a great read.
I could here his voice telling me his anecdotes, I laughed out loud. Lost track of time.
He is funny and self depreciating, so Canadian,
It was a wonderful way to spend a quiet weekend, A good example of an amazing sport caster and the incredible stories of his career, As a huge sports fan this was an amazing read, what made it better was that it was a gift from my dad, he got James Duthie to sign it, and James said I could be on the panel.
Loved this book it had me laughing out loud and also cringing in embarrassment for James,
As a massive TSN fan, it was intriguing to read about the stories from Duthie's career so far as well as the behind the scenes of all the hilarious spoof videos.
This book was funny and selfdeprecating, and surprisingly heartfelt, It's all about the juice, entertaining stories from the life of a sportscaster This book is a must read for any sports fan, especially any Canadian hockey fan, This is the story of James Duthie from TSN, It is written largely as a biography, but as he puts it, it skips the boring stuff, While it follows a linear timeline, it is largely a collection of stories,
What I enjoyed about this book is how the author can tell his life story, but also make you laugh on one page and be ultra serious on another.
It takes great skill to be able to shift tones like that and not lose the reader, Most sports broadcaster's biographies fall into one or the other, Either you read Jay Onreit's and are kept laughing throughout or you read a book about the history of ESPN where all the characters seem to be out of a NFL Films production about the struggle of sports.
I watch TSN with regularity, but it appears I didn't pay as close attention to "The Panel" as I should have, The author mentions skits they did that I do not recall, However, in reading this book, it makes me realize what is missing on Rogers broadcasts of the NHL, humor, Thank you James for reminding me what proper hockey broadcasting is supposed to be, I look forward to the return of the national deal to TSN,
At any rate, anyone who wants to be an author, broadcaster, journalist or is simply a sports fan should read this book, Even if you don't know a sniff about hockey, the author does a wonderful job of explaining things, Its nice to break up a run of Fiction books with a light, biographical read like this,
Hockey, Football, Ottawa, Journalism this book had a ton of things that interested me! And James is one of my favorite Sports Broadcasters out there,
From the stories told, to the way they were told, this was a very enjoyable read! Any sports lover would enjoy it, and should get a kick out of it! Loved this book.
He has such a sense of humour and found myself laughing out loud many times I enjoyed reading this book of Sports Stories by James Duthie, He has worked TSN for years and is a good sports personality for them in what ever they assign him to do for them, I hope that he writes a sequel to this book in the future, Funny, rambling, and somewhat forgettable, Too humble even for a Canadian, if such a thing is possible, Maybe I'm being a tad overly generous withstars, . . I'm sure even James Duthie would agree that his book isn't Pulitzer Prize material, . . but damn this was a fun book to read, I loved the stories I found myself laughing out loud at times actually a lot of times and actually choking up on occasion, IMHO, James Duthie is the best sportscaster in Canada I rue the day TSN lost the Canadian NHL contract to Sportsnet, . phew, blech and this book supports the notion that he deserves to be where he is and cover the stories he does, I rate this one as a must read for sports fans and a "give it a try read" for non sports fans, . . either way you'll be very entertained, I was. Fantastic! If you love sports broadcasting and hockey, you'll love this, I flew through it in less than a day, Funny, witty, and full of lots of great behindthescenes stuff about the life of a sports broadcaster, What a job! I hate to give a dumb sports book five, but I loved it start to finish, Just really funny the whole way through and it's all behind the scenes TSN stuff and Ottawa stories, Recommended! I liked this book, Great insight into James' career, It's full of fun stories, Definitely a great read for any Canadian sports fan, Loved it and laughed the whole time This is no literary masterpiece, sorry James but you wont need to make room on the mantle for any book awards, But it is a wonderfully entertaining read by a guy who won the lottery in finding a career he loves but takes none of it for granted, If hes ever in need of a female sports junky extra in a Tsn spoof/prank filler spot, I want in!
If you're a Canadian sports fan and hockey fan in particular chances are pretty good that you already know of, and like, James Duthie.
If so, there's nothing in this book that is especially surprising other than the discovery that Darryl Sutter has a sense of humour, but there is plenty that is entertaining.
In keeping with his onair persona, he is funny, selfdeprecating and a little weird in the good way, but also an allaround good guy, If you molded a human being from Canadian stereotypes minus the lumberjack ones, with all due respect to Duthie, you'd get something pretty closely resembling James Duthie,
In fact, it could be argued that this book has minimal appeal to sports fans outside of Canada, unless you're a wellinformed hockey fan i, e. , one who pays attention to more than one team and its players, One of my favourite anecdotes is a small one involving Doug Gilmour being exactly as you'd expect, and I'm a little curious if Tie Domi contacted Duthie about the poopflinging joke, and if so what he said Duthie's face has demonstrably not been punched in, so I assume Domi laughed too.
I'm also tempted to pull up the Luongo series of sketches on YouTube for old time's sake,
Overall this is an entertaining book by a topnotch sportscaster, and I enjoyed reading it, If youre a sports fan, you know James Duthie,
The biggest games, the biggest trades, the juiciest rumourschances are Duthie is the guy you tuned in to hear talk about them, There are other experts and insiders, stats guys and analysts, but no one else who can talk about sports with the humour, the knowledge, and the charisma Duthie brings to every event he covers.
He also makes the best spoof videos,
The Guy on the Left tells the story of Duthies career in broadcasting, from a nerdy appearance on a game show to chatting with Tiger Woods in the mens room at The Masters.
Its a behindthescenes look at celebrated moments like Sidney Crosbys famous gamewinning goal at the Vancouver Olympics, but also less celebrated insights, like the disclosure that sports broadcasters often arent wearing pants on air.
There are stories about goofing around with NHL superlike Roberto Luongo and Anze Kopitar, There are also stories about wandering into the wrong house after walking his dog and surprising his neighbour in her underwear,
His stories can also be serious, Tragedy strikes more than once in the sports world, Most notably, he had to go to air on the evening of September,, His reflections on the way sport is part of all of our lives, from the athletes and sports figures on the planes to the kids who lost coaches and parents, are a powerful reminder of both the importance of sport and how lucky we all are to be part of it.
Funny, thoughtful, selfdeprecating, and wry, The Guy on the Left is everything fans love about James Duthie,
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