cover image You Call It Sports, But I Say It's a Jungle Out There

You Call It Sports, But I Say It's a Jungle Out There

Dan Jenkins. Simon & Schuster, $19.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-69021-2

In his 11th book, Jenkins ( Semi-Tough ) collects his magazine articles, syndicated columns and a few original essays in a lively anthology. Though his humor is anything but subtle, it is often on target--as when Jenkins escorts the reader to one of golf's major tournaments, the Chrysler/Shearson/Nissan Sausage 'n' Biscuit K mart Klassic, where winning 19th place pays the victor a half-million dollars. A fan of college football and pro golf, primarily, the author gives other sports short shrift, and allows his enthusiasm for the grid game to produce several interminable lists of facts (e.g., names, dates and scores of ``significant games in the first 120 years of college football.'') But bright, entertaining pieces on travel (``Dateline Erotica,'' on London), movies and literature (``Real Men Eat Cliches'') offer compensation. Misogyny occasionally mars the author's jocular, engaging voice. (Oct.)