Product Description

For almost fifty years, Bud Collins has ranked as one of Americas premier sports journalists, best known for his tennis commentary on NBC and his sports column in the Boston Globe. From surfing to golf, baseball to bodybuilding, Collinss selections for this tenth anniversary edition celebrate sports of all stripes, in pieces by H. G. Bissinger, Charles P. Pierce, Jim Harrison, Rick Reilly, and others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1287171 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-12
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.05" h x 6.64" w x 8.30" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Amazon.com
The Best American Sports Writing 2001 presents a wide-ranging survey of notable writing that extends well beyond traditional stick and ball sports. Editor Bud Collins has deftly chosen articles that represent the spectrum of adventurous and competitive activities we define as sports. From football to fishing, surfing to soccer, nearly all of America's favorite pastimes and leisure activities are represented.

While this collection includes profiles of sports celebrities, such as Tiger Woods, Cal Ripken Jr., and Dale Earnhardt Jr., what makes the book noteworthy are the profiles of lesser-known athletes: Garrett Burnett, a hockey "enforcer"; George Freeth, a pioneer surfer; or Louis Zamperini, a star high school miler whose true tests arose during World War II. With the popular sports represented early on, the choices extend in both subject matter and style: racial profiling in New Jersey and the shattered dreams of hopeful basketball players; mountain climbers in Kyrgyzstan taken hostage; the sociology of losing; rediscovering joy in fishing; why a sportswriter hangs it up; a soccer mom's thoughts on her child's first goal.

As Collins notes in the foreword, "As I read these stories each year, I find myself caring about someone, something, or some sport I know little about and couldn't have imagined ever wanting to know more about." Whether it's a profile of a horsewoman with a seemingly dual existence, or a piece describing what it's like to dive for loot on a sunken liner 200 feet down in a nasty stretch of water, The Best American Sports Writing 2001 offers superb tales of humankind's drive to win, conquer, or at least survive. --Michael Ferch

From Publishers Weekly
Living up to its series' reputation for quality is this 10th-anniversary collection of 27 features and profiles culled from a variety of publications that goes well beyond America's sports pages. Collins, who is best known for his tennis commentary on NBC, certainly doesn't limit himself to his area of expertise, drawing on a wide variety of topics that ranges from the legends of baseball to the World Series of poker. Some pieces, like Buzz Bissinger's chronicle of Joe DiMaggio's last days, are notable for the sheer scope of their reporting, while many others, such as Bucky McMahon's dreamy account of a deep-sea dive, have a distinctly literary feel. Then there are those rare profiles, like Stephen Rodrick's essay on former heavyweight world champion Riddick Bowe or Tour‚'s article on NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., where the magic simply lies in how completely the subject is willing to open up to the writer. Readers will surely gravitate to pieces about the sports they are most interested in, but all the selections are equal in quality. And though Gene Collier, in his brief essay "The Ex-Sportswriter," attests to his notion that all sports are "highly inconsequential," the same cannot justly be said of the writing they have inspired here.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The tenth anniversary edition of this exemplary series may very well be the most interesting. Guest editor Collins, best known for his television tennis commentary, has selected 27 eclectic and uniformly excellent articles and profiles. The winning pieces originally appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, Esquire, and The Torrance Daily Breeze. Among the authors are such luminaries as Rick Reilly, Jim Harrison, and H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger. Highlights include Bissinger's examination of the relationship between Joe DiMaggio and his friend and manager Morris Engelberg. You can't read this essay without a lump in your throat. There's also a sad profile of basketball star Julius Erving's long-unacknowledged daughter, Alexandra Stevenson, by Tom Friend. On the lighter side, but no less fascinating, is Kevin Conley's profile of Storm Cat, thoroughbred racing's number-one stud. As always, this is a must for any sports literature collection. Includes brief professional profiles of each author and guidelines for submission. Wes Lukowsky
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