My book is here!

And, yes, I am VERY excited.

(My book!)

In less than 24 hours, my book “ Power Players: Sports, Politics and the American Presidency” hits bookstores — IRL and online.¹

This is a HUGE moment for me.

The book began as a conversation between me and my editor, Sean Desmond. We are both sports and politics obsessives — and were looking for a way to scratch those two itches at the same time.

This book is that attempt. I’d be honored if you would consider buying it here.

The overarching argument I make in the book is this: By studying and understanding the sports our presidents played, loved and watched, we get unique insights into a) who they are and b) how they governed.

A few examples:

• Richard Nixon loved to bowl — and had lanes built at the White House. “Sometimes, toward the end of the day, when I feel tired or stuffy, I just go over and bowl,” Nixon told reporters. “I usually bowl about 10 o’clock at night. When I’m here I bowl alone. I bowl seven to 12 games one after. That gives you a tremendous workout.” The image of Nixon, the ultimate loner, bowling game after game alone in the White House speaks volumes of who he was. So, too, does the fact that — as I reveal in the book — Nixon only made his high school and college football teams to be a tackling dummy for the better players.

• Barack Obama only met his father twice. On one of those occasions — when Obama was 11 and his dad came to stay with him and his grandparents for Christmas — his father gave him a basketball as a present. It was, on its face, an odd gift — basketball was not a huge deal in the elder Obama’s native Africa and the younger Obama did not play much basketball at that point in his life. But for Barry Obama, as he was known then, the basketball was more than a gift — it was a mission. As Alexander Wolff writes in his book “The Audacity of Hoop”: “There’s no accounting for exactly why a native of a country where the game was hardly played chose this particular present, but Barry would come to regard that basketball as a charge as much as a gift.” Throughout his life — and during his presidential campaigns and time in the White House — Obama would use basketball as cultural currency, a way to identify with a culture and a vibe to which he felt he naturally fit.

• Bill Clinton was not a natural athlete. In the football crazy South, Clinton was in the band. But, in his 20s, Clinton took up jogging — as a way to keep off weight and stay disciplined (not to mention be a part of the “yogging” craze that was sweeping the nation). “This running is a great deal,” Clinton told a female friend during his college years. “You can run for thirty minutes or so and then eat all you want and put on no weight.” Clinton put that into practice — literally — when he was governor of Arkansas. He would always finish his runs at a McDonald’s in Little Rock — a plaque commemorates his favorite finishing spot. (The “Saturday Night Live” sketch on Clinton’s running was pretty right on.) That idea — that you could cancel out all the bad stuff you did by doing some good stuff — defined (and defines) Clinton’s life.

There’s also a ton of other fun facts in the book.

Did you known that George H.W. Bush met Babe Ruth in person less than a month before the Sultan of Swat died?

He did!

(Babe Ruth, left, and future president George H.W. Bush)

Or that Jimmy Carter, as president, personally managed court time for the White House tennis court?

How about that Dwight Eisenhower was a bridge-playing addict — and would often play the game on the eve of major operations during World War II?

Or that Donald Trump played squash during his time at Fordham University?

There’s TONS more stuff just like this in the book. (I did a fun Q and A with CNN on the book here.)

As I hope you can tell, it was an absolute pleasure to write — and a massive thrill now that it is on the eve of coming out.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

1. The promotional tour — book store appearances, cable TV, lots of podcast and radio interview — for the book means I will be writing a bit less for Substack this week. Thanks in advance for understanding!