Book Review: Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot: Confessions of a Sportscaster Dad

Mike Greenberg is the gregarious host of ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike in the Morning," partnered with former NFL player Mike Golic. Greenberg is also a frequent presence on ESPN television, acting as a show host, pundit or sportscaster. His first book tends to be placed in the "Sports" area of most bookstores, but the actual content would likely be more of a fit with mainstream autobiography or parenting books.

In part, this is because Greenberg isn't a typical sports fan. His radio persona is crafted around his identity as a metrosexual, one of those straight men who understands fashion and wines and looking good. Much of the humor in his radio show comes from his interplay with the rough and tumble Golic. The book, with his wife as a foil instead of another sports-mad man, seems to lose some of that charm. Greenberg's appeal on the radio, other than his quick wit, is the fact that this guy knows sports. He may wear cashmere sweaters (oft ruined by children in his book) or Italian leather shoes, but he knows and loves sports. There's a connection with his listeners out of this shared interest in grown men playing games. Or, as Greenberg muses in determining why he has always been fascinated with sports, grown men going off to a war, a vicious combat, and then everyone getting off the ground and shaking hands at the end.

Greenberg's book is laced with humorous situations and a heady dose of quips. Written as a series of journal entries begun to deal with anxiety over the birth of his children, Greenberg sporadically relates events over a multi-year period. It is never clear to the reader whether there is an actual Dr. Gray who requested this be written or this is just a conceit of the storyteller to move along the memoir. From the first pages, where Greenberg discusses therapy and anxiety, we get a much different image of the man than the smiling face on the cover. Perhaps the review would be kinder if the cover photograph wasn't a smiling man before a microphone, sports paraphernalia on one side and the accouterments of childhood (bottles, teddy bears, etc) on the other. The whimsical cover is somewhat of a departure from the story related inside.

This isn't to say that Greenberg's memoir isn't worthwhile or humorous in its own right. It's just more Erma Bombeck than Bill Simmons, relating day-to-day travails of parenting more than having any relation to sports. Sports are most often mention in terms of the very oft-mentioned minor celebrity of the writer, which draws attention wherever he goes. Likewise, his family's friendship with the rich neighbors known as "the Billionaires" is mentioned numerous times, often funny, but each time seeming to be as much namedropping (or pseudonym dropping, as the case may be) as relating funny anecdotes. Greenberg inhabits a world of money and social status few of us will ever reach, but his book never really lets us feel a part of that world. In a memoir written by a pop culture figure, the lack of any bridge to the audience other than "you know me from radio and tv" seems to keep the matter at arm's length.

To focus solely on the class awareness in this book is to ignore some very funny moments and the fact that Greenberg writes capably and in an engaging tone. As a stranger to the world of German sedans, live-in nannies and gated communities, however, this reader needed more material designed to foster a relationship with the author and create some empathy. As written, however, the book is adequate for the Society page and a little lacking for the Sports section.