“These are the stories that sportswriters tell each other right before last call, the ones that never made it to print, never got by lily-livered editors. I missed these stories until I read Joyce's singular, vivid and wry prose.” (Bill Scheft, Late Night with David Letterman)

Gare Joyce, a sportswriter with the soul of poet and a penchant for trouble, has penned a tell-all memoir that is laugh-out-loud hilarious, savage—and tender at the quick. The media has their stock narratives, but Joyce tells the undiluted, unfiltered truth about the stars and also about his fellow messengers up in the press box.

Fans know Joyce as a feature writer with ESPN and a columnist at Globe and Mail. His work has appeared everywhere from the New York Times to the Christian Science Monitor.

Famous names get theirs:

Tom Landry? Despite cause, the Cowboys' legend didn't press assault charges against Joyce. Michael Jordan clams up for his Pulitzer-winning biographer while Charles Barkley holds court until Joyce's pen runs dry. The writer trudges through the bush in the dead of winter to interview All-Star reliever Tom Henke, after he gave a homer that cost the Blue Jays the pennant—the interview subject toted a bottle of schnapps and a loaded shotgun.

"This sparkling memoir tells the stories behind the stories behind the...well, other even better stories. Gare is more compelling than most of the people he's chronicled through the decades. They're lucky to have him." (Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated)

"Joyce's latest? Call his bluff. Pure fun." (Robert Lipsyte, New York Times)

Gare Joyce has written about sports for over thirty years, winning four National Magazine Awards and landing on The Best American Sports Writing notable list seven times. Joyce is the author of eleven books, including Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm and The Devil And Bobby Hull. He is a senior writer with Sportsnet and was previously a hockey columnist for The Globe and Mail and a staff feature writer for ESPN The Magazine and espn.com. Joyce lives in Toronto, seven subway stops from the Air Canada Centre.

Gare Joyce's profile page