A Late Summer's Sports Reader
The 1st Best Sports Writing collection; the latest Sports Book Awards shortlist
Sports Biblio Reader, 8.29.21
Also in This Issue: The Cleveland Guardians’ Architectural Ties; 100 Years of Baseball on the Radio; 50 Years of the Football Giants in New Jersey; The Queen of New Jersey Boxing Writers; How Sports Media Covers Sexual Abuse; Alex Karras; The Divide Between Art and Sports; An Iconic Photo of J.R. Richard; Remembering Bobby Bowden and Bill Freehan
After I’ve spent a good bit of the summer delving into non-sports reading, I’m eager to dive into some upcoming sports books that figure to be very rewarding.
In early October “The Year’s Best Sports Writing” will debut (the successor to the “Best American Sports Writing” anthology), with Triumph Books taking on the publication.
BASW general editor Glenn Stout is continuing in the project, and this past week announced the selections that will be making up the first YSBW collection.
They include Wright Thompson on Archie Manning, Brian Phillips on Kobe Bryant, Tom Verducci on baseball’s soul-searching, Louisa Thomas on college football and Allison Glock on how everyday people, including her children and dog, tried to stay moving during the pandemic:
“I recently took a long hike of my own through a historic cemetery in my neighborhood. My dog bounded ahead, racing across the expansive potter's field, a resting place for the forgotten and overlooked, now blanketed with Bermuda grass and magnolias. I jogged to keep pace, the tread of my sneakers sticking slightly in spots of damp mud. We both came to rest, panting under the shadow of a century-old oak, branches nearly bare, the few remaining leaves cupping the light like jewels. My dog snorted, rolled, peed -- shamelessly lived his id-rich life. In the distance, another visitor waved our way, then shrugged and moved on.”
That such simple pleasures have become more profound experiences over the last year and half is certainly worth including here, as many of us non-athletes try to get back int touch with our bodies, and a certain kind of sensory exploration, that’s taken on a new meaning.
Also last week, recreational and off-the-beaten-path books published in the last year were included in The Telegraph (U.K.) Sports Book Awards’ 2021 shortlists, which include autobiography, childrens’ books, cricket, cycling, health and fitness, soccer, rugby, photography, sports entertainment and sports writing.
In the latter category, a new addition to the awards is David Walsh’s “The Russian Affair,” which tells the story of a married couple who helped crack one of the biggest doping scandals in international sports (reviews from Fast Running and Athletics Illustrated).
From those category “winners” will emerge the Sports Book of the Year, which will be announced in September in London.
In September I’ll take a look at new releases in the States and abroad, as the fall publishing season comes to the Northern Hemisphere. It’s been a while since I did that, and I was really glad to get a note from a reader recently with an interesting suggestion:
“Do you maintain a 'reading list' of books that you have suggested or that have been highlighted in your newsletter?”
Excellent question, and I wish I could I have said yes, but that is not the case. In the coming weeks I’ll be digging through some previous issues and start piecing together those featured books.
It might take a while for a thorough compilation, and I’m also in the process of reviving the website, in large part to serve as a landing page of sorts for these and other artifacts from what’s turned out to be a longstanding labor of love.
So perhaps this is as good a time as any to take stock of and highlight what’s been published on Sports Biblio, which turns 6 in October.
How time flies!
