Best sports stories of the past 20 years

If the cutoff is 20 years (1987), all those legendary Deford stories miss out.

My personal nominees: (I don't know where, exactly, you drawn the line between "best" vs. "favorites")

1. Resurecting The Champ, J.R. Moheringer, LA TIMES MAGAZINE
2. The Man. Amen., Charles P. Pierce, GQ
3. At The End of A Curse, A Blessing, Tom Verducci, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
4. Heaven Help Marge Schott, Rick Reilly, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
5. Higher Learning, Gary Smith, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
6. Tangled Up In Blue, Peter Richmond, GQ
7. Muddied But Unbowed, Jeff MacGregor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
8. The String Theory, David Foster Wallace, ESQUIRE
9. Pure Heart, William Nack, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
10. The Trophy Son, Randall Patterson, HOUSTON PRESS
11. The Passion of Tiger Woods, Chris Jones, ESQUIRE
12. Her Blue Haven, Bill Plaschke, LA TIMES
13. Dusting Off Home, Joe Posnanski, KANSAS CITY STAR
14. How We Got Here, Steve Rushin, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
15. Shadow Of A Nation, Gary Smith, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
16. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer, OUTSIDE
17. The Making of a Goon, Johnette Howard, The National
18. The Power And The Gory, Paul Solotaroff, VILLAGE VOICE
19. Nightmare is Real For Mourners, Mike Bianchi, ORLANDO SENTINEL
20. Hockey Nights, Guy Lawson, HARPERS
21. A Death In The Baseball Family, S.L. Price, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
22. What Is The Citadel, Rick Reilly, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
23. Let Us Now Raze Famous Men, Jeff MacGregor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
24. The Blessed Fisherman of Prosper Texas, Charles P. Pierce, ESQURIE
25. Oh Brother, S.L. Price, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

 

No Bill Simmons, DD?

 

Damnit, I want to read all of those stories, but I can't find The Man. Amen, or Heaven Help Marge Schott. Can't find whole articles that is. Anyone have any copies, or any suggestions?!

 

Heaven Help Marge Schott is collected in SI's Great Baseball book. The Man. Amen. can be found in Mr. Pierce's collection 'Sports Guy.' Christmas is right around the corner, GB. Ask Santa.

 

I completely forgot "Crime and Punishment" which is actually, I think, my favorite Gary Smith story. That would be high on that list.

 

I'm not a big powerlifting guy (I'm one of the two), but The Power and the Glory was a great read. At times it seems like some of the things that happened couldn't possibly have happened, but I read that thing like 100 times.

 

Ira Berkow's piece on Fergus Jenkins about 10 years ago left a strong impression on me. It reinforced the need to dig in for serious spadework.

In Australia we have a racing writer, Les Carlyon, who is every bit as good as William Nack. A few years ago he published a collection, True Grit. If you ever come across it, do buy it.


Here he is on our legendary trainer Bart Cummings.

He has a great mane of black hair, a generous mouth and eyebrows that appear to be climbing in search of a trellis. He speaks sparingly, as though he is saving his best thoughts for himself, which he is. He talks in phrases rather than complete sentences. Mischief glints in his eye but rarely makes its way south to his mouth.


We are fortunate to have two other gifted sports writers over here, Greg Baum from the Melbourne Age and Gideon Haigh, who has written six or seven acclaimed books on cricket.

 

"Dusting off home" by Joe Posnanski was fantastic. He followed Tony Pena back to the Dominican Republic, where Pena is a national hero. Fantastic read.

Reilly's Marge Schott piece was in "Life of Reilly" book, too. Very, very well done.

 

"If You're Expecting One-Liners, Wait, a Column," by Jim Murray

 

One of the best columns ever, but it was published in 1979.

 

We need to mention George Dohrmann's whistle-blower investigation into University of Minnesota's basketball team and academic fraud.

 

I missed "20 years" on BlackBerry...