Best American Sports Writing of 2014

FWIW, he address that here:

http://indiepro.com/glenn/best-american-sports-writing-2012/

 

I laughed out loud when I reached the part in Jones' story where he is expatiating about the virtue of self-control.

 

The Robles story -- written by a psychiatrist -- is pretty damn good.

 

http://grantland.com/features/the-deaths-robert-sitter-david-gerken-jr-buffalo-bills-game/

 

On Trevor Bauer and effective velocity:

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/6/18/5818380/effective-velocity-pitching-theory-profile-perry-husband

 

The Wickersham piece- eh. Was all right.
Still not sure the purpose of the piece.
I own this book, have for years. It is a marvel of singlemindedness.
So because its secrets don't work for some poseur high school coach, it's dense and useless?

 

Robbed.

 

Don't forget that the book will also contain a list of other notable sports writing of the year. It's likely that the snubbed stories that didn't make the final cut will be in there.

One piece I remember enjoying was this Grantland series on baseball scouting school:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/welcome-to-baseball-scout-school/

Although I still enjoy a good Gary Smith-inspired melodrama, more and more, I enjoy stories that can make the art of winning and losing, on the field, interesting. This was a very good example of that.

 

Sorry, but that's a clear conflict of interest and his explanation/steps to mitigate do nothing to resolve that. Among the 75 stories he puts to the Guest Editor, he picks several from SB Nation -- but only the ones that received a lot of outside praise. (wanking motion).

Sorry, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. The SB Nation winners, however seemingly deserving, are slighted by this conflict of interest. He should resign as series editor or at least step aside while he's running SB Nation Longform.

 

Picked up the book today on the walk to work just now. One thing I've noticed the last few years is that while you still have your pieces on one-eyed bull fighters and such, the big stories of the year that made a splash get their due. Last year, for example, the Kent Babb piece on the Chiefs' Big Brother culture made it. This year, the Manti T'eo Deadspin story is in there. I doubt those stories would have been in the book 5-10 years ago.