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Best Seat in the House: A Father, a Daughter, a Journey Through Sports
From the best-known and most widely read woman sports columnist in the United States comes a remarkable memoir of a father and a daughter, the story of a girl who would turn her love for sports into a trailblazing career.
Christine Brennan grew up in Toledo, Ohio, spending her summers playing with the boys on her block, memorizing baseball statistics, accompanying her dad to countless baseball and football games, and falling in love with everything about sports. While other girls were playing with Barbie dolls, Chris was collecting baseball cards and listening to the radio for the play-by-play accounts of her favorite teams.
The eldest of four children, Chris was her father's daughter from the beginning. For a girl growing up in the 1960s and '70s, in the days before Title IX changed the playing fields of America, there were few opportunities to play organized sports. But Jim Brennan encouraged his daughter to believe she could play anything she wanted to, and when she couldn't be on the field, he was by her side in the stands -- she always thought the seat next to her father was the best seat in the house -- usually cheering for the underdog, and making sure Chris knew there was a place for her in the world of sports.
In her warm and inspiring memoir, the first of its kind by a female sports journalist, Brennan takes readers from her neighborhood ball fields to the press boxes and locker rooms of stadiums around the world. Guided by her father's unfailing sense of loyalty, honor, and fairness, at the age of twenty-two she became the first female sportswriter for The Miami Herald , and in 1985 was the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer for The Washington Post .
Over the past quarter century, Brennan has reported on many of the biggest stories in sports, and led the coverage of both the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga and the pairs figure-skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Her USA Today column on Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, triggered a nationwide debate about the club's lack of female members.
Told in the spirited, friendly voice that readers of her column have come to love, Best Seat in the House is the heartwarming chronicle of a girl who came of age as women's sports were coming of age, encouraged every step of the way by her beloved father.
Christine Brennan grew up in Toledo, Ohio, spending her summers playing with the boys on her block, memorizing baseball statistics, accompanying her dad to countless baseball and football games, and falling in love with everything about sports. While other girls were playing with Barbie dolls, Chris was collecting baseball cards and listening to the radio for the play-by-play accounts of her favorite teams.
The eldest of four children, Chris was her father's daughter from the beginning. For a girl growing up in the 1960s and '70s, in the days before Title IX changed the playing fields of America, there were few opportunities to play organized sports. But Jim Brennan encouraged his daughter to believe she could play anything she wanted to, and when she couldn't be on the field, he was by her side in the stands -- she always thought the seat next to her father was the best seat in the house -- usually cheering for the underdog, and making sure Chris knew there was a place for her in the world of sports.
In her warm and inspiring memoir, the first of its kind by a female sports journalist, Brennan takes readers from her neighborhood ball fields to the press boxes and locker rooms of stadiums around the world. Guided by her father's unfailing sense of loyalty, honor, and fairness, at the age of twenty-two she became the first female sportswriter for The Miami Herald , and in 1985 was the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer for The Washington Post .
Over the past quarter century, Brennan has reported on many of the biggest stories in sports, and led the coverage of both the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga and the pairs figure-skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. Her USA Today column on Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, triggered a nationwide debate about the club's lack of female members.
Told in the spirited, friendly voice that readers of her column have come to love, Best Seat in the House is the heartwarming chronicle of a girl who came of age as women's sports were coming of age, encouraged every step of the way by her beloved father.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 26, 2014
This book held my attention from beginning to end. I got a kick out of her stories about attending baseball, basketball and football games as a kid with her dad. She really captures the passion (and obsession) that a fan feels for their team. When she goes on to tell about her career as a reporter, the book becomes more serious but it also contains some fun anecdotes about covering the Gators, the Redskins, the Olympics, the Masters, you name it. My favorite part of the book was the woman-reporter-in-the-NFL-locker-room controversy, and how she handled that, which was basically, with a lot of class. I recommend this book to women (young and old) who love sports.
June 17, 2008
Was really looking forward to this book, even went to the book reading to meet the author, only to be disappointed in the book. Maybe my expectation was too high, but struggled to finish it.
January 5, 2022
This is by far one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. It resonated with me so deeply in ways I could have never imagined. I simply could not put it down.
April 29, 2010
Christine Brennan's wonderful memoir brings together her career in journalism, her love for sports, and her admiration for her father. As she eloquently chronicles her early fan days following Michigan football as well as local Toledo minor league and college teams, it's obvious she was destined to be a champion in her own career. She played ball with the boys as a child and her high school girls' teams were treated like second-class citizens in the pre-Title IX days. Besides telling her own stories as a reporter covering college and pro football, the Olympics and more, Chris does a fine job illustrating the phenomenal growth of girls' and women's sports and the respect they have earned over the last 30-plus years. It gave me an opportunity reflect on how much different things have been for my daughter than they were for me. As tough as anyone covering a war or the White House, Christine Brennan has never been afraid to ask the tough questions. Whether confronting an NFL coach or owner, or the head of the restrictive Augusta Country Club, Chris is passionate, assertive and fair. Memoirs, especially when they pay homage to a parent, can sometimes be overly scentimental, but this book is not at all schmaltzy. Christine Brennan is still as excited by a major sporting even as she was as a kid. It's truly an all-American story of a successful woman and the family values that gave her the inspiration, confidence, poise and class that she carries with her everywhere she goes--even to the men's locker room.
September 22, 2012
We were fellow Americans in the same row of seats at the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund, Germany; it was great to exchange morning pleasantries with her each day. Such an enjoyable, inspiring book!
August 11, 2008
interesting story about a woman's journey into playing and then reporting sports.
June 13, 2009
This book is GREAT ... so well written.
I've cried every few chapters or so. Her dad is a lot like my dad.
I've cried every few chapters or so. Her dad is a lot like my dad.
August 12, 2011
I love this book. Her relationship with her dad remind me of me and mine. I also have grown up in Toledo so it felt like she was writing some of my history.
June 29, 2013
Honest, open, unafraid to generate a bit of controversy, Brennan is a stellar journalist. A great read.
September 29, 2015
okay, some long boring parts, some good parts
July 31, 2019
1966-2004 autobiography of author growing up as a sports-mad girl and breaking into sports journalism
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews