The Best American Sports Writing of the Century

Rating:
Summary: Perfect except leave out "Into Thin Air"
Review: A compelling collection of stories about exceptional characters who happen to be sports stars. Although I would have enjoyed reading more about modern-day heroes, the stories do a great job invoking the atmosphere of idol worship at the time and the vivid pain each author suffers at having to discover that each of their role models has feet of clay. The only mistake is the inclusion of the terribly-written, egomaniacal account of the doomed foray up Mt. Everest, "Into Thin Air." Didn't Krakauer make enough money from sales of his novel?

Rating:
Summary: Should be a lot better
Review: Best thing about the yearly "Best American Sportswriting" series is the one great story about an non-major sport like handball or body-building. Sure you get your baseball,basketball, football stories but there's usually one or two off the beaten path. Not so with the Best of the Century, mostly basebal and boxing. One chess one, one golf one, the rest solidly predictable. Boring choices, nothing funny either.

Rating:
Summary: Should be a lot better
Review: Best thing about the yearly "Best American Sportswriting" series is the one great story about an non-major sport like handball or body-building. Sure you get your baseball,basketball, football stories but there's usually one or two off the beaten path. Not so with the Best of the Century, mostly basebal and boxing. One chess one, one golf one, the rest solidly predictable. Boring choices, nothing funny either.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good, Some Better, Some Best
Review: Congratulations to David Halberstam and Glenn Stout for putting together their choices for "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century". As with any anthology of "the best of", there are selections that will make one wonder about its' inclusion while there are others whose omission will seem equally unjust. However, such arguments only occur when somebody puts out their choices for public consumption. Having said that, I offer the following criticisms. First of all, Halberstam, in his introduction, heaps a bit too much praise on Gay Talese's story about Joe Dimaggio. One reads it thinking that, yes this is good, but it's not THAT good. There was a fairly lengthy story about Bobby Fischer that was interesting but kept me wondering if chess was a sport. There were a number of short articles and feature articles that were good but still made you wonder why they were included. However, there was plenty of the better and some of the best. The book gave me a good introduction to an excellent sports writer I had not previously known of; W C Heinz. There was the fascinating "Outside" magazine article by Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air" that led to the later (equally excellent) book of the same name. There is a touching story about Tommy LaSorda's son, Al Stump on Ty Cobb, an interesting story about a hockey "enforcer", a disturbing article about the steroid madness of body building, the obligatory yet interesting article about Tiger Woods, and a closing section on Muhammed Ali. Unfortunately, the latter section includes an endless article about the Champ by Norman Mailer ironicly titled "Ego". There's lots more but, to be honest, by the time I finished the book, a lot of the earlier selections were by then forgotten. My nomination for the most egregious omission, Frank DeFord's "Sports Illustrated" article "The Toughest Coach the Ever Was". This is an enjoyable book. Some articles may not have merited inclusion in a book of this title but they were still fairly interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good, Some Better, Some Best
Review: Congratulations to David Halberstam and Glenn Stout for putting together their choices for "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century". As with any anthology of "the best of", there are selections that will make one wonder about its' inclusion while there are others whose omission will seem equally unjust. However, such arguments only occur when somebody puts out their choices for public consumption. Having said that, I offer the following criticisms. First of all, Halberstam, in his introduction, heaps a bit too much praise on Gay Talese's story about Joe Dimaggio. One reads it thinking that, yes this is good, but it's not THAT good. There was a fairly lengthy story about Bobby Fischer that was interesting but kept me wondering if chess was a sport. There were a number of short articles and feature articles that were good but still made you wonder why they were included. However, there was plenty of the better and some of the best. The book gave me a good introduction to an excellent sports writer I had not previously known of; W C Heinz. There was the fascinating "Outside" magazine article by Jon Krakauer, "Into Thin Air" that led to the later (equally excellent) book of the same name. There is a touching story about Tommy LaSorda's son, Al Stump on Ty Cobb, an interesting story about a hockey "enforcer", a disturbing article about the steroid madness of body building, the obligatory yet interesting article about Tiger Woods, and a closing section on Muhammed Ali. Unfortunately, the latter section includes an endless article about the Champ by Norman Mailer ironicly titled "Ego". There's lots more but, to be honest, by the time I finished the book, a lot of the earlier selections were by then forgotten. My nomination for the most egregious omission, Frank DeFord's "Sports Illustrated" article "The Toughest Coach the Ever Was". This is an enjoyable book. Some articles may not have merited inclusion in a book of this title but they were still fairly interesting.

