Sports Biblio Digest, 6.23.19: Scotching Literary Sports Writing Awards
News, Views and Reviews About Sports Books, History and Culture
Also In This Issue: C.C. Sabathia; Rick Reilly; Marketing the WNBA; The Resilience of Live TV Sports; Kids on Bikes; Snowplow Sports Parents; America’s Summer Soccer Gluttony; Baseball Retour in Montreal?
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The literary sports writing awards that were given out by PEN America in April apparently will be the last, after a decade as the only such honors in the United States. That’s because ESPN, which has sponsored the awards since their inception, will no longer be providing funding. According to Bryan Curtis of The Ringer, ESPN says it will be sponsoring awards that “will focus on developing and recognizing emerging sports journalists.”
Curtis notes the amount came to $10,000 a year for two PEN awards—one for literary sports writing published in the previous year, and the other a lifetime achievement honor, with each recipient getting $5,000.
It’s no secret ESPN has been caught in a generational warp, like so many media entities. The more established sports writers and authors, who are largely white, male and middle-aged or older, don’t fit the ideal demographic that's being pursued.
Over the years, PEN has appointed diverse panels of judges to choose the sports award winners. All of the lifetime achievement winners have been white, and only one, 2019 recipient Jackie MacMullan (of ESPN!), is female.
The literary sports writing winners have all been male and white, also with the exception of this year’s winner, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, the African-American sports correspondent for The Paris Review and author of “The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey.”
So why drop this now, with a few glimmers of diversity emerging? Curtis worries about ESPN’s commitment to journalism, even with the likes of Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham, Wright Thompson and Howard Bryant doing serious enterprise work. (BTW: Curtis wrote for Grantland, ESPN’s now-shuttered longform and pop culture site started by Bill Simmons.)
Unlike Britain and other countries with more robust recognitions for sportswriters and sports book authors, there’s nothing else of this magnitude in the U.S.
There’s plenty of sports media coverage; indeed, we’re drowning in relentless horse-race chronicling of ratings, TV personality feuds and other nonsense.
A very wise writer I know wrote a decade so, as the sports media bubble had burst, that “the Sports-Industrial Complex has no reason whatsoever to make you smarter about sports.”
Scour the best-seller lists, and there are only a few sports titles to be found, but only on occasion, and typically they're celebrity-type memoirs from provocative athletes, coaches and TV figures.
Book blogs and literary sites give scant attention to sports titles, unless they extend well beyond the world of sports. Despite so much more quality, hard-hitting sports journalism available over the last couple decades, no Pulitzer Prize has been given for a sports-related story since 2000.
Topics such as concussions, college sports reform and social issues were getting newspaper and magazine longform and book treatment that rated highly with ESPN/PEN judges.
I’ve never been obsessed with awards, but what’s being lost is more than that. The longlists that came out at the start of every annual process—the 2020 call for submissions has gone out just now, alas, without a sports category—attested to the variety and quality of works that were published and easily available to anyone who wanted to read them.
That Curtis’ post about this is the only story I’ve been able to find about this matter tells you all you need to know where the hivemind of the sports media is these days.
Previous lifetime achievement winner John Schulian told Curtis he was thrilled that PEN “would consider sportswriters part of the literary community.” Perhaps the writers’ organization can look for a new sponsor, if not for next year, then beyond.
Just a thought, PEN: Reach out to The Athletic, which is becoming the leading purveyor of longform sports journalism in North America, to fill what figures to be a very substantial void.
Sports Illustrated, Redux
Not long after last week’s newsletter went out leading with the recent sale of Sports Illustrated, came word that Authentic Brands, the magazine’s new owner, has licensed management of the magazine to Maven, a startup “small media” company. What will be known as Sports Illustrated Media has named Ross Levinsohn, the short-lived publisher of the Los Angeles Times and media executive elsewhere, as CEO.
