The Best American Sports Writing 2018 Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  TOM JUNOD: The Greatest, at Rest

  HOWARD BRYANT: Serena, Venus, and the Williams Movement

  REID FORGRAVE: The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE

  CHRIS BALLARD: “You Can’t Give In”: Monty Williams on Life After Tragedy

  STEVE FRIEDMAN: Should Stop. Must Stop. Can’t Stop.

  JANE BERNSTEIN: Still Running

  JOHN BRANCH: Cheers on a Soccer Field, Far from Las Vegas

  WRIGHT THOMPSON: Pat Riley’s Final Test

  SALLY JENKINS: Manning Adds Some Meaning to a Final Game Without Much

  LARS ANDERSON: The Death of a Teenage Quarterback

  KENT BABB: There’s Nowhere to Run

  DAVID ROTH: Downward Spiral

  TYLER TYNES: There Is No Escape from Politics

  SAM BORDEN: Eternal Champions

  TIM BROWN: There Are Hundreds of Baseball Journeymen, but Only One Cody Decker

  BRYAN SMITH: The Ballad of Ed “Bad Boy” Brown

  LEE JENKINS: Don’t Try to Change Jimmy Butler

  CHANTEL JENNINGS: Dante Pettis’s Reading List: Defenses, and Then the Definitive Works

  MICHAEL LANANNA: Born to Be a VandyBoy

  JIM OWCZARSKI: Cincinnati Bengals Great Tim Krumrie’s Brain: A Work in Progress

  STEVE RUSHIN: Rebecca Lobo’s Incredible Journey to Basketball Royalty

  TIM STRUBY: Name of the Father

  MIKE SIELSKI: Michael Brooks and the Son Who Barely Knew Him

  ELIZABETH WEIL: Mikaela Shiffrin Does Not Have Time for a Beer

  DAVE KINDRED: The Case for Lefty Driesell

  Contributors’ Notes

  Notable Sports Writing of 2017

  Read More from the Best American Series

  About the Editors

  Connect with HMH

  Copyright © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  Introduction copyright © 2018 by Jeff Pearlman

  The Best American Series® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Sports Writing™ is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the proper written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. With the exception of nonprofit transcription in Braille, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is not authorized to grant permission for further uses of copyrighted selections reprinted in this book without the permission of their owners. Permission must be obtained from the individual copyright owners as identified herein. Address requests for permission to make copies of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt material to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  hmhco.com

  ISBN 978-1-328-84628-0 (print)  ISBN 978-1-328-84629-7 (ebook)

  ISSN 1056-8034 (print)  ISSN 2573-4822 (ebook)

  Cover design by Christopher Moisan © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Cover photograph © Shutterstock

  Pearlman photograph © Noel Besuzzi

  v2.0918

  “The Death of a Teenage Quarterback” by Lars Anderson. First published in B/R Mag, August 23, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Bleacher Report. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

  “There’s Nowhere to Run” by Kent Babb. First published in the Washington Post, December 13, 2017. Copyright © 2017, Kent Babb, the Washington Post. Reprinted by permission of the Washington Post.

  “‘You Can’t Give In’: Monty Williams on Life After Tragedy” by Chris Ballard. First published in Sports Illustrated and on SI.com (online version), April 6, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Sports Illustrated. Reprinted by permission of Time Inc.

  “Still Running” by Jane Bernstein. First published in The Sun, February 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Jane Bernstein. Used by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. All rights reserved.

  “Eternal Champions” by Sam Borden. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, June 26, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

  “Cheers on a Soccer Field, Far from Las Vegas” by John Branch. First published in the New York Times, October 11, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by the New York Times. Reprinted by permission of the New York Times.

  “There are Hundreds of Baseball Journeymen, but Only One Cody Decker” by Tim Brown. First published in Yahoo Sports, February 6, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Yahoo Sports. Reprinted by permission of Yahoo Sports.

  “Serena, Venus, and the Williams Movement” by Howard Bryant. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, February 7, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

  “The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Player’s Secret Struggle with CTE” by Reid Forgrave. First published in GQ, January 10, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Condé Nast. Reprinted by permission of Condé Nast.

  “Should Stop. Must Stop. Can’t Stop.” by Steve Friedman. First published in Runner’s World, May 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Steve Friedman. Reprinted by permission of Steve Friedman.

  “Manning Adds Some Meaning to a Final Game Without Much” by Sally Jenkins. First published in the Washington Post, December 31, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Sally Jenkins, the Washington Post. Reprinted by permission of the Washington Post.

  “Don’t Try to Change Jimmy Butler” by Lee Jenkins. First published in Sports Illustrated, October 16, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Sports Illustrated. Reprinted by permission of Time Inc.

  “Dante Pettis’s Reading List: Defenses, and Then the Definitive Works” by Chantel Jennings. First published in The Athletic, November 10, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by The Athletic. Reprinted by permission of The Athletic Media Company.

