New Book: It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium, on sale now...

I found this book "It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium" in Barns & Noble on Saturday. I'm 3 chapters into it and it's a great book to read. It's about John Ed Bradley's playing days under Charlie Mac. He's a very good writer with great detail sharing his experience at LSU as an All SEC Center for the Tigers in the late 70's. He brings you in close to his emotional transition from football to life after. He lays the ground work from being a coaches son in Opelousas, learning to play football, playing at LSU and what that meant to his family and friends. So far there's some great conversations he shares from Charlie Mac and Bear Bryant at an SEC awards banquet. For any Tiger fan this is a must read if you like reading about LSU through the eyes of a very good writer.

Another interesting part of the book is how he was recruited. How colleges would use the hard sale to using pretty coed's as a recruiting tool. And yes he names names.

As I said, I'm just now into Chapter 4. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys hearing about what it was like to play football at LSU and having to one day leave the game behind. A Great Read! :thumb:

Here's a previous thread on the book before it was released.

http://www.tigerforums.com/tigers-den/57029-never-rains-tiger-stadium.html

Here's a link to the book:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781933060330&itm=1

And here's a short summary from the publisher:

From the Publisher

"It was the biggest high you could have. No drugs could match it. The way it felt to run out there with the crowd yelling for you. I wish every kid could experience that."Such was the charmed life of 21-year-old John Ed Bradley, All-SEC center for the Louisiana State University Tigers. But after his final football game, a 34-10 Tiger romp over Wake Forest in the 1979 Tangerine Bowl, he firmly closed the door to his locker and to his past. He moved on, seemingly untouched by the game, to become a successful journalist and novelist.
But Bradley couldn't help looking back, and soon that past was right in front of him. After the deaths of his old coach, Charles McClendon, and a fellow lineman, Bradley could no longer fight off his Tiger memories. Twenty-three years later, he still knew the names, weights, and jersey numbers of the teammates he had called brothers, and whom he had been neglecting ever since.
It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium is inspired by Bradley's classic essay "The Best Years of His Life," which appears in Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing. It chronicles his rediscovery of the team that he had long forsaken but never forgotten, and his search for forgiveness from teammates who had never forgotten him.

Author Description

John Ed Bradley is the author of several highly praised novels, including Tupelo Nights and My Juliet. A former staff writer for the Washington Post, Bradley has contributed features to Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and GQ. He lives in Opelousas, Louisiana.

 

There's no feeling in the world like storming into Tiger Stadium on game night Saturday wearing the Purple and Gold. . . and that's just from my perspective as a fan running up the ramps to get to my seat !!

To actually enter Tiger Stadium on game night as a LSU Tiger football player must make a guy feel like . . . .



. . . THE ROMAN EMPEROR WAVING TO A HUNDRED THOUSAND
OF HIS CHEERING SOLDIERS AND CENTURIONS !!!!


OH, YEAH!! GEAUX TIGERS !!

 

I don't like to rain on anyone's parade but gotta say I thought this book was pretty pathetic. I was really looking forward (preordered it!) to getting an inside look of what it's like playing in my beloved Tiger Stadium. Unfortunately, the book is a biography of a person who could never grow up.

Four years after graduating he still didn't have a job. Dated the love of his lfe for eight years in secret so his dad wouldn't find out. Couldn't bear to go to an LSU game, listen to one on the radio, keep in touch with old teammates, or even stay in touch w/Charlie Mac because the lost memories of his playing days were just too painful??? Gimme a break.

If he wrote the book (and ESPN published it) to make money off Tiger fans, that's pretty bad. But if he truly can't get on with his life this long after leaving LSU he should, like a friend said after also reading the book, seek professional help immediately.

If he's looking for sympathy I think what he needs is a swift kick in the ass.

 

John Ed Bradley's It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium

I haven't renewed my contributor status yet, I find myself a touch broke at the moment. :lol:

Anywho, I figure I'm safe posting this in here. I grabbed this autobiography (from ESPN Press) last Friday from the Union Bookstore. I just finished it tonight, so it's not an incredibly difficult read. The story is moving (the last chapter just about made me cry), and the book itself should be easy to relate to for anyone who's ever played organized football.

It's really cool to read how he describes BTR and LA locales. You really know these places, and reading about them is a strangely pleasing sensation. For someone who wasn't born during the era of LSU football the book does focus on, I really enjoyed reading about the USC-LSU game in '79.

It's not a straight sports story, as a forewarning, but it's a moving and poetic piece (if a touch overdramatic) that anyone, let alone any LSU fan, should read. One of my top 5 favorite books of all time.

 

Re: John Ed Bradley's It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium

Well, I don't want to read it, then.

I was there. Didn't have a seat. Just blocked an aisle here or a row there.

I heard a pre-game interview of him this past Saturday on 98.1 FM. I thought, "Why the hell can't you go to a game? Sheesh. I heard him say that there was very little "real football" going on in the story.

If you've read it, and disagree, let me know.

 

I'm still reading it, about 30 pages to go. I've enjoyed the first half of the book. It is emotional at times and written from his heart. You may or may not like him. It's kinda dragging right now, but I am almost done. I'll post again when I'm done reading.

 

I spent maybe 3-4 hours reading it this weekend, the majority of which was Friday night before bed.

It does have less in the way of real football as one would expect from a book of this title. (BTW the title comes from a. the legend that it never rains and b. the fact that the last time he went there it was pouring) But the football it does have is so poetically described.

His writing style is so vivid you can see the players sweating out on (now) Bertman Dr. in the hot summer sun, running drills. All the while Cholly Mac is sitting out on a golf cart, watching and occassionally yelling. You see the scratches and scars, you feel the impacts, you hear the tussles.

And at the same time he reaches down deep and openly shows how hard it is for men to deal with emotion. I think its poetic that everything he does he is haunted with the ideal of pleasing his (loving) father. At the same time, he is cursed with a constant fear of inadequacy and a total lack of self-worth at the worst times.

It's worth reading if you're into literature, I suppose I should have said. I just liked reading about coming over the bridge and seeing TS amongst the trees.

 

I read about it in the Advocate. Sounds like a great book.

 

Book excerpt from ESPN.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3049092

 

On chapter 3 right now! Pretty good so far but I love to read and I love LSU so what do I know!:grin: