The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns from Ring Lardner to Sally Jenkins: A Library of America Special Publication by John Schulian

The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns from Ring Lardner to Sally Jenkins: A Library of America Special Publication Reviews

• 
  Ken Heard

  This is a fantastic collection of sports writing over the century, allowing the reader a look at the evolution of the craft. From Ring Lardner to Red Smith to Mike Lupica to Michael Wilbong, this collection features a wide variety of writing styles. There are also brief bios of each writer featured and anecdotes about certain stories. (For example, Richard Hoffer wrote his excellent piece on USA gymnast Mary Lou Retton's 1984 Summer Olympics gold medal run in about 45 minutes).
  
  There's also a fun piece by Diane Shah about her not wanting to interview Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton, poking fun at the star pitcher's disdain for sports writers.
  
  Perhaps the most moving piece is Mike Downey's "When One Teardrop Is a Torrent of Hope," about horse trainer Jeff Lukas' traumatic head injury that resulted in a coma and the meaning of a single teardrop. (Downey also wrote a "diary" of Cal Ripken Jr., and his consecutive game streak that continues on into 2031). Bill Plashke's "Her Blue Haven" is also worth the price of the book alone as he writes about a different type of sportswriter who Plashke first challenges and then admires greatly for her courage and talent.
  
  This is a must for any sports fan. It shows the different styles of writing over the ages. From the overly done drama of Damon Runyan and Grantland Rice to the angst of Dick Young's piece on the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to L.A. to the understated genius of Wells Twombly, this collection contains a great cross section of the art of sportswriting.
• 
  Bob

  People who like sports.
  People who like to read about sports.
  People who dream about being sportswriters.
  Anyone who appreciates the art of juxtaposing nouns, verbs, adjectives and all the rest of the eight parts of speech to explain, to clarify, to illuminate, to elicit outrage, to share joy, to praise, and even at times to condemn.
  Those are all the people who should read "The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns from Ring Lardner to Sally Jenkins."
  It's a marvelous collection pulled together by a superb sportswriter himself, John Schulian.
  And it is an art.
  There are dozens of wonderful pieces here, and it seems a shame to mention only a few, but you'll get the drift:
  — Blackie Sherrod writing about covering the annual Harvard-Yale football game. (Hint: It's not so much about the action on the field.)
  — Jim Murray, one of my all-time favorites, in 1969 skewering the grandees who hadn't allowed the Emancipation Proclamation to be applied to a certain golf event. "The Masters golf tournament," Murray wrote, "is as white as the Ku Klux Klan. Everybody in it can ride in the front of the bus."
  — Diane K Shah pretending that interview-adverse pitcher Steve Carlton called her begging to be interviewed.
  — Rick Telander writing as far back as 2007 about how the NFL was ignoring the injuries suffered by the players of the past and its "stingy pension plan for old-timers." Telander tries to interview Doug Atkins, a rugged defensive end who is in both the college and pro football halls of fame, but Atkins' pride wouldn't let him tell a reporter how bad off he was from his injuries.
  There are the historic columns about Walter Johnson and Walter Payton, Three-fingered Mordecai Brown and bandy-legged Casey Stengel, Larsen's perfect game, Bobby Thompson and "The Miracle on Googan's Bluff," that last one by the dean of sportswriters, Red Smith, a reporter who never took a note but quoted sources word-for-word.
  You've got to read Dick Young's "Obit on the Dodgers," about why they left Brooklyn.
  Perhaps the best, and Schulian saves it for last, is a long-form column I'd read before but forgotten how powerful a piece of writing it is. That would be Bill Plaschke's column in which he writes about replying to a young woman who wrote a complaint about how he covered the Dodgers. What he discovered about the complaint writer will blow your mind.
  The late Peter Finney, the iconic columnist of New Orleans' sports pages, a New Orleans native, covered sports for 68 years, for the States, the States-Item and the Times-Picayune. He wrote the story when New Orleans was awarded the Saints franchise in 1966 and he wrote the story when they won their first Super Bowl in 2010. According to the Times-Picayune, he turned out nearly 15,000 columns. And he said this about sportswriting:
  "All I do is write. I've never had to work a day in my life."
  
  
  
• 
  Ginny

  Endless sports articles going back 90 years. I bought this book for my boyfriend, based upon a NYT review. He is a confirmed sports nut. I am not. Some of the articles were interesting. Most extremely well-written. I found it interesting how the sports stories evolved. 90, 80, 70, 60, even 50 years ago boxing and horse racing got a lot of ink back in the day. Baseball seems to be ubiquitous- something my boyfriend would state is appropriate. Surprisingly little on football. I wonder if it is that there are so many less games there are less stories to tell.
  
  The book is bound in “perfect” binding - which means it is just a glued paperback with a hard cover over it. The book never stayed open and was annoying to have to hold open all the time. It is a smaller book to begin with, and the lack of flexibility in the binding affected the ease of reading every page, with so this isn’t a picayune complaint.
  By the end, I just skimmed through some of the articles. It just wasn’t an interesting book, for me. I didn’t know the vast majority of people discussed in the articles - not a surprise having played Trivial Pursuit and followed along with Jeopardy! for many years. I know “sports” is not my game. None of this is the book’s fault. It will be a good choice for someone of a different ilk.
• 
  Mike Mikulski

  Reading this collection brought me back to starting the morning with a bowl of cereal and the sports page or sitting down in the evening with a copy of Sports Illustrated that arrived in the mail that day. It made me realize that it’s been the stories, not as much the stats, that have built my love of sports.
  
  I still get the Tribune every morning but in my rush to work it frequently sits in the wrapper while I listen to podcasts on my drive or I google a player bio while watching a game. I miss the voices of great columnists and writers. This book reminded me to slow down and find sports journalists with opinions I respect and thoughts that provoke on a regular basis. Any suggestions?
  
  
• 
  Raymond

  Good to read some writers I remember from back in the `70's in The Sporting News and SPORT who I'd forgotten about - Jerry Izenberg, Wells Twombley, David Israel. Worth noting that this anthology seems to have an inordinate amount of boxing stories - even into the `80's and `90's. Did American care much about boxing after Mohammed Ali? But worth a look for people who like sports and good writing.
• 
  Mike

  The Great American Sports Page is truly a collection to savor. A must for any sports fan.
• 
  Michael

  Some hits; some misses (including pieces by the editor). Ends with one of my favorite articles, by Posnanski.
• 
  Dennis

  A great compilation of some of the best sports writing ever assembled.