Book Review: The Swinger

Rusty takes a break from NASCAR to look at Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck's new novel, The Swinger.


If you don't pick up on it reading the dust jacket or reviews like this one, you will just a few pages into the book. This is Tiger Woods' story. The Swinger, a novel by Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck is a work of fiction, though any sports fan will quickly see the parallels between the book and reality.

The story is told from the vantage point of down-on-his-luck sports writer, Josh Dutra. Dutra makes the move of his career when he joins the team of super star golfer, Herbert "Tree" Tremont Jr. Tree has carved out a nearly picture perfect existence at the top of the U.S. golf game, including a hot trophy wife, perfect kids, and more money and endorsements than Donald Trump. From the inside, Dutra watches Tree's life spiral out of control when his perfectly manipulated public image is shattered.

Even though this book was as nearly predictable as a children's comedy, it kept me turning the pages, and quickly. Bamberger and Shipnuck have crafted an inside view into the modern world of sports media and golf. Their easy writing style and goofy humor - Tree's home is called Tree House - make this an easy-to-read page turner. The story balances between real life and complete fabrication seamlessly. Tree's little marital fracas involving a fire poker was lifted right from the headlines. How he ends up dealing with his ultimate downfall is complete fiction, though, and in my opinion the best part of the book.

SPOILER ALERT

After he hits complete rock bottom and has been outed as a promiscuous pill popping sex freak, Tree takes his writer friend to rehab and undergoes a transformation never before seen in real life. Throughout the book, the authors keep you turning the pages looking for the next shoe to drop or the next scandal to unfold. At the end, though, they tell us a story of how life could and should be. It becomes a story of forgiveness and redemption. You turn the pages with a smile on your face and hope in your heart.

Don't get me wrong, the book doesn't have a fairy tale ending with Tree and Dutra marching off into the sunset. His pain and suffering remains real. His redemption is stronger though, and the authors make that clear as they weave the final threads of this great story.

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Sir Charles and His World's Ugliest Golf Swing on Feherty Tonight

If you haven't check out Feherty on the Golf Channel yet, tonight might be your night to tune in as Chuck brings his candor.

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Feherty Premiers Tonight on Golf Channel

Feherty premiers tonight at 9PM ET on Golf Channel featuring (naturally) former pro and current golf broadcaster and writer David Feherty. Hour-long episodes during the first 12-series season will feature links hacker Charles Barkley, actor Don Cheadle, and golf hall-of-famers Tom Watson and Lee Trevino.

Check out an extended trailer from Feherty below.

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Cigar Guy's 15 Minutes of Fame Not Up Yet

Nothing immortalizes a person like depicting him as the iconic t-shirt of a violent Socialist Castro butt buddy...

It's the gift that keeps on giving all year 'round.

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ABC News Credits the "Tiger Woods Effect" on Increasing Those Seeking Sex Addiction Help

Just what every man needs: Clinical proof that he's not alone in his transgressions, and validity for his "affliction."

In the year since golfer Tiger Woods checked into a Mississippi sex rehabilitation clinic, the number of those seeking treatment has jumped by 50 percent, according to Robert Weiss, founding director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, which opened in 1995.

The month after Woods went into rehab, the Sexual Recovery Institute began offering information sessions that have been drawing 35 to 50 people a week.

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Brit Hume Defends Buddhist Tiger-Christianity Remarks

We mentioned on Sunday that Fox News' Brit Hume recently implored Buddhist Tiger Woods to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord & Savior. On last night's O'Reilly factor, Brit stood by his remarks.

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Did Tiger Get Juiced?

No, I'm not referring to his alleged use of imported PEDs. I'm talking about his sinister-looking, ski-capped Vanity Fair cover shots that are all the buzz in relation to the infamous June 1994 Time OJ cover.

To be frank, the first thing I thought when I saw the Tiger cover was that the Cablasian never looked so, well, dark before - figuratively and literally. I mean aside from the actual color tones, the hat and the weights give the impression he's banging iron out in a prison rec yard.

While Time admitted to altering the original photograph to give Simpson a more "menacing" look, critics cried foul and racism, which lead to a public apology by the news magazine.

The Tiger shots may or may not have been altered, but it is clear that Vanity Fair was looking to paint Woods in the wake of his on going scandal as the antithesis of the wholesome hero he was once built up to be

Whether Vanity Fair intended for any sort of racial undertones is irrelevant. I have no doubt someone will play that card.

Wait a minute. I might have just done so.

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Brit Hume: Buddhist Tiger Woods Needs to Accept Jesus Christ as His Lord & Savior

From today's Fox News Sunday, Hume offered some advice to the tarnished golfer: "He's said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. ... Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery."

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Billy Dee Williams Quits Hawking Colt 45 in Lieu of Tiger Woods Mistress Commemorative Plates

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Contest: The Tiger Name Game

Everyone knows that Tiger implored his mistresses to "Take [their] Name off [their] Phone."

