Jeremy Schaap

In the tradition of Seabiscuit and The Perfect Mile, the fascinating true story of James J. Braddock, a depression-era boxer and American folk hero, whose life is also the inspriation to a major motion picture.
Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed 'Cinderella Man' by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash. With one good hand, Braddock was forced to labor on the docks of Hoboken. Only his manager, Joe Gould, still believed in him, finding fighs for Braddock to help feed his wife and childlren. The diminutive, loquacious Jew and the burly, quiet Irishman made one of boxing's oddest couples, but together they staged the greatest comeback in fighting history. In less than twelve months Braddock went from the relief rolls to face heavyweight champion Max Baer, the Livermore Butcher Boy renowned for having allegedly killed two men in the ring. A charismatic, natural talent and in every way Braddock's foil, Baer was a towering opponent, a Jew from the West Coast who was famously brash and made great copy both in and out of the ring. A ten-to-one underdog, Braddock carried the hopes and dreams of the working class on his shoulders. And when boxing was the biggest sport in the world, when the heavyweight champion was the biggest star in the world, his unlikely upset made Braddock the most popular champion boxing had ever seen.

Against the gritty back drop of the Depression, Cinderella Man brings this dramatic all-American story to life, evoking a time when the sport of boxing resonated with a country trying desperately to get back on its feet. Schaap paints a vivid picture of the fight world in its golden age, populated by men of every class and ethnic background and covered voluminoiusy by writers who elevated sports writing to art. Rich in anecdote and color, steeped in history, and full of human interest, Cinderella Man is a classic David and Goliath tale that transcends the sport.

An ESPN anchor and national correspondent, Jeremy Schaap is a host of ESPN's Outside the Lines as well as its acclaimed SportsCentrury series. An Emmy Award-winning reporter, he has been publihsed in Sports Ilustrated, ESPN The Magazine, Time, Parade, and the New York Times. Schaap is a native of New York City and the son of the award-winning, journalist Diek Schaap.

'A wonderful look backward at a different kind of fight and a different America. A delight.'-David Halberstam

'Cinderella Man is rich in its details and has one special virtue as a book about boxers-you get to know the two men who are fighting for the heavyweight championship so well that a few readers wil even shift their loyalties and root for that prince of the ring, Max Baer, instead of James Braddock, a most special hero who spent his life working uphill all the way. Ovbviously, I enjoyed reading Cinderella Man.'-Norman Mailer

'Jeremy Schaap has written a fascinating and a well-reserched tale of Braddock, a man of his time and for his time. The research is first-rate and so is the storytelling. Well done.'-Mitch Albom

'Jeremy Schaap gives us a wonderful, thrilling boxing story and simultaneously a meticulous look at Depression life...Crowds of Braddock's time were as amazed as we are reading this story that Schaap tells so compellingly.'-Jimmy Breslin

'A splendid storiy, told by a gifted young writer...remarkaable.'-Mike Lupica

'In a sport whose history is filled with improbable tales, the story of James J. Braddock, the Cinderella Man, is perhaps among the most romantic and unlikely of all, and Jeremy Schaap tells it simply, beautifully, and memorably.'-William Nack

'Jeremy Schaap has written about Jim Bfraddock and Max Baer with affection and charm.'-Frank Deford

Contents

Preface
1 Corn and hash
2 The Battle of Nurge's Field
3 The meat inspector
4 The Livermore Butcher Boy
5 Spooked by the phantom
6 The great white way
7 The crash and the jinx
8 The lord of the jungle
9 Star of David
10 On the waterfront
11 Last one up's a sissy
12 Another upset
13 King Max
14 A shot at Lasky
15 The people's choice
16 Homicide hall
17 A stout heart
Epilogue
Appendix A: The Heavyweight Championship
Appendix B: James J. Braddock's ring record
Appendix C: Max Baer's ring record
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index… (plus d'informations)

A fascinating story of his youth, where an alert coach saw the potential in an elementary school child.

I read it as a hard copy, so have few quotes from this engaging book.

It skillfully compares the racial discrimination in the USA with Hitler’s discrimination against Jews and his desire to prove the Aryan race superior using the 1936 Olympics.

“Owens was accustomed to that particular attitude (of discrimination) and inured to it. His lifelong refusal to allow bigots to truly bother him was often considered, unfairly, a token of his weakness. Even at the age of twenty-two, Owens knew who he was and what he was, and he could see no good reason to allow himself to become embittered by the ignorance of lesser men.” (Page 185)

After winning four gold medals he returned to the USA where the offers of thousands of dollars for appearances turned out to be false promises.

“The AAU gets the money” but not the athlete.” The AAU banned him and he struggled to make a living. (Page 233-234) … (plus d'informations)