Book Review: Kiss 'Em Goodbye by Dennis Purdy

Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten, and Departed Teams by Dennis Purdy is a fascinating read.  As the title suggests, this book is about sports teams that were unsuccessful and either disbanded or moved away.  86 teams are talked about.

Book Cover
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Each chapter, which is only a couple pages, is about a team. The teams range from well-known and successful teams, such as the New York Giants and the New York Rens, to teams that played only one season, like the St. Louis Gunners and the Elizabeth Resolutes. The book not only features teams from the major four sports leagues, it also features teams from defunct leagues like the Union Association and the National Basketball League, and more obscure sports, such as roller derby.

What makes this book great is that the stories are interesting and many of the little-known teams have not gotten their due. Take for example, the Keokuk Westerns. The team from Iowa played in the National Association for one year in 1875. Their story is fascinating, as the reason for the team existing was that it in a ideal location on a railroad line between Chicago and St. Louis, and would not be found also anywhere. The Westerns are one of the many little-known teams that are featured throughout the book.

The Duluth Eskimos, the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Ironman are other notable team histories which had more to the story then expected. There was not one story that bored me or made me want to stop reading. I was engaged the whole time while reading this book.

This book is a must have for every sports history fan. It will not bore you with long, drawn-out histories of every team. It hits the highlights of each team and explains their demise. It also will surprise you, each team has a different story, different set of characters, different details, yet they all ended up disbanding or moving away. This is no doubt one of the best books I have read this year.