{"id":2602,"date":"2018-11-09T16:40:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T16:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/?p=2602"},"modified":"2018-11-13T18:21:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T18:21:56","slug":"dan-jenkins-new-book-a-rollicking-and-ripping-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/personalities\/2602\/dan-jenkins-new-book-a-rollicking-and-ripping-read","title":{"rendered":"Dan Jenkins’ new book: a rollicking and ripping read"},"content":{"rendered":"\"fullsizeoutput_1136\"<\/a>\n

Sports Makes You Type Faster<\/i> by Dan Jenkins<\/b>\u2014Here\u2019s the other reason for my neglected fall desk duties: reading and laughing over Jenkins\u2019 new book, published by his college alma mater, Texas Christian University (TCU) Press. It\u2019s a rollicking collection of columns\u2014\u201cthe vast majority are brand new,\u201d writes Jenkins in the introduction\u2014that covers the gamut of major sports. True to form, Jenkins\u2014a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and one of only four writers to be so honored\u2014uses wit, satire and humor to enlighten and entertain. In most of the pieces, in two pages or less, Jenkins uses a fictionalized persona to skewer various subjects. But he also includes some \u201cfact-based\u201d ones including a well-argued and carefully researched piece on why the 1942 Hale America National Open golf tournament should be officially recognized by the USGA as Ben Hogan\u2019s fifth U.S. Open title. As the famed sportswriter O.B. Keeler was to Bobby Jones, so too is Jenkins to Hogan. Jenkins genuflects at the altar of Hogan, having cut his reporter\u2019s teeth on covering the fellow Texan.<\/p>\n

The sardonic humor, one-liners and quotes throughout the book are killers. Here\u2019s a sampling to whet your appetite:<\/p>\n

New team applicants to the NFL: \u201cOklahoma Frackers, the Oregon Rain and the Arkansas Walmarts.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the fictionalized Richie \u201cTrapper\u201d James, cornerback, Oregon Agricultural & Sharing Institute: \u201cRichie is something of a risk despite his speed, size and good hands. In the past three seasons he\u2019s been caught selling marijuana, shoplifting and burglarizing a retirement home. He somehow beat all three raps. But you have to like his attitude. He says, \u2018Look at it this way. I\u2019ve got so many character flaws there won\u2019t be none left for anybody else on the team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

About changing the \u201cpoorly chosen mascot\u201d of the New Orleans Saints, the alter ego cracks: \u201cThe fact is, there are only ten thousand official church-declared saints in the world, not counting Meryl Streep and Barbara Streisand, who ordained themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a piece titled \u201cThe Savior\u201d about a new college football coach\u2019s first press conference: \u201cThe film I\u2019ve seen tells me the guy I\u2019ve replaced here couldn\u2019t coach a team of fat boys in a pizza-eating contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

About \u201cThe Northern California College of Wine-Tasting & Staring at the Sun: a gang of students had stolen a city bus and smashed it through a wall of the campus bookstore to protest the store not keeping enough burkas in stock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faux college majors: \u201csmartphone, stereo history, human hobbies.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Golfer Seeks Cure: \u201cThe golfer may think his swing is starting to look like Jordan Spieth\u2019s when it would be more accurate to say it resembles an overweight man trying to revive interest in the hula hoop.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Jenkins\u2019 early days covering golf: \u201cNor do I recall standing ovations for players you\u2019ve never heard of just because they walked up on a green.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month Jenkins turns 89 years young and with this book he again reminds readers he hasn\u2019t lost the fast-twitch muscles of candor, clarity and humor. And if I timidly point out an error on page 192 that should read \u201cDetroit\u2019s Denny (not Kenny) <\/i>McLain,\u201d I\u2019m sure the Fort Worth wizard would say:<\/p>\n

\u201cKid, get a life. It\u2019s a darn typo and the fact-checker called in sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Images courtesy of TCU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports Makes You Type Faster by Dan Jenkins\u2014Here\u2019s the other reason for my neglected fall desk duties: reading and laughing… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":2607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18,7],"tags":[224530,894,1013180,1013181,1013182,1013183,1013184,1013185,1013186,4242,1036828],"class_list":["post-2602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-lifestyle","category-personalities","tag-dan-jenkins","tag-ben-hogan","tag-sports-makes-you-type-faster","tag-tcu-press","tag-terry-moore-michigan","tag-texas-christian-university-press","tag-forth-worth","tag-new-golf-books","tag-golf-humor","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-the-masters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2018\/11\/jenkins-book.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2606,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions\/2606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}