An essay by S.L. Price on the making and journey of a sportswriter

Price, who has always been one of my favorite writers and remains one of Sports Illustrated's most artful wordsmiths, has a memoir out called Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odessey about the year he spent living in Paris with his wife and two kids and traveling around the world writing about sports. I'm only about 50 pages into it, but much of it is simply beautiful.

This essay, which is included in the book, covers the beginnings of Scott's career, from his days working at the Daily Tar Heel to his surprise job at the Sacramento Bee. The stuff near the end about what it feels like to write on deadline is perhaps the best, most beautiful description I've ever read of why many of us do what we do for a living.

This is from the Oxford American Magazine:

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/content.cfm?ArticleID=215&Entry=CurrentIssue

 

That's some good stuff right there, a reminder that, beyond the cutbacks, low salaries and angry little league parents, this job is pretty damn enjoyable.

 

This guy is a master. His lead for the George Weah story, "A Good Man in Africa," was among the best I've ever read.

 

Definitely agree with In Cold Blood, something worth keeping and re-reading.

 

A master, indeed.

Something I needed to read today.

 

Wow ... I only finished about 3/4 of the excerpt, and I'm already intent on buying the book.

Thanks for the link, double down.

 

Pretty sour outlook on editors, I must say.

Someone should tell S.L. that a few of them actually wrote once.

 

Thanks for posting, Double.

After reading that, I think I'll buy the book for sure. Great stuff.

 

Here is a link to Scott's book, if anyone is interested. And sadly, no, I'm not Price pimping my own book. If only that were true. Sigh.

http://www.amazon.com/Far-Afield-Sportswriting-S-Price/dp/1599211440/ref=sr_1_1/002-3896534-6656836?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185682259&sr=8-1

 

Thanks so much, Double. I just sent that to my family and everyone else who struggles to truly understand what I do.

 

I spent some time with Scott - as he was known - in the crappy old U.S. Open tennis press box for many years, mostly late 1980s and early 1990s and he was good people even then, though he obviously was going places.

 

A great, great read. Kudos for the link. I'd buy ya a pint if I could.