The Best American Sports Writing 2014

The Best American Series
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The Best American Sports Writing
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ISSN
1056-8034

ISBN
978-0-544-14700-3

e
ISBN
978-0-544-30197-9
v1.1014

“20 Minutes at Rucker Park” by Flinder Boyd. First published on
SBNation.com
, October 15, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Flinder Boyd. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, the Most Heartbreaking and Inspirational Story of the College Football Season, is a Hoax” by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey. First published in
Deadspin.com
. Copyright Â© 2014 by Gawker Media. Reprinted by permission of Gawker Media.

“Raider. QB Crusher. Murderer?” by Kathy Dobie. First published in
GQ
, February, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Kathy Dobie. Reprinted by permission of Kathy Dobie.

“The Last Days of Stealhead Joe” by Ian Frazier. First published in
Outside
, September 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Ian Frazier. Reprinted by permission of the Wylie Agency, LLC.

“Mavericks” by Alice Gregory. First published in
n+1
, October 9, 2013. Copyright Â© 2014 by Alice Gregory. Reprinted by permission of Alice Gregory.

“You Can Only Hope to Contain Them” by Amanda Hess. First published in
ESPN: The Magazine
, July 22, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

“The Choice” by Patrick Hruby. First published on
SportsOnEarth.com
, November 14, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by
SportsOnEarth.com
. Reprinted by permission of
SportsOnEarth.com
.

“When 772 Pitches Isn't Enough” by Chris Jones. First published in
ESPN: The Magazine
, July 22, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

“The End and Don King” by Jay Caspian Kang. First published in
Grantland.com
, April 4, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 ESPN Internet Ventures. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

“The Chaos of the Dice” by Raffi Khatchadourian. First published in
The New Yorker
, May 13, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Raffi Khatchadourian. Reprinted by permission of Raffi Khatchadourian.

“Li Na, China's Tennis Rebel” by Brook Larmer. First published in the
New York Times Magazine
, August 22, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by the
New York Times Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of Brook Larmer.

“The Coach Who Exploded” by Jonathan Mahler. First published in the
New York Times Magazine
, November 6, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Jonathan Mahler. Reprinted by permission of Jonathan Mahler.

“Elegy of a Race Car Driver” by Jeremy Markovich. First published on
SBNation.com
, July 30, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Jeremy Markovich. Reprinted by permission of Jeremy Markovich.

“The Art of Speed” by Ben McGrath. First published in
The New Yorker
, February 4, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Ben McGrath. Reprinted by permission of Ben McGrath.

“Heart of Sharkness” by Bucky McMahon. First published in
GQ
, April 2, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by CondÃ© Nast. Reprinted by permission.

“The One-Legged Wrestler Who Conquered His Sport, Then Left it Behind” by David Merrill. First published on
Deadspin.com
. Copyright Â© 2014 by Gawker Media. Reprinted by permission of Gawker Media.

“The Manic Mountain” by Nick Paumgarten. First published in
The New Yorker
, June 3, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 by Nick Paumgarten. Reprinted by permission of Nick Paumgarten.

“The Marathon” by Charles P. Pierce. First published on
Grantland.com
, April 16, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 ESPN Internet Ventures. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

“Tomato Can Blues” by Mary Pilon. First published in the
New York Times
, September 18, 2013. Copyright Â© 2013 the
New York Times.
All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this content without express written permission is prohibited.

Foreword

T
HERE ARE MANY WAYS
to measure the impact or success of a book. In these metric-driven times, the temptation is to reduce everything to dataâsales figures, “starred” reviews, Facebook shares, etc. Even the fact that this is the 24th edition since the series launched in 1991 says something about its value.

Still, for this book, a collection of stories, perhaps the best measure is the stories inspired by
The Best American Sports Writing
itself. For me at least, that measure helps justify the work that goes into putting it together every year.

To be clear, I am not referring to the
writing
the book has inspired, although it is certainly true that it has done so, serving as some motivation for a generation of sportswriters. I mean instead the stories that contributors and readers have told me about the book, the personal stories about the role it has come to play in their lives.

In addition to my duties as series editor of this annual collection and as the author of the occasional book, for the past few years I have also served as editor of the longform journalism page for
SBNation.com
. As I acquire and then edit stories for the site, I have had the opportunity to talk writing and work with hundreds of writers; I find these interactions incredibly rewarding and gratifyingâas much so at times as I find writing myself. At some point, most of these writers tell me what this book has meant to their career or to their development as a writer. It's something that is always nice to hear, and when I speak with the contributors to this book, they often tell me the same thing.

Given that I've been doing this since 1991, I am older than many contributors and almost all the writers I work with. I have become accustomed to hearing someone say, “I've been reading this book my whole life.” Until recently, however, that statement was usually hyperbole.

Not anymore. Earlier this year, as I discussed a story with a younger writer, he blurted out that he found working with me “surreal.” I laughed aloud and asked him why. In all seriousness, he told me that he had been reading this book his entire life. I paused, then asked him his age. When he told me, I did the mathânot only was he correct, but in fact the first edition of this book predated his appearance on the planet by several years. In fact, I suspect that when he was first old enough to read this book, he was already 12 or 15 years behind. Reality, it seems, has more than caught up with flattery.

I also occasionally correspond on a variety of other matters with writers, including many
BASW
contributors. In one email exchange with a writer whom I've been happy to include in these pages more than once, he told me that the first thing anyone sees when they enter his house is his collection of
The Best American Sports Writing.
I think I responded with some quick quipâmy series collection is in the basement, buried on a shelf in my terminally messy office under other books. He soon sent me another email with the subject line “What It Means.”

Attached was a photograph. I clicked it open, and sure enough, on a set of shelves that appeared custom-made, was a complete stack of
The Best American Sports Writing
, 1991 through 2013, flanked by the books of writing legends such as Frank DeFord and Jim Murray.

But it's not just what books mean to my colleagues and other writers that matters. There's also the way books can connect readers and bring people together. My only disappointment with the growing trend to read books and stories on tablets and phones is that it is no longer possible to eavesdrop on what people are reading in public places, to find kindred minds by way of a book or magazine cover.

Years ago, I once traveled the country by train, a nearly monthlong trip that took me from Boston south through New York and Washington to New Orleans, then up to St. Louis to visit family before heading southwest and up the West Coast to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where I pillaged the bookstores. I returned by way of Portland and Seattle before heading eastâa marathon journey home after a more meandering start. But I had a bag full of new books, and as the Rockies gave way to the Great Plains and then the Great North Woods, I read my way back across the country.

Somewhere north of Chicago, on the fourth day since my last shower, someone tapped me on the back. Another passenger had seen what I was reading and wanted to talk. By the time we reached Boston a day and a half later, we were already friends, probably the most memorable part of an 8,000-mile journey across some 30 states.

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