Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster Michaels recounts his long, illustrious television career in an autobiography cowritten by prolific author Wertheim (Blood in the Cage). Michaels, who is known to many for his "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" call at the 1980 Winter Olympics "Miracle on Ice" hockey game, takes readers behind the scenes of a remarkably eclectic career that began as a Hawaii minor league baseball announcer in the late 1960s and has since encompassed everything from the Olympics to the Super Bowl to Wide World of Sports. Writing with humor and humility, Michaels provides inimitable insight into covering some of sports' biggest moments live on television and shares his perspective on working with legendary sportscasters and larger than life personalities, such as John Madden and Howard Cosell, plus a revolving cast of Monday Night Football analysts. Michaels's story is rife with amusingly told lessons for aspiring broadcasters, but adult themes and profane language make this inappropriate for younger sports fans. VERDICT This breezy, immensely entertaining book is recommended as light reading to adult readers interested in the inner workings of sports television broadcasting.-Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A veteran sportscaster revisits his career. Michaels (b. 1944) begins withand alludes to in other placeshis good fortune in his life and career. He writes about his boyhood in Brooklyn (yes, he loved Ebbets Field), the family's move to Southern California and his great admiration for the Dodgers' announcer Vin Scully. Throughout, the author mentions "the Rascal" that's in him, a Puckish sort of personality that occasionally escapes its minimum-security facility for some prankish fun. Michaels' father had one sort of connection to the celebrity world, and the author got an early audition (at 19) with sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was encouraging and gave him some important advice: "Don't ever get jaded." After an early break that nearly broke him (working with uncooperative Chick Hearn), Michaelswho'd early on resolved to be an announcerbegan his rise through the ranks, including a big break, announcing games for the Cincinnati Reds during some of their Big Red Machine years. He proved himself there, and before long, he was in the booth for some of the most memorable contests of our era. He writes in detail about the 1980 Olympic hockey game between the United States and the Soviets (and how he ad-libbed his classic line, "Do you believe in miracles?"). He also writes frankly about his friendship with OJ and Nicole Brown Simpson. He was slow to accept OJ's guilt and visited him several times in prison. The author does not really eviscerate anyone here (he has kind words for almost everyone), but he does declare that by the end of Howard Cosell's career, the tell-it-like-it-is guy had become "the world's biggest pain in the ass." He also takes a few jabs at producers Chet Forte and Mark Shapiro, but for the most part, the author is genial rather than vengeful. A playful puppy of a memoir about a big dog career. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

The ubiquitous Michaels has been a presence in television sports broadcasting since the 1970s. His defining moment came in the 1980 Winter Olympics, when the unheralded U.S. hockey team dispatched the heavily favored Soviets. Michaels' call as the game ended, Do you believe in miracles? YES!, has become a beloved sports catchphrase. Michaels' longest-running assignment was as the lead announcer on Monday Night Football, a post he held for 20 years, from 1986 to 2005. His strength as an announcer consists of his virtual invisibility coupled with tremendous preparation. This egoless announcing style is great in the booth but doesn't necessarily translate into great reading. Readers are given a fairly dry recitation of the announcer's career (and then I moved on to . . . ). He sprinkles the narrative with anecdotes of players, managers, and coaches, but, gentleman that he seems to be, there is no dishing here nor even much that isn't common knowledge (e.g., Pete Rose always liked to gamble). Still, this is a solid professional memoir by a nice person who rose to the top of his field.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2014 Booklist