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What: “Talking With Michener”

Author: Lawrence Grobel

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi ($26)

In a series of conversations that took place between 1980 until 10 days before his death on Oct. 16, 1997, famed writer James A. Michener discussed a number of topics, including sports, with Lawrence Grobel, a contributing editor for Playboy magazine and author of several books. A chapter titled “Bobby Fischer, Jimmie Foxx and the Deadly Flying Wedge” deals with Michener’s views of sports.

Michener said in his entire life he met only two geniuses. “One was Bobby Fischer, the chess player, the other was Tennessee Williams.”

Of chess, Michener said, “It’s a contest of brain and will power and attention, not a sport. But you better be in top-flight condition to face those grueling sessions when one lapse means defeat.”

Of golf, Michener said, “It’s a delightful game for elderly executives or even young executives who want to make big deals. I can’t take it seriously.”

Michener, who said he played sports vigorously all his life, was asked if he could be any athlete, who would he choose? He mentions three: Boston Celtic great Bill Russell, Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Robin Roberts and Hal Greer of the Philadelphia 76ers. “I don’t think I could have ever been Bill Russell or Robin Roberts, but had I been a good player I might have been like Hal Greer.” Of Greer, he says he “was a fine man in the clutch, a high scorer, and had tremendous personal integrity and organization.” Michener also says that “Roberts is the athlete I’d be happiest being compared with.”

Michener called Foxx one of the great tragic figures in sports. “In later years I was able to follow his career into the dregs. Very few great athletes have ever fallen as low as he did, living in a shack in Florida with $18 a month and nobody to look after him.” He said Foxx’s story has the makings of a great baseball novel.

Of boxing, Michener said, “It’s beneath contempt.”

Of soccer, he said, “When it’s in competition with American-style football, soccer has no chance because it’s so dull.”

Among his suggestions for changes in sports, he wouldn’t mind seeing the net in tennis raised an inch and a half. He said the tiebreaker is what saved tennis. “I think it’s an example of what imaginative men can do to help a sport that would otherwise be doomed.”

In baseball, he said, “one of the greatest crimes against American culture is the designated hitter.”