College Football: FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll - Week 3

 

In the FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll for Week 2 of the 2024 college football season, Texas took the top spot for the first time in the poll's history.

Boston Gave Yanks Fitts Early Before Judge Issued Late Ruling

 

Aaron Judge watching the path of his grand slam in the seventh inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees had one of their most thrilling seasons wins of the season on Friday night at a raucous Yankee Stadium, as they stormed back to beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, on a game-winning grand slam by Aaron Judge.

Books: On Unique Sports That Are Growing In Popularity

It is September, a wonderful time to be a sports fan, and in this review, we will look at three new books that capture the wide variety of sports that people enjoy: SEC Football: How a Regional League Became a National Obsession, by Colby Newton; F1 Racing Confidential: Inside Stories from the World of Formula One, by Giles Richards; and The Promise of Women's Boxing: A Momentous New Era for the Sweet Science, by Malissa Smith.

Yankees Run Past Royals To Take Series Finale In Extra Innings

 

There was a pregame tribute on the 23rd anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees won a thriller against the Kansas City Royals, 4-3, in 11 innings on Wednesday night, as they took two out of three in this series that felt like a possible playoff preview right out of the '70s.

Yankees To Offer Prostate Cancer Screening Thursday Night

Yankee Stadium's famous facade. Photo by Jason Schott.

 

On Thursday night, fans attending the Yankees' game against the Boston Red Sox can take a free pregame prostate cancer screening, hosted by the Yankees, Fans for the Cure, and Montefiore Einstein.

Books: "Confronting the Presidents" By Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

 

Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden

By Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

St. Martin's Press; hardcover, 304 pages; $32.00; available today, Tuesday, September 10th

Iconic television news journalist and radio host Bill O'Reilly hosts "No Spin News," weeknights at 8 PM and 11 p.m. on The First TV, a new media network on many digital platforms, including Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. He also hosts "The O'Reilly Update" on the radio, and that can he heard on the Pandora app and 225 stations across the country. He has been a broadcaster for over 49 years, and he has won three Emmys and numerous other journalism accolades. Before his long tenure with Fox News when he anchored the top-ranked "The O'Reilly Factor, he was a national correspondent for CBS News and ABC News, as well as a reporter-anchor for WCBS-TV here in New York.

O'Reilly is also a prominent author, with 18 number-one ranked non-fiction books. That includes his renowned Killing series, which he has written with Dugard is the most popular series of narrative histories in the world, with 19 million copies in print and a remarkable run of #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers. There have been 13 books in the Killing series to this point. Recent releases include Killing the Killers (please click here for our review), which focused on the War on Terror and became a #1 New York Times and national bestseller, and Killing the Legends, on Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali. (click here for our review).

Martin Dugard, who has authored several New York Times bestselling books of history, including Taking London: Winston Churchill and the Fight to Save Civilization, Taking Paris and Taking Berlin.

In O'Reilly and Dugard's new book, Confronting the Presidents, they present a unique look at the 45 men privileged enough to hold the most office in the world. After all, while Joe Biden is our 46th President, it's 45 because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, something former President Donald J. Trump is trying to match at the moment. 

From the United States' first President, George Washington, up to Biden, fresh stories and tantalizing facts are weaved together in the lively, informative style readers are used to in their prior books, especially the many legends from across all walks of life who were subjects of the Killing series.

The measure of each President is taken, as each one has left a lasting legacy and impact on America, some of which are powerfully relevant today, some best left in the dustbin of history. Many presidential reputations evolved over time, but regardless of their shifting political fortunes or how historians view them, all shaped the country in important and unexpected ways.

There are many never-before-seen historical facts that are uncovered in this book, ascertained from private correspondence and newly discovered documentation. There are 45 portraits of each president, which will include a look at who served the country's needs best, which ones undermined the Founding Fathers' ideals, what rivalries and controversies shaped their presidencies, the surprising roles many First Ladies played in history, and in O'Reilly fashion, a No Spin Assessment of who was the best, the worst, and who had little impact.

This book does not solely view them from a political lens, as the authors delve into these leaders' lives. What did they like to eat, drink, and do for recreation when not working? How well did they make decisions under pressure? What are their lasting legacies?

Each chapter goes along with the number of their Presidency, starting with George Washington being 1 right up through Barack Obama's 44. Since the stories of our last two Presidents are still active, there are individual essays by O'Reilly and Dugard in a very thoughtful Afterword chapter. 

