Top sportswriting of 2012

Is Barry Bearak of the NYT doing sports now, or are those just a couple of takeouts among his general work?

 

I think he is doing sports takeouts now.

 

Hruby on conspiracy theories deserves a top five.

 

Vers' list is way better.

Hruby on conspiracy theories and that KC Star story on Pioli are the two that rise to the top for me.

 

I don't care about conspiracy theories, but I grant you that story was really, really well done. Patrick Hruby would be a fine choice for sports writer of the year.

 

This would be a fine, fine choice for post of the year. Ha.

(I also hope to have one of these lists out sometime late next week, but just consisting of pieces I really liked. Favorite, not top or best. And I'll try to add a bit about why I thought they worked. Agree with many of the recommendations on here and on Shanoff's list. You all have good taste).

 

Weird, two of the sports things I read this year were both done by Hruby — Sports Welfare and NBA conspiracy theories. Wildly different but wildy good.

I'd add in the Kevin Van Valkenburg story on the semipro player and The Ricky Rubio experience in the Classical.

Links are here:
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8307997/why-men-dave-coleman-jr-willing-risk-much-play-semi-pro-football

http://theclassical.org/articles/the-ricky-rubio-experience

 

I just read the three Hruby pieces. They were great. Which reminds me I'm reading less about sports than I used to. Is that because I've been out of the business for some years now and therefore am no longer trying to read everything, or am I part of some more ominous trend?

 

Coincidentally, I have bookmarked another piece from The Classical on Ricky Rubio, written last season by Benjamin Polk: http://bit.ly/Zk8RPB

Given The Classical's roots in hipsterdom, think pieces and the NBA, Rubio makes perfect sense as a top muse.

 

Darn, no Sock Puppet. Foiled again.

 

Jeff Passan's piece on former A's prospect Grant Desme wasn't bad: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/from-prospect-to-priest--grant-desme-leaves-the-a-s--becomes-a-monk-and-tries-to-find-his-peace.html

 

So, I finally had time to put together my list. It's not comprehensive. Just the stuff I personally liked best. There's some overlap with the pieces mentioned above, and some different ones, too. I didn't include anything I wrote. Hope you all enjoy: http://bit.ly/RSkv0O