Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines

By Dick Schaap

Book Overview

Muhammad Ali stretched out on a brown couch, a towel across his waist, while an air conditioner fired cool air across his body. It was a scorching Manila morning, and in thirty minutes Ali would go to war with Joe Frazier for the third and final time. Ali yawned and stared at the ceiling of his dressing room. "Just another day's work," he said. "Just gotta go beat on another man." The reporter did what a reporter is supposed to do. He listened and wrote down Ali's words.

And so began just another day's work for Dick Schaap, who in the past half-century has carved out his own legend, not with his fists but with his reportorial verve, his indefatigable curiosity, and his irrepressible wit. Now, in Flashing Before My Eyes, the longtime ABC correspondent and host of ESPN"s The Sports Reporters recounts a charmed career in which he has met almost everyone and seen almost everything. He has played golf with Bill Clinton, tennis with Bobby Fischer, cards with Wilt Chamberlain. He has written books with Joe Namath and Joe Montana. He has taken Brigitte Bardot to dinner and Lenny Bruce to a World Series. He saw the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants in sudden-death overtime, and the Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys in the Ice Bowl. He saw Bill Mazeroski end a World Series with a home run, and Willis Reed lift the New York Knicks to an NBA title. He has covered murders and riots, presidential campaigns and Broadway openings. He introduced Muhammad Ali to Billy Crystal, and Billy Crystal to Joe DiMaggio. He walks with sluggers and senators, cops and comedians, authors and actresses, and he shares the sights he sees and the words he hears in stories that make you laugh and cry.

With an introduction by Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom, Schaap's memoir gives the reader the ultimate highlight reel of the last fifty years and makes a compelling case that if Dick Schaap wasn't there to see it, it didn't happen.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380975122
• ISBN13: 9780380975129
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Schaap is the ultimate storyteller

Reading this book literally changed my life. I changed my major in college to journalism when i read this account of Schaap's life and his work. This book is a must read for sports lovers, people who enjoy great stories and people who love great writing.

Sports Icon

Dick Schaap has forgotten more about sports than I will ever know. He knows everybody from A to Z. Any sports junkie would enjoy this book. We can live out our sports interviews though the eyes of Dick Schaap. Get well Dick, I miss you the ESPN's the SportsReporters..

Mericle's opinion

Beautiful writing. I laughed and smiled and laughed. I've met Dick and he is clearly visible through his words. Reading this book was a great turn on! Charming!

SCHAAP'S "MAGICAL" LIFE A FASCINATING READ

In 1992, I interviewed Dick Schaap for a story I wrote in Sports Collectors Digest. We talked about his life as a reporter for newspapers, magazines, and TV and I was amazed at the vast number of people he has come in contact with and befriended. In his autobiography, he amazes me even more. This book is well-written, extremely frank, and funny. He's opinionated and honest, two qualities that have helped him rise to the top of his profession. And what a storyteller! For sheer name-dropping, this book is over the top. I wish even more that I could be Schaap's valet for a year to see who he sees and attend the events he attends! Now, about that table at Rao's . . .

A Who's Who in Sports

This is a "sort of" autobiography of Dick Schaap, one of the country's most prolific chronicler of sports and the people of sports. It outlines his rise from the streets of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn to his present position as ABC correspondent and host of his own show on ESPN. Schaap tells his life's story, for the most part, as it has been entwined around his meetings, conversations, and friendships with the most famous names in sports. Never have so many names been dropped with such aplomb and in such an entertaining manner.The book is a joy from beginning to end. The chapter called "Collector's Items," a series of recollections of very short humorous and/or ironic encounters with the famous, leads the reader into a fascinating journey through Schaap's life and reveals his remarkable story telling style. Any attempt to mention all the greats and near greats of sports that Schaap refers to in the book would border on the ridiculous. It's enough, I think, to state that he includes always interesting and mostly humorous stories and insights about almost every important (and self-important) sports personality of the past fifty or so years.I absolutely enjoyed this book. If you ever had dreams of getting to know the sports "heroes" of your youth or adulthood, chances are Schaap has actually lived out that fantasy. With his great talent with words, he can carry you along to vicariously do the same.