alexbelth Page 58 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Legacy of Drazen Petrovic
On the 20th anniversary of his death, here's a story on Drazen Petrovic by the most-talented Stephen Rodrick:...
Bad Ass
From the Bronx Banter archives, check out Pat Jordan's 1989 Playboy story on Rorion Gracie:...
Borne Back Ceaselessly to the Future
Glenn Stout's "Requiem for Fenway"—from the June issue of Boston Baseball, and reprinted on Stout's blog, Verb Plow:...
You Can Go Home Again
Last November, Bryan Curtis wrote this piece on Marv Albert for Grantland:...
A Father's Small Hope
Paul Solotaroff on his son Luke, who suffers from autism, and a father's small hope:...
On the Slant
A few weeks ago I had a phone conversation with Red Smith's biographer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Ira Berkow. He told me:...
Hey Ma, What's For Dinner?
Esquire recently published an e-book collection of sports stories. (It's also available at Byliner.) One of the stories is available on-line and it's a good one—Scott Raab's 2001 piece on Don Zimmer: ...
Gentlemen, Start Your Coffins
Another good one—Rick Reilly's 1986 SI tribute to the columnist Jim Murray—"King of the Sports Page":...
Lost and Found
Here's "Resurrecting The Champ," J.R. Moehringer's classic 1997 takeout piece for the Los Angeles Times. How about this for a lede?...
Hold that Tiger
From Stanley Woodward's great memoir, Paper Tiger, here's how the legendary newspaper editor lured Red Smith and Joe Palmer to the New York Herald Tribune:...
The Best-Kept Secret
Another sure-shot for you—David Owen's 1982 Esquire piece on the late, great Murray Kempton: ...
Don't Mess With Texas
If you've never read it, this is a treat: Gary Cartwright's classic 1968 piece for Haper's: "Confessions of a Washed-Up Sportswriter." Here we have a first-hand account of Bud Shrake, Dan Jenkins, Blackie Sherrod and the legendary Forth Worth Press in the Fifties:...
All Night Long
Back in 1969, Jimmy Breslin spent a night hanging out with Broadway Joe Namath:...
Thieves of Time
Dig Charlie Pierce's story on Cool Papa Bell (originally published in The National back in 1990):...
Fore Play
Check out this little 1987 Esquire essay about golf by Richard Ben Cramer:...
Bad Ass
My favorite bean ball story involves Dock Ellis when he was pitching for the Pirates in the 1970s. The following excerpt is from In the Country of Baseball, written by Ellis with Donald Hall....
He Punches like a Fucking Mule Kick
Here is a good story from "Second Wind: Memoirs of an Opinonated Man," by Bill Russell with the historian Taylor Branch (1979, Random House; currently out-of-print). It’s about Russell’s grandfather and his mule, Kate. Russell’s family was from Monroe, La., and he lived down there until he was about...