Advantage Disadvantage, a novel

Advantage Disadvantage

a novel by Yale R. Jaffe

A neighborhood bookie peddles athletes to college coaches and develops a sport betting operation centered on high school games. He recruits an accomplice to execute his last bet, one that could set them up financially for life but is fraught with danger. The Chicago Police investigate the greedy gamblers who might try to manipulate a high school basketball pla-off game. A chance meeting between the father of a mediocre student-athlete and the bookie puts in motion a sequence of events transforming the player into a Division 1 prospect using unorthodox basketball training methods. Corrupt adults, who selfishly engage in risky and exploitive behaviors, surround the athlete: gangland profiteers, win-at-all-cost coaches, greedy street agents, shoe company representatives, college recruiters, disloyal lovers, and others. Advantage Disadvantage examines the motivations that drive the surrounding adults to corruption, betrayal, and greed.

ABOUT THE NOVEL (From the Chicago Tribune)

The book, Advantage Disadvantage, is a novel which explores the corruption of the adults surrounding a high school basketball prodigy set in Chicagoland. The book gives the reader an inside view of high school sports as told through the eyes of a referee.

A sleazy neighborhood bookie recruits a “helper” to try to fix the betting on a high school game. Each of the participants’ motivations and value systems are examined: parents, players, coaches, gangs, referees, sportswriters, and college recruiters.

Advantage Disadvantage takes its name from the philosophy in basketball refereeing which states that only the fouls and violations that materially change a player’s advantage (or disadvantage) should be called, not everything in the rules book. In other words this philosophy espouses the spirit of the rules book, not the letter of its laws.

REVIEW:

Advantage / Disadvantage is a cleverly interwoven tale of High School athletes who are unwittingly taken in by the sleezy characters that cling to the periphery of organized sports, and profit from them by means of greed and deception.

This book was eye – opening and shocking, and at other times touching and surprising – but never was it boring. The characters inspired hope as well as loathing, and made me think that High School athletics might not be as simple and innocent as we are led to believe. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait for the sequel. Well done, Mr. Jaffe!

–David Shapiro

About the Author, Yale R. Jaffe

For the past sixteen years, Yale has officiated high school basketball in the west and south suburbs of Chicago. Although he did not play varsity basketball, he believes in the importance of high school sports (including intramurals) in developing young people with life lessons such as work ethic, commitment, exercise, teamwork, unselfishness and sportsmanship. Learning to compete fairly while abiding by sports rules are transferable skills, which contribute to the success of young people’s futures. Yale believes that it is no accident that more women participate in leadership positions in business and politics since their inclusion in Title IX regulated sports opportunities.

Read more about Mr. Jaffe here: http://www.triblocal.com/Darien/view.html?type=stories&action=detail⊂_id=43212

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