Glenn Stout

The Best American Sports Writing Glenn Stout

Brief Description: For fans of sports and just plain great writing, this collection of twenty-seven of the finest pieces from the past year features "outstanding sports reporting on a wealth of different topics" (Booklist). Guest editor Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Moneyball and Coach, has assembled a compelling look at the sports stories and issues that dominated 2005. Pamela Colloff reports from the politically and sexually charged world of competitive cheerleading in Texas. Paul Solotaroff meets the star of the University of Georgia wrestling team, a nineteen-year-old world-record weightlifter who was born with no arms or legs. Ben Paynter travels the gay rodeo circuit. Pat Jordan profiles the world's greatest poker player, a boyish thirty-year-old whose mom still packs him a brown bag lunch. Jeff Duncan travels to Florida, where a New Orleans high school and its football program are picking up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We also discover Linda Robertson reporting on the supersizing of NFL players. S. L. Price profiles the most famous U. S. Paraolympian. Katy Vine introduces a girl who can dunk -- in eighth grade -- and more. The pieces in this outstanding volume show the true reach and impact of sports, its importance often extending far beyond the playing field. As Lewis writes in his introduction, "What's reassuring about great sports writing is what's reassuring about great sports performances: facing opposition, and often against the odds, someone, at last, did something right."Table of Contents: Foreword xi Introduction by Michael Lewis xvii Paul Solotaroff. There Is Nothing Special About Kyle Maynard . . . 1 from Men's Journal Jeff Duncan. Desire Without End 15 from The New Orleans Times-Picayune Kurt Streeter. The Girl 26 from The Los Angeles Times Pamela Colloff. Flipping Out 87 from Texas Monthly James Brown. Dirty Moves 101 from The Los Angeles Times Magazine Steve Friedman. Driving Lessons 110 from Travel and Leisure Golf Pat Jordan. Card Stud 124 from The New York Times Magazine Greg Garber. A Tormented Soul 132 from ESPN.com David Grann. Stealing Time 157 from The New Yorker Dan Koeppel. Standing Still 172 from Bicycling Steve Oney. Fallen Angel 180 from Los Angeles S. L. Price. The Sprinter 202 from Sports Illustrated L. Jon Wertheim. Saved by Sports 215 from Sports Illustrated J. R. Moehringer. The Unnatural Natural 227 from The Los Angeles Times Magazine Neal Pollack. The Cult of the General Manager 237 from Slate.com Jonathan Miles. What Goes Ninety-five Miles per Hour for Seventeen Days Straight Through Mud, Sand, High-Speed Smash-ups, and Marauding Bandits? 240 from Men's Journal Gary Smith. The Shadow Boxer 256 from Sports Illustrated Pamela Colloff. She's Here. She's Queer. She's Fired. 271 from Texas Monthly Ben Paynter. So You Wanna Be a Cowboy? 279 from The Pitch Jeff Pearlman. Mom's the Word 291 from Newsday Linda Robertson. XXL 297 from The Miami Herald Michael Sokolove. Clang! 305 from The New York Times Magazine Katy Vine. Brooklyn Heights 317 from Texas Monthly Pat Jordan. The Magician 328 from The Atlantic Monthly Kurt Streeter. Making the Time Count 337 from The Los Angeles Times Tim Zimmermann. Raising the Dead 346 from Outside Charlie Schroeder. A (Fishing) Hole in One 370 from The Los Angeles Times Magazine Contributors' Notes 379 Notable Sports Writing of 2005 383 Marc Notes: Includes articles chosen from magazines and newspapers on topics ranging from bullfighting to basketball, baseball, and boxing. Review Citations:

Booklist 09/01/2006 pg. 43 (EAN 9780618470228, Paperback)

Library Journal 01/01/2007 pg. 116 (EAN 9780618470228, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Stout, Glenn GLENN STOUT is the author of Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912. Contributor Bio:  Lewis, Michael Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Liar s Poker, The Money Culture, The New New Thing, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Panic, Home Game, The Big Short, and Boomerang, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.