The Best American Sports Writing (Best American Sports Writing)

"This entertaining 14th installment in the annual series is as varied as its predecessors: the usual suspects (baseball, football, basketball) share space with less popular pursuits (fishing, running, bicycling) and downright peculiar ones (taxidermy). Yet most of the pieces share a particular focus. As in past editions, the editors look beyond actual sport — the games, the scores, the strategies — and instead home in on the personalities: athletes and their families, fans, coaches and, in one memorable column, groupies. 'It makes good sense to me that how a person is — the conditions of his or her larger life — explains, or at least illuminates, how that person plays and competes,' says Cramer (How Israel Lost; Joe DiMaggio; etc.) in his introduction. Standout entries include Steve Friedman's masterful 'The Race of Truth,' about an obsessive Scot's pursuit of cycling's little-known grail, the Hour Record; Michael Leahy's refreshingly honest portrait of Michael Jordan's last days with the Wizards; and three frank, gripping and completely distinct accounts of athletes (two of whom are lesser-known) and their families: Paul Solotaroff's 'Growing Up Mantle,' Peter De Jonge's 'The Leap of His Life' and Rick Telander's 'Playing Against the Clock.' Though some of the shorter columns suffer in comparison to the weightier magazine pieces, this edition is reliably compelling and surprisingly addictive, much like sport itself." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

With Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Cramer at its helm, this collection brings together the best writing on sports from the past year. Not just for readers of the sports pages, this year's selections embrace the world of sports in all its drama, humanity, and excitement.

'Glenn Stout has been the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception and has written three illustrated biographies with Richard A. Johnson: Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures, Joe DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life, and Jackie Robinson: Between the Baselines. He is a columnist for Boston Baseball, and the acclaimed author of Red Sox Century, Yankees Century, and The Dodgers. His work has appeared in many regional and national magazines and newspapers.Richard Ben Cramer is a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and the author of the best-selling Joe DiMaggio, What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?, What It Takes, and most recently How Israel Lost.'