Seven Sportswriters Who

This thread has had me thinking about my personal Mount Rushmore.

I think it's Hemingway, Heinz, McPhee, and Pierce.

 

Seconded

 

You can't possibly take Ring Lardner off this list. For that matter, maybe his son John belongs, too.

 

The picture of the other McPhee is really big when you scroll through this thread in a coffee shop, say. #dirtylookfromladybesideme

Also: Long may you run, David Foster. God bless you.

 

I devoured all the collections of Angell's work while I was in high school. Still love reading his work.But the more I think of it, he wrote long essays rather than stories.

 

I love a) this thread; b) Angell's work, but I don't think he impacted the genre as much as some of the others. And that's taking away nothing from his status as one of the best sports writers of all time.

I'd argue Bob Ryan, because he actually birthed Simmons who birthed the majority of the people who produce sports content. Also, a vote for the late Blackie Sherrod, even though it won't matter much in the end.

 

What did he do that made him influential that anyone remembers? I looked him up in Wikipedia and he seems to have been a really good writer who developed humorous characters. But I don't think he is remember enough to be considered,

 

My Mount Rushmore? Reilly, Gary Smith, DFW, Steinbeck

Reilly for his humor. At the top of his game, there was none better.

"The Ripples From Little Lake Nellie" floored me when I first read it years ago. I couldn't conceive of 1, getting that level of intimate access, and 2, being able to write like that. Still one of the best stories I've ever read, and I probably pull it up at least once every two or three years to savor it again.

"The String Theory" by DFW. Just a titanic intellect, and he was so funny it made my sides hurt.

Steinbeck for "East of Eden," his masterpiece. So beautiful it makes me cry every time I read it. My next tattoo: Timshel. One of my friends read that passage at our wedding.

 

This? It's great. But will also take up your whole back.

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

 

I have to say, Good Christ, it's nice to be talking about writing on here again. Thank you, @LanceyHoward, for the thread.

 

I don't get the Ryan-Simmons comparison other than they are huge Boston Celtic fans. Ryan is probably the greatest basketball writer of all time. But Simmons dominated one of the preeminent national sites for years with his "voice of the fan" perspective. He influenced a lot people on the internet.

Also, Heinz was my choice was the guy I would have picked number eight. Peter Gammons would have been number nine for writing the best notes columns ever. I did not put him in the top seven because others wrote notes columns before.

Cannon may have been the guy who popularized a notes column. I am not sure because I don't know where to find anything Cannon wrote. Fifty years ago you did not have the opportunity to read many out of town writers. I grew up in Denver and only Jim Murray was syndicated. The Sporting News also carried columns by Bisher, Young and a couple of others. But I never saw Cannon.

 

One of the great American short story writers. Wrote "You Know Me Al," a classic baseball book. Was considered a superstar in his day as a daily sportswriter. He's an established figure of 20th century American literature. And if for nothing he should be cherished for the line "Shut up, he explained."