So Bob Randisi thinks the only two hardboiled sports are
boxing and horse-racing?
Hmmm, I wonder if Bob really thinks that, or if Miles Jacoby
or Henry Po might have put him up to it...
At one point, I would have said hockey is hard-boiled, in the
best sense of the word, but now it's just embarrassing. I
must be getting old--I remember when the players had grace
and smarts and guts. Even a certain amount of class. To see
Jean Beliveau or Maurice Richard or Ken Dryden play was like
reading Chandler. But today's overpaid thugs have agents,
endorsement deals, and spin doctors, and regularly use their
sticks as weapons. It's like watching bad Mickey Spillane
directed by Peckinpagh on an off day.
But the actual sport has very little to do with it,
really-it's the greed and corruption and the egos and the
money that pervades the sports industry that makes it such
fertile ground for hard-boiled writing. I'm not sure if
Mohammed Ali was the Athlete of the Last Century, but Tonya
Harding certainly has set the tone for this one.
Maybe she's trying out for the NHL...
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
This month: The P.I. Poll on Short Fiction, plus new stuff
from Hugh Lessig, Peter Parmantie and Dave White.
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