Guest editor Dick Schaap shares this pleasure by presenting THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING 2000. As the series' tenth birthday approaches, it is at the top of its game. In the past decade it has been hailed as "a must for any sports fan" and "a venerable institution" and has showcased promising new talents along with Pulitzer Prize winners such as David Halberstam, Richard Ford, and John McPhee. With the 2000 edition, Schaap, a best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning sports journalist, continues this tradition of excellence by bringing together the finest sports writing to appear in the past year. These pieces will delight fans of all athletic endeavors, from football to fishing, from basketball to birdwatching. From more than 350 publications, Schaap has chosen essays that reach beyond the scores to the people and emotions behind the game.
George Plimpton, that most peripatetic of sporting literati, takes the reins on the latest edition of sportswriting's annual all-star team, and lets these thoroughbreds run. As usual, the smart money is on Roger Angell, Rick Reilly, David Remnick, and Tom Boswell, all of whom are represented, and long-shot David Halberstam makes his comeback with a fascinating profile of a fencer. But the roses go to the real derby winner in this year's group, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford for his long, lyrical, sometimes funny, sometimes profound meditation from Sports Afield on, of all thought-provoking arenas, hunting with his wife.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A Treasure of Great Writing About Sports:
The 1997 edition of "The Best American Sports Writing" has plenty of moments that will enthrall avid sports fans and even those less avid who merely like a good story. The series is a national treasure, which collects the best sports related writing every year and puts it into a single easy-to-read volume. The sports included run the gamut from the traditional team sports of baseball and football to more extreme examples like mountaineering. The main requirement for inclusion is great writing, and that's... more info
An American Treasure:
The 2000 edition of "The Best American Sports Writing" has plenty of moments that will enthrall avid sports fans and even those less avid who merely like a good story. The series is a national treasure, which collects the best sports related writing every year and puts it into a single easy-to-read volume. The sports included run the gamut from the traditional team sports of baseball and football to more extreme examples like mountaineering. The main requirement for inclusion is great writing, and that's... more info
Great series that's focusing more on alternative sports:
Many readers may take issue with the fact that this series represents sportswriting at its best. THe editor, Dick SCHaap is really a hack writer, at best. I'm sure there are many other examples of fine sportswriting out there. The series seems to be making efforts to dig up newer, alternative writers who often become as much a part of the story as what they are writing about, though no one will do that better than Hunter THompson! The strength of this series is that its increasingly focusing on lesser known... more info
Sour Mash:
Schaap, who worked under Jimmy Breslin and Roger Kahn, could write with neither but he hustled better than either. His credentials: ghost writng and tv pap, sometimes nasty. Stout's work is about as big league as the home town he lists, Uxbridge, Mass. Anyone can pick a couple, three nice pieces, but this should not be done by these fellers. They are semi-qualified, too much on the make. Replace them with, say Bill Dwyre, the great Sports Editor of the LA Times, and John Cherwa, exec sports editor of the... more info
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