On the Today show this morning, mistress #4, Jamie Jungers, noted that Tiger also asked that she take HIS name off their phone:

"He said he loved spending time with me, would love to get to know me more, and he gave me his phone number and told me to save it in a different name in case I lost the phone."

HHR has come up with 11 names (one for each mistress) that would have thrown phone-finders off his trail. If you can top them, we'll ship you off a PS3 or XBox360 copy of Namco's Tekken 6, which features an Elin Woods lookalike who packs a wallop.

See if you can top these aliases. Winner will be chosen on Monday. The only rule is to make us laugh.

1. Eldrick Tont
2. John Gosselin
3. Sean Salisbury
4. Eliot Spitzer
5. John Daly
   
6. Jesse Katsololis
7. The Situation
8. Nick Papageorgio
9. Chris Illuminati
10. Roy McAvoy
11. Fred Garvin

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Tiger and Elin's Story - eHarmonious.com

From our friends at Wondershot Productions (who produced the BwB 2.0 intro video):

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Very mature, Rondell

As new allegations surface about the bizarre week that has been the Tiger Woods saga, we look back at one of the happier times in the golfer's life - the 2004 Racial Draft, where he was the #1 overall pick.

You can watch Tiger's acceptance speech here.

Maybe in 9 Years Jeter Will Get His Ass Kicked by a Woman Scorned

2000 SI Sportsman of the Year:
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods

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Michelle Wie Finally Realizes Dream of Having Beer Poured on Her

Michelle Wie finally got her first win on the LPGA tour. For somebody who has been saddled with so many expectations over the last several years it was nice to see her finally get a victory and perhaps pick up what is the first of many tour wins. One interesting quote involved the post tourney celebration after the final tap in. Full article below, but here is Wie's quote, read by itself, it has to make you laugh.

"Just seeing them come out and pour beer all over me, it was a great feeling," Wie said. "I've always seen it on TV and I've always wanted people to pour beer on me. It was as great as I thought it was."


Wie shoots 13-under for 1st pro win

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Ron Jaworski Loses More than Just Super Bowls; Looks to Throw Money and Influence Around

According to the Courier Post, Jaws fell short of his bid to redevelop in the housing community in which his Valleybrook Country Club resides.

Superior Court Judge Michelle Fox has dismissed a lawsuit, brought by an investment group headed by Valleybrook owner Ron Jaworski, that wanted to build 68 homes at the Blackwood site. The investment group's lawsuit sought to void a deed restriction against development at the 18-hole golf course.

Interestingly, Jaws is now raising money for the November challenger to the town's current mayor, to which the mayor points out appears to be an obvious attempt by the quarterback to curry favor down the road, calling it "pay-to-play at its worst" and a "total disregard for Gloucester Township homeowners." The mayor's campaign claims Jaworski's suit has coast the town and homeowner associations an "excess of $125,000."

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DC Bureau Paparazzi Exclusive: The Real World Plays Some Golf

In an HHR Exclusive, Special Agent Blue Pulaski has obtained photos of the newest cast of the Real World (currently filming in DC) playing golf at his home course this past Monday. Obtained from his secret tree-top location with a telescopic lens, Special Agent Pulaski has provided the world with some of the first glimpses of biggest thing to hit binge-drinking golf since John Daly won the PGA Title.

Update: Her name is Misty, of course.

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Blogs With Balls Radio Premiers on the Joe Sports Fan Radio Network

Welcome to the premier of Blogs With Balls Radio on the Joe Sports Fan Radio Network.

From JSF:

Over the past few weeks on our regular installment of the "JoeSportsFan Show", we teased the fact that big news was coming down the podcasting pipeline here on JoeSportsFan.com. Yesterday, you saw the initiation of this news as our own Patrick Imig and Jason Major debuted their first weekly show entitled, "The Steel Cage".

Today, we're happy to announce a partnership of sorts with respected cohorts that will deliver complementary content to our own internal lineup. Without further ado, we're pleased to unveil the "JoeSportsFan Radio Network".

We couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of the team.



Download Episode 1 Here.

Today we kick off with a show intro to let you know where we plan to take the show, and highlight what’s going on with the planning of Blogs With Balls 2.0 at the Blog World & New Media Expo.

We point out our first Ballsy Blog of the Week, IanPoulter.com.

Poulter’s site is no small reflection of the confidence he has in his game and his style.


We also have our first guest of the show, NCAA All-American from West Virginia, former 2nd round draft pick of the Tennessee Titans, former Cincinnati Bengals captain, and Founder & Co-CEO of JockBiz.com, John Thornton (@JohnThornton).

In his post-playing career, John blogs at AllProBlogger.com and offers full-service consulting for players in everything from nutrition and dieting to social media development at Jock Biz.

