out Page 131 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Lede Time
Lenny Shecter is best remembered as the man behind Jim Bouton’s classic Ball Four but for a generation of sports fans who followed Shecter’s columns in the New York Post in the late Fifties and the early Sixties he stands as one of the great sports writers of them all. He had a quick-witted, thought...

Straight, No Chaser
Last week, we featured an excerpt from Eliot Asinof's fine baseball novel, Man on Spikes. Today, here's more on Asinof....

What Boxing Writing Can Teach Us About Everything
Excerpted from his essay for A New Literary History of America, check out this piece by Carlo Rotella:...


A Sportswriter Goes To War: John Lardner In The Pacific Theater
From my introduction to Southwest Passage: The Yanks in the Pacific. ...

The Weekend's Prettiest Goal Was An Own Goal
South Africa's Bernard Parker scored this rocket of a header, unfortunately into his own net. Because of that, the 2010 World Cup hosts won't be around for the 2014 edition....

Doesn't Anyone Around Here Knock?
From Harper's back in 2001, dig Rich Cohen's fun trip to Chicago, "Down and Out at Wrigley Field":...

Photos: The North Korean Hockey Team
You can click over here to read an account of a week spent with the North Korean national ice hockey team at the IIHF Division III Championships. These photos were just some of the many taken during the weeklong tournament in Cape Town, South Africa, and present a snapshot of the rare North Koreans ...

My Week With The North Korean Hockey Team
CAPE TOWN, South Africa—This is what a North Korean postgame press conference sounds like:...

Last Pitch
A week of Father's Day stories continues. This little gem comes from Glenn Stout:...

Health Is Bad For You: My Weird Weekend At Toronto's Fitness Shitshow
TORONTO—"Dear Toronto Pro Supershow Delegate," read a slip of paper handed to everyone checking in at Toronto's Intercontinental Hotel on Friday. "For your convenience we have 'Special Towels' through our Housekeeping Department. We recommend that these special towels/ linens be used in conjunction ...

Report: Shawne Merriman Hospitalized After Club Overdose
Former Chargers and Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman was rushed to a hospital from a Hollywood club last night, with what authorities would only describe as a "medical emergency." Now there's a report that Merriman may have partied a little too hard....

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 ...

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:...

Rugby Fight Gets Right To Lots Of Punching
The State of Origin, which annually pits New South Wales (Blues) against Queensland (Maroons), is hailed as "Australian sport's greatest rivalry." And when tempers flare, niceties like staring each other down and talking shit while being held back don't apply....

Marathon Runner Steals Mickey Mouse Doll From Child, Is A Huge Jerk
The bond between a child and his favorite toy is a sacred one that should not be taken lightly. Just ask Arman Moodliar, who had his favorite Mickey Mouse doll stolen from him by a heartless marathon runner....

Joss Whedon Enjoys His Job More Than You Do
The best part about Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing is that it's not particularly proud of itself for adapting Shakespeare. Filmmakers tend to tackle the Bard out of hubris (the Mel Gibson Hamlet), an attempt to be some sort of authority (Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet), a flamboyant go-for-batshit-...

Boxer Urges Opponent To Fight, Is Immediately Knocked Out
This junior middleweight bout in Florida provides a nice little entry for the Be Careful What You Wish For file....

Seconds Out
Matt Wilson's "Second Out" series. Found via Museumuseum. ...
