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You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television by

3.82 AVERAGE

psalmcat's profile picture

psalmcat's review against another edition

4.0
Surprisingly fun. I remember so many of the things he talks about in his career. He doesn't pull punches about people he has worked with and hated. But he also credits people for things even when they later fall apart. Interesting. Fun. Michaels read a couple of chapters himself, but most of the book was read by someone else, and quite well, too.

heylauralou's review against another edition

3.0
This book is very long (too long). The first part of the book is fascinating. He tells his story about working his way up to the job he wanted. It's a great story about persistence and he tells mostly unknown stories. Once he gets the job he wanted he's just telling meandering pointless stories people already know (because he already told them on tv) and name drops people. The only exception was the chapter about miracle on ice and that's just such a compelling story I probably overlooked the previously mentioned faults.

I love sports and I love sports stories. I did not, however, like this book. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone-- which is really a shame because the first half is so good!

heatherr's review against another edition

3.0


While most kids dreamt about playing in the World Series, young Al Michaels wanted to announce it. He followed his dream to being the voice of a minor league baseball team in Hawaii in the 60s. Then the major league came calling but required him to move his family from Hawaii to Ohio - oh, the horror!

He moved up from there to a place announcing all types of sports including football, horse racing, and motorcycle racing on ice.

He covered hockey at the Olympics including the dramatic 'Miracle on Ice' game between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

http://youtu.be/qYscemhnf88

I thought his most interesting stories were the ones that didn't directly involve sports.

  • He had just opened the broadcast of the World Series when the Northridge earthquake hit. The game was cancelled and he broadcast from the street until the next morning for ABC's live coverage.

  • One of his best broadcasting partners, tennis partner, and neighbor was O.J. Simpson. He had been to the house many times and was even able to secretly tell ABC not to broadcast the news that O.J. was trapped in his house because he knew that there were other ways out.


This was a great overview of the world of U.S. sports in the last 40 years from Wide World of Sports to Sunday Night Football.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story