porn in the studio next to hers, or her letter to a future child that is both empowering and graphically describes the threesome where she met her child's father. And there are haikus too!

Insatiable: Porn -- A Love Story is a different sort of read.  Asa is likable -- often funny, usually explicit, and sometimes sad -- and passionate about her life and career.  The book's lack of organization does prevent it from building momentum or direction, but the stories are interesting and show a life that's far from perfect but perfect for her.  Asa Akira provides readers with a blunt, positive look at the life of a woman in the adult entertainment industry, and Insatiable is worth checking out.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

Joseph Campbell, THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

Heroes have existed in virtually every culture in the world, at every time in the world, in a diversity ranging from the warrior to the spiritual leader.    But what do they have in common?  What themes are shared by them -- and what do they tell us about ourselves?  In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell explores the heroic archetypes and messages through a variety of perspectives.

Campbell begins with the "monomyth" -- the common elements running through innumerable myths separated by geography and time -- and then analyzes what they share.  He explores a wide range of sources of myth, from the tales of King Arthur to Christian and Islamic beliefs to Irish folk tales to the Greek and Roman pantheons, by discussing them historically, psychologically (Freud and Jung were fairly new and very influential when this was first published), culturally, and philosophically.  In addition to the hero's journey (departure, initiation, return, resolution) Campbell also explores the beliefs on the nature of the universe -- from creation to purpose -- and how the hero shows us what the hero teaches us about, and affects, this all-encompassing force.

There are times when The Hero with a Thousand Faces can be a little dry, and there is much information to take in here.  But Campbell provides an amazing amount of source material to support his theories, and his analysis may not be agreed with by all (especially those who take their religion literally) but it is a fascinating look at the ideas that cultures return to time and again with their creation and treatment of their heroes.  The final section explores the impact (of lack thereof) of the hero in the modern, more secular, more individualistic culture; and this may make us sad for what has been lost in antiquity.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a fascinating, intelligent, and seminal exploration on what makes a hero -- and what that can tell us about us.  For anyone interested in mythology, anthropology, or what we have always sought, it's required reading.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE ART OF THE KAMA SUTRA

While The Kama Sutra has the reputation of being a manual of sex positions, it's quite more. This ancient tome, arguably one of the oldest guides to dating and love between men and women, is as concerned with relationships as with physical mixing and matching. The Art of the Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana: The New Illustrated Edition of the Classic Indian Guide to Sexual Pleasure is an interesting historical document that still has plenty of relevance today.

The Art of the Kama Sutra is not a visually explicit book. (There are plenty of other "Kama Sutra" versions out there that are little more than collections of positions.) The illustrations here are pieces of ancient Indian art, color photographs of nature and statues, and black-and-white photos of people embracing. The Art of the Kama Sutra begins with a discussion of Dharma (the spiritual), Artha (the worldly/material), and Kama (pleasure), and how all three must be in balance for a harmonious life.

Sexuality is soon covered, often in a scientific way. There are discussions of pairings, based on the sizes (hare, bull, and horse) of the man's lingam and the sizes (deer, mule, and elephant) of the woman's yoni. While there are some positions covered, there are also types of activity (who is more dominant, types of biting and scratching), how each sex should attract the other (men are more aggressive, women play hard to get), the sixty-four arts to be studied, how to get a wife, how to have affairs, how a wife should behave, how she should get on with other wives of her husband, aphrodisiacs and sexual devices, and how courtesans should act to benefit themselves in both love and wealth.

The Art of the Kama Sutra demonstrates that, while some information certainly belongs more in ancient times than today (anyone want to learn fixing stained glass in a floor, or sharing betel leaves to attract a woman?), some truths are universal. Many (most?) of our readers are not in polygamous situations, but the information on courting, the importance (for better and worse) of passion, and how relationships involve a certain degree of planning and subtlety are true today as when this tome was written. The entries are in sutras of a few sentences, and at times the phrasing feels a little stiff: "...as variety is necessary in love, so love is to be produced by means of variety. It is on this account that courtesans, who are well acquainted with various ways and means, become so desirable, for if variety is sought in all the arts and amusements, such as archery and others, how much more should it be sought after in the science of love."

The end of The Art of the Kama Sutra advices, "This work is not intended to be used merely as an instrument for satisfying ou desires," and this translation provides far more than carnal instruction. This book sometimes has parts that doesn't work today, but more often it offers information for men and women that is as relevant today as when it was written.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

BUGF#CK by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison has been writing, lecturing, arguing, pleading, persuading, winning awards, gaining fans, making enemies, and entertaining people for years. As one might expect, the man is very quotable. And a small sampling (in both pages and dimensions) of his words is presented in bugf#ck: The Useless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison.

