Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die

Vince Darcangelo, Special to the Rocky

Friday, June 22, 2007

Book in a nutshell: Gorant, a Sports Illustrated editor and writer, lived the ultimate sports fanatic's dream: Over 14 months, he completed the definitive bleacher bum's to-do list, from going to the Super Bowl to catching opening day at Boston's Fenway Park. The result is this collection of ten, first-person essays - written in the populist vein of writers like Chuck Klosterman and Bill Simmons - that seek to answer the question: Why do we care about sports?

The answer comes in fragments rather than one unifying theory, but when you view the book as a gestalt, Gorant offers a solid defense of everyone who ever skipped work to catch a day game at Wrigley or tailgated outside Lambeau Field in subzero weather.

For diehards, Gorant's observations will serve as reminders, not revelations. Still, there's something endearing about his journey, be it his reconnecting with his youth or grappling with his mother's recent death. Ultimately, though, it's the characters he encounters that make Fanatic truly epic: like Rod Harrison, the story-telling NASCAR nut who once delayed a NASA shuttle launch, or Ignatius "Kelly" Giglio, the longest-tenured Boston Red Sox season ticket-holder who held his seats from 1935 until his death in 2005, but stuck around long enough to see his hard-luck team finally win the big one.

Best tidbit: "Fandom, for those converts to the sect, has become a basis for how we relate to one another, define ourselves, and foster the connections that make it possible to muddle through the entirety of our existence, not just the second half of a boring game."

Pros: Gorant's knack for imagery is more befitting a skilled painter than a sports journalist. His masterstroke is his description of the town of Wimbledon, "with its brick-lined streets that curve away like cart paths in a Euclidean landscape. And its old stone houses and tiny shops, with slate roofs that tile on top of each other like picturesque dominoes that have yet to be toppled."

Cons: The author philosophizes in fragments, which sometimes leaves thoughts unfinished within individual essays.

Final word: Gorant properly answers the question of why we care about sports. More importantly, he shows us why we should.