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The Best American Sports Writing 1993
A collection of sports writing features William Nack on Hurricane Carter's release from jail, a coming-of-age baseball memoir by Roger Angell, and a conclusive look at race and athletic excellence.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Frank Deford
40 books58 followersFrank Deford (born December 16, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator.
DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustrated since the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
His 1981 novel, "Everybody's All-American," was named one of Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid.
In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after eighteen months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.
Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. After Alex died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eight, Deford chronicled her life in the memoir Alex: The Life of a Child. The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986. In 1997, it was reissued in an expanded edition, with updated information on the Defords and Alex's friends.
Deford grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two surviving children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980). Their youngest daughter Scarlet was adopted a few months after the loss of Alex.
DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustrated since the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
His 1981 novel, "Everybody's All-American," was named one of Sports Illustrated's Top 25 Sports Books of All Time and was later made into a movie directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Dennis Quaid.
In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after eighteen months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.
Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. After Alex died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eight, Deford chronicled her life in the memoir Alex: The Life of a Child. The book was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia in 1986. In 1997, it was reissued in an expanded edition, with updated information on the Defords and Alex's friends.
Deford grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two surviving children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980). Their youngest daughter Scarlet was adopted a few months after the loss of Alex.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 20, 2023
One of the best years of the entire series. I loved almost every story and also appreciated Frank Deford's quick commentary at the end of each one.
August 23, 2020
Rereading this book in 2010 is a time warp. There's Tonya Harding before the Nancy Kerrigan attack. There's Shaq starting his NBA rookie season. There's Muslim athletes without mentioning 9/11. Tiger Woods isn't in it. And there's nothing about opioids, and barely a reference to steroids.
But there's also some really off-key time warps. For example, there's only two women writers, one of whom writes about how hard it is to be a woman in a locker room of naked men, and another who writes about her years as a high school cheerleader. There's a lot of casual sexism, sexual harassment, groupies, and so on. Oh, and a rape-murder by a skateboarder in which his lawyer's claim that the woman brought it on herself by being a slut is not supported, but isn't condemned either. It's just, well, you know one of the alleged facts in the case.
There is some good stuff. The Hurricane Carter profile, and in a sick way, the one about Tommy LaSorda's kid who died of AIDS. The one about the fall and attempted rise of the Cleveland State coach is pretty good. I like the piece about the sprinters trying to reach perfection. And the Tonya Harding piece and the one about the Algerian middle distance runners are excellent, too.
But a lot of it is pretty obvious and shows what I think is the bias of the editor for the edition, Frank Deford. I know he was revered as a writer and also as an advocate for the ill and disabled. But looking at these selections, I see a good-ol' boy attitude that is reflected in his choices of stories multiple stories about hard-ass, old-school managers and coaches (LaSorda, Whitey Herzog, the coach of the sprinters, and the ridiculously long season profile of an obscure Chicago high school basketball coach). There's also the Cleveland State coach and a coach from the 1930s who brought Berkeley's St. Mary's University to football prominence, only to lose his job in scandal. These are all basically the same story -- a man who is a molder of men in a brusque, profane, violent way, but his players understand that in the long run he is trying to help them. Anyone one of them would have been enough. And you won't see that flaw in the books in the last 20 years.
The other really weird thing about this book is that Deford basically slams each of the profiles with snide remarks or back-hand compliments in his little italicized editorial notes afterwards. Here's a sample -- and remember, these are about articles that he selected as the best of their type:
"Team diaries are not uncommon--going back at least 30 yeras..."
"Baseball nostalgia. Baseball fathers and sons. Please, if you must torture me..."
"Many female sportswriters have poured themselves out on the subject of their vocation..."
"This is one of those sagas where you are obliged to say is it really a sports story?"
"To be honest, I'm not an outdoorsman. Furthermore, the only thing I like less than hunting or fishing is reading about someone's hunting or fishing."
"This story shows how, in sports writing, the most interesting work can be done by someone...who isn't burdened with knowledge of the subject..."
"It was always an awful cliche to go down to the 'bushes' and see the 'true' baseball undefiiled..."
