Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN.

I got back from Kwajalein 18 months before ESPN started in 1979. What we’d have done if it had been available out there! There’d have been far fewer softball games and teams, more barracks parties, and the bars (both of which did a land-office business anyway) would have been Global Associates’ best revenue producers, even more than the DOD contract it had to run the logistics of the whole base.

As it was, I’ve watched that network grow like Topsy, so I was curious as to its beginnings and its growing pains and thought this book would tell me something about it. It did, and as a business story it’s a good one. As a story of personalities it’s not bad.

It’s told in a format I didn’t like: several brief clips of interviews per page with the principals behind whatever episode the authors were focusing on in that chapter. That gives the principals a chance to present their side of the story, but it never really ties it into one long narrative. At 748 pages, that’s disappointing.

If you’re interested in the early days of cable and of ESPN in particular, it’s an okay read. I’d suggest checking it out of the library rather than buying it.