Reviews
“Wayne is a master of the storytelling craft. A vivid writer who brings empathy and curiosity to every project, he is beloved by colleagues and subjects alike. To read his work is to be transported into a world you might never get to visit, or to understand it far more intimately than you thought possible.”
Nathaniel Vinton, Writer and author
“Wayne Coffey knows his way around a clubhouse, a locker room, a sideline, a dugout. He understands that there is so much more to the game than mere runs, hits, errors, touchdowns, alley-oops, or goals. He can find a story wherever, or whatever, it is, and he can write it with passion and intelligence, insight and nuance. If he writes it, you should read it.”
John Temple, New York Times Sports
“Wayne is one of the most graceful writers in modern sports journalism. He is a true storyteller who can see the whole field in his writing but also pull you in with rich and compelling details. I read everything of his because I know he will not disappoint.”
Peter Barzilai, Assistant Managing Editor, USA Today Sports“When I was lucky enough to have Wayne Coffey in my classroom, the students listened to him compare the beginning of a story to casting a fishing line in an effort to hook the reader. He has been doing that for years with his careful observations, sensitivity, compassion and a remarkable attention to detail. Even when you think you know where one of his stories is headed, you realize that the telling of it has you hooked.”
Malcolm Moran, Director, Sports Capital Journalism Program, Indiana UniversityThey Said It Couldn’t Be Done
“A masterpiece”
Gary Cohen, Emmy Award-Winning Mets Broadcaster for SNY“A must-read, not just for Mets fans, but all baseball fans who will appreciate what indeed was the most astounding season in baseball history”
Ken Rosenthal, Two-Time Sports Emmy Winner for Outstanding Sports Reporter“Wayne Coffey has always had his finger on the pulse of New York City and its sports, and his take on the 1969 Mets proves it. If you want to know what it was like to live and witness a baseball miracle in tumultuous times, this book is for you.”
Ron Darling, Former New York Mets All-Star and Bestselling Author of Game 7, 1986“I would read Wayne Coffey writing about hardwood floors. So for someone who was a diehard Mets fan in 1969, I knew They Said It Couldn’t Be Done was a book I couldn’t miss. Like The Boys Of Winter, his brilliant book about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team, this is a fantastic piece of work. Please buy it, and enjoy every page, as I did.”
Tim Layden, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated and Essayist for NBC SportsWherever I Wind Up
“Wherever I Wind Up might be the finest piece of nonfiction baseball writing since Ball Four.”
Jon Wertheim, Executive Editor, Sports Illustrated and Best-Selling Author, Sports IllustratedThe Closer
“The author’s preternatural calm clearly stems from a deep religious faith some nonbelievers will find disquieting, explaining his devastating cut fastball as a gift from God, his belief in miracles and his conviction that the Holy Spirit once spoke to him on the mound. . . . Will be devoured by Yankees loyalists and happily sampled by all baseball fans.”
Kirkus ReviewsThe Boys of Winter
“A wonderfully detailed enrichment of the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century. Wayne Coffey’s fresh perspective artfully take a twenty-five-year-old story and advances it to the present with an enhance appreciation of that stunning, breathtaking, still too-amazing-to-believe accomplishment.””
Al Michaels, Emmy Award-Winning BroadcasterWinning Sounds Like This
“Winning Sounds Like This is as charming as it is urgent and sometimes even heartbreaking. The Lady Bison occupy a whine-free space in which challenges are opportunities, miracles occur on a routine basis, and the routine is its own miracle. If I knew how to sign, this is what I would say: ‘Read, cherish, and cheer.”
Madeleine Blais, author of the bestselling In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle“Wayne Coffey has written a wonderful book. It’s about hopes, dreams, basketball, winning, losing, deaf culture. Most of all, it’s about language. The language of the deaf. The language of basketball. The language of the heart. Read it, and you’ll never forget it.”
Bill Reynolds, author of Fall River Dreams“You will never forget your season with the Gallaudet Bison.Winning Sounds Like This is ultimately a book about the beauty of sport, about the memories it gives us, the way it lives on in our imagination long after the game is over. You will feel as if you have lived this season. And at the end, you will stand up and cheer.”
Mike Lupica, NY Daily News
