All-time favorite piece of sports journalism?

Wow. Great find, even better gamer.

 

When a columnist mentioned SportsJournalists.com in his story.

 

My two favorites have already been mentioned: "Death of a Racehorse" for deadline (sign the goddamn Heinz petition, by the way), and J.R. Moehringer's "Resurrecting the Champ" for longer stuff. Both are incredible.

 

Death of a Racehorse was the only story I've ever read where I was already in tears before I finished it.

 

Here's a vote for Reilly's Marge Schott story.

 

Have you signed the petition, you dirty bastard?

 

Fuck. My first time reading that. Fabulous.

 

Pretty much any Dan Jenkins major golf championship lead from the 1970s-1980s is a clinic in how to do this job.

 

Sixty-eight words. I found it a bit awkward.

Thrilling story, though.

 

While not exactly one of the masterpieces, SI's Franz Lidz wrote a front-section blurb a few years ago on his then-teenage daughter, Daisy, making her debut as a boxing ring announcer. It was maybe 150 words, but beautifully written and quite the love letter from father to daughter without being sappy. It has stuck in my head for years and I kick myself that I didn't clip it.

 

Mr J,

Only when you've got the Game of the Century that lives up to the hype are you allowed to lead longer than 67 words.

I still can't believe the Sooners lost that freakin' game.

In the obscure vein, I read a column by Eamon Dunphy after Ireland was knocked out of the Euros a few years back--he was calling for the firing of Irish manager Jackie Charlton. Amazing stuff. On top of everything (that being language so rich I gained five pounds reading it) Dunphy was fully qualified to go off on the venerated JC because Dunphy himself had been an Irish international. If you can find his stuff it's worth the time. Incredibly, he was thrown off the Irish broadcasts of the 2002 World Cup for showing up drunk--I would have thought he'd be thrown off for showing up sober.

YHS, etc

 

Another one I just remembered was a Gary Smith piece in SI about sports on an Indian reservation that was just brilliantly done.