All-time favorite piece of sports journalism?

OK. If this was only good enough for second place it of course got me wondering what column beat it out for first. It was this gem by Sally Jenkins:

http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2001/writing/over250.columns.first1.html

I've always admired and respected Sally's work and am appreciative of the fine person she is having met her twice, and this column was solid. But for sheer emotion and impact, to me Morrissey's piece is unbeatable. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall as the judges had to decide among these two columns and another strong one by Dan Shaughnessy:

http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2001/writing/over250.columns.fifth1.html

Dan finished in a tie with Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel, who wrote a column on Butch Davis leaving Miami in the lurch. Technically, Hyde placed fourth.

 

I think I read this in The Franchise (which is about the rise of SI), but Jenkins said his philosophy on writing gamers was that in every game there is a single turning point, and you should drive that turning point into the ground. This is a perfect example.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. I got a bit choked up.

Love that this thread was resurrected. Gotta wholeheartedly second Death of a Racehorse and The Boxer and the Blonde. The former I can read again and again and no matter how many times, I still tear up at the end. Read the latter for a sports reporting class and good goddamn, I almost decided to give up the trade right then and there. Made me feel so incredibly inferior. God, how I wish people still wrote like that. I wish *I* wrote like that.

 

Vivid, colorful writing, and I haven't read many gamers good as that. For the most part I agree with Jenkins' philosophy on the single turning point. But having read this, I can't buy into the "if" theory that Rodgers' punt return was the single turning point. Sure, it gave the Huskers an 11-point lead, which held up at 28-17, too. But Oklahoma *did* come back to lead 31-28 before the Huskers' final, winning drive.

No doubt the punt return tickled his most inner fancy, but an entire ballgame proceeded, and I don't see the return as the single turning point. Woulda made a great sidebar. Having read that beautifully crafted, emotionally charged gamer, I think the single turning point is that final drive. Couldn't help but think to the '91 USC-Wazzu game when Marinovich led USC 91 yards in the final two minutes.

Regardless, my ramblings on the "if" theory doesn't take away from Jenkins' gamer. Helluva piece. Pieces of it sent me back to some of my gamers from 6 years ago. Similar phraseology Jenkins and I shared (and no, I'd never read that gamer till today).

 

Who's for "stickying" this thread?

And is "stickying" a verb?

 

Haven't read this thread, so i apologize if this has already been mentioned...

Kevin Van Valkenburg's piece on VT basketball player Rayna DuBose in the Baltimore Sun is one of the best pieces I've ever read. Simply amazing, which is probably why I read it in BASW 05.

Between that and the WaPo's David Maraniss' story following the shootings at VT, easily two of the best stories I've read, not in the past year or so, but ever.

Edit: Here's the Van Valkenburg piece: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/bal-as.rayna30may29,1,2468835.story

And the Maraniss piece: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/18/AR2007041802824_pf.html

 

Thanks for reminding me about KVV's piece. It was my favorite in the 2005 edition.

 

String Theory, David Foster Wallace
Let Us Now Raze Famous Men, Jeff MacGregor
The Case Against Golf, Bruce McCall
Who's Sorry Now? and Sportswriting for Dummies, Steve Rushin
Not a sports story, but The Heather Graham Story by Bill Zehme says a lot about the absurdity of what we do and how we do it