Best sports stories of the past 20 years

We all live in Bill Heinz's world, and we work only in his shadow.

 

I've never read it. Is there a link somewhere?

 

Moddy,

I understand. So, to get around that, I'll just post this:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/28073/

 

"The Power and the Gory," BASW of the Century.

If you're looking at books, either David Maraniss' Clemente's biography or Lombardi biography.

 

Gary Smith, SI, June 1991, I think, "Shadow of a Nation."

Native American basketball and "crawling back under the blanket."

I have read a lot of his stuff, and that's right at the top.

"Ripples from Lake Nellie," *is* an excellent example.

(I cannot believe it has been 32 years since Gammons' classic piece on the Fisk home run)

 

Holy hell the Power and the Gory is amazing...

Also try

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/1999/08/17/lifeofreilly/

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/lifeofreilly/1999/0412/

A coupla pretty good ones.

I'll have more

 

Shadow of a Nation is my favorite Smith story. Watching the Valvano speech tonight reminded me of Smith's piece on him, shortly before he died. And Smith's story on the old Yankee prospect who was haunted by the fact he accidentally killed his brother when they were boys.

And I've bragged about it before, but I could read MacGregor's story on the Friar's Club roast of Don King three times a day.

Here's a great one I found a few months ago about John McEnroe. Never saw it when it originally ran in 2001.

http://www.julianrubinstein.com/john.html

 

Thanks for that link. I had never read that and it was a fantastic read, even for someone who could care less about horse racing.