We are also honored to have John join Mike Germano (President, Carrot Creative), Pete Vlastelica (CEO, Yardbarker.com), Ron Wechsler (VP Series Production and Development, ESPN) on the “Connecting Directly” Panel at BwB2, where the group will look at what athletes being able to speak directly to their fanbase via blogs & Twitter means to sports media, bloggers, and fans.

John offers a preview of the discussion on today’s show.

Regarding how the media, namely those covering the Bengals, see their roles changing as guys like Chad Ochocinco circumvent the traditional athletes and take their message directly to fans:

“The media people that we talked to they were all sort of afraid for their jobs because they feel like they’re going to get cut out. Chad was actually on that panel and he said he wants to cut the middle man out because he’s been portrayed in a certain way…

I think the role of the media initially was to cover the game. Whether you’re supposed to tell what happened, but I think over time the media got so much power and they start to give their own opinions, their personal opinions. Now…the media has to reinvent themselves. You got to use social media…

You can’t be afraid of the athletes Tweeting or using their blogs or Facebook, you know whatever. You just gotta use it. You got to find a way to reinvent yourselves because it’s not just the newspapers anymore. Everybody’s online. Everybody’s on their cell phones. You just got to use that and incorporate it into your own story.”

Regarding how players interact, specifically those John consults with or is familiar with:

“We really try to let the guys know hey it’s cool to have fun, it’s cool to put yourself out there, but - you know - it’s public…

But then there’s guys that don’t care. There’s guys that I played with that I follow on Twitter that I’m like, ‘Why are you saying that? Why are you talking like that?’ But its really, its how they are...

This is your public image…”

Finally, we put John on the spot for a game we dubbed “Skyped Up” where we see just how familiar he is with the sports personalities his clients potentially have to interact with.

Look for more great things to come both with our show (which will be available each Wednesday), as well as the other personalities that will be announced on the JSF Radio Network in days and weeks to come.

This week's links of interest.

• BlogsWithBalls.com
• JoeSportsFan.com
• IanPoulter.com
• JockBiz.com
• AllProBlogger.com
• Twitter.com/IanJamesPoulter
• Twitter.com/JohnThornton
• Twitter.com/OgoChoCinco
• Twitter.com/kbull53

You can drop us comments, suggestions and hate mail at podcast[at]blogswithballs[dot]com.

Subscribe to the Joe Sports Fan Radio Network in iTunes.

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Jock of Love: John Daly Channels His Inner Bret Michaels

Via Jay Busbee at Yahoo!'s Devil Ball:

Just hours after dropping out of the PGA, Daly, who's got a history with the six-string, graced his Twitter followers with a new song called "Lost Soul." It's the title track from a forthcoming CD, one that I can guarantee I'll be buying.

As Busbee points out (and any remotely keen listener can pick up on from the clip below) the tune is that of the Poison classic "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

What's more, if you listen to the lyrics, Daly seems to have followed the David Allen Coe/Steve Goodman formula for writing the perfect Country & Western song.

Well done, Mr. Daly. Well Done.

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Rick Reilly Should Leave Top 10 Lists to Bloggers

Rick Reilly for ESPN the Magazine put together what he calls his "must-see" sporting events to see live, proving (again) he still doesn't know sh*t from shinola.



Rick Riley: The 10 best sporting events to see live
Commentary courtesy of Assassin Ave.

10. Home Run Derby NOT EVEN A REAL FUCKING GAME!

9. Iditarod -- WHAT?!! IT'S F*CKING COLD AND YOU CAN'T SEE ANY OF THE ACTION!

8. Ryder Cup -- GOLF KINDA SUCKS LIVES. AGAIN, YOU CAN'T SEE ANY OF THE ACTION AND AT BIG EVENTS YOU CAN'T MOVE AROUND CUZ THE CROWDS ARE SO BIG!

7. Yankees vs. Red Sox at Fenway - AGREED

6. America's Cup -- UMM, SURE

5. Tour de France -- BEYOND DRESSING UP IN A DEVIL CUSTOM AND CHASING PEOPLE, I DON'T SEE THE APPEAL.

4. North Carolina vs. Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium - AGREED.

3. Wimbledon -- ONLY TO CHECK OUT THE CHICKS.

2. Kentucky Derby -- HST OWNS THIS ONE.

1. Masters -- AGAIN, GOLF IS RIDICULOUS LIVE.

Not a single football game? Come on, the big college rivalries are the best thing to see in sports. Talk about pumped up crowds.

Thanks for nothing, Rick.

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From The D.C. Bureau: Hunter Mahan Is Gonna Be Late For Work

Thanks to the rain delay at Bethpage, Hunter Mahan had to wear his Sonic Car Hop uniform to the course today. Sources confirm he's headed straight to his other job right after he finishes his round.

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