Texas Monthly on the death of sportswriting

Based on the examples he cites of great writing, I'd prefer for Cartwright to think of me as a shitty writer. What an out-of-touch old gas bag.

 

Sportswriting isn't as fun anymore. No fucking shit.

 

I thought Richman's piece was cranky, too. I mean, saying that Frank Deford is the worst columnist of that era (1991) is a bit of a reach. I really like Richman's food writing in GQ (he has a rare gift for humor) and I am not especially a big reader of Deford, but ... worst? That's kind of kooky. I understand his point that Deford may have been a lot better at takeouts than columns, but ... worst? Oh man. He wasn't even the worst columnist at The National (remember, they had local columnists for each of the major cities that had an edition).

 

OK, Dave and Waylon, but did he have to write his lament for lost youth while dragging down innocents like Kirk Bohls in the process? That's a stupid cheap shot and did nothing to help along whatever point he was trying to make.

As great as those writers were in their younger days for that type of readership in that day, you pull out that same prose now and read it and it just feels dated. I read Jenkins's present-day monthly pieces in Golf Digest, like when he writes about last month's Masters Tournament, and it just feels out of date, trying to pawn off the same ol' attitude on a new generation of audience.

 

Preaching to the choir, brother. Preaching to the choir.

What I was agreeing about was that the author wasn't really pissed about sports writing. He's pissed about his own lost youth, but he's taking it out on innocents like the two Austin columnists and apparently all the young writers who don't talk about writing any more, which is fucking news to me and my friends. Again, had lunch with a friend the other day. Spent half of said lunch talking about fatherhood. Other half talking about the crafts including, yes, books we want to write. As said friend lives in a townhouse, mowing lawns did not come up.

 

Yeah, cheap shot, beneath him. I took it for what it was worth, nothing.

Now, seriously, on the issue of "the same ol' attitude," what is it about Jenkins's humor, information, insight, perspective, and clarity that doesn't work for "a new generation"? Plz give me a couple examples from this year's Masters coverage of the attitude that does work.

 

Dave:
I jumped the gun on Jenkins and Masters story. I just read it and it was good, for the most part. I said that sight unseen, which was dumb on my part, but most of the stuff he writes month to month does make me cringe as being outdated. Overcooked.

 

Richard Justice responds....wow.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2009-06-01/webextra2.php

 

Nice.

 

WOW. That is known as pulling no punches. Everybody should read that.

 

Did I read something into that, or did he basically call Gary Cartwright a plagiarist?