Book Review: New York Giants: The Complete Illustrated History
by Jim Schmiedeberg on Sep 7, 2009 1:00 PM EDT
in News
19 comments
When you see the title "New York Giants: The Complete Illustrated History", you probably think this is just another 
coffee table book with the same pictures of Wellington Mara and Y. A. Tittle that you've seen a hundred times.
Like me, you'd be dead wrong. Lew Freedman, a native New Yorker and Chicago sportswriter, has done an amazing job of not only filling almost 200 pages with pictures most Giants fans have never seen , but also telling stories that most fans have never heard.
Beginning with a foreword from former Giant and broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, this book takes you back to the beginning of football in New York, right up to the end of the 2008 season. Along the way, there are stories from many Giants players and coaches, and an in-depth look at each decade of Giants football, for better or worse.
"The Sneakers Game", "The Greatest Game Ever Played", "The Fumble", and "The Catch" are all in here, including interviews with the players who were there. For instance, when the play was sent in that led to "The Fumble", did you know that the players in the huddle begged Giants QB Joe Pisarcik to change the play, and he wouldn't for fear of incurring the wrath of the coaching staff?
Stories like that are just some of the untold gems found in this book. All Giants team and individual records are included here as well.
I've always considered myself a "student" of my Giants history, and while I don't think I could ever amass the mount of knowledge our man George has, I've always felt I could hold my own in a conversation about most players that have played for Big Blue, but after reading this book I realize I have a long way to go.
New York Giants: The Complete Illustrated History is available in bookstores and online booksellers and from www.mvpbooks.com
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Illustrated History
I was also fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of this book. Jim is right, it will teach you some things you didn’t know, and it is worth the money. Actually, I thought our man George wrote it!
Thank you
This is something that many Giants fans might want to have plus its a good idea for a gift.
I Can Cross One Christmas Present Off the List
Now I don’t even have to think about what I’m going to get my dad for Christmas, plus I’ll get to peruse it before I wrap it…
Giant history
This old die hard man have been a Giant fan since the late 50’s.
I become a fan when Y.A. Tittle was the QB. Many of us old timers had suffered through many years of frustration. The Giant History book makes excellent reading for Giants fans.
Enjoy the Giants now. They won’t be this good forever.
DieHard
You are right. These things go in cycles, and right now we are in a great one. It won’t last forever. BTW, you and ‘bluegonz,’ whose real name is George, probably share a lot of the same memories. He’s more or less our site historian.
57 goes back to about the same era as
Diehard. Pot, too, i think.
When I first started watching the Giants, they used the A-formation and didn’t have a QB. The backfield was FB, TB, BB, WB. The TB was the guy who usually threw the ball (Ed Danowski, a Fordham grad in the first Giants game I saw.). The FB (Tuffy Leemans) got most of the running plays, as I recall.
I viviidly remember when the T was introduced at the HS level. Jim, I don’t know what Memorial was like when you were a kid, but in my day they were awesome, using quick openers with tiny Italian darters. St. Peter’s, my HS, used the Rockne Box formation. We changed to the T fast after Memorial’s success At that time, Bayonne had a great RB, Buddy Hertz. Ever hear of him?
Joe Coviello, Memorial’s coach, was a god in West New York (as was Lombardi at St. Cecilia’’s.)
I don’t know why any of this comes to mind.
Sorry, fellas, one too many scotches this evening .
Next I’ll be singing the praises of those great Chinese-American RBs, Johnny Chung and Bucky Wing (again.)
If the NFL loses it's Cap...
Might we become the Yankees of football?
"We'll show up tomorrow and do the same thing we try to do every day, Kick Pedroia's ass in cribbage and try and win a baseball game."
by tito (eight and oh) on Sep 8, 2009 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions
NO
Dallas would. They’re the richest franchise in football, I believe
You play to win the game!
by Simms-McConkey on Sep 9, 2009 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions
Defense
As good as this Giant defensive team is now, I still think the most exciting and the best was back when LT, H.Carson, L.Marshall, J.Burt and Co. were together.
They hit so hard that you can hear it from across the river. LOL
It's hard to put together a D better than
one with LT, but I think the present one has the potential to equal or maybe even better it. We have loads of talent, perhaps even more than then, if that’s possible. (Potential is the key word, plus I’m ever the optimist at this hour.) As for excitement, once again, how can a D be more exciting than one that features LT, one of the top five players of all time, probably the top three at any position? ( I’d only put Jim Brown and Johnny U ahead of him.)
that would have been unfair....
maybe we start a psedo LT + Strahan era with Tuck and Sintim?
What the f$%k is the internet?
I'll always remember
in the Bills SB, the Bills receivers were visibly afraid to make a catch coming over the middle
You play to win the game!
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