The Top of His Game. W.C. Heinz.

 

The Top of His Game.   W.C. Heinz (Bill Littlefield)

The Best Sports Writing of W. C. Heinz

The Top of His Game is a book featuring the many articles written by noted author and writer W. C. Heinz.     The stories are compiled by writer Bill Littlefield in a 550 page plus novel.   Inside, the reader gets acquainted with several boxers, baseball players, jockeys, rodeo riders and more.   The settings take place mostly in the middle of the 20^th century as that is when Heinz was in his prime during a career that spanned at least a half century.    

Heinz, a one-time sports writer for the New York Sun and author of several books, has a way of getting the most out of his interviews.    Every story contained at least some interesting and fascinating dialogue between writer and subject.    Heinz seemed to know what questions to ask, how to ask and when to ask them.   What is more is this writer also could bring those conversations to life on paper.  Just as importantly, Heinz was able to skillfully write about a variety of sports including rodeo riding, rowing, roller derby in addition to horse race jockeying, boxer training and even handicapping horses. 

Certainly, that was the case in accessing and dealing with such sports luminaries as Rocky Marciano, Rocky Graziano, Eddie Arcaro, Floyd Patterson, Willie Davis, and Gordie Howe among several others.  Many of the excerpts were taken from his 1979 published book Once they heard the cheers.    One example includes the authors time with former boxing champion Floyd Patterson.    He visited with him in his New York home.    The story revealed a wise ex-boxer who seemed to be a bit ahead of his time.   Patterson had a training center in the back yard of his property and helped to train, if not reform, the youth in the area by teaching them how to fight in the ring as well as how to comport themselves away from the gym.  

Another example of detailed and descriptive writing is found on page 499 where Heinz describes how young Eddie Arcaro learned how to ride a horse.   “And they showed him how to saddle and knot the reins and set the stirrups and how to tread the saddle, which off the track is called posting…. He pulled the stirrups so Eddie said he felt as if he had no perch at all, and he got him off the horse’s back so the weight would be on the withers and he would get more purchase.”   Arcaro went on become one of the most successful jockeys of his era.  

Heinz, who is also the author of a few fictional books, caught many of the athletes after their playing careers were finished.    As with Patterson and Arcaro in other sections of the book, he did the same with former Green Bay Packer, Willie Davis.   The passage picks up with Davis 10 years after his playing career had ended as an owner and manager of a bottling distributor.    Captured in this article the former packers’ thoughts on legendary head coach Vince Lombardi as well as his mission to set an example as a successful business leader in the black communities.  

Although highly skilled in transcribing any area of sport, boxing seemed to be Heinz’s wheelhouse.   The book contains more than a dozen stories addressing a host of topics in and outside of the ring.    One chapter devotes homage to the famous but now long defunct Steadman’s Gym where many successful boxers of that era trained before and during their fighting fame.   Heinz also showed his tenacity by traveling all over the country to complete a story.  Whether it was Detroit to check on NHL legend Gordie Howe, Brockton, Massachusetts to research more on champion fighter Rocky Graziano or even somewhere in remote North Dakota to track down the whereabouts of famed rodeo rider Jim Tescher.

An interesting side note about William “Bill” Heinz is that he did not write strictly sports columns and books.    He also authored a few non-fictional books such as The Surgeon and Emergency.     In addition, he also co-authored (with Richard Hooker) the Novel M*A*S*H in 1968 which inspired the film and long-running television series.    Bill Littlefield provides an informative introduction for how the book came about and attitudes of the legendary writer all for the readers edification. 

As previously mentioned, this is a lengthy book and while some of the dialogue helps to keep a good reading pace, the stories can be long and without natural breaks.   Although the focus is on sports writing the subject matter can get away a bit from the topic within some of the passages.  Even the afterword goes for nearly an additional twenty pages.   

Still, this is an opportunity to learn and experience history as it was made in that era and how it could be reported during those times.    Some chapters were more intriguing than others but the conversations were mostly fun, edifying and enticing.    For those who like to dive into a challenge and learn something new or different The Top of His Game is more than up for that task.     

 

·         You might like to read this book if you are a fan of boxing.

·         You might like to read this book if you search for mid-20^th century stories of baseball, football, rodeo, etc…

·         You might like to read this book to review mid-20^th century sports writing.  

·         You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading about history covering a variety of sports.