Really strange that he tells you over and over that he hates the premise of a story, or that it's been done over and over, and yet he's decided it's worthy of his attention.
But there's also some really off-key time warps. For example, there's only two women writers, one of whom writes about how hard it is to be a woman in a locker room of naked men, and another who writes about her years as a high school cheerleader. There's a lot of casual sexism, sexual harassment, groupies, and so on. Oh, and a rape-murder by a skateboarder in which his lawyer's claim that the woman brought it on herself by being a slut is not supported, but isn't condemned either. It's just, well, you know one of the alleged facts in the case.
There is some good stuff. The Hurricane Carter profile, and in a sick way, the one about Tommy LaSorda's kid who died of AIDS. The one about the fall and attempted rise of the Cleveland State coach is pretty good. I like the piece about the sprinters trying to reach perfection. And the Tonya Harding piece and the one about the Algerian middle distance runners are excellent, too.
But a lot of it is pretty obvious and shows what I think is the bias of the editor for the edition, Frank Deford. I know he was revered as a writer and also as an advocate for the ill and disabled. But looking at these selections, I see a good-ol' boy attitude that is reflected in his choices of stories multiple stories about hard-ass, old-school managers and coaches (LaSorda, Whitey Herzog, the coach of the sprinters, and the ridiculously long season profile of an obscure Chicago high school basketball coach). There's also the Cleveland State coach and a coach from the 1930s who brought Berkeley's St. Mary's University to football prominence, only to lose his job in scandal. These are all basically the same story -- a man who is a molder of men in a brusque, profane, violent way, but his players understand that in the long run he is trying to help them. Anyone one of them would have been enough. And you won't see that flaw in the books in the last 20 years.
The other really weird thing about this book is that Deford basically slams each of the profiles with snide remarks or back-hand compliments in his little italicized editorial notes afterwards. Here's a sample -- and remember, these are about articles that he selected as the best of their type:
"Team diaries are not uncommon--going back at least 30 yeras..."
"Baseball nostalgia. Baseball fathers and sons. Please, if you must torture me..."
"Many female sportswriters have poured themselves out on the subject of their vocation..."
"This is one of those sagas where you are obliged to say is it really a sports story?"
"To be honest, I'm not an outdoorsman. Furthermore, the only thing I like less than hunting or fishing is reading about someone's hunting or fishing."
"This story shows how, in sports writing, the most interesting work can be done by someone...who isn't burdened with knowledge of the subject..."
"It was always an awful cliche to go down to the 'bushes' and see the 'true' baseball undefiiled..."
Really strange that he tells you over and over that he hates the premise of a story, or that it's been done over and over, and yet he's decided it's worthy of his attention.
October 23, 2012
I've read a few of the Best American Sports Writing books recently and this one was a little strange. I'm not sure if that reflects that year's guest editor or the year's focus or what.
Several of the pieces seemed only tangentially related to sports, and a few others were fairly similar "I got into sports because of my dad" stories. That's not to say I didn't enjoy those 'barely sports' pieces, but to have so many of them did feel weird. It's also fun reading such dated pieces - covering Shaq's first year, Tonya Harding pre-Kerrigan debacle, Carl Lewis and the Barcelona Olympics, etc. Hindsight makes some pieces particularly hilarious (the Tonya Harding profile being my favorite example).
I think I found myself interested in more pieces in this book than the last one, but that's likely for the tendency towards human interest story over actual sports.
Several of the pieces seemed only tangentially related to sports, and a few others were fairly similar "I got into sports because of my dad" stories. That's not to say I didn't enjoy those 'barely sports' pieces, but to have so many of them did feel weird. It's also fun reading such dated pieces - covering Shaq's first year, Tonya Harding pre-Kerrigan debacle, Carl Lewis and the Barcelona Olympics, etc. Hindsight makes some pieces particularly hilarious (the Tonya Harding profile being my favorite example).
I think I found myself interested in more pieces in this book than the last one, but that's likely for the tendency towards human interest story over actual sports.
June 30, 2009
Sport journalism at its finest. Even better than Ira Berkow - another fabulous sports writer.
July 5, 2015
As a whole not as good as 1991 or 1992, but definitely some gems.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews