The Smart Girl's Guide to Sports: A Hip Handbook for Women Who Don't Know a Slam Dunk from a Grand Slam

by Liz Hartman Musiker

For the woman whose significant other spends hours glued to ESPN comes a fun and irreverent guide to understanding (and enjoying) the male-dominated world of spectator sports

From The Smart Girl’s Guide to Sports:
Welcome, ladies. This book will not make you a sports expert. It will not make you put down a great novel to watch football, or stop you from helping your kids with their homework because you have to watch the last five minutes of a basketball game. It will, however, give you a glimpse of why men do these things. And it will allow you to enjoy sports—really, I swear.

The beautiful thing about sports, unlike, say, neurosurgery, is that a little bit of knowledge is not a dangerous thing. If you’re amidst a herd of men and the topic turns to sports, you only need to know a few key points and you’re in. If the discussion turns to home runs, for instance, and you say, “Yes, but there’s never been anything more exciting than when McGwire and Sosa were after Maris’s record,” you instantly win a new kind of respect from the testosterone crowd.

We don’t have the sports gene men have. (We have other, better ones.) Thus, this book aims to give you only the most fundamental, most fun, and most entertaining information—the tools to enjoy sports, or to participate in the game in whichever way you choose.

The Smart Girl’s Guide to Sports covers all the major professional sports: football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, soccer, boxing, and even car racing.

Each chapter includes a “Here’s How It Works” section that explains the basics of the game; profiles of each sport’s timeless greats and “contemporary cool” players; and a funny, readable glossary of key terms.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2005

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the edition I bought was from 2005, still, all that affected was what team who was on and the fact that Tiger Woods was not yet on the author's list of Stars Behaving Badly. I know more than I want to know about the latter, and the former is easily enough checked up on.

I found two things remarkable reading this book: how little I knew going in, and how easy Liz Hartman Musiker made it to learn it. I took notes, but did not actively study them, and still I know reams more now than I ever thought I would (or would want to). I know what a skyhook is, and that Kareem Abdul Jabbar was famous for them. With genuine affection for her subject combined with humor and an equally genuine understanding of the bafflement (and lack of interest) some women (I) feel, she hits the highlights and covers the bases. (Sorry.) I mean, I read this purely for Jeopardy. But it's actually interesting!

Thing is, though, if I'm ever in a position to use one of her guaranteed lines-to-make-you-a-goddess-in-men's-eyes, I'd probably be giggling too much to make it work. Football: "Oh, man, though – the Drive! There's never been anything to match that! 99 yards -!"

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got made fun of for reading it, but I swear that I really understand the rules of football now. And I still like hockey the best.

[Sandy Champagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative! I'm one of those women who has NEVER been interested in sports. I wasn't interested in PE in school either. I had tried having people explain football to me during a game and would get frustrated because they would throw out all this lingo to explain something else that I still didn't know. Also the illogical rules would also get to me. I picked up this book at a library sale and wasn't sure if I should get it because I am STILL not interested in sports but my son IS interested in sports so I'm glad I did pick it up and even more glad that I read it. I am a feminist and did not have a problem with the language, sexist or no, because it was very clearly tongue in cheek and meant to alleviate the tedium of explaining a subject adult women reading probably never had an interest in before with a little humor. I APPRECIATED being able to laugh a little when I became a little bored. The humor did not take away from the information at all. My only gripe is that if Musiker ever decides to update this book, I hope she includes a chapter on soccer as that is the sport my son is MOST interested in ^_~

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written like a ditsy girl for a ditsy girl....she explains everything but in a off-putting way. She describes Hockey players as marshmallow men and claims it's hard to keep track of the puck while you watch. Informative but hard to tolerate reading it.

[Chelsea Galusky · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE SMART GIRL’S GUIDE TO SPORTS 😆🤭❤️🙌🏼

“As women, we know that it can be necessary to own at least ten pairs of black pants. We know that each pair is completely different from the others—tight, loose, shiny, cottony, for dress-up, for dress-down, for work, for play, for yoga, downtown funky, uptown chic, the capri… It’s the same with basketball shots… there are almost as many varieties of shots as there are black pants.”

[Cristina Swenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome. I read this because my then-fiancé (now husband) is really into sports. I learned a ton, and now I can definitely hold my own when watching football and (to a lesser extent) basketball.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stupidly sexist and chock full of great info.