The Best American Sports Writing 2006 (The Best American Series) [Paperback]

Michael Lewis (Editor), Glenn Stout (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2006

For fans of sports and just plain great writing, this collection of twenty-seven of the finest pieces from the past year features "outstanding sports reporting on a wealth of different topics" (Booklist). Guest editor Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Moneyball and Coach, has assembled a compelling look at the sports stories and issues that dominated 2005.

Pamela Colloff reports from the politically and sexually charged world of competitive cheerleading in Texas. Paul Solotaroff meets the star of the University of Georgia wrestling team, a nineteen-year-old world-record weightlifter who was born with no arms or legs. Ben Paynter travels the gay rodeo circuit. Pat Jordan profiles the world's greatest poker player, a boyish thirty-year-old whose mom still packs him a brown bag lunch. Jeff Duncan travels to Florida, where a New Orleans high school and its football program are picking up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We also discover Linda Robertson reporting on the supersizing of NFL players. S. L. Price profiles the most famous U.S. Paraolympian. Katy Vine introduces a girl who can dunk -- in eighth grade -- and more.

The pieces in this outstanding volume show the true reach and impact of sports, its importance often extending far beyond the playing field. As Lewis writes in his introduction, "What's reassuring about great sports writing is what's reassuring about great sports performances: facing opposition, and often against the odds, someone, at last, did something right."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

It's time to rewrite George Plimpton's legendary observation on sports writing: the smaller the ball, the better the prose. How about this: the weirder the sport, the better the writing. Or so one might conclude after examining the latest edition of the always-satisfying Best American Sports Writing series. Guest editor Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, 2003) brings together plenty of stories on mainstream sports, but the best of those look at the games from an angle beyond wins and losses (Linda Robertson's "XXL," for example, about the phenomenon of supersized NFL lineman). It's the oddballs, though, that really let the writers shine. Take Charlie Schroeder's "A (Fishing) Hole in One," about the off-the-grid "sport" of poaching fish from golf-course lakes. The jewel in this collection's crown, J. P. Moehringer's "The Unnatural Natural," profiles a sixtysomething St. Louis softball player ("the hobo Rob Hobbs") who is just this side of homeless. It isn't just the curiosity of the topic that elevates this story; it's Moehringer's refusal to pigeonhole his subject. That sense of the unexpected drives this thoroughly absorbing collection. 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

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.

 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1st edition (October 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618470220
• ISBN-13: 978-0618470228
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Journalism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underdogs, Oddballs, and Goat Dressers, November 28, 2006

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Best American Sports Writing 2006 (The Best American Series) (Paperback)

Michael Lewis, this year's guest editor to Best American Sports Writing, is somewhat of a newcomer to sports writing. After fifteen years of fairly successful (and really interesting) journalism in his books about high finance, a presidential campaign, and Silicon Valley, Lewis hit on a major success with Moneyball, a story of money and baseball. Then he wrote Coach, about a crusty old high school baseball coach. Now he has a book out about football, The Blind Side, that tells of a poor black kid who is (with the help of a wealthy white family) on the brink of pro football success. Suddenly, instead of writing about the always fascinating topics of money, greed, and power, Lewis is writing about sports. And while it is certainly possible to write about money, greed, and power in sports, Lewis has made a disturbing turn to the heartwarming.

So I approached the 2006 edition of Best Sports Writing warily. Sure enough, there are enough heartwarming articles in here to satisfy any fan of inspirational writing. The world's fastest amputee, a cyclist with Parkinson's, a girl boxer, a gay boxer, a homeless softball star, a quadriplegic wrestler, all fighting bravely against overwhelming odds.

Fortunately though, there are also pieces on oddball sports like golf course fishing and gay rodeo (which features an event called goat dressing, in which the contestant puts a pair of boxer shorts on a goat in the quickest time) and competitive cheerleading. An article on the Dakar Rally and a profile of Rickey Henderson were two of the best entries in the book, in my opinion. They put you right there, in the car hurtling through the desert, and in Rickey Henderson's head.

Two of the most powerful articles were about football, and despite Lewis's apparent decision to appeal to the Reader's Digest crowd, these essays are not heartwarming. One is about Mike Webster, a retired pro football player who died in 2002 at age fifty after struggling with hypertension, depression, and dementia, all probably brought on by football injuries. The other article is called XXL and it's about the alarming trend in football, at all levels, to encourage players to be heavy. Because of the changes in the game over the past thirty years, physical size is more important, and players in the NFL are on average 65 pounds heavier than they were in 1975. Over 300 players in the NFL today are over 300 pounds, compared to none thirty years ago. Young players who hope to make it to the pros someday start bulking up early. Coaches and even parents encourage the kids to put on the pounds.

All in all, a satisfying collection of good writing, mostly about sports (is poker a sport?).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and interesting, August 9, 2007

By 

Smita Rao (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Sports Writing 2006 (The Best American Series) (Paperback)

The chief strength of this anthology is its diversity. Very contemporary in flavor, this one appealed to me even though I'm only on the outer fringes of the world of sporting events.

Micheal Lewis' has culled an intriguing mix of stories related to sport. In this collection, you will find a young girl who wants to box, the gay rodeo, the story of Mike Webster, a rainbow coach, the fastest sprinter with a prosthetic leg, post-Katrina football among other gems. Truly a sign of our times. Each story has a unique protagonist and/or setting and each writer does a very good job bringing his/her narrative to life. Excellent summer reading!

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous, December 4, 2007

By 

Avid Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Sports Writing 2006 (The Best American Series) (Paperback)

I've enjoyed reading this series for a decade, and this book was right up there with the best of them. This book can either be read quickly like a pleasant novel, or it can be read in pieces; I usually save it for a business trip, when I have breaks to read for just 10-20 minutes at a time. It's hard to pick a favorite, though the boxing girl and the cave-diver pieces are especially memorable. I also thought it was interesting that several articles related to how homosexuality is accepted/not accepted in the sports world and by sports fans.