  “The Greatest, at Rest” by Tom Junod. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, June 12, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

  “The Case for Lefty Driesell” by Dave Kindred. First published in The Athletic, November 29, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by The Athletic. Reprinted by permission of The Athletic Media Company.

  “Born to Be a VandyBoy” by Michael Lananna. First published in Baseball America, March 30, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Baseball America. Reprinted by permission of Baseball America.

  “Cincinnati Bengals Great Tim Krumrie’s Brain: A Work in Progress” by Jim Owczarski. First published in the Cincinnati Enquirer, December 10, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by the Cincinnati Enquirer. Reprinted by permission of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

  “Downward Spiral” by David Roth. First published in The Baffler, Winter 2017. Copyright © 2017 by David Roth. Reprinted by permission of The Baffler.

  “Rebecca Lobo’s Incredible Journey to Basketball Royalty” by Steve Rushin. First published in Sports Illustrated, September 18, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Sports Illustrated. Reprinted by permission of Time Inc.

  “Michael Brooks and the Son Who Barely Knew Him” by Mike Sielski. First published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, August 10, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Reprinted by permission of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

  “The Ballad of Ed ‘Bad Boy’ Brown” by Bryan Smith. First published in Chicago Magazine, April 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Chicago Ma
gazine. Reprinted by permission of Chicago Tribune Company.

  “Name of the Father” by Tim Struby. First published in Victory Journal, June 2, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Tim Struby. Reprinted by permission of Tim Struby.

  “Pat Riley’s Final Test” by Wright Thompson. First published in ESPN: The Magazine, May 8, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

  “There Is No Escape from Politics” by Tyler Tynes. First published on the SB Nation website on December 12, 2017: https://www.sbnation.com/a/sports-year-in-review-2017/there-is-no-escape-from-politics Copyright © 2017 by Vox Media, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

  “Mikaela Shiffrin Does Not Have Time for a Beer” by Elizabeth Weil. First published in Outside, December 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Elizabeth Weil. Reprinted by permission of Elizabeth Weil.

  Foreword

  Every year there are actually multiple editions of this book.

  The first edition of this book includes those stories selected by the guest editor and reprinted in full. This edition contains a total of 25 stories, a combination of selections chosen from among 80 stories that were put forward by me, as well as the guest editor’s own choices.

  But there are also other editions. In the back of every volume is “Notable Sports Writing”—a list of another 100 or so stories and writers from the previous year. I hope that, on occasion, readers of the first 25 stories make the time to go to the back of the book and continue their reading from among these selections.

  When I first started compiling the annual list at the beginning of this series in 1991, it was primarily a list of those stories that “almost” made the front of the book—the stories I’d put forward that were not selected by the guest editor, as well as a selection of those that caused me pain to leave out. To a degree, it still is. But over time my criteria for the back of the book has evolved. I don’t always see the value in giving a ribbon to a writer who might already be established at a well-recognized outlet (although, as my inbox well knows, no group does more scorekeeping—or score settling—than sportswriters). Besides, the definitions of both the “best” and the “notable”—and the differences between them—are notoriously fluid. Over the years I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with the perception that the editors of this book are arbiters of anything more than what interests either of us at a given moment.

  This is a tough time to be in this business, and while paying work is at a premium, quality work is not. I believe there could be three or four editions of this book every year and there wouldn’t be a dime’s worth of difference in quality between them. Despite the troubles of our industry, the writers will not be denied. In the last decade, after the 2008 recession hit, an entire generation of young writers just gaining traction, many of them women and minorities, were wiped out when the newspaper industry began its death spiral, leaving thousands of stories untold. Today magazines both well known and not so well known have cut back on their publishing schedules and their page counts, and after a brief flourishing, digital media seem to be following the same path, shedding jobs almost as quickly as they are created, pivoting from word to video to . . . I don’t know, what’s left—semaphore? Most have cut back on storytelling or treat it as a marketing indulgence, a bait-and-switch tactic to trick “consumers” into watching (yet another) video rather than treating storytelling for what it is and always has been—a genuine human need. One particularly cynical digital editor actually once told me the “best” stories were those that readers clicked on . . . and then stopped reading quickly so they would visit other destinations on the website as soon as possible.

  I reject that. Utterly. I believe the only way we really come to know and understand one another is through stories. Writers are relentless, and they understand that. In the beginning, after all, was the word.

  As a result, I now view the “Notable Sports Writing” list differently, as a kind of curated archive unto itself, evidence of storytelling’s vitality. I still tend to include stories that I believe in another year might have made their way to the front—that’s always some kind of factor. In most years the “Notable” list probably includes at least 30 or so stories that I put forward that were not selected. There are probably a few more of those this year, as guest editor Jeff Pearlman exercised his prerogative and selected 15 of the 25 stories in this anthology from outside the group I sent him. This is the nature of the collection. I mean, ask 100 basketball fans to name the “best” 25 basketball players and you’ll get 100 different lists that probably include hundreds of players, each list created according to one kind of player—pro, college, men, women, American, foreign, active versus retired, living versus dead—and one measure of “best”—team success, season versus career, or ranked by position, scoring average, or some other standard for defense, rebounding, jump shooting, ball handling, passing, etc.—over some other.

