by Glenn Stout
Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
Copyright
Foreword
Introduction
PAUL SOLOTAROFF WITH RON BORGES The Gangster in the Huddle
DAVID MERRILL The One-Legged Wrestler Who Conquered His Sport, Then Left It Behind
CHRIS JONES When 772 Pitches Isn’t Enough
FLINDER BOYD 20 Minutes at Rucker Park
AMANDA RIPLEY The Case Against High School Sports
PATRICK HRUBY The Choice
TIMOTHY BURKE AND JACK DICKEY Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, the Most Heartbreaking and Inspirational Story of the College Football Season, Is a Hoax
DON VAN NATTA JR. The Match Maker
MARY PILON Tomato Can Blues
JAY CASPIAN KANG The End and Don King
IAN FRAZIER The Last Days of Stealhead Joe
JEREMY MARKOVICH Elegy of a Race Car Driver
STEPHEN RODRICK Serena the Great
BROOK LARMER Li Na, China’s Tennis Rebel
AMANDA HESS You Can Only Hope to Contain Them
ELI SASLOW “Anybody Who Thinks This Is Porn or Abuse Doesn’t Know My Family”
JONATHAN MAHLER The Coach Who Exploded
BEN McGRATH The Art of Speed
NICK PAUMGARTEN The Manic Mountain
BUCKY McMAHON Heart of Sharkness
ALICE GREGORY Mavericks
RAFFI KHATCHADOURIAN The Chaos of the Dice
KATHY DOBIE Raider. QB Crusher. Murderer?
CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON The Last Man Up
CHARLES P. PIERCE The Marathon
Contributors’ Notes
Notable Sports Writing of 2013
Read More from The Best American Series®
About the Editors
Footnotes
Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Introduction copyright © 2014 by Christopher McDougall
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ISSN 1056-8034
ISBN 978-0-544-14700-3
eISBN 978-0-544-30197-9
v1.1014
“20 Minutes at Rucker Park” by Flinder Boyd. First published on SBNation.com, October 15, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Flinder Boyd. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, the Most Heartbreaking and Inspirational Story of the College Football Season, is a Hoax” by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey. First published in Deadspin.com. Copyright © 2014 by Gawker Media. Reprinted by permission of Gawker Media.
“Raider. QB Crusher. Murderer?” by Kathy Dobie. First published in GQ, February, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Kathy Dobie. Reprinted by permission of Kathy Dobie.
“The Last Days of Stealhead Joe” by Ian Frazier. First published in Outside, September 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Ian Frazier. Reprinted by permission of the Wylie Agency, LLC.
“Mavericks” by Alice Gregory. First published in n+1, October 9, 2013. Copyright © 2014 by Alice Gregory. Reprinted by permission of Alice Gregory.
“You Can Only Hope to Contain Them” by Amanda Hess. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, July 22, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
“The Choice” by Patrick Hruby. First published on SportsOnEarth.com, November 14, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by SportsOnEarth.com. Reprinted by permission of SportsOnEarth.com.
“When 772 Pitches Isn’t Enough” by Chris Jones. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, July 22, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
“The End and Don King” by Jay Caspian Kang. First published in Grantland.com, April 4, 2013. Copyright © 2013 ESPN Internet Ventures. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
“The Chaos of the Dice” by Raffi Khatchadourian. First published in The New Yorker, May 13, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Raffi Khatchadourian. Reprinted by permission of Raffi Khatchadourian.
“Li Na, China’s Tennis Rebel” by Brook Larmer. First published in the New York Times Magazine, August 22, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by the New York Times Magazine. Reprinted by permission of Brook Larmer.
“The Coach Who Exploded” by Jonathan Mahler. First published in the New York Times Magazine, November 6, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Jonathan Mahler. Reprinted by permission of Jonathan Mahler.
“Elegy of a Race Car Driver” by Jeremy Markovich. First published on SBNation.com, July 30, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Jeremy Markovich. Reprinted by permission of Jeremy Markovich.
“The Art of Speed” by Ben McGrath. First published in The New Yorker, February 4, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Ben McGrath. Reprinted by permission of Ben McGrath.
“Heart of Sharkness” by Bucky McMahon. First published in GQ, April 2, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Condé Nast. Reprinted by permission.
“The One-Legged Wrestler Who Conquered His Sport, Then Left it Behind” by David Merrill. First published on Deadspin.com. Copyright © 2014 by Gawker Media. Reprinted by permission of Gawker Media.
“The Manic Mountain” by Nick Paumgarten. First published in The New Yorker, June 3, 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Nick Paumgarten. Reprinted by permission of Nick Paumgarten.
