"Many fans believe that great sports writing — think Red Smith or Shirley Povich — has gone the way of afternoon papers and three-dollar bleacher seats. They are wrong, as this wonderful annual collection has been proving every year since 1991 . . . A great tradition continues with another outstanding collection." — Booklist
"Twenty-eight stories, no duds in the bunch, and a few to reread after a dog and a beer." — Kirkus Reviews
"At their best, these essays go beyond sport and into social commentary; these aren't pleas to change the world but acknowledgment of what draws one to sport in the first place: passion." — Publishers Weekly
For more than a decade, The Best American Sports Writing series has been "the single most necessary annual addition to any self-respecting general sports collection," according to Booklist. For The Best American Sports Writing 2002, guest editor Rick Reilly has chosen a collection of twenty-eight stories focusing on everything from running to racecar driving, boxing to baseball. Sometimes uplifting, sometimes unsettling, and always engrossing, these are slices of the sporting life guaranteed to keep readers riveted.
From Frank Deford's fascinating portrait of former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling to Elizabeth Gilbert's horrifying and exhilarating look at a young bullfighter who has become a legend at the age of eighteen, The Best American Sports Writing 2002 has something for everyone, including:
• the story of a woman whose love for the Los Angeles Dodgers becomes a way of coping with physical disability
• a look at the mystery surrounding the death of a thoroughbred stallion
• inside the courtroom at the murder trial of Rae Carruth
• a night at the Crash-O-Rama demolition derby
• behind the scenes at the most punishing 100-mile footrace in the world
• a ringside view of the bloody world of backyard wrestling.
With pieces by favorites such as William Nack, Mike Lupica, Steve Rushin, Peter Richmond, and Gary Smith, The Best American Sports Writing 2002 is sure to delight fans of both sports and good writing.
Guest editor Rick Reilly, who writes the "Life of Reilly" column in Sports Illustrated, has been voted National Sportswriter of the Year six times and won the New York Newspaper Guild's Page One Award for best magazine story. He is the author of several books, most recently The Life of Reilly.
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