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12 Great Sports Stories

A holiday bundle of good writing and interesting angles

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by Jeff Merron

'Tis the season to be making lists, and therefore I give you, a list of 12 of my favorite sports stories of the year. They are fun and interesting to read -- and they’re still available, for free!

Why 12? Because that gives you 1.5 stories to read for each day of Hanukkah, or, if you prefer 1.0 for each day of Christmas.

My favorite sports story of 2000:

"Dad liked vodka best"
Lynda Barry's story about "a ring-eyed weenie-armed kid" who's transformed by a baseball glove with supernatural powers. The piece is gut-wrenching and lyrical, and it includes some priceless advice from her dad: "There is never any problem that is too big for you to run away from." (Salon)

11 other gems:

On the road with the Williamsport Crosscutters
Baseball America editor Lacy Lusk kept an entertaining and interesting journal of an eight-day trip with the New York-Penn League team. The luxury bus doesn't seem to make up for the long hours and awful hotels. If it was made into a film, the road trip would probably be summed up in the catch phrase, "I see sleepy people." (Baseball America)

The irresistible obsession of chess
"Inside the game was an orderly world; a cool, logical and just world; a world in which merit alone was King and chaos exiled for all time." A beautiful piece of art and literature by cartoonist Scott McCloud, more than worth its weight in download time. (ScottMcCloud.com)

Caddyschlock, entrenched
Despite the excellent films Harold Ramis has made, his first -- Caddyshack -- looms large in American culture. Golf humor has fueled and extended the careers of many Hollywood should-have-beens. And golf has also become an economic bellwether. "That golf is a multimillion-dollar industry that supports countless magazines devoted to it is due in no small part to Caddyshack," writes Suckster Slotcar Hatebath. "An economy that can support golf magazines so specific that they're aimed at aging golfers, aging women golfers, x-treme golfers (at least in their attitude), and golfers who golf in Cape Cod or Arizona is an indicator of health." (Suck)

Ice Dreams
For some, it's the Stanley Cup. For the Austin Ice Bats of the Western Professional Hockey League, it's just playing the game. Excellent multimedia storytelling. This one was published in 1999, but I didn't read it until Y2K. (Journale.)

Rocks, walls, and little glory
In the competitive world of Grand Prix dry stone wall building, athletes come away with a little cash and a lot of satisfaction, and the countryside benefits, too. (The Atlantic)

Wheelchair racers make the mountain biking scene
Stacy Kohut and John Davis have a few things in common -- they're both paralyzed from the waist down, and they're top-notch mountain bikers and skiers. They're also good friends. While mountain biking in wheelchairs is still a small sport, partially hampered by the difficulties in making and maintaining good chairs for the sport, there's plenty of drama. And fun. Terrific article. (San Francisco Bay Guardian.)

An unexpected visitor at The Girl Skateboard Company
A beautifully written letter about an unusual (usual?) day at the office. An unfamiliar face drops in ... and is asked, "Do you know anyone here?" "No," he replies. "I don't recognize anyone. Yet." (OpenLetters.net)

"To me, once you get tired of basketball, you're tired of life."
That's Allan Dalton, a senior vice-president of National Realty Trust. He's 51 years old. He's also the best pick-up basketball player in America. (The Atlantic)

McBrat, all grown up, sort of
Even on the senior circuit, where fans expect a nice dollop of nostalgia -- dutifully supplied by Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg -- John McEnroe's nasty side emerges. His tennis has earned him more than $100 million, he's one of the best TV sports commentators, he plays in a rock and roll band, he's a father of five. An excellent profile of a complex man. (Salon)

"That save, it changed the course of hockey in Dubai."
That's United Arab Emirates hockey official Colonel Abdullah Hashmi, voicing his enthusiasm during the Sunday Ice Hockey 5's Tournament in Hong Kong. Among the teams competing: the Dubai Mighty Camels, the Bangkok Flying Farangs, and the Formosa Flyers. An excellent story about ice hockey in the most unlikely places. (Saturday Night)

How NBC blew the Olympics
A nuanced analysis of what NBC did wrong down in Sydney, with the main theme being that Ohlmeyer & Co. saw The Games as "content" to be "produced" rather than sports events to be broadcast. One example: "Broadcasting an event like the decathlon, say, in which an Estonian won, the producers stubbornly maintained that the American, who finished third, was the true star. Excerpting a single high jump here, a single javelin throw there, ignoring the rhythm of the events themselves, the producers worked relentlessly to force viewers' attention onto those they had already designated, and the sponsors had already preselected, as the true stars," writes Mark Danner. (New York Review of Books)

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