Seven Sportswriters Who

Agreed on Roy. He can write anything. Not many writers could become one of their country's foremost literary talents on hockey, national politics, art, and life in the bush. Of course he might argue those are all the same thing: being Canadian.

He's also a stunningly kind and good man.

 

Question for board Canadians.

In Great White North sports canon, how important is Dryden's 'The Game' ?

 

I read it as a kid and still have my copy. I would say it's a classic of Canadian non-fiction, and probably the best book about hockey, but I'm super biased. I'm a huge fan of Ken Dryden. I think he's one of the most interesting athletes in history.

This is how he wrote about being part of a consistently winning team: “Sated by success, we have different expectations, and the motivations and feelings we get from a game have changed with them. Joy becomes obligation, satisfaction turns to relief, and the purpose of winning becomes less to win, and more not to lose.”

It's really good.

 

I've had that book for many years. My favorite part is when he describes having a really bad game in which the Canadiens won anyway and it pushed him towards retirement because he thought he was so irrelevant he couldn't even lose a game for the team.

 

The fact that he took a year off to study for the bar at, like, 26 or whatever it was... Can you imagine that happening today? He was a Hall of Fame goaltender for one of the great teams of all time. It's like Michael Jordan's baseball sabbatical but... nerdy.

 

Whitlock’s Chiefs columns: Ball State, Jeff George, I’m black. In any order.

A fucking hack.

 

It's like if Ralph Wiley had a mediocre, disappointing intern.

 

I don't think it's crazy to call it one of the four or five best sports books ever written.

 

Bill Bradley's year as a Rhodes Scholar comes to mind as well.

 

Speaking of Roy MacGregor, he had a big hand in Dryden's book. He officially served as editor, as I recall, but there are many people in the journalism game in Canada who think he was far more than that, shaping Dryden's thoughts into elegant prose. MacGregor, who is a close friend of Dryden and a supreme gentleman as Typefitter noted, always brushed off the idea.

 

I'm sure Dryden got plenty of editorial help from MacGregor, but the book is Dryden's.

Just as I'm sure Bouton got plenty of editorial help from Schecter, but the book is Bouton's.

 

"Ball Four" is certainly written in Bouton's voice but why isn't the book Schecter's? Schecter had already shown that he was a proponent of more honest and realistic reporting and moving away from the idolatry, gee whiz sports writing that had dominated most sports pages.