Review of "You Can’t Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television," by Al Michaels with L. Jon Wertheim

Review of

You Can’t Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television, by Al Michaels with L. Jon Wertheim, ISBN 9780062314963

Five out of five stars

Autobiography of a broadcasting legend

 It is likely that the most iconic phrase ever uttered by a sports broadcaster was the famous line that Al Michaels said in the last seconds of the U. S. victory over the Soviet hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics. It was the right phrase at the right time and even though I saw it when it happened, it still gives me thrills to see it again.

 Michaels has had a long, varied and extensive career in broadcasting sports, and he has worked with some of the best. He has also rubbed virtual shoulders with many celebrities in and out of sports. This book is an autobiography that focuses on his experiences with the stars and the liars and cheats that are in the media business.

 His discussion of two people alone make the book worth reading. The first is when Howard Cosell and Michaels are in a limo. They are slowly passing a group of young men where two of them are engaged in a ferocious fistfight and the rest are cheering them on. Cosell orders the driver to stop, and Cosell gets out and walks over to the crowd and begins critiquing the boxing tactics of the two men as only Cosell could do it. At first, it looks like the men are going to turn on Cosell, but when they realize who it is, they swarm him for autographs. It is the best Cosell story that I have ever heard.

 The second concerns O. J. Simpson and the murders of Nicolle Brown and Ronald Goldman. Michaels played tennis with O. J. and so was very familiar with his house and grounds. On pages 209 and 210, Michaels puts forward some facts and impressions that creates very close to reasonable doubt concerning O. J.’s guilt concerning the murders. While he never states his position on the murders, it is certainly food for serious thought.

 Over his career, Michaels has interacted with nearly all of the major sportscasters, players, coaches and managers of the major American sports. He drops many famous names along with events they were involved with. Those stories make this a very entertaining and informative book told from the first person perspective.


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