[.ca] The Best American Sports Writing 2001 (ISBN 0618086269)

From Amazon.com:
The Best American Sports Writing 2001 presents a wide-ranging survey of notable writing that extends well beyond traditional stick and ball sports. Editor Bud Collins has deftly chosen articles that represent the spectrum of adventurous and competitive activities we define as sports. From football to fishing, surfing to soccer, nearly all of America's favorite pastimes and leisure activities are represented. While this collection includes profiles of sports celebrities, such as Tiger Woods, Cal Ripken Jr., and Dale Earnhardt Jr., what makes the book noteworthy are the profiles of lesser-known athletes: Garrett Burnett, a hockey "enforcer"; George Freeth, a pioneer surfer; or Louis Zamperini, a star high school miler whose true tests arose during World War II. With the popular sports represented early on, the choices extend in both subject matter and style: racial profiling in New Jersey and the shattered dreams of hopeful basketball players; mountain climbers in Kyrgyzstan taken hostage; the sociology of losing; rediscovering joy in fishing; why a sportswriter hangs it up; a soccer mom's thoughts on her child's first goal. As Collins notes in the foreword, "As I read these stories each year, I find myself caring about someone, something, or some sport I know little about and couldn't have imagined ever wanting to know more about." Whether it's a profile of a horsewoman with a seemingly dual existence, or a piece describing what it's like to dive for loot on a sunken liner 200 feet down in a nasty stretch of water, The Best American Sports Writing 2001 offers superb tales of humankind's drive to win, conquer, or at least survive. --Michael Ferch

Best Ever?:
As a longtime reader of this consistently satisfying series, this years' edition just might be the best one yet. It is meatier than the last few years and each story in the book seems a little bit better than the last one. As always, there are surprises, too, not only of more obscure sports (wreck diving, poker and surfing) but in point of view, re: Gene Collier's farewell to sportswriting and Charles Young's meditation on losing. But there's plenty of straight sports, too; Tiger Woods, DiMaggio, Ripken, etc., and big names like Reilly, Pierce and Bissinger. And maybe it's me, but there's an odd, antidotal prescience to this book in these strange times. Collier's story alerts us to the real heroes, and if you need an uplift, read the story called "Toughest Miler Ever," for a true profile in courage. Collins introduction is vintage, and well, that's it. I don't want to spoil it for you, but I enjoyed this so much I rather wish I had another to read right away.