Allow me to preface this review by saying that I am an Alabama Crimson Tide football fan, which is odd, because while I live in Alabama now, I grew up in Texas, and moved to Alabama shortly before I finished high school. How I became a fan of the Tide deserves it’s own blog post someday, but suffice it to say, I was interested to read this book, due to Eli Gold’s status in the state as the “Voice of the Crimson Tide.” This book is not only for Alabama football fans, though, as it focuses more on Eli’s career as a whole, which does include a lot more than just the Crimson Tide.

From Peanuts to the Pressbox is a collection of stories chronicling the career of sports broadcaster Eli Gold from his humble roots in Brooklyn, New York, where his first sports job was selling peanuts at Madison Square Garden. Eli took a passion for sports and an admiration of sports broadcasting and made it a driving force in his life, and worked hard to follow his dream to create a career in sports broadcasting, and to follow his inspirations into the pressbox. Eli has done it all, from minor league hockey and baseball, to the NHL, NFL, Arena League, NASCAR (and other auto racing) and college sports as well.

Eli’s story is inspirational and encouraging. It shows the values of setting goals and following those goals with hard work and determination. It also demonstrates the importance of making friends and good connections throughout your career, and how those relationships bring not only opportunities, but a more fulfilled life. It is not the standard “climbing the corporate ladder” story, where it was necessary to use others as rungs to reach success, but shows the importance of respect and friendship, especially to someone in the broadcasting field.

The book is full of stories and anecdotes that are not only about Eli’s greatest moments. He was not afraid to poke a little fun at himself in this book, and the reader will get a few laughs at his expense. Some of the best stories come from his experiences in NASCAR, which was surprising to me, and Eli’s perspective on many of the legends of stock car racing are very insightful, and at times very personal, especially due to his closeness to many of the greatest tragedies in the history of the sport.

If you are not a sports fan, this book may not have much for you, as sports are the central focus, but sports are about people, and in that regard, there are some great people whose stories intertwine with Eli’s throughout the book. Overall, I enjoyed the book, somewhat more than I thought.

My rating, four out of five.

(Disclaimer: I am reviewing this book as part of the book review bloggers program from Thomas Nelson Publishing.  You can find out more information about this program at http://brb.thomasnelson.com. I received no compensation for this review, other than a review copy of the book.)

Tags: books, nonfiction, reviews