The second installment in writer Andrew Rihn's "Hitting the Books" series is
The Professional by W.C. Heinz.
Visiting training camps used to be an important part of covering boxers. Writers often relied on their creativity to morph the smallest tidbit into a bombshell revelation. Such was the clamoring for information on the part of boxing fans. These days, as the popularity of the boxing industry dwindles in the United States, fighters' camps are rarely covered, save for a few silly video clips that often have nothing to do with the camp or the upcoming fight.
In the novel The Professional, Heinz's narrator, the fictitious writer Frank Hughes, is embedded in the camp of Eddie Brown, a middleweight challenger trained by the grizzled old manager Doc Carroll. Though almost nothing of note happens, the story is gripping because of its realism. It's about routine and relationships. About professionalism and working towards a goal. Quiet confidence and humbling disappointment. The only major events that happen before the culminating fight are a death in the camp, a television appearance, the press conference, and the weigh-in. Yet, the mundane occurrences during training are crafted in such a way as to be fascinating.
Many boxing books, particularly those about the Prohibition period, play up the mob ties of the fighters. Hughes explains, "Two or three of the people in the mobs were playing with fighters. It was never quite as serious as they have made it in the bad books and motion pictures. It was rather the way a man of means will keep a show dog. It was a point of prestige."
Jackie Fields said of mobsters, "All those guys loved athletes, especially fighters. In those days, boxing was the number-one sport." In the same vain, Ruby Goldstein claimed many of the best boxers had mob sponsors. They happened to be the ones with money and an interest in boxing, but often authors take conspiracies between the mob and boxing too far, as Heinz indicates.
Interestingly, Jews aren't featured much in the book. At one point, Eddie Brown's trainer says, "Hands are a fighter's tools... He's got to take care of his tools. A fighter busts his hands and he's nothin'. I see many a good fighter have to tap out with bad hands, You remember Danny Bartfield?" The Danny Bartfield reference aside, the novel takes place after the golden age of Jews in boxing, which is generally regarded as 1920-1950.
The Professional also shines light on the biases of media members and the cozy relationships they can develop with fighters and managers. Frank Hughes tries to conciliate his desire to see Brown win and his close relationship with Carroll with his assignment. Every decent boxing writer encounters the conundrum of balancing relationships with the fighters with the responsibility of producing an honest account.
The next Hitting the Books entry is Fat City by Leonard Gardner.
