Great, great sportswriting

Bill Simmons recently listed his "best sports pieces ever written". The Millions blog found links for many of them.

One that is excellent is Mark Kram's account of the Thrilla in Manila. An excerpt:

Came the sixth, and here it was, that one special moment that you always look for when Joe Frazier is in a fight. Most of his fights have shown this: You can go so far into that desolate and dark place where the heart of Frazier pounds, you can waste his perimeters, you can see his head hanging in the public square, maybe even believe that you have him, but then suddenly you learn that you have not. Once more the pattern emerged as Frazier loosed all of the fury, all that has made him a brilliant heavyweight. He was in close now, fighting off Ali's chest, the place where he has to be. His old calling card—that sudden evil, his left hook—was working the head of Ali. Two hooks ripped with slaughterhouse finality at Ali's jaw, causing Imelda Marcos to look down at her feet, and the president to wince as if a knife had been stuck in his back. Ali's legs seemed to search for the floor. He was in serious trouble, and he knew that he was in no-man's-land.

Whatever else might one day be said about Muhammad Ali, it should never be said that he is without courage, that he cannot take a punch. He took those shots by Frazier and then came out for the seventh, saying to him, "Old Joe Frazier, why I thought you were washed up." Joe replied, "Somebody told you all wrong, pretty boy."

Comments

[bjk]

Other than maybe Michael Lewis and Vince Spadea's tennis diary, I can't think of any decent sports writing (and Simmons and his list don't do it for me either. Too much New York boomer nostalgia). Sports is not easy to write about.

[whosonfirst]

My goal in life, having always been an underachiever, is to disabuse you of your admiration for Simmons. Hope you haven't heard this story before.

Bob Gibson, the great and prickly pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, was getting pounded one night. His catcher, Tim McCarver, did what catchers are supposed to do. He called time and walked out to the mound. Before he even got there, Gibson cut him off at the knees by saying this, "Get back behind the plate, the only thing you know about good pitching is that you can't hit it".

The same thing applies to Simmons and good sportswriting.

[corwin]

"Silent Season of a Hero",about Joe DiMaggio's discontentd life By Gay Talese