memoir Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Main Ingredient: Mom's Orange Tree
In 1974, when I was three years old, my grandparents returned from a trip to Florida with a gift for my mother and my aunt. They carried it in a box, a few small branches of an orange tree. My aunt planted hers and it died almost immediately but Mom, who has a way with plants and flowers, potted the...
The Main Ingredient: Cinnamon Toast
I was in elementary school during the final sad years of my parents' marriage. We had moved out of New York City to Westchester and lived on a street that was more country than suburban. I had a friend named Kevin who lived up the road in a big, dilapidated house. He kept a water-logged copy of Hust...
The Two Rogers
Here is a memoir story I wrote last year for SB Nation. It is about my father and also about Roger Angell and Roger Kahn:...
Keef Riffhard
Here's a good piece on Keith Richards' memoir by Rich Cohen:...
At Swim, Two Girls
Also from BASW 2013, dig Bridget Quinn's beautiful piece, "At Swim, Two Girls":...
Why I Quit The Major Leagues
During my first year in the major leagues, I was twice sent back down to the minors. This is common for rookies, especially if their competition for a roster spot is doing well—and I was playing behind Darwin Barney, who was chasing the record for the most consecutive games at second base without an...
Joe Carter's World Series-Ending Homer
He hit it twenty years ago today. Last fall I wrote an essay for Sports on Earth about my college girlfriend, New York pizza and Carter’s memorable home run:...
The Goon Show: A Life In Letters
Mike Fox on "The Africa Project," 1966...
Pitcher Do Get Lonely (Even Scrubs)
I used to play stickball with my pals out in Brooklyn in the late '90s. One summer morning I was pitching and getting bombed. When I tried to be cute, I didn't come anywhere near the box on the wall. When I tried my best David Wells and just put the ball over the plate, they murdered me....
I Was A Stud High School Baseball Player
Picture of me as a stud high school baseball player, spring on 1985. Look at the classical form, the powerful sense of calm. Textbook isn't it?...
Robert Towne's Memories Of Sports In L.A.
We know Robert Towne as a great screenwriter—Shampoo, Chinatown, The Last Detail, Personal Best, Tequila Sunrise (never mind the script doctor work he's done, most famously on Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather). But here's something for ya, a bonus piece he did for Sports Illustrated back in 1984:...
Note In A Fan's Notes
Found this copy of Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes in a bookstore on the Upper West Side last week. Dig the inscription:...
Hey, Bulldog
The Wife wants a bulldog. I want a Bernese mountain dog. Instead, we have two cats....
Up The Stairs With Cus D'Amato
From the Library of America's Story of the Week site, here's a gem—Pete Hamill's tribute to Cus D'Amato:...
Bill Cosby Talks Money, Success, Racism, Guns And Revolution
First rock albums I ever bought were Let it Bleed and Are You Experienced?. I was in the fifth grade. My mom took me to Caldors I bought them on cassette. She dug rock n roll but wasn't an avid record buyer. She had albums by Simon and Garfunkel and Judy Collins and her favorite, Jacques Brel, but i...
The Elements of Style: "I Never Liked Fighting"
My father wasn’t a boxing fan but talked about Sugar Ray Robinson with admiration. Robinson was a brutal and efficient fighter, I was told, “pound-for-pound, the greatest boxer of all-time."...
The Crowd Sounds Happy
Baseball lends itself to radio, this much we know. Hasn't changed much through the years either. The game still sounds good on the radio. But let's go back some, and hear about Nicholas Dawidoff's experiences listening to Ned Martin call Red Sox games in the 1970s:...