Only a Game

by Bill Littlefield

It’s only a game, Bill Littlefield’s National Public Radio program tells us, trying to keep sports in perspective. And for all the deadly serious perspectives of sports commentators and fans, Littlefield’s is perhaps the most realistic. It is certainly the most entertaining. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, Littlefield’s take on the games people play is as refreshing as it is enlightening. From baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett’s untimely death, to pickup soccer games among misfit high-schoolers, to the most obscure nicknames and unusual mascots in college sports, the book collects memorable commentaries from Littlefield’s popular NPR sports show as well as never-before-published essays. No matter the topic, Littlefield illuminates the dark corners and unlikely angles of sports with wry good humor and a lightly worn expertise that lets nothing pass.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Barb H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an avid listener of a local NPR station which has for many years featured a commentator, Bill Littlefield, with his signature program, Only a Game. My favorite sport is baseball, particularly the Boston Red Sox, but there is no way I could be characterized as a sports enthusiast, in fact I actively dislike many athletic competitions. But I digress. Listening to most of what Bill has to say is unlike any other sports program. In fact his information is generally compelling. So reading this book has been like capturing him for a while.

How else would I have discovered things like the chapter entitled, “In the Name of Names, Because There's No Other Excuse”? 'Campbell University... fields teams known as Fighting Camels. There are any number of schools with such mascots as Tigers, Lions and Bears... but so far as I 've been able to determine, only Campbell has Fighting Camels. Likewise, I think the University of California in Irvine has the Fighting Anteaters. Inspired, I suppose by the sound the anteater in the comic strip,BC makes when his tongue finds lunch, Irvine fans cheer by shouting 'Zot!' (p.4) I could go on in this vein, but it is fun to know that Mary Baldwin College's athletes are known as the Fighting Squirrels, or Penn High School in Mishiwaka, Indiana has Cavemen and Lady Cavemen!! Or how about the Fighting Saints?

There is so much more in this little book to amuse, inform and tittilate. True, it was published in 2007, but much of what Littlefield had penned is timeless and of interest for sportspersons and also for enjoyable reading. There are poems and bios of the famous and tales of amazing feats. There is much to be enjoyed.

I will conclude this rambling with another of Bill's humorous, endearing tales. Many of us can remember Alistair Cooke,who was a celebrated British broadcaster, who among other things, hosted PBS/BBC Masterpiece Theatre. He was interviewed by Littlefield about a collection of writings which included sports , Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke. He read an essay written 50 years earlier about a cricket game between Yale & Harvard.
“But after all it's not the winning that matters... It's to coin a word, the amenities that count. The smell of the dandelions, the puff of the pipe, the click of the bat,when Harvard's batting, the rain on the neck...the slow,exquisite coming on of sunset, and dinner and rheumatism' (p.87)
Bill continued to state how remarkable Cooke was and how personable. He concluded with the tale of Jim Henson requesting that Sesame Street appropriate his name for the Cookie Monster as 'Alistair Cookie” so that he could host the Masterpiece Theater. He reported that little girls shyly came up to him ask if he is Allistair Cookie, the Cookie Monster and he replies, Absolutely!

I do recommend that you read this little gem!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Littlefield is the host of the National Public Radio program "It's Only A Game," which is a sort of intellectual, slightly irreverent, often very funny sports show that airs early Saturday mornings in my area. This book is a collection of essays and poems that spans the history of the show. Much like the show, the book is often hilarious, sometimes very poignant and occasionally transcendent.

Littlefield often reads poetry on the radio show and I have to say that, for the most part, they work better in an audio format than they do on the written page. Not to say that all of the poems in the book are crap but, some of them suffer a bit because it's hard to find the natural rhythm of Bill's voice, which is such a big part of his poetry.

The essays are the strongest part of the book. His writing is always honest and observant in a way that sports writing rarely is. The best way to describe it is that his sports writing is never macho in any way. Nor for that matter is the radio show. Littlefield writes for those of us who grew up frightened in every locker room situation we were ever in but still somehow found a way to love sports.