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Top sportswriting of 2012

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by boundforboston, Dec 18, 2012.

  1. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

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

    silent_h Member

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

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  4. silent_h

    silent_h Member

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

    Versatile Active Member

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

    silent_h Member

    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.
     
  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Sometimes you gotta leave the dullards in the dust.
     
  8. boundforboston

    boundforboston Well-Known Member

    Anything by Michael Lewis deserve to be here?
     
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

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

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  11. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    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.
     
  12. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

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

    Seriously, nice list.
     
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