bestof Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The House That Thurman Munson Built
Originally published in the September 1999 issue of Esquire. Reprinted here with the author’s permission....
Dick Young's America ... The Reactionary Who Changed Sportswriting ...
Originally published in the Aug. 1, 1985, issue of Sport magazine. Reprinted here with permission of the author's widow, Laura Ross....
The Loser: The Most Honest Sports Story Ever Written
Originally published in the March 1964 issue of Esquire. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
The Longest Day Of Sugar Ray: A Boxing Great Becomes A Sideshow Freak
Originally published by True magazine in 1964. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
How Hollywood Ruined Our Best Football Novel
Originally published in 1977 in the Chicago Daily News. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
Rae Carruth, The Women Who Loved Him, And The One He Wanted Dead
Originally published in the May 2001 issue of GQ. Reprinted here with the author's permission. His annotations appear throughout the story (click on the asterisk and wait a moment for his comment to appear). Illustration by Sam Woolley....
The Yankee Bullshitters: What Joe D, Yogi, And Mickey Were Really Like
Last week gave a short post on the late, great Lenny Shecter. Now, for a real taste of his no-bullshit style, here's an excerpt from "The Flower of America" chapter of his 1969 book of essays, The Jocks....
Manchild In The Promised Land: Where Darryl Dawkins Came From
Originally published in the April 30, 1980, issue of Inside Sports. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
Who Shot Battling Siki? The Life And Murder Of A Prizefighter
Originally published in 1949 in The New Yorker and anthologized in The World of John Lardner. Reprinted with permission of Susan Lardner. For more on John Lardner, read Alex Belth's introduction to a new Lardner collection, Southwest Passage....
The Best Of The Stacks (So Far)
The Stacks is Deadspin's living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter's Alex Belth. Here are a few of our favorite stories so far....
My Old Man, On The Scales: Was My Racist Truck-Driver Father A Hero?
Here's a Father's Day treat from the late, great Paul Hemphill. From The Good Old Boys, published in 1974....
How Dr. J Blackified Pro Ball, Found Himself, And Stayed Eternally Cool
Originally published in Esquire in February 1985 and anthologized in Teenage Hipster in the Modern World, a stellar collection of Mark Jacobson's non-fiction. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
My Dinner With Ali
Adapted from the original, which was published in 1989 in the Louisville Courier-Journal Magazine. Footnotes from the author (as told to Tommy Craggs) are included throughout the story, and a postscript from Glenn Stout, editor of Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Sports Writing series, follows. The ...
Leroy's Revenge: Two Dogs, Father And Son, Fight To The Death
Originally published in the August 1975 issue of Texas Monthly. Reprinted here with permission. As the author explains in the postscript, names have been changed, and the final scene is a composite. ...
Can Dennis Rodman Survive Retirement?
Originally published as "No Rebound" on June 1, 2003, in The New York Times Magazine. Footnotes from the author are included throughout the story....
The Double Life Of A Gay Dodger
Originally published in the October 1982 issue of Inside Sports....
Thin Air: In The Mountains With Steve Carlton, Armed Conspiracist
Originally published as "Thin Mountain Air" in the April 1994 issue of Philadelphia Magazine. The story appears in The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan published by Persea books. A postscript with thoughts from both the author and editor follows....
The Brief Life And Complicated Death Of Tommy Lasorda's Gay Son
Originally published in the October 1992 issue of GQ, as "Tangled Up in Blue." A postscript from the author follows....
The Weight Of Tex Cobb's Belief
Here's the second of four Pete Dexter columns about Randall "Tex" Cobb's heavyweight title fight against Larry Holmes. Click here for part one. Originally published Nov. 24, 1982, as "Gifts Aren't Everything" in the Philadelphia Daily News, this column appears here with the author's permission. ...
The Night Tex Cobb Saved My Life
In November 1982, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Pete Dexter went to Houston to watch his friend Randall "Tex" Cobb fight Larry Holmes for boxing's heavyweight championship. In the coming days, we'll republish Dexter's four columns from the event. Below, you'll find the first one, originally publ...