The Original Guide to Office Pools

Rick Boulton was a Contributing Editor, TV Guide.

Wayne describes nearby 40 types of office pools in this 128-page paperback, devoting a chapter to each of the major sports pools (football, hockey, baseball, and basketball) and adding a special chapter on how to interpret scoring summaries and box scores in the sports section of your local paper. For betting fans, it’s a book virtually impossible to put down, crammed with tips, how-to information, and all sorts of mysterious lists, scores, names, numbers, and statistics. This is a book for both the casual office worker who is roped into a hockey draft (players draft their own teams of 20 NHL players at season’s beginning, or playoff time) and the serious betting fanatic who is far from a beginner. Wayne, the son of comedian Johnny Wayne and a lifelong sports nut, not only wants us to enjoy taking part in the standard office pool but also offers new twists on old favorites — instead of a time-of-the-last-goal pool, try his pool in which the number of games Wayne Gretzky goes scoreless counts, or the pool based on the number of coaches fired during the season. Freelance writer Wayne’s relaxed, witty, and engaging style is perfectly suited to his entertaining subject matter. Wayne also includes a chapter on non-sports pools, such as the Academy Awards and elections. He admittedly omits a possible chapter on the famous British soccer pools and how to play them — but adds that the soccer chapter will make a good start toward a second volume. In the meantime, there’s plenty here to keep sports fans busy. Indeed, Office Pools may become a standard reference work on company book shelves across the country, next to Webster’s Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus.