{"id":2355,"date":"2017-02-17T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T18:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2017-02-17T10:56:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T18:56:37","slug":"review-playing-through-the-whistle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=2355","title":{"rendered":"Review: Playing Through The Whistle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if I weren’t connected to it, I’d have to agree that Aliquippa, PA is a remarkable place.\u00a0 It has placed a steady steam of players into the NFL, been the source of two landmark Supreme Court labor decisions, given us the Pink Panther theme music, formed Mike Ditka, and produced my parents and grandparents.\u00a0 The demographics and population of the town has also reflected the rise and fall of large scale manufacturing in America.\u00a0 S. L. Price beings the place to life in Playing Through The Whistle<\/em> in a way that’s engaging and consistent with my limited experience with the town.<\/p>\n

As a sportswriter, a look at the football history of Western Pennsylvania raises your eyebrows. Just listing the stars – Hall of Fame members – who grew up and learned to play within 50 miles of Pittsburgh is startling.\u00a0 A deeper look reveals a steady stream of both successes at all levels and strong prospects that don’t pan out.\u00a0 There are a lot of factors that can distort the reality and the perception of that record, but as a writer it’s a story that must make you drool.\u00a0 Price clearly couldn’t resist, and captures that duality.<\/p>\n

I’m glad he couldn’t.\u00a0 He digs in to the stories of the residents, the stars, and the history of the place and presents it dynamically. My experience reading the story of the place – so far – is certainly colored by my tenuous connection. Seeing names in print that I would hear as a kid visiting the place made a lot of the narrative real to me.\u00a0 Beyond the names, the rhythms and emphasis in the stories from residents sound like the stories I’ve heard.\u00a0 It’s remarkable to hear the tenor of them change in the years after my parents left.\u00a0 I remember hearing my grandparents decrying many of the events that Price describes.\u00a0 It’s enlightening to hear the events from a reporter with only a professional attachment to the place and compare them with how decades-long residents talked about them.<\/p>\n

Even without that sort of history, Price balances the backdrop of the region and the specifics of the town admirable.\u00a0 His research – historical and interviews – are remarkable.\u00a0 Beyond the facts, he brings the place and the story to life. Coming into the area through the remarkable sports successes makes the other historical discussions accessible to a readership that might not usually look at history.<\/p>\n

Strongly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even if I weren’t connected to it, I’d have to agree that Aliquippa, PA is a remarkable place.\u00a0 It has placed a steady steam of players into the NFL, been the source of two landmark Supreme Court labor decisions, given us the Pink Panther theme music, formed Mike Ditka, and produced my parents and grandparents.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2359,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}