“The Marathon” by Charles P. Pierce. First published on Grantland.com, April 16, 2013. Copyright © 2013 ESPN Internet Ventures. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
“Tomato Can Blues” by Mary Pilon. First published in the New York Times, September 18, 2013. Copyright © 2013 the New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this content without express written permission is prohibited.
“The Case Against High School Sports” by Amanda Ripley. First published in the Atlantic, October 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Amanda Ripley. Reprinted by permission of Amanda Ripley.
“Serena the Great” by Stephen Rodrick. First published in Rolling Stone, July 4–18, 2013. Copyright © Rolling Stone LLC 2013. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“Anybody Who Thinks This Is Porn or Abuse Doesn’t Know My Family” by Eli Saslow. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, June 10, 2013. Copyright © 2013 ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
“The Last Man Up” by Christopher Solomon. First published in Runner’s World, March 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Rodale Inc. Reprinted by permission of Rodale Inc. and Christopher Solomon.
“The Gangster in the Huddle” by Paul Solotaroff with Ron Borges. First published in Rolling Stone, August 28, 2013. Copyright © Rolling Stone LLC 2013. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“The Match Maker” by Don Van Natta Jr. First published on ESPN.com, August 25, 2013. Copyr
ight © 2013 by ESPN Internet Ventures. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.
Foreword
THERE ARE MANY WAYS to measure the impact or success of a book. In these metric-driven times, the temptation is to reduce everything to data—sales figures, “starred” reviews, Facebook shares, etc. Even the fact that this is the 24th edition since the series launched in 1991 says something about its value.
Still, for this book, a collection of stories, perhaps the best measure is the stories inspired by The Best American Sports Writing itself. For me at least, that measure helps justify the work that goes into putting it together every year.
To be clear, I am not referring to the writing the book has inspired, although it is certainly true that it has done so, serving as some motivation for a generation of sportswriters. I mean instead the stories that contributors and readers have told me about the book, the personal stories about the role it has come to play in their lives.
In addition to my duties as series editor of this annual collection and as the author of the occasional book, for the past few years I have also served as editor of the longform journalism page for SBNation.com. As I acquire and then edit stories for the site, I have had the opportunity to talk writing and work with hundreds of writers; I find these interactions incredibly rewarding and gratifying—as much so at times as I find writing myself. At some point, most of these writers tell me what this book has meant to their career or to their development as a writer. It’s something that is always nice to hear, and when I speak with the contributors to this book, they often tell me the same thing.
Given that I’ve been doing this since 1991, I am older than many contributors and almost all the writers I work with. I have become accustomed to hearing someone say, “I’ve been reading this book my whole life.” Until recently, however, that statement was usually hyperbole.
Not anymore. Earlier this year, as I discussed a story with a younger writer, he blurted out that he found working with me “surreal.” I laughed aloud and asked him why. In all seriousness, he told me that he had been reading this book his entire life. I paused, then asked him his age. When he told me, I did the math—not only was he correct, but in fact the first edition of this book predated his appearance on the planet by several years. In fact, I suspect that when he was first old enough to read this book, he was already 12 or 15 years behind. Reality, it seems, has more than caught up with flattery.
I also occasionally correspond on a variety of other matters with writers, including many BASW contributors. In one email exchange with a writer whom I’ve been happy to include in these pages more than once, he told me that the first thing anyone sees when they enter his house is his collection of The Best American Sports Writing. I think I responded with some quick quip—my series collection is in the basement, buried on a shelf in my terminally messy office under other books. He soon sent me another email with the subject line “What It Means.”
Attached was a photograph. I clicked it open, and sure enough, on a set of shelves that appeared custom-made, was a complete stack of The Best American Sports Writing, 1991 through 2013, flanked by the books of writing legends such as Frank DeFord and Jim Murray.
But it’s not just what books mean to my colleagues and other writers that matters. There’s also the way books can connect readers and bring people together. My only disappointment with the growing trend to read books and stories on tablets and phones is that it is no longer possible to eavesdrop on what people are reading in public places, to find kindred minds by way of a book or magazine cover.
Years ago, I once traveled the country by train, a nearly monthlong trip that took me from Boston south through New York and Washington to New Orleans, then up to St. Louis to visit family before heading southwest and up the West Coast to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where I pillaged the bookstores. I returned by way of Portland and Seattle before heading east—a marathon journey home after a more meandering start. But I had a bag full of new books, and as the Rockies gave way to the Great Plains and then the Great North Woods, I read my way back across the country.