A Few Good Reads
Rick Reilly’s views on the 45th President are unvarnished, and it shows in his new book “Commander in Cheat.” He expounds on Donald Trump in a profile at The Washington Post;
From The Big Lead, Ryan Glasspiegel on the resilience of live sports on television, despite the cable cord-cutting and changing generational tastes in audience desires. This is a deep business dive with lots of graphics and industry-speak, with this conclusion: “Scripted entertainment is not walking back through that door;”
As the Women’s World Cup continues, so does some confounding media coverage, especially from U.S. entities. I never figured The Wall Street Journal would publish something as preposterous as this whiny piece from Laine Higgins, a “reporting assistant” who’s upset that the tournament finals will be on the same day as the Gold Cup. While there has been a “women should have their own day” narrative peddled at other gender-aggrieved news outlets, any soccer fan in the States whose fandom predates the late 90s could have told her that “picking a lane” has only been an option in recent years. These events are designed for global TV audiences and the games are scheduled at different times. I love the gluttony of summer soccer that is splashed all over American television screens (the Copa America is going on too!) every year. This is no hardship for fans, but the world’s biggest sport being celebrated in a nation that hasn’t always embraced it as it does now;
This is better, from the WSJ and Jason Gay, about how America needs more kids on bikes, as he applauds LeBron James giving out bicycles to students who enrolled at his school in Akron, Ohio. The fun, health, and above all, freedom of pedaling is what it’s all about: "You’re the captain of your own ship, dependent on no one, free to escape, explore and experience, the three essential e’s of human growth. I know you can go somewhere in a car or the bus or the plane, but this is different. A bicycle is an extension of you;”
Contra bike freedom is the rise of snowplow sports parents, who prep their kids as toddlers for fame and fortune in the pros and ruin a lot of young lives in the process. Not surprisingly, the saga of Lonzo Ball, James’ recently traded-away Lakers teammate and his overbearing father LaVar Ball, bemoaning a new NBA start in New Orleans, figure prominently in this story;
Here’s an early-season WNBA take at The New York Times on the culture of the league, on the supposedly new fashion embrace of androgyny by players on the court and in civvies. This isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but readers can help themselves to a bottomless word salad buffet that could have been cooked up only in a gender studies class;
Along similar lines comes this WNBA marketing piece at The Athletic, focusing on the league’s black and lesbian players. While there are plenty of both, and much overlap, enhancing the fan base to improve the league's business (and player salaries) means broadening an appeal beyond similar groups that make up a smaller slice of the general population. For more than 20 years the WNBA hasn’t figured out how to sell basketball first and foremost, which is how its NBA benefactor has become such a smashing sports entertainment goliath;
Much less is written about the WNBA’s business realities, especially since the league is coy about detailing that subject, other than to say it loses around $12 million a year. After reigning MVP Breanna Stewart went down with a season-cancelling Achilles injury playing in Europe, more questions have abounded about salaries, league finances and other bottom-line matters. Improving the financial health of the league, according to a top front-office official, “all starts with building demand.” How this is to be done isn't mentioned, but the sentiment's been uttered during the entire 22-year history of the WNBA. I’m all for players being “their authentic selves,” but how can a proper balance be struck? That's one of the biggest challenges for new commissioner Cathy Egelbert as she sifts through these constantly mixed messages;
Cutting through the NHL draft headlines in Montreal is news that baseball may be coming back as part of a split set of home games for the Rays, who may be absconding Tampa. It’s been 14 years since the Expos became the Washington Nationals, and while Montreal’s baseball history has been as compelling as it has been colorful, how could such an arrangement work? In the Florida city that has supported the Rays poorly, there’s cynicism that this is a ploy for a new stadium. Along the St. Lawrence River, there’s cautious optimism for baseball’s permanent return.
Some Notable Baseball History
With his next win, Yankees’ lefty C.C. Sabathia will tie Bob Gibson at 251, good for 17th-place all time. That’s a feat that really jumped out at me, but here’s something that's also impressive, according to Coley Harvey at ESPN: That’s the second-highest win total for a black pitcher in Major League history. By the time Sabathia, 38, retires at the end of the season, he’ll trail only Ferguson Jenkins’ 284 victories.
I checked the all-time list of 100 or more wins by black pitchers, and there is a paucity of names, including only four others with 200 wins or more:
Juan Marichal, 243; Luis Tiant, 229; Pedro Martinez, 219; Vida Blue, 209.
Some others of interest:
Dwight Gooden, 194; Mike Cuellar, 185; Livan Hernandez, 178; David Stewart, 168; Don Newcombe, 149.
No other current active black pitcher has more than 149 wins—Ervin Santana, followed by David Price with 147.
A few other names worth noting: Mudcat Grant, 145; Dock Ellis, 138; Al Downing, 123; Bob Veale, 120; J.R. Richard, 107.
I don't doubt that Richard would have easily gotten into the 200-win club had he not been forced to retire at the age of 30 after suffering a stroke. He surpassed the century mark in eight full seasons.
On the all-time strikeouts list, Sabathia’s 3,043 are currently 17th, as he closes in immediately on John Smoltz and Curt Schilling, then takes aim at Gibson, Martinez and Jenkins, who is 12th all-time with 3,192 Ks.
David Adler, a Yankees writer for MLB.com, had this quote from Sabathia this week on why 3,000 strikeouts is a more important milestone for him: "I guess because to get a win, so many things have to go right. I feel like with strikeouts, it's kind of you.”
Sabathia will finish as one only of 14 pitchers to reach the 250/3,000 threshold, which ought to be more than enough for Cooperstown.
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The Sports Biblio Digest is an e-mail newsletter delivered each Sunday. You can subscribe here and search the archives.
This is Digest issue No. 171, published June 23, 2019.
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