Following up my post from last week/last year crowdsourcing a good hockey book. I like the term crowdsourcing much more after reading this definition.

I decided to go with Blades of Glory by John Rosengren, which I picked up for a dollar off Half.com right before this (love me some Half.com). Minneapolis sportswriter Rosengren tells the story of the the Jefferson High School Jaguars of Bloomington, MN – coached by “the winningest hockey coach in the state,” Tom Saterdalen.

From Amazon:

Granted unlimited access to the team in its 2000-01 season, Rosengren attended “every team meeting, practice, and game” and became intimately involved with the team, its members’ parents, and its fans. Despite some disturbing incidents, such as discovering that some players were taking banned performance-enhancing substances, Rosengren found that the Jaguars’ “quest revealed the beauty and goodness of the game” even as it “exposed issues troubling to youth sports.” Kind of a Season on the Brink for hockey, Rosengren’s portrait of this highly rated team of teenagers–first ranked nationally among high-school hockey teams–its travails, and its accomplishments is not to be missed.

If there’s one good story about a fight in stands between hockey parents, I’ll be satisfied.

Thanks to the hockey bloggers who helped me out with their insights, especially Frank from Pensburgh and Chemmy from Pension Plan Puppets. I like doing these posts looking for good sports read. I may have to start a separate blog dedicated to such. Call it Voracious ______ (Walt Clyde Frazier, help me out).

Be advised, thoughts on Blades of Glory to come.

Last week, I put out the word that I was in the market for a good boxing book – despite the fact that my reading list is constantly beating me into submission. Great comments and emails followed from some of the most respected boxing voices online (Bill Dwyre (LA Times), Bryan Brennan (Bry Guy Boxing), Ryan from Fightlinker, and the guys from the fantastic No Mas). In the interest of not just moving on to the next one, I decided to post a follow-up and crowdsource the ultimate purchase decision.

I included all the suggestions that were put forth, plus W.C. Heinz’s The Professional because from what I hear it at least deserves to be in the final conversation. Hit the poll, and I will quite simply buy and read one of these tales from the ring.

The Great Prize Fight, by Alan Lloyd

Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring, by Teddy Atlas

Ghosts of Manila, by Mark Kram

The Harder They Fall, by Budd Schulberg

(Photo via NY Mag)

I’m thoroughly enjoying Treme. By no large stretch of the imagination is this because of familiar key players involved: David Simon, Eric Overmyer, David Mills (R.I.P.), Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, George Pelecanos – to name a handful. Each one of these people were involved in The Wire, a show which I devoured in it’s five season entirety in roughly eight months.

Last night’s fourth episode, At the Foot of Canal Street, was written by Wire producer/writer mainstay George Pelecanos. He was responsible – at least as much that he wrote the episode – for penning the The Wire terminology Hamsterdam, which got a call-out in last night’s episode of Treme.

Before I go too far down the The Wire nerd-hole, let me just stop and say that Pelecanos is seriously good at writing television drama. Those that want to continue to search for correlations between the two show, let me redirect you to today’s AV Club’s Stray Observations about Treme.

Pelecanos is also an accomplished author. He’s published a slew of novels, all in the genre of gritty detective fiction. All his books are set in Washington, D.C. – interesting b/c the T.V. shows he’s worked on – counting The Wire and Treme – only deal with the capital city on an ancillary level.

Personally, I’m interested in checking out what Pelecanos has to offer via lexicon. A little cursory research suggests if you’re going to read one, read King Suckerman. The Library Journal called it “Cheech and Chong meet Pulp Fiction in a retro novel of Seventies drug culture.” Plus, I think Puff Daddy tried to make it into a movie in the late-90′s (when he was called Puff Daddy).

Anyone familiar with Pelecanos’ literature, feel free to offer and alternative or words of encouragement to check out King Suckerman. Judging by my current acquaintance with his work, I’m going to like whatever it is.