Underrated sports writers

Which is sort of the definition of 'underrated,' is it not?

And let's not forget that women write sports, too.

 

I'm not going to throw any names out there, but I think the majority of the best writers who get the least amount of attention are on the West Coast. Unless, you're at the LA Times, most of the papers west of Denver are almost completely ignored. Then one of them gets hired at USA Today or SI or ESPN and people say, "Wow, where did this person come from?" when they've been doing amazing work for ages...

If you do amazing work in Orlando, you're hired away within 2-3 years. Not usually the case with some of the writers in Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Sacramento, Orange County, San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City etc...

To be fair, the latest USA Today hiring spree did a good job raiding some of that talent.

 

As far as Lopresti is concerned, few are better on deadline. I worked at a paper and we ran Lopresti's stuff enough that the ME actually gave a "No Lopresti" edict because he thought the deskers were being lazy about picking a columnist to run in bulldog sections and on days when our columnists weren't writing. That lasted about two weeks...

 

Amazing work in Orlando? I wouldn't go that far. Decent work gets you out of there. It's overrated. West Coast, agreed, is underrated.

 

Another vote for Wertheim's talent. I liked the Georgia baseball players piece.

 

Do you ever see him linked or breathlessly discussed around here?
I sure as hell don't.
Maybe because he's not a stylist and actually writes about sports.

 

Then please post links to more of his work. One of the best things about this place is being directed to good writing.

 

I'm going to nominate a guy some of you haven't heard of, but Trey Williams does excellent work at the Johnson City Press. He covers everything from Tennessee football to pro baseball to preps, all with a keen eye for detail. He also wrote a book on Skeeter Swift, a former ABA player, that was pure gold. If Trey were in a bigger market, everyone would know how good he is.

 

"Y'no?" OK, Moron No. 1, I guess any of your cherished underrated writers wouldn't ever use humor, because obviously you can't tell when someone is just kidding around.

As for you, Moron No. 2 Uncle.Ruckus, WTF are you talking about? I'm saying that you can have a job at a BIG EFFIN' SHOP and still be underrated. You're saying that you cannot? What if you're batting seventh in your joint's lineup but ought to be in the No. 3 or No. 4 hole, in terms of beats and pecking order. I'd say that's underrated.

Bottom line, I shouldn't be on this thread, so I'm out. Because frankly, I believe in the market. You're paid what you're worth and you're rated where you should be rated. The rest of it is just jerkin' off.

 

Thanks for the kind words, sweetie.

 

Agreed... The Orlando pipeline has gotten way beyond ridiculous, especially in the last couple years.

 

We got one of those effin' Orlando studs at my paper once. It quickly became obvious that he got good editing from the Orlando desk, and he was decent on his beat but nothing really special, either. So that was an interesting observation on our end. You can't always tell by the published product, etc., etc.