Helpful Score: 1
CBS sportscaster Nantz, who has broadcast every major sporting event from the Olympics to the Super Bowl to the Masters, is one of those rare people who defined his professional goals early in life and set about reaching them. While in college in Houston, he worked his way through a series of low-level jobs, all related to broadcasting, and then, with his businessman father serving as mentor, he negotiated his way upstream in an incredibly competitive field. The elder Nantz, who developed Alzheimers just as Jim was entering the most satisfying stage of his career, has served as a constant benchmark for his son, who approaches his life seemingly armed with one question: What would Dad do? This professional memoir works best when Nantz reflects on memories of his fathers irrepressible optimism. When Nantz the elder isnt a presence, the book devolves into a series of anecdotesinteresting enough but hardly revelatoryabout the big events in sports over the last 20 years and the machinations of sports broadcasting. One of Nantzs best qualities as a broadcaster is his ability to fade into the background while emphasizing the action in front of him. Thats his approach here, too, and if it works slightly less well in a memoir, it does offer a refreshing change from the typical all-about-me book.
