writing Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Working Stiffs
I admire Elmore Leonard and Woody Allen because they just keep working. Elmore is 87, Woody is 77. And they don't stop. ...
Bet a Million
I once had dinner with Vic Ziegel and asked him to name the most literate sports writer. And he laughed at me, laughed at the idea that someone working on deadline would stop to consider what they were doing literate. ...
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:...
Forgive Some Sinner
With Father's Day coming up on Sunday we'll feature stories about Dads this week. This here is as good as it gets—Mark Kram Jr.'s piercing 2007 memoir piece on his father:...
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 ...
Gentlemen, Start Your Coffins
Another good one—Rick Reilly's 1986 SI tribute to the columnist Jim Murray—"King of the Sports Page":...
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....
More Than Somewhat
Damon Runyon was a big shot sports writer in the 1920s and he became an even bigger deal as a chronicler of life on Broadway. Here is a good introduction to his work, including the short story, "Romance in the Roaring Forties." ...
G-L-O-R-Y!
Here's a gem: "Glory!" It's a story written with great empathy and care by Jeanne Marie Laskas about the Ben-Gals cheerleaders:...
"The Faint Tinkle Of Broken Dreams": Roger Ebert, Teenage Sportswriter
When Roger Ebert died last week, sportswriters were among the many to pay tribute. The beloved movie critic's words, Will Leitch wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "felt like LIFE." As it turns out, Ebert’s writing life started in sports. In the late 1950s, the News-Gazette, Ebert’s hometown paper in C...
Ryan Glasspiegel runs through sportswriting's reaction to the sad death of the Boston Phoenix, where Charles P. Pierce and Bill Simmons both got their careers started (and where the infamous George Kimball served as a writer and editor for many years). The Phoenix folded yesterday after a 46-year ru...
ESPN Asks: When Will Anyone Pay Attention To A Famous Football Player In This Super Bowl?
OK, now that two different reporters have battled for the chance to drag the mother of a victim in the Ray Lewis murder case to the graveyard, what else can the members of the press corps do to demonstrate that their Super Bowl coverage is about the unexpected and unappreciated angles? Looks like it...
The "Best" American Sports Shouting 2012: An Anthology Of People Screaming Into Microphones On TV And Radio
As the guest editor of this year's edition of the Best American Sports Writing anthology, American sports television host Michael Wilbon, a former columnist, seized the opportunity to hold forth on the sorry state of the craft. Here he is, for instance, discussing the book in a November interview:...
Chat With David Shields, Author Of Books About Race In The NBA And The Weird Shit Ichiro Suzuki Says
David Shields has authored 14 books and has written for a wide variety of publications throughout his career. His latest book, Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro, is a collection of the most fascinating Ichiro quotes. Here's a sampling of what you'll find in the book:...
Today In Cliche-Riddled Ledes About Bowling, Gunplay And Morality
"Whatever way you frame it, a group of men with their morals in the gutter did not spare any regard for human life when they opened fire in a bowling alley early yesterday, striking one man down, according to police." [Philadelphia Daily News]...
Journalists Address PSU's JoePa Class This Morning, Say He's a Scapegoat
There is no more telling fact than PSU having a regular class about Joe Paterno. Comm 497G: Joe Paterno, Communications & the Media, better known as "JoePa Class," studies the media through the lens of the longtime football coach. Today was obviously not a normal day. Instead, Joe Posnanski and Pat...
Paul Shirley And The Fat Woman Get Political
You remember Paul Shirley. We once described him as a "onetime baller, sometime music critic and all-around man of letters." At the time we were discussing his controversial freelance piece on post-earthquake Haiti, and certain points like asking them to "use a condom once in a while."...
HIV-Positive Tommy Morrison Says HIV Doesn't Exist So He Has Unprotected Sex "Every Day"
This column from a few days back in which Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star speaks to former "heavyweight champion" Tommy Morrison is a must-read for HIV deniers, teleporters, Randy Quaid, train-wreck enthusiasts and fans of quality reportage....
Mitch Albom Is The Greatest Writer Who Occasionally Writes About Sports
Mitch Albom says he might write a book about sports some day. You know, if he can manage to squeeze his day job into the down time between TV appearances and production meetings. He's got a lot on his plate....
Worst Piece Of Journalism From Super Bowl XLIV — Indianapolis Edition
With all due respect to Tommy, I think this idiotic screed painting Sean Payton as a modern Benedict Arnold is as bad as anything that's been produced this week. Bob Kravitz from the Indianapolis Star, come on down!...