Urban: Couch Potato Chronicles, Book Edition

Urban: Couch Potato Chronicles, Book Edition
Photo credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

You ever spend the bulk of a day slaving over a hot stove, oven and/or whatever else you need to cook up a master meal, and when it’s finished you have absolutely no desire to eat?

It’s an odd but very real deal: You’re just... done with it.

That’s the experience I’ve had with the lone book to my credit, “Aces,” which offers an all-access look inside the minds of Oakland’s “Big Three” of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito during their final, tumultuous season together with the A’s.

(“Moneyball” is a tremendous book. Better than mine for sure. But “Moneyball” doesn’t get written if the A’s weren’t a winning franchise at the time, and the guys most responsible for all that winning were Hudson, Mulder and Zito — who are virtually ignored in “Moneyball.”)

While writing the book, which came out in Spring 2005, I also was covering the riveting race in the American League West for MLB.com, which required its writers to produce an ungodly amount of copy every day. On weekends I did radio all day, before and after Giants games. And at home I had a pregnant wife in trimester three and a 10-month-old daughter.

And while I’m certainly very proud of the fact that I’m a “published author,” because that’s high on the career checklist of virtually everyone who considers themselves a writer, I didn’t even read “Aces” when it first came out.

I didn’t read it when it sat on the Chronicle’s Best Sellers list, either. I was just sick of it. I’d spent SO much time on it, during such a chaotic time in my life, I just didn’t want a 300-page reminder of how hard those months were on me and my young, rapidly growing family.

That was 15 years ago. Fifteen years! And I still hadn’t read it until... this week.

It was that or (a) finally give in to the pop culture phenomenon that is “Tiger King,” or (b) catch up to my 15-year-old’s binge habit by watching the first two seasons of Netflix’s “All-American.” (Natalie Urban gives it two thumbs up.)

So I did it. I finally read my book. And it’s not half bad. Not nearly as convoluted as I figured. It was my life that was convoluted.

The verdict? I’m giving it a solid B. It definitely could have been better, but my subjects were fantastic, and that’s why I’m mentioning this at all.

If you’re an A’s or Giants fan, it’s worth your while. A nice stroll down memory lane for A’s fans, and for Giants fans it’s a peek at what Hudson and Zito — they both won titles in San Francisco — were like as young-uns.

And hey, at this point you’re probably running out of shows or movies to watch. So here are a few more books you should check out while still sheltering.

Gridiron Genius: Michael Lombardi has worked with Al Davis, Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick. If you’re building a Mt. Rushmore of coaching legends, Davis, Walsh and Belichick would be on it, the fourth being that other Lombardi fella. Phenomenal insider’s account of what made these geniuses tick.
The Wax Pack: Brilliant idea and execution by local professor Brad Balukjian, who took a single pack of 1986 Topps baseball cards and brought it to life by hunting down everybody he found in the pack. All on one hell of a road trip. Awesome stuff — watching Kung Fu flicks with Gary Templeton? #GoodForBall — and the book is out this month. If Balukjian’s name sounds familiar, it should. He was a weekly guest on “Inside the Bigs” while out on the road. Good dude, great book.

And finally ...

A Once In A Lifetime Team: Sabrina Ionescu is one of the big dogs in women’s hoops these days. Karl Buscheck’s easy read on her senior year at Miramonte High is a must for anyone who likes to follow local legends.

That’s enough for now. “Tiger King” is waiting for me.