The Best American Sports Writing 2019
Page 39
All loves are doomed. Nothing withstands time. The days spiral like elm seeds in a windstorm, and I wonder: Am I missing everything?
The cure for these heart pangs is a project into which you can pour life force. A chalice. And so the rust-colored rock calls me.
Old as igneous
sweat drips feet slip
on cinder cone—we begin.
Contributors’ Notes
John Branch has been a sports reporter for the New York Times since 2005. In 2013, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for his tale of a deadly avalanche, titled “Snow Fall,” and was a finalist the previous year for his story about the late NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard, who died of a painkiller overdose and was found to have CTE, the degenerative brain disease. He is the author of two books, including 2018’s The Last Cowboys, about a family of saddle-bronc rodeo champions. He lives near San Francisco.
* * *
Virginia Ottley Craighill resides in Sewanee, Tennessee, and has been teaching English at the University of the South since 2001. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Craighill grew up with, and now lives with, people who love to watch football but considers herself more of a sports anthropologist than a fan. Recent publications include commentary on the letters of Tennessee Williams in the Sewanee Review and a chapter in Teaching the Works of Eudora Welty.
* * *
Kim Cross is the New York Times best-selling author of What Stands in a Storm, a literary nonfiction account of the biggest tornado outbreak in history. A national champion water skier, she has competed in 10 sports, most of them laughably obscure. She lives in Boise, where she teaches creative nonfiction and mountain biking.
* * *
Beth Davies-Stofka is chair of liberal studies for Colorado Community Colleges Online and serves on the Faculty Advisory Council of the School of Graduate Studies at Excelsior College. A career academic, she has written for Africa Today, Political Theology, Sacred Matters, and Patheos, among others. She is also a career humanitarian, most recently writing and fund-raising for Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti and safe houses in the United States for children and teens rescued from commercial sex trafficking. She earned her doctorate in ethics from the University of Toronto and lives with her husband in Denver, where she occasionally performs original fiction and poetry for live audiences and writes for Baseball Prospectus. More of her work can be found at eirwenes.blog.
* * *
Heather Dinich joined ESPN in 2007 as a college football reporter for ESPN.com and now covers the College Football Playoff as a senior writer and studio analyst. Throughout the season, she is a regular contributor on ESPN Radio’s College GameDay and the Campus Conversation podcast and also on SportsCenter. Dinich previously worked for the Baltimore Sun as a sports reporter, mainly covering University of Maryland athletics. She graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and is the mother of three boys.
* * *
Nathan Fenno is a sports enterprise and general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Times. A Seattle native, he previously wrote for the Washington Times, the Ann Arbor News in Michigan, and the King County Journal in Bellevue, Washington.
* * *
Bonnie D. Ford is an ESPN.com senior writer whose coverage of international sports often focuses on stories of remarkable women, along with issues common to all athletes such as mental health and working conditions. She spent her formative years in Paris, France, and graduated from Oberlin College. Her newspaper career included stints at the Ann Arbor News, the Detroit News, the Plain Dealer, and the Chicago Tribune. She could not do what she does without the unwavering support of her husband, Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford.
* * *
John M. Glionna is a nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous national publications, including California Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, and the New York Times. He specializes in writing personality profiles and delving into subcultures. After 26 years as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, he is now a Las Vegas–based freelance writer.
* * *
Nick Heil is the author of Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season, which received the Mountain Literature Award from the Banff Book Festival. He is a contributing editor at Outside, where he writes often about human performance, adventure sports, and people in the outdoors. Heil holds an MFA from the creative writing program at the University of Montana. His fiction has been published in Cutbank, and his nonfiction work has appeared in Outside, Men’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Skiing, Backpacker, Men’s Journal, the Daily Beast, Vice, and elsewhere. Heil has reported from three continents and more than 20 countries, including Tanzania and Afghanistan. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
* * *
Bob Hohler is a sports investigative reporter for the Boston Globe. A Boston native, he joined the Globe in 1987 after reporting for the Monadnock Ledger and Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. He served in the Globe’s Washington bureau from 1993 to 2000, covering government and politics, including President Clinton’s impeachment case. He was the Globe’s beat writer for the Boston Red Sox from 2000 through the 2004 championship season. His writing honors include the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society, the Award for Excellence in Coverage of Youth Sports from Penn State’s John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, and the Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Hohler has been cited 10 times since 2005 by the Associated Press Sports Editors for writing one of the nation’s top 10 investigative or explanatory stories. He is the author of I Touch the Future . . . The Story of Christa McAuliffe.
