The Best American Sports Writing 2005 (The Best American Series) [Paperback]

Mike Lupica (Editor), Glenn Stout (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2005

The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected--and most popular--of its kind.

The Best American Sports Writing 2005 includes

Michael Lewis • Gary Smith • Steve Coll • Tom Verducci • Ira Berkow • Bill Plaschke • Linda Robertson • Michael Bamberger • L. Jon Wertheim • Thomas McGuane • John Brant • Pat Jordan • David DiBenedetto • and others

Mike Lupica, guest editor, has been a columnist for the New York Daily News since 1977 and is the best-selling author of numerous books, including, most recently, Travel Team, a number one New York Times bestseller.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The latest volume in one of the most consistently satisfying titles in the Best American series once again brings together outstanding sports reporting on a wealth of different topics. Headline-making sports events such as the baseball steroid scandal are covered here, but the majority of the winning stories offer reflective looks at athletes far from the limelight: Ira Berkow's "Making Contact," the story of forgotten baseball phenom Jim Woods, whom Berkow played against in high school; Michael Bamberger's "Pride of Peabody," about a blue-collar Massachusetts town and its much-loved high-school teams; and Bill Plaschke's "Phat Chants," about a women's softball team in Compton, California, that can't get no respect. Uniformly, these stories draw us into the spirit of the games and the competitors, finding the human connection so often lacking in big-time sports. But perhaps the true highlight of this volume is guest editor Mike Lupica's eloquent introduction, in which he sings the praises of an earlier generation of sports reporters, especially Dan Jenkins, who made him want to make a living writing about the games we play. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Under the auspices of Matt Christopher, Glenn Stout is the author of all the Good Sports books. He was also the author of thirty-nine titles in the Matt Christopher Sports Biography and Legends in Sports series. He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.Check out his website at www.goodsportsbyglennstout.com.

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618470204
• ISBN-13: 978-0618470204
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding, April 12, 2006

By 

Fred Soffa "Fred Soffa" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Sports Writing 2005 (The Best American Series) (Paperback)

This is a fabulous book. The reader will be rewarded again and again. Mike Lupica has done a worthy job as editor.

Let's face it, there is no shortage of good writing out there. Just like when we see a film, like it or not, the technical work is outstanding. The challenge for the editor is to create, using his selections, an introduction to the greater narratives that underlie the sensibility of the genre. Sports, in 2005, having never lost the ability to inspire, having those wonderful stories of determination, of grit, of overcoming odds, of personal victory are now also tales of despondency, of scandal, of defeat not just on a personal level, but also at the grander scale that we now experience this global world. So Lupica takes us on an emotional journey that captures as a snapshot the world we live in. The stories are the links in the chain. The chain as a whole, the journey as a whole, is wonderfully well thought out and perfectly executed. I cannot say enough about this book.

If you like this book, and this style of meta-narrative, please check out the 2004 Best American Travel Writing, edited by Pico Ayer. He carves out an incredible emotional journey, in alphabetical order!

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sporting Texas, April 18, 2008

By 

W. Howard "Will's Texana" (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Sports Writing 2005 (The Best American Series) (Paperback)

From the Texas point of view:
Scanning HM's 2005 Travel anthology, the editor found no obvious Texas connection, but maybe he just doesn't know what he's doing. However, the Sports anthology was different. The full text selections included Michael Hall's "The Duke of Dunbar" and Katy Vine's "Alive and Kicking" both from Texas Monthly issues. In the list at the back for other notables of the previous year were three citations, including John Spong's "The Shot Not Heard Around the World," (Texas Monthly), Jose de Jesus Ortiz's "Braves Exercise Poor Judgment" (Houston Chronicle October 10), and Paul Kix's "All the Rage" (Dallas Observer, August 12-18).