The Best American Sports Writing of the Century

A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian selects the 50 best pieces of sports writing of the century, capturing the great moments in baseball, boxing, horse racing, golf, and tennis.

The silent season of a hero / Gay Talese — The last American hero / Tom Wolfe — What do you think of Ted Williams now? / Richard Ben Cramer — The day Bobby blew it / Brad Darrach — Sport for art's sake / Heywood Broun — The Olympic army / Westbrook Pegler — Louis knocks out Schmeling / Bob Considine — Game called / Grandland Rice — All the way to the grave / Frank Graham — Next to godliness ; Miracle of Coogan's Bluff ; Jim and his baubles ; The Baby was always a boy-- one of a kind ; And all Dizzy's yesterdays / Red Smith — One strike is out / Stanley Woodward — Sal Maglie--a gracious man / Murray Kempton — Obit on the Dodgers / Dick Young — If you're expecting one-liners / Jim Murray — Oh, no! Not another boring interview with Steve Carlton / Diane K. Shah — The LaMotta nuptials / Ira Berkow — "A very solid book" / Mike Royko — Eckie / Ring Lardner — Lethal lightning / Jimmy Cannon — Brownsville bum / W.C. Heinz — Mr. Rickey and the game / Gerald Holland — The rocky road of Pistol Pete ; The ghost of the gridiron / W.C. Heinz — Lone wolf of tennis / Dick Schaap — "The Haig": rowdy rebel of the fairways / John Lardner — Racing's angriest young man / Jimmy Breslin — Hub fans bid kid adieu / John Updike — The fight to live / Al Stump — A rough time on the road / Stan Fischler — The longest silence / Thomas McGuane — The Kentucky Derby is decadent and depraved / Hunter S. Thompson — Centre court / John McPhee — Butkus / Arthur Kretchmer — Gone for good / Roger Angell — There was only one Casey / Wells Twombley — Pain ; No mâas / Tom Boswell — Medora goes to the game / George Plimpton — The rabbit hunter ; The boxer and the blonde / Frank Deford — The September song of Mr. October / David Remnick — A brother's keeper / Mike Lupica — Pure heart / William Nack — The making of a goon / Johnette Howard — The power and the glory / Paul Solotaroff — Tangled up in blue / Peter Richmond — The chosen one / Gary Smith — Into thin air / Jon Krakauer — Resurrecting the champ / J.R. Moehringer — The champ and the chump / Murray Kempton — Muhammad Ali then and now / Dick Schaap — Ego / Norman Mailer — Weird site for a fight / Jim Murray — "Lawdy, lawdy, he's great" / Mark Kram — My dinner with Ali / Davis Miller.