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Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions
Massive goalies, midget batters, and Mike Tyson...
Todd Gallagher faced them all to answer your questions
Every sports fan knows that the debates can be almost as interesting as the games themselves (unless you’re a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, in which case they're much more interesting). But some debates can never be settled no matter how much you run up your bar tab arguing ...more
Todd Gallagher faced them all to answer your questions
Every sports fan knows that the debates can be almost as interesting as the games themselves (unless you’re a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan, in which case they're much more interesting). But some debates can never be settled no matter how much you run up your bar tab arguing ...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
April 14th 2010
by Three Rivers Press
(first published October 2nd 2007)
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Community Reviews
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Joseph Pinchback
added it
You ever read a book and say to yourself, "I'll be willing to bet good money that this author is just a tremendous asshole"? Well, that's the kind of book we are dealing with here. The premise is terrific. The book attempts to answer goofy sports questions, like "What would happen if a team of all midgets played in a Major League Baseball game?" and "Why don't NHL teams just hire really fat goalies and stuff them into the nets?" Some of the questions are really funn...more
3.5 stars. Fun read. Todd Gallagher suffers from the all too common writer's problem where he thinks he's way funnier than he actually is. So many unfunny jokes and unwarranted jabs are stuffed into the book that you could just eye roll yourself to death.
With that said, the book is still fun. It's worth reading for any sports fan. I guarantee almost everyone has taken part in a conversation regarding one of the questions 'answered' within. I guess what keeps this from being the bette...more
With that said, the book is still fun. It's worth reading for any sports fan. I guarantee almost everyone has taken part in a conversation regarding one of the questions 'answered' within. I guess what keeps this from being the bette...more
This is an amusing collection of essays researching some great sports debates. He touches on pretty much all of the big sports, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, even NASCAR.
Some of the highlights include an olympic swimmer doggie-paddling, sumo wrestlers as NFL linemen, and the awe-inspiring offense of midget baseball players. Lowlights include the chapters on groupies and the psychic at the rock-paper-scissors tournament.
The writing is good enough, but...more
Some of the highlights include an olympic swimmer doggie-paddling, sumo wrestlers as NFL linemen, and the awe-inspiring offense of midget baseball players. Lowlights include the chapters on groupies and the psychic at the rock-paper-scissors tournament.
The writing is good enough, but...more
This book is SPECTACULAR! for sports fans, especially ones like me who spend too much time watching sports, talking about sports, reading about sports, and generally meditating on the greatness of sports. Todd Gallagher is able to get serious, credible pro athletes to help him gauge his ridiculous ideas (that we've all had or heard about). Can anyone, like Earl "The Goat" Menigault, make change off the backboard? Would a team of midgets be unstoppable in the MLB? How much of a hea...more
This book is for all sports fans. The author goes to great lengths to answers ridiculous sports questions that are only asked after drinking for hours. As the title suggests, he actually played a game of tennis with Andy Roddick, wherein Roddick used a frying pan as a racket. He also has his friend race an Olympic sprinter with the aid of one of those walkways in the airport. He even plays beer pong with a professional dart player! This book is hilarious, and it's very interesting to see ho...more
A clever, entertaining read. Gallagher isn't half as funny as he thinks he is, but the overall plan of the book is nothing short of brilliant. Questions about obese goalies and frying pan-wielding tennis players have long been the stuff of meandering sports fan chat sessions, so it's about time we got some debate-ending answers.
Laugh out loud funny... the kind of book that earns you weird looks on the subway. Not all of the essays were hilarious, but those that were made up for those that weren't.
Michael
added it
The snarky tone covers up what is really an earnest celebration of athletic talent.
Ugh, this is too much of a dude book. But I laughed a lot.
It's kind of uneven so far. The experiments that come to fruition are generally satisfying, but some of them never go past the the discussion phase. When this happens, there are more attempted jokes, which often feel like weak Dave Barry asides. But it's still pretty enjoyable.
additions after finishing:
The last few segments were very good, and made up for some of the shaky things at the beginning. There's no great build throughout the book, so feel free to dip in and just r...more
additions after finishing:
The last few segments were very good, and made up for some of the shaky things at the beginning. There's no great build throughout the book, so feel free to dip in and just r...more
This is a pretty fun read book that examines some fun sports "What if" questions that you would normally be heard at a bar. Some of my favorite questions were "Could a midget be a successful player in the MLB?" and "How much do players care about their stats?", and "Could a person who gets a week of practice of free throw shooting be able to win a 100 shot contest against and avg NBA player?" The author is a little annoying in some spots with his humor, ...more
I enjoyed this book. I'm not a sports guy and some of the references, okay, a lot of the references I didn't get...But Gallagher is such a funny writer that it didn't matter that I couldn't care less about the answers to these burning questions.
This isn't one of my traditional types of book but after buying it for my husband, I ended up reading the entire thing in a day. It was smart, funny and interesting--especially if you are a sports fan.
Melissa
marked it as to-read
I first heard about this book on a morning talk radio show and finally got around to adding it, after the radio show decided to attempt to beat the Washington Mystics women's basketball team.
view 2 comments
Not a great book by any means. However, very entertaining. I loved reading about a sumo wrestler as a NFL OL.
I really liked this, but it combines sports and random hypotheticals, so how could I not?
this is a funny little book. Nothing deep, just a lot of oddball things.
Laugh out loud read - people stare at me on the train!!
Lisa West
marked it as to-read
Karlie Schaefer
marked it as to-read
Sam Hammington
marked it as to-read
Jai
marked it as to-read
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