After a brief biography of Ellison, bugf#ck goes right into quoting the man, from his interviews, his stories, his novels, and his lectures. This is quite a diverse collection of quotation. You'll hear Ellison discuss writing, handle hecklers, crack jokes, attack enemies, and deal with rights, religion (of lack thereof), and much more. Almost every quotation is followed by its source (yes, I know they're all from Ellison: I meant the year and place they first appeared) and there are a few anecdotes tossed in for good measure.

My only problem with bugf#ck is the size. The book is a little over 120 pages, and Ellison's decades of work, writing, and speaking could fill a far larger book. In addition, this book is literally pocket-sized, like one of those inspirational collections at the front of bookstores. That makes it easy to bring with you -- but also amazingly easy to misplace or lose. Other than that, bugf#ck is a great collection (hopefully the first of many) of the words of the great Harlan Ellison.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch


X

THE COMPLETE BOOKS OF CHARLES FORT

Author Charles Fort described himself and his interests so: "I am a collector of notes upon subjects that have diversity -- such as deviations from the concentricity in the lunar crater Copernicus, and a sudden appearance of purple Englishmen -- stationary meteor-radiants, and a reported growth of hair on the bald head of a mummy -- and 'Did the girl swallow the octopus?'" He was a skeptic, an explorer from libraries, a challenger of orthodoxy, a possible lunatic, and a reporter of the bizarre. The Complete Books of Charles Fort gives readers a chance to decide which label(s) fit him best, through his four books: The Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo! and Wild Talents.

Charles Fort assembled thousands of notes by poring over newspapers and scientific journals, gathering reports from the 1800s to his present. (His books were written between 1921 and his death in 1932.) Much of what Fort found was the strange: rains of frogs and fish and blood, shapes seen on the faces of the moon or planets, spontaneous human combustion, possible UFOs, bizarre weather, stones falling inside houses. He also noted patterns in these events, and his skepticism in many of their explanations: "In the explanation of coincidence there is much of laziness, and helplessness, and response to an instinctive fear that a scientific dogma will be endangered."

Fort was highly critical of much conventional science -- especially astronomy -- feeling that it ignored or explained away any data that challenged its existing beliefs. (In The Book of the Damned the "damned" refers to any data that conventional scientists refused to explore.) Fort is often at his most impressive when presenting the cases skipped by science, giving examples of their weak justifications and omissions of admitting when they are wrong: "Who could not be a prize marksman, if only his hits be recorded?" He brings up often the unsatisfying (to him) explanations of coincidence, human mischief, mass psychology, confessions that don't cover everything, and mysterious storms not reported by anyone.

Fort's approach was to present the information and to let the readers laugh at him and decide for themselves: "I shall be accused of having assembled lies, yarns, hoaxes, and superstitions. To some degree I think so, myself. To some degree I do not. I offer the data." He isn't gullible and dismisses many hoaxes, but he examines much that is taken for granted.

As for Fort's beliefs, they are often... unique. He argues, among other things, that: some appearances of objects on the ground fell from an area of no gravity which he calls the Super-Sargasso Sea, hovering over earth; the earth doesn't rotate, and stars and planets are far closer than astronomers believe; the stars may be slits in a gigantic dark shell enclosing the universe; and what was considered witchcraft may be superhuman abilities (his "wild talents") from the past appearing in the present. His belief as an Intermediatist comes very close to relativism, where nothing is right or wrong: "Our intermediatist means of expression will be that, with proper exclusions, after the scientific or theological method, anything can be identified with anything else, if all things are only different expressions of an underlying oneness."

But you don't have to agree with Fort's beliefs or conclusions to enjoy The Complete Books of Charles Fort. The man has a mischievous writing style, whether creating clever phrases ("The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely;" "History is a department of human delusion that interests us") or stringing together series of fragment from previous examples. While he often kids about his own ideas ("Not that I mean anything by anything"), he also points out many of the flaws in accepted orthodoxy of his time (and, sometimes, ours). The Complete Books of Charles Fort is a flawed masterpiece that may be a masterpiece because of its flaws.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK: DATING & SEX

Dating can be rough, sex can be rough, relationships can be rough -- but life-threatening? The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex by Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht, and Jennifer Worick gives advice for those who have a Murphy's Law approach to dating -- such as telling if your date is an axe murderer, or what to do if your cut your jugular while shaving to prepare for the date.