A Few Good Reads
At Sports Broadcasting Journal, David J. Halberstam pulled together highlights of the early days of baseball games on the radio, especially pioneer Graham McNamee, who was the sport’s first color commentator. On Aug. 5, 1921, KDKA in Pittsburgh aired the first Major League game, an 8-5 Pirates win over the Phillies, called by Harold Arlin. In “Crack of the Bat,” James Walker’s 2015 history, those and many other tales of the game in a new medium are told in well-crafted fashion;
From the New York Post, Mike Vaccaro writes about the relocation of the New York football Giants to New Jersey in 1971, and how what was seen as a selfish move at the time by owner Wellington Mara turned out to be shrewd business and marketing move;
When the Cleveland Indians announced the team’s nickname starting in 2022 will be the Guardians, many outside northeast Ohio shook their heads. But to motorists and locals in the Cleveland area, the change recalls the city’s architectural splendor. The Guardians are Art Deco sculptures carved in sandstone pylons on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, built in 1932 to “typify the spirit of progress in transportation.” The team’s new logo will include a profile of the head of one of the guardian sculptures. More from the Fast Company Co. Design vertical on the history of the original Guardians, included in the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s;
Before the Tokyo Olympics began, ArtsHub examined a familiar topic that doesn’t get enough serious examination in my opinion: The divide between arts and sports. Is there really one? That was the question being probed, but it was a disappointing treatment. CBC Arts also took a stab, but as happens often during Olympic years, it’s a fleeting topic designed for big-event consumption. Sports historian Allen Guttmann posed a similar query in “Sports and American Art,” published in 2011, and to my thinking a more recent, definitive book on such a vast and intriguing topic remains to be written;
Rosemarie Ross was hardly cut from the typical stuff for a boxing writer, and not just because she was a woman. But Ross, who died in July, quickly became “a force of nature” covering the local fight scene for the North Jersey Herald & News in the 1908s and 1990s;
At The New Yorker, Isaac Choniter talks to Katie Strang, who’s cultivated an authoritative beat covering sexual abuse in sports for The Athletic. Chotiner, a formidable interviewer himself, notes how sports media approaches are changing about the topic in the age #MeToo and the Larry Nassar scandal much rocked more than the gymnastics world. Says Strang: “I think there is this steep learning curve for sports reporters who have traditionally reported on sports and sports alone who are now figuring out what it means to report on sports as a microcosm of what’s going on in the world, and to be able to approach sensitive, important, difficult stories with thoughtfulness, experience, empathy, and compassion. I hope that we’re seeing that shift take place;”
At The Athletic, Scott Dochterman recalls the character that was Alex Karras, former college football and NFL lineman who’s to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame soon. His colorful persona was forged before he became a TV color commentator and actor, and his exploits with the Detroit Lions was the subject of George Plimpton’s “Mad Ducks and Bears,” his follow-up to “Paper Lion;”
From the Sport in American History blog, a review of “Different Strokes,” Cecil Harris’ 2020 book about the rise of Venus and Serena Williams and a renaissance of black tennis. The Williamses have announced they won’t be playing at the U.S. Open which starts this week, adding to a serious dearth of star power. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer also will be out of action, like their female counterparts recovering from injuries as they try to stretch glorious careers that have reached the twilight phase.
Passings
Bobby Bowden, 91, won 377 games as a college football coach, second only to Joe Paterno. Bowden spent most of his time at Florida State, which he transformed from the downtrodden to a two-time national champion. His folksy ways also were endearing as the accessible Bowden managed to grab a sizable part of the spotlight for his Seminoles against Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators. Bowden’s teams were flashy on offense but steely on defense, and he adapted well to the changes in the sport and the the Deep South of his segregated upbringing. Bowden was laid to rest in his hometown of Trussville, Ala.; for further reading;
J.R. Richard, 71, was on track to become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history when a stroke forced the abrupt end to his career at the age of 30. He became homeless for a while, living under an overpass in Houston, before rebuilding his life and becoming an advocate for people down on their luck. Current Astros manager Dusty Baker called Richard “the toughest guy I ever faced,” and he is hardly alone in that asssessment. Richard, who died of complications from COVID-19, also was the subject of an iconic photo holding eight baseballs in his right hand that Ed Wade recalls at Our Esquina; for further reading;
Bill Freehan, 79, played 15 seasons for the Detroit Tigers and was part of the 1968 World Series championship team in a career that included 11 All-Star Game appearances. He’d been suffering from dementia for many years, and in 2018, as he languished in hospice care, his wife Pat discussed the couple’s devotion to one another. As son-in-law John Salter said at the time:
“How he’s lasted this long, with this disease, is because of her. Because of her love. It’s incredible. It’s a helluva life lesson for people. You marry for better or for worse. If something is going to take a positive from this, it’s that my mother-in-law is incredible. Their faith is carrying them through.”
The Sports Biblio Reader e-mail newsletter is delivered on Sunday. You can subscribe here and search recent archives. The full archives for Sports Biblio Digest can be found here. This is issue No. 247, published Aug. 29, 2021.
I’d love to hear what you think about Sports Biblio. Send feedback, suggestions, book recommendations, review copies, newsletter items and interview requests to Wendy Parker at sportsbiblio@gmail.com.
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