Squawkin' Sports

Photo of Patrick Sauer & David J. Roth. Text: Squawkin' Sports with Patrick Sauer & David J. RothCreated and hosted by writers Patrick Sauer and David J. Roth, Squawkin’ Sports is an ongoing series featuring book chats with grown-up authors writing about grown-ups playing kiddie games. 


OFFSITE: DSK
Squawkin’ Sports: WWF x NBA!
Thursday, April 11, 7:00 PM

Hosted by Patrick Sauer & David J. Roth
Featuring Brad Balukjian & Rich Cohen
Tickets: $10, $40, & $80


Created and hosted by writers Patrick Sauer and David J. Roth, Squawkin’ Sports is an ongoing series featuring book chats with grown-up authors writing about grown-ups playing kiddie games. This month, Squawkin' Sports is hosting a special in-person event at Die Stammkneipe Brooklyn (710 Fulton St.). Sauer and Roth chat with Brad Balukjian author of The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Wrestlemania and Rich Cohen, author of When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season.

From Brad Balukjian, bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture—professional wrestling—starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF of the 1980s. The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater—often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.


In When the Game Was War, bestselling author Rich Cohen tells the story of the 1987–88 season through the four teams, and the four players, who dominated it: Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, and a young Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. From rural Indiana to the South Side of Chicago, suburban North Carolina to rust-belt Michigan, Cohen explores the diverse journeys each of these iconic players took before arriving on the big stage. Drawing from dozens of interviews with NBA insiders, Cohen brings to vivid life some of the most colorful characters of the era—like Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley—who fought like hell to help these stars succeed. 

Click here to purchase a ticket for this offsite event!
 

Ticket options:
$10: 1 drink
$40: 1 drink + 1 copy of The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Wrestlemania
$40: 1 drink + 1 copy of When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season
$80: 2 drinks + 1 copy of both books

Join us at DSK for a Squawkin' Sports interview and party!