This book is divided into five sections -- Defensive Dating, First Impressions, Restaurant and Survival Skills, Bedroom Survival, and Relationship Survival -- and each section has multiple chapters, with advice from the authors and experts on how to evaluate and handle the potential problems before, during, or after a date. (The appendix includes a generic breakup letter, useful excuses, pickup lines to avoid, and a guide to body language.) The subtopics in each chapter are bright red, and there are often illustrations.

I'm uncertain of the necessity of this book. The authors do lighten their advice with humor frequently (after describing how to dine and dash, the book notes, "Stiffing the restaurant is illegal and may land you in jail, where the food is not very good"), and everything the authors advise makes sense. However, while the introduction says this is to help deal with problems instead of finding the right partner, this is quite a range of problems, from fashion difficulties to surviving snoring to dealing with a cheating partner (and the next chapter ironically covers how to have an affair without getting caught) to life-threatening situations and how to fight (and treat a black eye). Were this less serious, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex might be a parody of the potential pitfalls in the world of dating. Given its serious advice, however, the result is an odd blend of how to handle minor mishaps and devastating difficulties. In one place, that's an uneven blend.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch

SEX AT DAWN

What if the world of sexual relations and practices, if the interaction between men and women, was not what it is now? What if the practices of the past, ignored or denied, influence us today? These are some of the areas covered in Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origin of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha.

The main area challenged in Sex at Dawn is the "standard narrative" that throughout history males and females meet, assess each other's mate value, become monogamous, and then each look for signs of infidelity in the other while seeking opportunities for infidelity for themselves. Much of this is what the authors describe as "Flintstonization:" projecting current beliefs, trends, and practices onto the past.

What evidence is there against ancient monogamy? Ryan and Jetha provide an abundance of sources, but their two main ones are bonobos (polygamous apes that are very close genetically to humans) and foraging societies (the standard before the advent of agriculture) where "sharing is not just encouraged; it's mandatory." Sex at Dawn goes through: the assumptions of and problems with the standard narrative, the development and effects of love, lust, and sex in prehistory; a part dealing not with sex but false assumptions (led by Malthus) about the horrific life of ancient humans; fairly recent sexual sex and society; and how this affects humans today.

Sex at Dawn is a very impressive trip through both history and the distortions and assumptions of history. The authors provide extensive branches of research -- historical, social, psychological, anthropological -- to create a full picture of the full view of human (and pre-human) sexuality. Far from being dry and boring, Sex at Dawn is colloquial and engaging. Quotes are here from Darwin to the Kama Sutra to Stephen Colbert; there's also a lot of humor here, as one can gather from chapters like "On Gettin' Funky and Rockin' Round the Clock" and "The Pervert's Lament." The authors are convincing, taking on some very widely-held social and scientific assumptions about sex, gender and racial traits, and evolution. And they don't romanticize their findings, even while promoting.

My only quibble is that at the opening of Sex at Dawn the authors assert that this work isn't an assault on the status quo, but by the end they have quite a few suggestions that do just that. With that in mind, Sex at Dawn is a fascinating and intelligent look (or new look) at human sexuality -- and how its past impacts our present.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

David Fleming, Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team ans the Stolen 1925 Championship (ESPN Books, 2007)

In its early years, the National Football League had a lot less structure to it than it has now. Teams came and went, and several small towns across the country were represented by teams trying to compete on the same stage with teams from the big cities. In 1925, professional football had about the same credibility that professional wrestling has now, and most people assumed it would be decades before a professional team could compete with the well-organized and well-coached elite college teams. But a team from the league's smallest city, Pottsville, in the heart of the coal mining region of Pennsylvania, changed the way the country looked at professional football -- but was deprived of what it had earned on the field because it violated a rule the league had never bothered to write down. In his book Breaker Boys, ESPN's David Fleming tells the story of the 1925 Pottsville Maroons.

For the sake of disclosure, Pottsville happens to be my mother's hometown. The landmarks and streets that Fleming mentions are all familiar to me, and when he talks about the Catholic church that shares its foundation with Yuengling brewery, he's talking about the place where my parents married. Somehow, I was totally unaware of the Maroons or their remarkable story until I found out about Fleming's book. Naturally, Fleming's suggestion that Pottsville was the home of the NFL's first great team was more than enough to get my attention.

