Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "When Pride Still Mattered"

Tom Hamilton is the "Voice of the Tribe" - the radio voice of the Indians.

He is in his 28th year with the team and is one of the reasons working in this business is so much fun.

Laughing with Tom, who carriers a magical sense of humor, is worth a least a month longer in your life. He had the entire crew in the booth laughing and falling in love with him in a matter of minutes.

That's Tom.

I was delighted he joined me to talk about his favorite book, "When Pride Still Mattered" by David Maraniss. He is a Packers fan through and through, as you will hear in his voice.

One gets an insight as to what it means to be such a fan and what coach Vince Lombardi meant to fans like Tom.

I have not read this book, so the review is all Tom's. What I was most interested in was did this book reflect the thoughts of Packers fans and bring to print their feelings about the legendary coach Lombardi.

Tom answers that in the affirmative.

As Tom tells us, Maraniss apparently did not pull punches in this work. Lombardi was human and that humanity apparently comes through.

This is a legendry sports book written about a football power and coach that have taken on mythical proportions.

Maraniss is an historian, so his bent is to write in an historically correct manner. Tom thinks he did so here.

"From the myth of this model of order, loyalty, and victory, Maraniss has fashioned a richly complicated counter life of a sports icon committed to and consumed by the quest for perfection." - Kirkus Review

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2018 season is his 12th with the club and 33nd covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The Orioles and Sarasota County, for the 7th consecutive year, have partnered on the Big League Reader Program, which rewarded kids who read three books in February with tickets to a Grapefruit League game at Ed Smith Stadium in March. 180 children participated last year.

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