Deadspin: john feinstein

John Feinstein Has Bypass Surgery

Tommy Craggs — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:45:23 EDT

Feinstein, author of 4,285 books and a new, now poignantly named blog, writes: "The angiogram showed 'four to six,' blockages in my heart-one of them 100 percent." He went under the knife yesterday. [Feinstein on the Brink]

Media Approval Ratings: John Feinstein

Will Leitch — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:05:50 EDT

The first time we ever read a book that had the word fuck in it was in John Feinstein's Season On The Brink. Bobby Knight liked to say that word a lot. It was also the first time we had seen the c-word. We were 14 years old.

Feinstein just keeps pumping out the books; he seems to have written three this year. (Seriously.) Some are classics; some seem like easy bestseller churn. This productivity led to a famous devastation of his "Last Dance" in The New York Times, which contained this brutal line: Feinstein is not just a woeful writer; he's a woeful writer who repeats himself. ... Is it too much to hope that "Last Dance" might be not just Feinstein's last "Last" book but his last book?

OK, now that's just kind of mean.

So: Do you like the John Feinstein? Do you not like the John Feinstein? Onward!

A Brief History Of Sportswriter Gambling

Leitch — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:15:45 EDT

The ombudsman over at The Washington Post is appalled to learn that Post writers have been gambling on The Masters, saying, "maybe the Masters bets next year should be in Oreos, not cash," which, if you've looked at the people covering The Masters lately, is probably what they're spending their money on anyway.

Sportswriters gambling on the events they cover is theoretically unethical (and, of course, illegal, wink wink). An NFL writer in say, New York, could have a bunch of money on the Giants' opponent and spend the whole week writing articles that would distract Eli Manning and make him cry. (Not too difficult anyway.) Of course, the real world doesn't work this way, and at the high levels of tenured sportswriting, gambling is pretty much the only way the games can hold any of these guys' attention. So, henceforth, these little gambling games, $50 here or there, because do you realize how boring it is to cover golf?

It's really quite logical: Years of covering sports make you hate sports and turn gambling into the only way you can tolerate it any longer. It doesn't seem fair to take that away from them. It's all they have.

Washington Post Writers Shouldn't Have Met In Masters Pool [The Fanhouse]

Remind Us Not to Anger Jay Jennings

Rick Chandler — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 13:15:36 EST

If you're a fan of John Feinstein, or college basketball, or hate one or both, be sure not to miss Sunday's New York Times Book Review. On the hot seat is Feinstein's latest, Last Dance, an examination of college basketball's Final Four. A tipster provided us with a sneak peek of the review, which me must say, we're kind of looking forward to now more than the actual book.

"Thought you'd be interested to know that this sunday's NYTBR has a highly enjoyable takedown of John Feinstein by Jay Jennings - a review of his new book LAST DANCE that contains such choice lines as:

"full of lazy banalities... and sloppy factual mistakes (...despite the rampant Dukist slant, he misidentifies the University's president...)"

"But most inexcusable is his self-plagiarism, recycling between new covers tired stories he's told us before."

"Feinstein is not just a woeful writer; he's a woeful writer who repeats himself."

"Feinstein's latest and lamest shows a disdain for intelligent sports-minded readers..."

and, playing off his earlier note that this is Feinstein's third book with "Last" in the title: "Is it too much to hope that 'Last Dance' might be not just Feinstein's last 'Last' book but his last book?"

Nice."