Somewhere north of Chicago, on the fourth day since my last shower, someone tapped me on the back. Another passenger had seen what I was reading and wanted to talk. By the time we reached Boston a day and a half later, we were already friends, probably the most memorable part of an 8,000-mile journey across some 30 states.
A onetime BASW contributor told me a similar story about this book and the role it played in a friendship of his. He and his best friend from college had something of a mercurial relationship. A few years after graduating, they had a falling-out, stopped talking, and lost touch with each other. One day his former friend was killing time at a bookstore, not really looking for anything but just browsing, and he picked up a copy of this book. He absently thumbed through the pages, and when his eyes landed on the contributor’s name, he yelled out in surprise, “Hey, I know this guy!” He was so surprised and excited that he grabbed several strangers and just had to show them that he knew one of the contributors: “My best friend from college wrote this!!!”
That gave him an excuse to reconnect. He called the contributor, told him about finding his story in this book, and they started talking again. They have remained close ever since, a friendship saved by the power and reach of words—and a little help from The Best American Sports Writing.
Then there was the time I accepted an invitation to speak. When I arrived and met the man who had invited me, we started chatting. He was a teacher, he said, and knew of me primarily from this book. He told me that when he got the book each fall he would set it aside without even cracking it open, waiting for a snow day. Then, on that special day in the late fall or early winter when he would get the call informing him that school was canceled, he knew it was time. As the snow fell he would settle into a comfortable chair, open the book, and spend his unscheduled holiday sinking into its pages. Now, when the phone rings in my house with news of a snow day or I sit as the snow falls reading through submissions, I think of him.
I could go on, but of all the stories this book has inspired I do have a favorite. A longtime reader of this title was on a bus—or perhaps a subway train, I can’t recall—when a young person saw him carrying this book and struck up a conversation. As they chatted this reader mentioned that he was a sportswriter. The younger person, as yet undecided on a career, liked to write, liked sports, and grew curious. So he asked the sportswriter how one becomes a working writer, what courses to take and what to read—all the things young writers worry about. The sportswriter did his best to answer, but they soon arrived at the next stop. It was time to part ways, and he knew he had not answered all the young man’s questions.
Then he remembered that he was carrying this book. As they parted he simply handed the young writer-to-be his copy of The Best American Sports Writing. “Just read this,” he said.
I like to think it helped a young writer get off to a good start. One day I hope to hear the rest of that story, perhaps even in this book.
Each year I read every issue of hundreds of sports and general interest magazines in search of writing that might merit inclusion in The Best American Sports Writing. I also write or email the editors of many hundreds of newspapers and magazines and request submissions, and I send email notices to hundreds of readers and writers whose addresses I have accumulated over the years. I search for writing all over the Internet and make regular stops at online sources like Sportsdesk.org, Gangrey.com, Byliner.com, Longreads.com, Longform.org, Nieman.org, and other sites where notable sports writing is highlighted or discussed. Still, I also encourage everyone—readers and writers, friends and family, editors and enemies—to send me stories they believe should appear in this volume. Writers in particular are encouraged to submit—do not be shy about sending me either your own work or the work of those you admire.
Each submission to the upcoming edition must be made according to the following criteria. Each story
must be column-
length or longer.
must have been published in 2014.
must not be a reprint or book excerpt.
must have been published in the United States or Canada.
must be received by February 1, 2015.
All submissions from either print or online publications must be made in hard copy and should include the name of the author, the date of publication, and the publication name and address. Photocopies, tear sheets, or clean copies are fine. Readable reductions to 8½-by-11 are preferred. Newspaper stories should be submitted with either the original newspaper copy of the piece or a photocopy of the piece as originally published—not a printout of the web version. Individuals and publications should please use common sense when submitting multiple stories. I receive a heavy volume of material, so no submissions can be returned or acknowledged; it is also inappropriate for me to comment on or critique any submission. Magazines that want to be absolutely certain their contributions are considered are advised to provide a complimentary subscription to the address listed below. Those that already do so should extend the subscription for another year.
All submissions must be made by U.S. mail—weather conditions in midwinter here at BASW headquarters often keep me from receiving UPS or FedEx submissions. Electronic submissions by any means, whether email or Twitter or URLs, and pdfs or other electronic documents are not acceptable. Only some form of hard copy, please. The February 1 deadline is real, and work received after that date may not be considered.
Please submit either an original or a clear paper copy of each story, including publication name, author, and the date the story appeared, to:
Glenn Stout
PO Box 549
Alburgh, VT 05440
All submissions from me to the guest editor are made blindly, not identified by source or author.