"The legacies of President Trump and President Biden are not complete, so it is impossible for any historian to fairly and fully evaluate their service at this point," O'Reilly and Dugard write. "American is bitterly divided over the two, often forming impressions based on distorted data put forth by an ideological media. The authors of this book are not interested in advancing false narratives of promoting fallacious conspiracy theories. We are a fact-based duo that strives for accuracy and insight."

The profiles of their two most immediate predecessors - George W. Bush and Barack Obama - provide some of the best context for what brought us here.

The chapter on Bush is done artfully, as it emphasizes how much the attacks of September 11, 2001, shaped his presidency, and brought the country together after the contested 2000 election. There also is plenty about his relationship with his wife, Laura Bush, whose approval rating was an astonishing 85 percent at one point, and how they would start each day having coffee together. As with all their examinations of our Commanders-in-Chief, their assessment is a balanced one, that while Bush showed tremendous leadership in the days after 9/11 and produced notable legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act, his second term went downhill fast, marked by an inept response to Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis in his last year. The authors also note that, as they write, that "it is during Bush's presidency that Americans frequently begin speaking of themselves as living in conservative 'red' states of liberal 'blue' states. The rising influence of cable television adds to this division. Networks tilt their points of view toward liberal or conservative audiences."

Obama's chapter starts with a look at his personality, and how he had little time for frivolity, and a focus on how he selected Biden to be his Vice President so he could deal with Congress, which Obama had little interest in doing himself. Obama's main achievement was the Affordable Care Act, which also colloquially known as "ObamaCare," and that shaped the first year of his presidency until it was signed into legislation on March 23, 2010. It was so unpopular at the time that the Republicans, driven by the Tea Party movement, romped in the 2010 midterm elections. Shortly after that, Donald Trump, then still a television personality and businessman, starts questioning whether Obama was born in the United States. This leads to Obama mercifully having fun at his expense at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in late April 2011 (won't tell you what major event happened soon after), the first time the two engaged in battle.

"There is no question that Barack Obama changed the country dramatically. Not because of what he did with policy but rather because the chain reaction that develops after the nation's first black president takes office spirals in many directions. And one of those destinations is Donald Trump," O'Reilly and Dugard write.

"Both Obama and Trump are larger-than-life figures. Both engender loyalty and loathing. But without the administration of Barack Obama, Trump would likely not have been president. The backlash against the big government policies Obama embraced directly leads to the success of the populist Trump."

One highlight of the book is that there are the official portraits of all Presidents and First Ladies collected in two photo galleries.

In this excerpt, O'Reilly and Dugard write of the magnitude of this job that shapes not just their current moment, but far longer: "Imagine being the most powerful person in the world. All your daily needs taken care of, full-time luxury, the ability to change the lives of millions of people, for better or worse.

There have been forty-five male presidents of the United States. One woman, Hillary Clinton, came close. But who are these people, really? The answer to that seemingly simple question  is the quest of this book. And the answer is complicated because so many different circumstances are involved.

There have been bad people elected to the highest office of the land as well as noble ones. It's sometimes difficult to make the judgment. But we, the authors, will decide based on the facts we have uncovered.

Some presidents were drunks. Some corrupt. A few outright racist. Almost all had hidden eccentricities that may startle you. All endured heartbreak.

And each president has affected you by the way they conducted themselves in office. Decisions made hundreds of years ago resonate today.

Thus, our history book series switches from the "killing" concept to the "confronting" arena. But the style is the same. No fussing around, right to the point. Different eras, strange occurrences, dubious behavior. These will be vividly chronicled as we assess the leaders who made the United States what it is today.

For better or, in more than a few cases, worse.

The decision of 2024 is looming as we write this book. As in 1860, we are an intensely divided nation - one that could descend into social chaos. Political bitterness is in the air.

However, the country has been through this before and emerged stronger for it. What will happen this time? Impossible to predict.

Books: "Punishing Putin" By Stephanie Baker

 

Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia

By Stephanie Baker

Scribner; hardcover, 368 pages; $29.99; available today, Tuesday, September 10th

Stephanie Baker is a veteran journalist who is an award-winning investigative reporter at Bloomberg News. She began her career reporting from Moscow during the 1990s, which was an unpredictable period of social optimism, economic opportunism, and chaos that sent Russia into disarray in the wake of the end of the Cold War. Since 2018, Baker has chronicled the rise and fall of Russian billionaires and written extensively about the sanctions placed on Russia.