excerpt Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
You Don't See A Fella Sliding Into Second Base And Breaking His Cigar
Before he became famous a broadcaster, Myron Cope was a terrific writer. Do yourself a favor and track down his compilation Broken Cigars. The title was taken from a conversation Cope once had over beers with Alex Hawkins, a journeyman football player who complained that baseball was losing its popu...
Don't Call Me Irwin
My father had a bookshelf of mystery and crime paperbacks when I was growing up. The only ones I ever read were Gregory Mcdonald's Fletch series which suited my teenage wise ass self just fine....
Mr. Big Stuff (Who Do You Think You Are?)
Another good Reggie story. This one if from Foul Ball: Five Years in the American League, by Alison Gordon, who covered the Blue Jays from 1979-83. Gordon describes herself as “a socialist, feminist, hedonist with roots in the sixties, a woman who had marched against the bomb, done drugs, and never,...
This One Goes To Eleven
Slide on over to the Hollywood reporter and check out this excerpt from Michael Walker's new book What You Want Is in the Limo:...
S'Long Holly
Carol Reed's movie The Third Man, based on one of Graham Greene's "entertainments," is a favorite....
“Source? <em>I'm</em> Your Fucking Source!” Dick Young, As He Really Was
To round off our Dick Young tribute/roast, please enjoy this excerpt from Keepers of the Game: When the Baseball Beat Was The Best Job On The Paper, a new oral history compiled by Dennis D’Agostino in the tradition of Jerome Holtzman’s No Cheering in the Press Box. Dennis was good enough to let me ...
And It Happens Every Day
Over at Narrative, dig David Thomson on The Long Goodbye—...
The Talented Mr. Tynan
"Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding."...
Sunday Sermon: Al Green, Greg Maddux, And The Power Of Softness
Greg Maddux used to talk about throwing softer rather than harder when he was in a tight spot. Back in August of 2004, Mark Prior told Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci:...
A Gentle Giant
Jack McCallum is a terrific reporter and writer. He was with SI for many years and still does the occasional piece for them. He is also an author and runs a blog. The blog has lots of fun posts. This one, a tribute to the late Robert Creamer, is tender:...
Pump, Pump, Pump, Pump It Up
Paul Solotaroff had a terrific piece on the original Gold’s Gym and the rise of bodybuilding in the February, 2012 issue of Men’s Journal:...
Darkness On The Edge Of Town: A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Here's Flannery O'Connor reading her story "A Good Man is Hard to Find."...
“I Think That ‘E’ Made The Whole Fucking Difference”
From Hollywood: Stars and starlets, tycoons and flesh-peddlers, moviemakers and moneymakers, frauds and geniuses, hopefuls and has-been, great lover and sex symbols, Garson Kanin's appealing, gossipy memoir:...
It's Good To Be The King
From “The Age of Movies,” here’s P. Kael on History of the World, Part I:...
True To The Game
Thanks to Kottke I came across this excerpt from Brett Martin's new book Difficult Men. This piece goes behind-the-scenes on HBO's classic, The Wire:...
I Just Get Out Of The Way And Let It Go
From Pete Dexter’s 2003 novel, Train:...
Red Ass Lou Screws The Pooch (Just Like Earl Knew He Would)
Following up on yesterday's Mark Kram article on the Red Sox and Orioles, here’s a bit of Earl Weaverness for you, from a chapter I wrote about the 1974 American League East for It Ain’t Over ‘Til it’s Over:...
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....
The Art of Storytelling
There’s a fine post on John Huston over at Cinephilia and Beyond, which has quickly become one of my favorite all-time sites. They give us a 1965 interview with Huston inFilm Quarterly. Dig this:...
Stealing Signs In Baseball: A Hall Of Famer's Guide
There are many fair ways to steal the signs of the enemy, so many that the smart ball-player is always kept on the alert by them. Baseball geniuses, some almost magicians, are constantly looking for new schemes to find out what the catcher is telling the pitcher, what the batter is tipping the base...