print Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Last Of The Old Way: Larry Bird's Celtics Enter The Modern Era
Excerpted from Unfinished Business, a chronicle of the 1990-91 Boston Celtics season, now available as an e-book. The author's annotations appear throughout the story. ...
For One Great Ballplayer, Philadelphia Was A Perpetual Traffic Jam
Originally published in January 1970 in Jock magazine. The author, Bill Conlin, died on Thursday. He was 79. Conlin was a legend in his native city who wrote elegantly and hilariously about Philadelphia sports in the days before he allowed himself to become a grouchy old fud. He spent the last decad...
New Year's Eve: America's Biggest And Ugliest Bender
Originally published in 1951 and anthologized in Nobody Asked Me, But ...: The World of Jimmy Cannon....
Why We Get Stupid And Shitfaced On New Year's Eve: A Cultural History
This article originally appeared in The New York Observer in 1993 and is anthologized in Luc's wonderful collection of essays, Kill All Your Darlings. ...
Anatomy Of A Con: How The Public Was Scammed To Build Candlestick Park
While everyone's free to be as nostalgic as they like about Candlestick Park now that it's probably seen the end of its useful life, it's worth remembering that it wasn't only a miserable place to watch a game, but also a forerunner of the modern public financing con. The piece below, which original...
Swee'pea And The Shark: The Struggle For The Soul Of A Playground Hero
Originally published in the November 1992 issue of Esquire. Reprinted here with permission. An afterword from the author follows....
Cracking Up With Charlie Barnett, The Legendary Street Comic
Originally published in the Village Voice (date unknown). Anthologized in the author's collection of reportage, No Success Like Failure. For a sort of companion to this, check out Solotaroff's dispatch from an Andrew Dice Clay show in 1989. The author's afterword is here....
Little Big Mouth: The Unfunny Comedy Of Andrew Dice Clay
Originally published in 1990 in the Village Voice. Anthologized in the author's collection of reportage, No Success Like Failure. Solotaroff's apologetic afterword is here: ...
"That Moment Before It Starts When You're Scared": Tyson In His Prime
Before he became the main attraction at the freak show, and before he became a kitsch icon, Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight champion in history, and a fighter of seemingly limitless promise. There was no way to know it at the time, but when Pete Dexter wrote the story below, he was capturing...
"That Moment Before It Starts When You're Scared": Tyson In His Prime
Originally published in the February 1988 issue of Playboy. Reprinted here by the permission of the author. ...
Off-Broadway Joe: The Song And Dance Of A Playboy Nearing Middle Age
Originally published in the July 1981 issue of Inside Sports. Reprinted here with the author's permission. For more on Namath, check out this reprint of a frank Playboy interview from 1969....
The Champ And The Chump: The Meaning Of Liston-Clay I
Originally published on March 7, 1964, in The New Republic. Reprinted here with the permission of the author's family....
From Louisville To The Nation Of Islam: My Ups And Downs With Ali
This story was originally published in a 1971 issue of Sport magazine. It is reprinted here with permission....
The Challenger And The Muslims
In this story, Dick Schaap writes about the newspaper article that first revealed the connection between Ali and the Black Muslim movement. Schaap's "scoop"—which ran on the front page of the Herald Tribune of January 23, 1964, three weeks after I became city editor of the paper—follows....
Risk And Romance Among NBA Groupies: An Embed's Report
Originally published in the April 1992 issue of Esquire. Reprinted here with the author's permission....
Eric Nesterenko And The Examined Life: A Hockey Intellectual Reflects
Excerpted from From Black Sox to Three-Peats: A Century of Chicago's Best Sports Writing (University of Chicago Press), edited by Ron Rapoport and featuring stories from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Defender, among other papers. It's an excellen...
How A White Couple Stuck Up For Black Ballplayers In Jim Crow Florida
Excerpted from From Black Sox to Three-Peats: A Century of Chicago's Best Sports Writing (University of Chicago Press), edited by Ron Rapoport and featuring stories from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Defender, among other papers. It's an excellen...
The Called Shot Heard Round The World
Excerpted from From Black Sox to Three-Peats: A Century of Chicago's Best Sports Writing (University of Chicago Press), edited by Ron Rapoport and featuring stories from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Defender, among other papers. It's an excellen...
The Better Man: How Sugar Ray Leonard Handled Fear And Marvin Hagler
Originally published in the May 17, 1987, edition of The Washington Post Magazine. Republished here with the author's permission. His postscript follows. For more on Hagler-Leonard, check out Grantland's oral history....
Did <em>Anyone</em> Get Into The NASCAR Chase Fair And Square?
Just as NASCAR was cleaning up its mess, booting Martin Truex Jr. from the Chase for the Sprint Cup after his teammates conspired to bone Ryan Newman, comes more controversy! Was there more collusion afoot at Richmond? Did Jeff Gordon get screwed? Is NASCAR infinitely more fun with these shenanigans...