Fleming begins the story with an introduction to the characters that populated the Pottsville Maroons. Running back Tony Latone, for example, learned life's hard lessons working in the mines from a very early age, but he also learned how to make heavy, resistant masses bend to his will through the force of his powerful legs. Predictably, a story about a team in the freewheeling Roaring Twenties needs an owner that's both assertive and at least marginally shady, and out of central casting comes Dr. John G. Striegel. His Maroons had dominated local semi-pro leagues in Pennsylvania in the early part of the decade, but Striegel's ambitions reached higher than that. He wanted entry into the NFL, and would stop at nothing to not only get in, but win when he got there. When he scouted other teams and saw a player he liked, he recruited him the old-fashioned way: he offered the player more money than he could reasonably refuse. Striegel first got the NFL's attention by grabbing two prominent players from the folding NFL franchise in Canton, despite NFL president Joe Carr's desire to send them to the Cleveland franchise. Then he snatched two lineman from the Frankford Yellow Jackets (Frankford is an area in Philadelphia, and the franchise eventually became the Philadelphia Eagles) before their owner, Shep Royle, could re-sign them for the 1925 season. Remarkably, Striegel had managed to make enemies of the two most powerful people in the NFL before the Maroons had even joined the league. But he had the money to buy in, and Carr accepted the Maroons' entry figuring that teams traveling to the east coast could stop in Pottsville on the way back and pick up an easy paycheck, along with an easy win.

The league underestimated Striegel and the Maroons enormously. Despite an early loss in bad weather that threatened to bankrupt the team, the Maroons' combination of hired hands and local players toughened by years in the mines blew away some of the league's storied franchises, including Curly Lambeau's Green Bay Packers. While they lost in Philadelphia to Royle's Yellow Jackets, the rematch in Pottsville turned into a devastating rout, with the Maroons winning 49-0. This victory was very significant for two reasons. First, it gave the Maroons, at 10-2, the best record in the eastern half of the league. The best team in the west, the Chicago Cardinals, were eager to host the Maroons in a winner-take-all showdown. Although the league did not have an official championship game at the time, the media certainly described the Pottsville/Chicago match-up in that manner.

The other reason the Frankford game was important concerned a barnstorming team consisting of graduated members of the 1924 collegiate champion team from the University of Notre Dame. College football was already a big part of the national sports consciousness in 1925, and nowhere was it bigger than at Notre Dame. The barnstorming team included the legendary Four Horsemen, four backs still highly revered today on the campus at South Bend. The Notre Dame All-Stars booked a stadium in Philadelphia for a match between the Pottsville/Frankford winner. Royle was as ecstatic and enthusiastic as Striegel -- before the game. If losing made Royle jealous, being humiliated made him angry. As Pottsville moved on to play Chicago, Royle filed a protest with the league, on the grounds that the Maroons were about to violate an accepted but unwritten rule in the league by playing a game within twenty miles of another team's home stadium. (Apparently this rule did not affect the Chicago Cardinals or their crosstown rivals, the George Halas-led Chicago Bears.)

The issue became serious for the league when Pottsville went into Chicago and dispatched the Cardinals with a convincing 21-7 win. The sports press across the country were quick to proclaim the Maroons as the NFL's champion, and trumpeted the upcoming showdown with the Four Horsemen as a major event. Carr tried to stop Striegel from playing the game, and warned him that there would be consequences. Striegel persisted, partly because he didn't think the league's ruling would survive a legal challenge, partly because he had lost money on the team and couldn't resist the huge paycheck that came with this game, and partly because he hated backing down from challenges, on the field or off. Despite the dire consequences, the game went on. The Notre Dame All-Stars dominated the first half, but only had a 7-0 lead to show for it. Then the Maroons dug down, and wound up winning the game 9-7 on a last-second field goal.

The Maroons' victory did for the NFL what Joe Namath and the Jets would do for the AFL by winning Super Bowl III in 1969. The league now had the credibility to exist on an equal standing with the college game. But Pottsvile and its team reaped none of the rewards. The team was stripped of its title, and only existed for a few years after that. The 1925 championship was unofficially given to the Cardinals. Their owner at the time did not accept it, but the Bidwell family that bought the Cardinals from him has controlled the team through moves first to St. Louis and then to Arizona. As 1925 is one of only two championships the Cardinals have ever won, the Bidwells have squelched all attempts by the league to give the Maroons proper acknowledgment.

Fleming's writing is concise and easily readable. Regardless of the town in question, the story is gripping and compelling, and all Fleming had to do with it was report it as it happened. My one critique of the book is that Fleming hints that the league wanted to rid itself of the small-town teams, but doesn't go into enough detail about it or explain why that would be the case, or why one of those teams, the Green Bay Packers, managed to survive.

Anybody interested in the early history of the NFL will enjoy Breaker Boys. Of course, if you have any connection to Pottsvile, the book is required reading. As for Fleming making the case that the 1925 championship rightly belonged to Pottsville, well, I can hardly be objective. I do think that a league that doesn't have a problem awarding Coach of the Year to a man who was caught cheating can afford to give Pottsvile and the Maroons more recognition than they have.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

David Fleming