The Book Of The Best

Tennis Week recently reviewed Robert Tuchman's new book "The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live". Check out what they had to say:

Mix aristocratic fans dining on Wimbledon’s strawberries and cream with Joey Chestnuts scarfing down enough hot dogs to feed a slew of sumo wrestlers; juxtapose the image of Rafael Nadal running across the pristine red clay of Roland Garros with people popping corks of Cava champagne before pounding the pavement of Pamplona one step ahead of the running of the bulls; consider the howling dogs racing across the snowy Alaskan terrain in the Iditarod with the screaming fans erupting with electrical energy at a US Open night match. And what do you have?

The ingredients for a new book The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live as well as a mission statement and road map for sports fanatics to actually experience these events.

Edgemont, New York native Robert Tuchman has seen the summit of sport — he’s attended many of the most prestigious, unique and exciting events in the sports world — and shares his insider’s knowledge in the book, which serves as both a passionate pilgrimage to some of the most famed fields and courts in the world and a guide for readers.

The 352-page book, which retails for $17.95, is written in a list format, ranking the top 100 sporting events from 1 to 100 (including five honorable mentions), offers interesting background information about each event, suggests where to stay in the event’s host city, places to eat before and after the game and where to celebrate.

Tuchman has done the leg work in providing sports fans with a blue print of where to go, where to stay, where to eat and what to do at the events.

It took two years to research and write the book and Tuchman, President of the Manhattan-based Premiere Corporate Events, which plans and conducts corporate outings to sports events, said a primary criteria for inclusion on the top 100 was live appeal: that is he created a list based on the best live sporting events.

"There are tons of great events so the challenge was limiting it to 100," Tuchman said. "This book has more of an American feel and it’s not just ‘What events are the best to watch for two hours?’ The idea was taking the entire experience into account and creating a list of the best events to attend live."

The Masters tops the list followed by the World Cup, the Super Bowl, the Summer Olympic Games and the annual Army-Navy football game. Wimbledon ranks No. 11 on the list, ahead of both the Stanley Cup and Tour de France, but Tuchman said the US Open, which ranks No. 48 in the book, remains his personal favorite and the tournament he recommends most to fans.

"If I had to recommend one tournament for tennis fans to visit it comes down to Wimbledon or the US Open and interestingly though in the book I ranked Wimbledon ahead of the Open because of its tradition and the fact tennis fans really want to see it, my personal recommendation is the US Open," Tuchman said. "I think the very early rounds of the US Open where all the players are walking around, and you can go sit on an outer court 10 feet from some of the greatest players in the world makes the US Open unique because you have that up close experience combined with the energy and excitement of the New York City crowds and to me that’s what tennis, at it’s best, is really all about."

Tuchman has attended some of the premiere sporting events in the world on an annual basis for the past 12 years and wrote the book as a response to request from clients and friends.

"The idea came about because I’m always asked ‘What are the best sports events to go to?’ " Tuchman said. "Since our business is based on hosting corporate events I’ve attended many of them and also did surveys of our clients and used their feedback in creating the list."

In keeping with the interactive element that he used in writing the book, Tuchman has create a web site for the book, The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live, that serves as a fourm for fans to discuss and debate the merits of each event's place on the list, opportunities to win tickets to events including the Kentucky Derby and the Masters and the book itself contains a check list for monitoring — or flaunting — one’s progress through the top 100.