The Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time

This is a great beach or airplane book for fans of sport, whether your bag is the NCAA Final Four, the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup or the Series. All those, plus horseracing, boxing, tennis and all manner of both major and minor sports are here.Do you prefer Willie, Mickey or the Duke? Think that the rivalry between North Carolina and Duke is greater that the Sox vs. Yankees or Giants vs. Dodgers? Russo has the arguments on all of these and three hundred pages more. He is pretty well balanced also, which I think makes for great analysis (the essence of arguing the imponderable).Chris Russo does sports talk on WFAN in New York. I suppose (having left The Apple before the advent of talk radio) that these and many many more are the stuff that makes sports talk radio so interesting and compelling. I agree with another reviewer who notes that (like most of us) the greatest concentration (although certainly not all) of Russo's entries includes those players and teams whom he has witnessed personally - another reason to always be the old man at the bar in this argument (so we can tell the whippersnappers that "if you had only seem Jackie Robinson play like I did, you'd feel differently".) It is what good dialogue should be: a handful of stats (acknowledging that some may view slugging percentage above on base percentage) and lots of argument (without shouting, invective or other unpleasantries).This book reads easy, in short chapters of several pages as well as short (four or five paragraph) lists. It makes it easy to compare DiMaggio to Williams, and the case for Mays over Mantle. There are as many arguments as there are categories of sport: Which was the greater achievement, Ted Williams' .406 season or Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? Does Ali beat Louis? Among my favorites is the question of the five greatest athletes of the century (I agree with Russo that ESPN shamelessly pandered to Jordan by putting him ahead of The Greatest of All Time and The Babe.)The reader who won't want to stop reading after several pages and argue a point with another fan is not a true aficionado of Sport! For all sports fans, it is a great gift.

For the life of me I don't know why a reader would give this excellent book 3.5 stars. It makes some very salient points, if for nothing else it'll get you some free beers at the bar. In all seriousness this y the type of book you'll want y read again and again. Why did I give it 4 stars and not 5? I reserve 5 stars for the truely classic writers, such as Mark Twain.

I love the way, The Mad Dog 100: The Greatest Sports Arguments of All Time, is laid out. Its 100 short chapters on what the Doggie considers the top 100 sports arguments of all time (I guess in me saying that it is kind of redundant). So you can read it one chapter a day, or a few a day or read the whole thing in one sitting. It fits in with any persons type of reading pattern. Me I like to read 3-5 books at the same time, so this one is perfect. Its some lite but fun reading in-between all the heavy reading I have been doing. Some of the arguments are; What feat was more formidable Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, or Ted Williams .406 season? Is Instant Reply an annoyance or an educational tool? Which athletes could have been separated at Birth? a very funny chapter. Which Baseball Players get all the Glory and never back it up? What moments are the biggest tearjerkers in sports History? What can be done to clean up sports? What's wrong with the collage football's national championship system? a very timely argument. Etc., 100 in all. For those of you not in the New York area Mad Dog Chris Russo is on one of the best sports talk shows in the country with his partner Mike Fransesca; its called Mike and the Mad Dog its on WFAN 660 in the afternoon and is only simulcast on the YES network. So you may have it on your cable or it you have the DISH. One great thing about this book is the memories it will bring back to you. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am rereading it now. It would also be a great gift for any sports fan.

This book is great! I have a house full of boys who argue all the time. Everyone loved it.

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo first got my attention on MLB Network with his show "High Heat." He's spent almost 30 years on the radio as a sports critic and personality so most people remember him for his 2003 Giants rant after they lost in the playoffs to Florida while on the radio. Despite the fact that he's very opinionated and screams and yells a lot, even on his Sirius radio programs, the guy usually knows what he's talking about and sticks by what he says while also being fair in trying to look at both sides of the issue(s). I don't always agree with him but he usually has his head on straight when it comes to sports news and opinion. He even is able to joke about how he approaches the topic which is always fun. Plus he's pretty old school and has some flair which is more than I can say about the other analysts on MLB Network who almost seem like they're neutered in some way. He's a breath of fresh air and a real personality on that network for what is needed.In this book, Russo and co-author Allan St. John write as though Russo's talking directly to you rather than writing a book, which is more Russo's specialty any way. There's no doubt however that this book could use a serious update, it's over 13 years old! It's absolutely weird to see him railing against those who've been known or suspected of using PEDs in baseball today while reading how much he admires them in this book. I know he's very busy with his radio programs and MLB Network but surely he could find some time for it, especially with how much the sports landscape has been changing.