Saturday, July 29, 2006 | 7:56 a.m.
Nonstop rain flooded Rio Cuale and poured over sidewalks and into Banderas Bay. Inside his rental unit in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, words thankfully flowed just as smoothly for Kenny Stern.
After eight years of sporadic work, he finally finished his novel "Kicks" during three rainy weeks in 1992.
A Las Vegas resident since 1995, Stern spent the 1970s and '80s in the front office of the Chicago Sting. The book is loosely based on players and events of the now-defunct North American Soccer League.
"I was very well inspired when I came up with characters and some of the stories," he said.
Stern's work introduces our summer reading column. He started playing soccer in suburban Chicago in his youth and continued until he injured a knee at Southern Methodist University in 1977. Now 48, he has a general membership on the Chicago Board of Trade, and he spends about 70 hours a week trading equities and futures.
Soccer, however, is in his heart. He has served as the color analyst - he's known for his neutrality - for television broadcasts of Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire since 1998.
Rolly Ford, the main character and narrator in "Kicks," was drafted out of North Texas State by the Oklahoma City Billies of the North American Continental Soccer League (NACSL). Just when he comes to terms with being the last cut on an 18-man roster, his luck turns. Congratulations, coach Rodger Holt tells Ford, you've worked hard for this. Then a twisted and turbulent 1984 season unravels.
From the start, "Kicks" takes some getting used to. Ford has an inner voice, Ivy, who has some friends of his own, all of whom converse with Ford.
There are grammatical and punctuation errors, but that's what happens when a book is self-published.
Stern is halfway through his next book, which will be a futuristic look at the game. Think Galaxy Cup, instead of World Cup, and you'll conjure up a pretty good preview of his sophomore effort.
If he gets another case of writer's block, look for Stern in Puerto Vallarta.
Summer reading list
"The Game of their Lives," by Geoffrey Douglas 4 stars (Henry Holt and Company, Inc.)
Yes, the U.S. has excelled on the world stage against a European power. In 1950, the Americans upset England at the World Cup in Brazil.
Douglas intertwines each U.S. player's life as he details the progression of that game in Belo Horizonte. Joe Gaetjens scored the game's lone goal, and his fate is especially tragic. It grips, and entertains, to the end.
"The Beautiful Team," by Garry Jenkins 5 stars (Simon & Schuster UK Ltd.)
The 1970 Brazilians, who won the World Cup in Mexico, are still - after Ronaldo, Ronaldinho & Co. flopped in Germany this summer - considered the best team of all time.
This beautiful book tracks down that unforgettable 11 in rich detail.
Rivellino, the team's most outrageous practical joker, once slipped a harmless wood snake under Pele's bedsheet. Pele is deathly afraid of knives and snakes.
Soon enough, Rivellino panicked, telling roommate Edu, "Can you imagine if something happens? I will not be able to go back to Brazil." Before he could remove the serpent, though, Rivellino heard a scream from Pele's room.
A must read.
"Football Against the Enemy," by Simon Kuper 4 stars (Orion)
From the Baltics to the Ukraine to Brazil to Scotland, this is a wild trip through 22 outposts that tries to explain those countries' tight ties between their politics and soccer.
"On my first night in Moscow, I went to a party and came home in an ambulance," Kuper writes. "I shared a (train) compartment with a talkative Chinaman. He spoke no English, and I no Chinese," he writes later.
Kuper just keeps you reading.
"Gazza: My Story," by Paul Gascoigne, with Hunter Davies 4 stars (Headline Book Publishing)
Winner of the British Book Award, "Gazza" was hailed for its unbridled honesty in a genre in which authors tend to depict themselves as self-righteous saints.
From Vinnie Jones' notorious Gazza grab to World Cup tears that helped make Gascoigne a national hero in England in 1990 to regular bust-ups with the law, the pages turn quickly.
"But then things got out of hand and there was a bit of a scuffle," he writes in the middle of the book. That line is repeated, many times and in various forms. His candor continues to win Gazza raves.
"Thierry Henry: The Biography," By Oliver Derbyshire one star (John Blake Publishing, Ltd.)
If you know little or nothing about Henry, pick this up. It's filled with the basics of his life and career, but it's mostly material poached from newspapers.
Derbyshire is neither a writer nor close to Henry. In fact, he's an admitted lifelong Arsenal fan (a "gooner" ) who probably got a big kick writing about his favorite player on his favorite team.
"Passovotchka, " By David Downing 2 stars (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Moscow Dynamo's 33-day tour of England in 1945 and its exhibition matches against select sides was a post-WW II test of trust and suspicion, on both sides.
For intrigue, this might be unmatched. But it relies too much on no-doubt yellowed newspaper text, which is sometimes conflicting and dry. But it does include some gems. "The (Dynamo) party's reserved first-class coach - the Embassy had obviously forgotten to stress that socialists traveled in third class - was soon besieged by young boys, porters and servicemen," Downing writes.
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