  A number of annual “best” lists are put together in this field, ranging from those accumulated by sources such as Longreads, Longform, and The Sunday Long Read to lists curated by individuals and outlets to the annual industry awards sponsored by organizations like the American Society of Magazine Editors, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the City and Regional Magazine Association, and others. Together, these sources alone cite several hundred sports stories a year as among the “best” in one way or another. I look at all these lists, primarily to make sure I don’t miss anything, read virtually all of them (as well as thousands of others on my own and through submissions), and rarely find much consensus: each audience has its own definition of “best,” and only a scant few individual stories each year are cited by more than one or two of these lists. At best, like this volume, they’re a rough guide, nothing more. At the same time, many equally fine stories slide through the cracks, whether excluded by gatekeepers or simply overlooked and never even considered for recognition. The end result is that the “best” sports writing each year actually includes hundreds of stories of all kinds.

  One of the reasons the publisher of the Best American series chooses a guest editor for each volume every year—beyond the obvious marketing advantage—is to ensure that the texture of the books in the series varies from year to year. And it does. The publisher’s only charge is to select stories published in the United States or Canada during the calendar year based on their “literary merit,” however each guest editor chooses to define that. Although I put forward stories blindly—not identified by source or author—guest editors’ selections reveal their own preferences, some more overtly than others. One guest editor excluded all but narratives; others had a distinct preference for reported or investigative work. Others preferred more stories from newspapers, others favored those from magazines or websites, and some eschewed all forms of first-person writing. Some were comfortable selecting more political and socially conscious stories, and others preferred the more orthodox. Some hated football and loved soccer, while others valued adventure sports more than team competitions. One guest editor demanded more “sportswriting,” and another chose stories according to a more literary definition. Moreover, each editor is free to determine what qualifies as a “sport” and what does not.

  Under the only criterion for selecting stories that I’ve ever been able to come up with—after reading them once, I want to read them again—I do my best to put forward as representative a sample as possible. Any selection of 75 or 80 stories will always be lacking in some perspectives. This explains why the variety and scope of sports writing are usually on better display in the more expansive “Notable” list than on the narrower contents page.

  Writers occasionally let me know that inclusion in the back of the book provided a career boost, helping them find a job or get their work into better-paying, more prestigious, or more visible outlets. In recent years, I became even more interested in using this portion of the book to provide some recognition for the writers and outlets that produce interesting and ambitious work bu
t are either still under the radar or otherwise marginalized. Every year the “Notables” list includes stories that might have been selected for the front of the book in another year with a different editor. In a business that is too often harsh and unfair, I feel a responsibility to let these writers know that their work isn’t disappearing into the void, that someone is paying attention.

  Digital access makes it easy enough to look up many of these stories if you choose, and I encourage you to do so.

  Looking back through the last pages of earlier editions of this book, I find many names working their way up, often appearing first for work they did at small papers or obscure magazines (or, more recently, dot-coms of unknown origin) and then, over time, having their work cited at larger outlets before finally appearing in the front of this book (and beyond). Of the writers in this volume, I recall that Howard Bryant, Wright Thompson, Reid Forgrave, and Mike Sielski—at least—appeared in the back of the book first, writing for less visible outlets than those where their work now appears. Following writers from edition to edition is like tracking a ballplayer’s career on the back of a baseball card. I first read and made note of some writers on today’s best-seller lists when they were writing for publications that no longer exist, and I am certain there are writers in the back of this 2018 edition who will be as readily recognized in 25 years as John Branch, Chris Ballard, and Sally Jenkins are now.

  These discoveries make the labor of this book worthwhile. I sometimes feel like a scout checking out the scramble on the distant courts at the far reaches of the playground, trying to spot that special shooting touch or the kid with the extra hops. Nothing excites me more than finding either a writer or just good writing in a place where I know very few others are looking. That’s one of the reasons I encourage everyone—readers and writers both (not just their editors)—to send me work they feel might belong in this collection, since neither I nor anyone else can make it to every game on every playground.

  An example this year would be something called the Awesome Sports Project, a small website created by Bea Chang. A former Haverford College point guard and now a basketball coach and emerging writer, Chang was frustrated by the few existing platforms for sports writing focused on women’s sports. So she and her friends created one, an online literary journal “committed to inspiring girls’ and women’s voices in sports.” Since its inception three years ago, Chang and her all-volunteer group of editors have published nearly 100 stories by writers of all ages and genders and created an annual internship program for four high school students from around the United States to assist with the editorial process and be mentored in their own work. For the first few years, Chang absorbed the cost of the program herself; last year a modest GoFundMe proposal helped defray costs. In addition to the website, they have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, neither of which has more than a few hundred followers. The Awesome Sports Project is about as grassroots as it comes.