[.ca] The Best American Sports Writing of the Century (ISBN 0395945135)

From Amazon.com:
Given the overall vigor and volume of sports writing in America throughout the 20th century, the idea of compiling a single collection dubbed the "best" requires a daring balancing act of boldness and delicacy. And that's just what it is. Sports fans--but why limit this sparkling, spirited, passionate prose to just sports fans?--will revel in the equilibrium of David Halberstam's and Glenn Stout's wide range of selections. Their tribute to the knights of the keyboards is Hall of Fame-level from cover to cover. Halberstam and Stout don't waste any time. They lead off with one of the great tours de force of American nonfiction, Gay Talese's stunningly poignant, 1966 profile of a moody Joe DiMaggio, "The Silent Season of a Hero." Then, before you can finish digesting it, they loudly switch gears to Tom Wolfe's "The Last American Hero," a razzle-dazzle look at Junior Johnson and the world of stock-car racing. By the time Best takes the checkered flag nearly 800 pages later, it has covered a remarkably rich and varied course that runs through the pens of such remarkable talents as Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Frank Deford, W.C. Heinz, Jim Murray, Murray Kempton, Ring Lardner, John Lardner, Jimmy Breslin, Al Stump, John Updike, John McPhee, Hunter Thompson, Norman Mailer, Jon Krakauer, Tom Boswell, Roger Angell, and David Remnick. Whew! Like the best sportswriting, of course, Best is much more than fun and games, though there's plenty of that in its pages. Best is history captured on the fly through the games we play and the memorable players--Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Mohammad Ali, Secretariat, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Red Grange--who play them. From selection to selection, writes Halberstam in his introduction, "we watch the country change." Certainly, sports--and sportswriting--have provided America a marvelous box seat for the contemplation of its own metamorphoses. --Jeff Silverman

excellent collection:
What surprised me about this collection was that some of the most enjoyable stories were the ones about sports I don't have much interest in. The mountain climbing, chess and horse racing stories were some of the best in this collection. As the title suggests, these are well-written stories, which cover a lot of ground. I normally wouldn't waste my time reading about something like chess, but I read and enjoyed every story in this collection. I knew I would enjoy the stories about the major sports, but some of the others surprised me.

Super Sports Stories:
This is an excellent book for several reasons--it is convenient in that you can quickly read one story and put the book aside without having to go back to get back into the story, it is full of excellent writing, and it gives beautiful glimpses into a very diverse group of sports. The book advertises itself as containing the "best" sports writing of the century and for the most past I would certainly agree, and disagreement has to be expected when you declare something the best, so it is great reading. It is fine journalism, telling captivating stories about people and games, but it is also does an excellent job of showing the importance of sports beyond the fields of play. I would highly recommend the book to sports loves, aspiring journalists, and I would also recommend many of the pieces for people who cannot understand why sports lovers really love sports.

Some Good, Some Better, Some Best:
Congratulations to David Halberstam and Glenn Stout for putting together their choices for "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century". As with any anthology of "the best of", there are selections that will make one wonder about its' inclusion while there are others whose omission will seem equally unjust. However, such arguments only occur when somebody puts out their choices for public consumption. Having said that, I offer the following criticisms. First of all, Halberstam, in his introduction, heaps a bit too much praise on Gay Talese's story about Joe Dimaggio. One reads it thinking that, yes this is good, but it's not THAT good. There was a fairly lengthy story about Bobby Fischer that was interesting but kept me wondering if chess was a sport. There were a number of short articles and feature articles that were good but still made you wonder why they were included. However, there was plenty of the better and some of the best. The book gave me a good introduction to an excellent sports writer I had not previously known of; W C Heinz. There was the fascinating "Outside" magazine article by Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air" that led to the later (equally excellent) book of the same name. There is a touching story about Tommy LaSorda's son, Al Stump on Ty Cobb, an interesting story about a hockey "enforcer", a disturbing article about the steroid madness of body building, the obligatory yet interesting article about Tiger Woods, and a closing section on Muhammed Ali. Unfortunately, the latter section includes an endless article about the Champ by Norman Mailer ironicly titled "Ego". There's lots more but, to be honest, by the time I finished the book, a lot of the earlier selections were by then forgotten. My nomination for the most egregious omission, Frank DeFord's "Sports Illustrated" article "The Toughest Coach the Ever Was". This is an enjoyable book. Some articles may not have merited inclusion in a book of this title but they were still fairly interesting.

Solid but not spectacular:
This is a thouroughly joyous book. As always you could make an argument pro/con for the selection of stories, but that is probably the case with all collection of this sort. The Ali selection is nice, and the Bobby Fischer piece is fabulous. All in all a good buy.

A Must-Have for any Sports Lover:
This book is a fascinating look into the personalities of some of America's most cherished sports icons. It does what sports journalism should aspire to do - delve beneath the surface layer of statistics, and show us the heart and soul of the athletes that compete in the American limelight. The dissections of DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Ali are especially insightful, while the coverage of many individual sporting events is gripping, making you feel as if you are actually attending the event. Because this book covers almost every conceivable American sport, it affords the reader the luxury of picking and choosing the stories that may pertain to one's favorite sports.