ABOUT THE BOOK:

Sportswriter Dave Zirin shatters numerous myths to show the contested meaning of sports in America today. What’s My Name, Fool? offers a no-holds-barred look at the business of sports today. In humorous and accessible language, Zirin shows how sports express the worst, as well as the most creative and exciting, features of American society.


PRAISE:

“Dave Zirin is one of the brightest, most audacious voices I can remember on the sports writing scene, and my memory goes back to the 1920s. A rare combination of social awareness, sports savvy and highly readable writing skills.”

– Lester Rodney, Sports Editor, New York Daily Worker, 1936-58

“Dave Zirin has an amazing talent for covering the sports and politics beat. Ranging like a great shortstop, he scoops up everything! He profiles the courageous and inspiring athletes who are standing up for peace and civil liberties in this repressive age. A must read!”

– Matthew Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive

“Too often writers on the Left take a priggish attitude toward sports, huffing that an examination of the political economy of baseball or boxing is beneath serious commentary…. As Dave Zirin shows in his riveting new book, What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States, these days you’re much more likely to learn about the dynamics of class struggle, the power of unions and the persistence of racism by watching the Red Sox play the Yankees, than hours spent amid the visual backwash of CNN. Here you will find vividly written stories of exploitation and resistance, courage and collective action: from Tommy Smith and John Carlos’s lone stance in Mexico City to the great Curt Flood’s heroic break from the confines of baseball’s plantation house. Zirin doesn’t get bogged down in heavy theorizing. He writes with compassion, humor and a saber-like sharpness that deftly shreds owners and mainstream sportswriters alike. He’s the new Lester Rodney. And that’s very high praise, indeed."

– Jeffrey St. Clair, Co-editor, CounterPunch

“Zirin has unique wit,vast sports knowledge and delightful candor. It is refreshing to see someone who can cut through the fluff and get to the heart of any sports issue. You want sports with an edge? You picked the right book.

– Ed DeMayo, CEO, Basketball.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dave Zirin is the Editor of the Prince George’s Post, for which he writes the weekly column “Edge of Sports” (edgeofsports.com). He is the regular sports commentator for Air America’s national radio show “So What Else is News?” Zirin is a Senior Writer at Basketball.com and regular columnist for Sports Fan Magazine. Zirin’s sports journalism has also appeared in The Source, Common Dreams, The College Sporting News, CounterPunch, AlterNet, The Afro-American, International Socialist Review, The Black Sports Network, War Times, The San Francisco Bay View, and Z Magazine.


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