All-time favorite piece of sports journalism?

Two words you don't hear often in a good way, Michael Hunt.

His column writing covering the UW-Milwaukee run to the Sweet 16 two years ago was flawless, and full of spirit. He gave a city that often looks at UWM with a hairy eye reason to embrace these overachieving talents. It was breathtaking copy.

 

I notice, Michael, that you have two posts. What was the other one on?

 

Fantastic, Mizzou. Thank you again.

 

Sorry Pringle, I get frequent haircuts, therefore, Michael Hunt I am not.

 

The story was in Sports Illustrated, meaning it came out several days after the game. It being the national championship surely everyone who wanted to know the score, already did. If it was a newspaper story the day after then I would agree 100 percent.

 

If one has never read a BASW book, would he be able to get up to speed by finding a Best of BASW compilation somewhere, sort of like a Greatest Hits that covers several years?

 

Plenty of obvious ones already mentioned. Since the question was about favorites rather than what we think should be accepted as "the best," my tastes personally lean toward those I read first-run. A couple I really liked that haven't been mentioned:

"When the Terror Began," by Alexander Wolff, SI. Excellent retelling of how the Munich Olympics tragedy happened, it's in BASW 2003. The lead with the story of the guy who tabletopped scenarios was chilling.

Bill Plascke's column on Magic Johnson, a decade after the HIV announcement, makes me misty. The repeated point that we all thought Magic would be dead by then is a stark reminder of how that day felt. It's in Plascke's first book.

The Gary Smith story about Pippin the deep-sea diver and his wife is my favorite Smith piece.

I also enjoy the feature on Concrete Chuck Bednarik from the 1993 SI NFL preview issue; it's in BASW 1994.

In BASW Century, the story on Tommy Lasorda's son is excellent, and shows just how in denial Mr. Lasorda can be.

As for straight gamers, I've always been partial to Dr. Z's recap of the 1991 Super Bowl between the Bills and Giants (Norwood field goal miss).

 

Try Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Frequently referred to here at sj, it was published in 2000 by Houghton Mifflin. Edited and overseen by Davis Halberstam and Glenn Stout.

 

Or David Halberstam. This was required reading in my intro to j class. I knew I was in good hands.

 

We have this thread every three or four months, and that's actually a good thing really, but it also leads to me repeating some of the same points over and over.

Tangled Up in Blue, by Peter Richmond, which ran in GQ and is about the death of Tommy Lasorda's son (who was gay and died of AIDS) has one of the most beautiful openings to any feature story ever. It has Tommy Jr. pounding baseballs off the roof of his LA apartment into the warm California night. Richmond, who I would love to meet someday, is a magician.

The "favorites vs. "best" discussion that we had over on the other board about television shows like The Wire, 24 and LOST is much more striking for me when you bring up your favorite sports stories. For instance, John Updike's send off to Ted Williams (Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu) is obviously one of the best ever ("Gods do not answer letters"), but it's not one I find myself reading and re-reading every week for inspiration.

On the other hand, one of my absolute favorite stories, one that I read and re-read all the time, was a 5,700-word Jeff MacGregor profile about Keyshawn Johnson ("Muddied But Unbowed") that ran in SI seven years ago and won no awards, appeared in (I think) no anthologies, and largely disappeared from the conscious of most sports writers. But it's goddamn brilliant. I can tell how much work went into the writing, reporting and shaping of the story. It's one of those pieces that made me finally start to understand what profile writing and good sports journalism should look like. So if you're out there, Jeff, I say thanks.

 

Of course, if you posted the story on SportsJournalists.com, there would be a handful of people criticizing Jenkins for not getting the final score in until the final graf.

 

Speaking of Plaschke, "Her Blue Heaven", about the handicapped girl with the Dodgers fansite, is another of my faves.