Jim Nantz

Good in places....I especially enjoyed the parts where Nantz was able to relate his career accomplishments to his father's struggle with Alzheimer's. That seemed to really bring out a human side to Nantz, but there were perhaps a few too many times where the book strayed from that engrossing formula to focus on Nantz specifically and his somewhat choir-boy and look-at-me moments. Don't get me wrong...those were still some good reading points in the book, but I couldn't help feel that this book could have elevated itself to the great category if it had really focused more and driven home the relationship to his father at those other times in the book. As a sports fan, reading about Nantz's experience at the '86 Masters with Nicklaus pulling out perhaps the greatest golf round in history brought chills to me.… (mais)

If you are not a sports fan, the name Jim Nantz probably won’t mean much to you. If, however, you have been watching sports at all during the last twenty years, you have almost certainly heard him. Jim Nantz has been the voice of The Masters, the NCAA Final Four, NFL Football and the Superbowl during his long tenure at CBS Sports. In Always by my Side, Jim has compiled stories spanning his entire sports broadcasting career, from his youth when he would call games in his home until 2007 which saw him do what no sports broadcaster had ever done – call the Superbowl, the Final Four and The Masters in the same year. Throughout all of the stories, he ties everything back to his relationship with his father, the example and advise his father gave him and the unfortunate downward journey his father has taken as he has been consumed by Alzheimer's disease.

The stories include a staggering number of famous sports luminaries including Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Jim McKay, Chris Schenkel, Pat Summerall, Jack Whitaker, and his friendships with people such as former president George H. W. Bush, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Mike Krzyzewski, John Wooden, and many others.

The book paints a picture of a man who has worked really hard and had a lot of great breaks to become one of the most well known and respected sports announcers in the world. Jim spends a great deal of time tying together the relationships between all of these people and his relationship with his father. I would have preferred it if the stories had gone much deeper. In many cases the stories are barely touched upon and leave a lot of questions. Also, the chronology of the story really jumps around. At times it is difficult to figure out where he is going or what period of time he is talking about. The narration jumps back and forth between events in different decades without any really compelling reason to do it. The book has the feel of being patched together out of a pile of disjointed stories through the miracle of cut-and-paste word processing.

In spite of this, it is still a quick and compelling read. For sports fans, it is a look inside what goes on behind the microphone at the biggest sporting events. For everyone else, it is a lament by a devoted son to a wonderful father that is both heartwarming and painful. There are plenty of things to nitpick about the writing, but it is still well worth the time to read.… (mais)