Rating:
Summary: This is a book to savor.
Review: Consistently great, always interesting and occasionally just plain fantastic sports writing, although I don't think you need to be a jock to enjoy this book - writing by Mailer, Talese, Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson speak to everyone regardless of the subject. This is a book to read and savor over a long period of time, to return to often, and share among friends. Halberstam's picks give the book a surprising and provocative historical edge. While the omission of A.J. Leibling and a few others are surprising, it's more than made up for by the inclusion of some superb surprises. Take this book on vacation - or take a vacation by reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best compilations of important sports history.
Review: Great writers. Great subjects. Very insightful and revealing. A must, if you're a sports fan. Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams & Joe Louis, to name a very few of the fascinating articles...written by people who were there...a must read!

Rating:
Summary: Reading at it's best
Review: If you're a sports fan, do yourself a favor and buy this book. Read it slowly and enjoy each of these amazing articles. Great sportswriting stands the test of time, and each of these entries read as well now as they did when they were first published.

Rating:
Summary: A classic chronicle for all (not just American) sports fans
Review: My girlfriend first brought the Best American Sports Writing series to my attention in 1992 by giving me that year's edition as a Chrismas present. I showed my gratitude by burying my head in its covers and ignoring the outside world (her included) until I had finished.

Since that time I have been a keen follower of the series. Because I live in Australia I have little prior background to many of the stories, but this perhaps gives me an objectivity which enhances my enjoyment.

The "Best American Sports Writing of the Century" is a seriously thick compilation of some fantastic pieces. Although falling short of the editors' lofty aims of being a portrait of American life over the past 100 years, it nevertheless manages to identify many of the people and defining moments that have become integral to (admittedly, my perception) of modern American history.

My favourite story - perhaps George Plimpton's 'Medora Goes to the Game', a wonderfully uplifting tale of a father's sneaky attempts to convince his 9 year old daughter to aspire to his alma mater, set against the backdrop of the 1980 Harvard-Yale game. Second place to 'Into Thin Air', Jon Krakauer's harrowing personal tale of tragedy on Everest. There are many other classics, too numerous to mention here - one that particularly fascinated me was Paul Solotaroff's shocking portrayal of steroid abuse in the body building world.

Brickbats to Murray Kempton's play-by-play account of a baseball game, which failed to inspire me (to be fair, possibly because I am not familiar with the game's intricacies). Also, thumbs down to the editors for selecting no fewer than 6 pieces on Muhummad Ali (a trap which the UK-based Picador sports writing anthology also falls into) Davis Miller's excellent piece notwithstanding.

But perhaps the most fascinating insight the book gave me was the fragile mental state of some of America's most famous boys of summer - Ty Cobb, Ted Williams and Joe Di Maggio. All three appeared to me to have, as we say in Australian vernacular, 'a 'roo loose in the top paddock', surely begging the question - does an athlete need to be ill at ease with the world to achieve greatness, or does America's adoration and constant media attention lead to a wariness and deluded view of self-importance that cannot be extinguished ?

Rating:
Summary: The Politics of Sport
Review: Some years ago EP Dutton published a series of "Best" sports stories. With bylines removed, entries were submitted to a distinguished jury. (Two most frequent winners:Roger Kahn and W. C. Heinz.) There is no jury for the Houghton Mifflin works, just Stout and a cohort abitrarily chosen.There is some good stuff here, but the selection is, to be charitable,quirky. When Halberstam suggests his chum Gay Talese's pretty good Joe DiMaggio piece changed sports writing, informed readers will shudder. After shuddering they will skip this odd mash and run down the fine Dutton books through an out of print service.