Top sportswriting of 2012

I thought I would be the only one to put Spencer Hall's piece on dogs among my favorite sports reads.

 

I lost a dog this year, so Hall's piece had special resonance for me.

 

The dog story was well done, but it wasn't really sportswriting.

His recollections about his own dog was what made the story and it was a personal essay.

 

I don't mean to start a fight here, but that mindset makes a lot of sports writing boring and trite.

 

I totally agree and absolutely would fight about it. Making sports relatable and human should be our goal.

 

I sometimes think people in our business forget that there are a lot more people in the world who don't care about sports than people who do.

If you can conceive, report and write something that said larger audience wants to read, you're doing something right.

 

Sometimes you gotta leave the dullards in the dust.

 

Anything by Michael Lewis deserve to be here?

 

Agreed. Not sure I'd die on the Hill of Spencer's dog piece, though, to prove it.

 

Fight, fight, fight...

Here's the thing, I liked the story. It made me full of dread when I go through the same thing, and I almost surely will when our dog gets to that point, hopefully long down the road, but writing by a sportswriter, doesn't make it sports writing. It just makes it writing.

If the list is best writing of the year, then you could make an argument for it or if you want to make an argument that it is great writing in a place your normally find sports writing, then that is also buyable.

 

The backbone of the essay was about dog mascots. It was informative, interesting and affecting even before the personal anecdote. And it was about dogs in sports.

 

Any piece that starts by whacking Wilbon is my kind of piece.

Seriously, nice list.