Books

 

Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010)

Reviews

Video

Spinoff Articles

Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball (Summerset Press, 1996)

In the 1980s, the University of Massachusetts was one of the worst college basketball teams in America, at one point losing an almost unfathomable 29 straight games. In the 1990s under John Calipari, they became one of the best, earning a No. 1 national ranking for part of the 1994-95 season and almost all of 1995-96. UMass reaped some incredible rewards for its success and also paid a huge price in terms of loss of innocence. There was a grades controversy that rocked the program (and provided a case study in journalistic ethics), and then a scandal surrounding National Player of the Year Marcus Camby taking gifts from agents. This book explores the pros and the cons of a rise to the top in college sports.

Recognition

  • Appeared multiple times in 10-time Emmy Award winner Jonathan Hock’s “30 for 30” documentary on John Calipari, “One and Not Done” (including twice in the one-minute trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXRTGkZL780)
  • Book favorably reviewed in the December 23, 1996 edition of Sports Illustrated
  • Named “one of the top 10 books on basketball history” in sports historian Peter Bjarkman’s 2000 book, The Biographical History of Basketball

Spinoff articles