* * *
Kerry Howley is the author of the critically acclaimed book Thrown, which follows the comedic adventures of two very different MMA fighters. She is a contributing writer at New York magazine, where she has profiled Serena Williams and Manny Pacquiao, and where her work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award. Since 2015, she has been an assistant professor at the University of Iowa’s MFA program in nonfiction writing. As a kid, her favorite sports team was the Miami Dolphins, because she liked dolphins. She still doesn’t know how football works.
* * *
Jeff Jackson is the at-large editor for Rock and Ice magazine. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction, At Large, Lonely Planet, Climbing, and many other books and magazines. He has three screenplays in development with Chockstone Pictures, teaches writing at the University of Hawaii at Maui, and likes to surf and climb.
* * *
Tim Layden has been a senior writer at Sports Illustrated since 1994. He worked previously at Newsday, the Albany Times Union, and the Schenectady Gazette. At Sports Illustrated Layden is a feature writer and previously covered college football, college basketball, and the NFL. He has also covered the last 14 Olympic Games. This is his third appearance in The Best American Sports Writing.
* * *
Jeff MacGregor is a writer-at-large for Smithsonian magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Sunday Money and has written for the New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His work first appeared in The Best American Sports Writing in the 2000 edition.
* * *
Jackie MacMullan is a senior writer and television analyst for ESPN. She worked at the Boston Globe for 19 years as a reporter and associate editor and as the first full-time female sports columnist in the paper’s history. She was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated from 1995 to 2000 and has authored five books, including the New York Times best-seller When the Game Was Ours. In 2010, MacMullan was the first female recipient of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Award, recognized for “outstanding contributions to basketball,” and in February 2019 she became the first female to be awarded the PEN American Lifetime Achievement Award in Literary Sports Writing.
* * *
Kathryn Miles is the author of four books, including, most recen
tly, Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake. A regular contributor to Outside, she has also appeared in publications including The Best American Essays, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Popular Mechanics, Politico, and Time. Miles serves as a scholar-in-residence for the Maine Humanities Council and as a faculty member for several low-residency MFA programs. She resides in Portland, Maine.
* * *
Sam Miller writes about baseball for ESPN. He is the co-host of the Effectively Wild podcast and the co-author of The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team.
* * *
Adam Rittenberg is an award-winning national college football reporter for ESPN. His work primarily appears on ESPN.com and E+, and he also makes regular appearances on ESPN television and ESPN Radio. He is a regular host on ESPN’s college football podcast Campus Conversation, as well as with the Sirius XM college networks. Rittenberg serves as an adjunct lecturer in DePaul University’s College of Communication and has taught journalism at Northwestern University, his alma mater. Before joining ESPN in 2008, he spent five years covering college and professional sports at the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Rittenberg is a San Francisco Bay Area native who lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.
* * *
Maggie Shipstead is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, and she has twice been a National Magazine Award finalist for fiction. She is a dedicated armchair sailor and non-armchair travel writer, with a particular passion for the polar regions.
* * *
Clay Skipper is a staff writer for GQ, focusing on sports and wellness. His major sports features have included Draymond Green, Kirk Cousins, Jalen Ramsey, and Josh Gordon. Skipper also stars in the new GQ sports docuseries, Above Average Joe, and he hosts Level Up, a GQ podcast about living smarter. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he is based in New York City.
* * *
Christopher Solomon is making his seventh appearance in a volume of The Best American series. He is a contributing editor at Outside and lives against the shoulder of the North Cascade Mountains in north-central Washington State. More of his work can be found at www.chrissolomon.net.
* * *
Abe Streep is a contributing editor at Outside and a contributing writer at the California Sunday Magazine. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Wired, The Atavist, and elsewhere. In 2019 he was awarded the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for excellence in long-form reporting on underrepresented groups in America.
* * *
Louisa Thomas is a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a former writer and editor at Grantland. She is also the author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Mrs. Adams and Conscience: Two Pacifists, Two Soldiers, One Family—A Test of Will and Faith in World War I, and the co-author, with John Urschel, of Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football.
* * *
Wright Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.
* * *
Tom VanHaaren covers college football and recruiting for ESPN. A graduate of Central Michigan University, he has been with ESPN since 2011 and resides in southeastern Michigan with his wife and three children.
* * *
Caity Weaver is a writer for the New York Times. Previously, she was a writer and editor for GQ.
