It Beats Working by John Lardner

As John Lardner put it, the stuff in this book is about people. And what people! Here, for instance, are Tony Galento and Max Baer - named by Mr. Lardner as "horrible examples of what not to do at all times." Here, too, are Lou Nova, who could take a punch on the chin so well that it scared him; Eddie Mead, the horseplayer who coined the immortal words, "I hope I break even; I need the money"; and such awesome characters from baseball as Leo Durocher and Larry MacPhail. There are also pertinent Lardnerisms about football commentators, who are responsible for the peculiar disease known as "football ear." In thirteen lively chapters based on the author's weekly sports columns that appeared in Newsweek, It Beats Working looks the sports world squarely in the eye with a range that covers diamond, gridiron, ring, and track - with full attention to anecdotes, gossip, superstitions, and inside dope about our more colorful "athletic" heroes from here to there and back again. Willard Mullin, Scripps-Howard sports cartoonist, has contributed 52 illustrations specially drawn for the book. In short, It Beats Working is that rarest of items, a book about sports that will appeal to you whether you are (1) a sports lover, (2) a sports hater or (3) still have an open mind.