True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
Joe Queenan spent his first seven books skewering Hollywood's beautiful people, but he takes on a target much nearer to his heart in the frequently hilarious True Believers: The Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans.
Queenan, a diehard fan of Philadelphia's usually unsuccessful professional sports teams, wonders what's wrong with people such as himself, who remain consumed by the objects of their derision. He has allowed the struggles of his favorite teams -- Philadelphia's four major professional franchises have won just seven championships in Queenan's lifetime -- to put him in "one continuous foul mood."
That overall grouchiness is exacerbated by the difficulties experienced by the modern sports fan, who has to tolerate lousy announcers, the unrealistic expectations created by underdog-loving sports movies, and the one-way love affair between fans and athletes. Yet Queenan's unyielding thirst for all sporting events -- not just those involving Philadelphia teams -- eventually leads him into a therapist's chair.
True Believers is loaded with laugh-out-loud moments, including Queenan's assertion that "front-runners" are the modern version of religious turncoats and his observation that the most annoying fans at sporting events are also the most physically intimidating.
As funny as True Believers is, though, it's also strangely poignant. For all the inherent heartbreak associated with rooting for a favorite team, diehards are infused with the belief the future will be better than the past and the knowledge that "the happiest moment in a man's life always involves sports." Hopefully, True Believers can tide you over until that moment arrives. Jerry Beach
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Why Do Fans Live and Die with Their Teams? For Yankee, Cowboy, and Laker fans the answer is fairly clear: the return on investment is relatively high. But why do people root so passionately for tragically inept teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Clubs, and the Philadelphia Phillies? Why do people organize their emotional lives around lackluster franchises such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the San Diego Padres, and the Phoenix Suns, none of whom have ever won a single championship in their entire history? Is it pure tribalism? An attempt to maintain contact with one's vanished childhood? In True Believers, humorist and lifelong Philly fan Joe Queenan answers these and many other questions, shedding light on -- and reveling in -- the culture and psychology of his countless fellow fans.
FROM THE CRITICS
The New York Times
On its face True Believers is a Miss Manners-type guide to the best and worst of sports fandom, but in its heart it is a paean to the spirit of the author's hometown. Philadelphians may love their brothers, but what they really love is to hate their teams. Perhaps it's a case of using a thief to catch a thief, but Queenan aptly identifies, pathologizes and lampoons every form of loutish and insufferable behavior that plagues big-time athletics today. — Tobin Harshaw
Publishers Weekly
Queenan's latest should be required reading not just for the folks of the sardonic subtitle but also for their wives, girlfriends and sports-phobic pals. The humorist spotlights something that's as peculiar as it is pedestrian: the schlub who roots for sorry teams. Why do some of us back losers, Queenan (Balsamic Dreams) asks, and why defend this foolishness so passionately? The recovering Philadelphia fan (of all the city's teams) would know. He groups admirers into categories-"Fans Who Love Too Much," "Fans Who Misbehave," etc.-and grounds his quips in droll situations such as his visit to a therapist who has the nerve to say the fate of the rain forest is graver than the fate of the 76ers. Queenan doesn't limit his premise to one club or sport, either; he covers everything from the Boston Red Sox to the "cataleptic" Wizards in Washington. Everywhere, stubborn followers like him hope for a turnaround in the standings. His enthusiasts remember times, usually before they were born, when "we" pulled out some miracle win. Queenan tallies the time he has spent watching sports and figures those years were not truly wasted: "It is my belief," he says, "that without sports, the average man would have no emotional life whatsoever." In this hilarious and strangely erudite book, Queenan doesn't overwrite his subject-for a diehard fan knows what to do when the buzzer sounds: go home. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
To humorist and Philadelphia native Queenan, "the Phillies and Eagles are exactly like nicotine: a preposterously noxious semihallucinogenic substance capable of giving great pleasure for brief periods of time but one that will ultimately destroy your health." Thus, the author (Balsamic Dreams), who has skewered everyone from baby boomers to Hollywood moguls, turns his trenchant wit on sports fans, himself included. While visiting the home shrines of both the mighty and the also-rans, he makes some thought-provoking observations such as that without sports the stereotypically repressed male would have absolutely no emotional life. But Queenan is at his best when ranting-about unctuous and/or inept sportscasters, front-running fans whose allegiances change with the standings, and loud, beery, obnoxious enthusiasts. Unfortunately, he sometimes goes painfully over the top, opining that "men like sex so much that they are willing to put up with women to get it" and that "there is not a day that goes by that I do not thank the Good Lord for taking [sportscaster Howard] Cosell at a relatively young age." But shock is a component of humor, and Queenan is nothing if not humorous. Recommended for medium to large public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/03.]-Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Ernie Johnson
If it weren't for fans, I'd be out of a job. And if it weren't for Joe Queenan, I'd be clueless on exactly what makes fans tick. When you read True Believers you can't help but think back to those moments when a ball game, a player, or a telecast had a life-long impact. When I finished it I wanted to call that old Phillies' catcher Clay Dalrymple and tell him I still haven't forgotten that he once tossed me a ball on his way to the dugout.
Tim McCarver
A riveting inside look at sports fans in America -- a terrific book.Read all 6 "From The Critics" >
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