* * *
Patricia Wen is the editor of the Spotlight Team, the Boston Globe’s investigative unit that includes six reporters. She took over in 2017 after having worked as a reporter on the team more than two decades ago. Over the years Wen has specialized in covering social service, legal, and medical issues. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times—in 2004 for feature writing, in 2013 as part of a team for national reporting, and in 2018 as Spotlight editor overseeing a seven-part series on race issues in Boston. Wen has twice won the Casey Medal for coverage of children and family issues, each time in the category of major projects in large publications. Before joining the Globe, she worked at the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, and The Advocate in Stamford, Connecticut. A native of East Lansing, Michigan, and a Harvard graduate, she is married with three children.
Notable Sports Writing of 2018
Selected by Glenn Stout
ALEX ABRAMI
How a Vermont Prep Football Player Escaped His Abusive Father and Found His Way. Burlington Free Press, July 30
MAX ADLER
For Valentino Dixon, a Wrong Righted. Golf Digest, September 19
JESSICA CAMILLE AGUIRRE
An American Surfer Goes Rogue to Claim the Baltic Sea’s “Last Wave.” Deadspin, December 5
STEVE ALMOND
Long Live Pinball. Southwest, March
ANYA ALVAREZ
Leveling the Playing Field. Playboy, January/February
STEPHANIE APSTEIN
Crushed Davis. SI.com, September 24
KEVIN ARMSTRONG
Nack and the Superhorse. New York Daily News, June 6
RACHEL Z. ARNDT
Wind. Ecotone, Spring/Summer
HUNTER ATKINS
Outings to Astros Games Keep Katy Senior Citizens Young at Heart. Houston Chronicle, June 21
KENT BABB
The Revisionist. Washington Post, November 18
CHRIS BALLARD
The Last Huddle. SI.com, May 2
MICHAEL BAMBERGER
The Partner. Golf.com, December 18
KATIE BARNES
They Are the Champions. ESPN The Magazine, June 8
MOTEZ BISHARA
From Humble Beginnings, Gay Bowl Attracts NFL Sponsors and Touches Lives. CNN.com, October 17
DAN BOLLES
First & Goal. Seven Days, October 24–31
SAM BORDEN
Stay Messi, My Friend. ESPN The Magazine, June
TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER
Tonya Harding Would Like Her Apology Now. New York Times Magazine, January 10
PETER BROMKA
“When Everything Isn’t Enough.” Meter Magazine, Summer
HOWARD BRYANT
A Protest Divided. ESPN The Magazine, January 26
MATT CALKINS
Player’s Death a Reminder Help Is Here. Seattle Times, January 18
ANDREW CARTER
Inside a UNC Lineman’s Concussion Ordeal. Raleigh News & Observer/Charlotte Observer, August 12
SEAN CLANCY
Hip 68. Saratoga Special, August 6
KIT CHELLEL
The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code. Bloomberg Business, May 3
JORDAN RITTER CONN
Enes Kanter Contains Multitudes. The Ringer, October
MATT CROSSMAN
Five Lessons Death-Defying Adventure Taught Me About Facing My Fears as a Solopreneur. Success, October
CHUCK CULPEPPER
One Town, One Team, One Game. Washington Post, December 27
VINSON CUNNINGHAM
Figure of Speech. The New Yorker, June 25
BRYAN CURTIS
The Great NFL Heist: How Fox Paid for and Changed Football Forever. The Ringer, December 13
AUSTIN DANFORTH
The Amazing Andi Boe. Burlington Free Press, July 1
BRITNI DE LA CRETAZ
The Hidden Queer History of “A League of Their Own.” Narratively, January 22
BRONWEN DICKEY
The Lost Kids on the Line. Popular Mechanics, April
MARTY DOBROW
Hoops, Hijabs, Heartbreak, and Hope. MassLive, April 17
BYARD DUNCAN
Who Is Omar? Esquire, October 22
TYLER DUNNE
“I Can’t Be Stopped.” Bleacher Report, April 3
CHARLEE DYROFF
What It’s Like to Be Recruited. Slate, June 4
TIM EVANS, JOE GUILLEN, G
INA KAUFMAN, MARISA KWIATKOWSKI, MATT MENCARINI, AND MARK ALESIA
How Larry Nassar Abused Hundreds of Gymnasts and Eluded Justice for Decades. Detroit Free Press, March 8.
MIRIN FADER
The LaMelo Show. Bleacher Report, February 28
CHRISTINE FENNESSEY
The Beast, the Bootlegger, and the Death Ride. Bicycling, May