Cover Image: The Average Joe's Super Sports Almanac

The Average Joe's Super Sports Almanac

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Member Reviews

At times, it is refreshing to read a book that is simply filled with interesting stories and facts. Instead of delving into a particular athlete, team or sport with minute detail, “The Average Joe’s Super Sports Almanac” takes short stories, little-known facts and other tidbits of information on a variety of sports and melds them together into a fun, quick easy read.

Steve Riach uses his many years of covering a variety of sports to collect many entertaining facts and stories on various sports – mostly the main four team sports in North America and some Olympic stories as well. The subjects vary widely – from examples of excellent sportsmanship (the Olympics are the source of many of these anecdotes) to funny quotes to unusual facts.

To illustrate the variety of topics, here are three facts that the reader will learn while reading this book. First, one of the most memorable golf meltdowns occurred on April 14, 1996 when Greg Norman lost a big lead in the final round of the Masters. Coincidently, April 14 is also when two other tragedies occurred: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Second, the athletes with the most Instagram followers is LeBron James with over 26 million followers. Other athletes with large followings on social media are Stephan Curry, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ronda Rousey and Dwayne Wade. Third, the only member of any sports Hall of Fame born on a train was Rod Carew.

These types of unusual facts, along with some humorous quotes (who can forget Latrell Sprewell rejecting a $29 million contract from the Timberwolves because “I’ve got my family to feed”?) and stories of the origins of several sports make the book a fun one to not only read in short bursts but also one that can be used to settle bets or instigate a debate. This latter idea will most likely happen after the readers learns the author’s choices for the greatest teams in the four major sports (I agreed with three of his four choices).

Any sports fan, no matter how big a fan he or she is, will enjoy this book that is a quick and easy read that can be finished easily in one sitting or enjoyed in short bursts, depending on the preference of the reader. Because so many sports are covered in this volume, no matter which sport readers prefers, they are sure to find something interesting about their favorite game.

I wish to thank Harvest House Publishers for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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I love US Sports and found myself needing something to scratch that itch more. In enters this book to my review pile. Do you need your US Sports stats itch scratching? Intrigued? Read on....





About
This is the perfect pick up and read book for those short moments. It is full of facts, quirky moments and those heart-warming stories that will make you read one more section.

"The Average Joe's Super Sports Almanac will delight fans of all ages and makes a great gift for the sports buff in your life - whether superfan or average Joe."

It will aim to throw your head in a loop with its weirder facts about some of your favourite teams and players.

Stats Like -

Chicago Bears were originally know as the Staleys
Houston Astros Infielder Julio Gotay played every game with a cheese sandwich in his back pocket.
Kevin Durant accepting his NBA MVP Award in 2014, told the crowd his mother is the real MVP.
And that is the stats that were found on the press release page (we could get away with putting here), reading the book more and more, you find more gems. Without spoiling it, I loved the shorter sections like the Julia Hawkins story and the stats on picking a perfect NCAA bracket.



Overall
The book is full of short stories, sometimes not even a page long. This is ideal for a pick up and read a little (ideal to read on the loo/toilet) - to then go back to it book. Quick facts and figures to pass to your friends and family.

3/5 Rating

Article Scheduled for 14th Apr, 2018 @ 10.15am GMT

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