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The Year's Best Sports Writing 2021
To be revealed.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
386 pages, Paperback
Published October 5, 2021
34 people are currently reading
885 people want to read
About the author
Glenn Stout
106 books65 followersAuthor of the Jazz Age true crime yarn Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple (2021), NY Times bestseller The Pats: An Illustrated History of the New England Patriots (2018) The Selling of the Babe (2016), Fenway 1912 (2012) and Young Woman the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World (2009) currently set up and in development as a major motion picture for Disney +. (ETA 2021). Since becoming a full-time writer in 1993, Glenn Stout has written, ghostwritten or edited 100 books representing sales in excess of two million copies. Stout is also author of The Cubs, The Dodgers, Nine Months at Ground Zero, Yankees Century, Red Sox Century, and has served as Series Editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception. Glenn also consults on a variety of writing projects (books, proposals, Longform narratives). He has won both the Seymour Medal and Ritter Award (twice) by the Society for American Baseball Research, and Yes Se Can! made the 2012 Amelia Bloom list for feminist content. He lives in Vermont.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 10, 2023
I chose this anthology as the textbook for teaching two sections of First-Year Seminar (basically, first-year composition, a general studies course) during Fall 2022.
At the start of the semester, a half dozen students howled, "BUT I DON'T LIKE SPORTS!" And I kept telling them that these essays are about the human condition--the psychology and sociology of being a person, being a society--and that sports is the venue where all the issues play out. By the end of the semester, they finally understood this as the case. One nontraditional student (studying to be an elem ed teacher) told me, "I am now interested in reading the sports essays in my husband's golfing magazines."
I had thirty (30) transfer students, some of whom are student-athletes. The all read six (6) essays between August and November 2022. I chose Verducci, Shilton, and Mertens as common to all of them. They got to choose among essays of similar length for the other three reading assignments (one short essay 4-6 pages; one medium essay 10-15 pages; and one long essay 18-30 pages).
I read ALL the essays. Before grading the set of eight papers that I assigned, I reread the three essays all students wrote about and then the several essays from the range of choices the students had. (They almost ALWAYS chose the shortest essay within the range of choices for that particular paper. ARGH!).
My (highly subjective) favorites are indicated with an asterisk *, my two super favorites with two asterisks **.
Glock, Alison "Walk, Run or Wheelbarrow." Half the class chose this one among five of the shortest essays (4-6 pages) because it was the shortest at 4 pages and relatable for the nonathlete students about a woman and her twenty-something daughters coping during lockdown.
**Cross, Kim. "What Happens When Two Strangers Trust the Rides of Their Lives to the Magic of the Universe." This is my FAVORITE essay in the collection, but then again, I am interested in geography, world cultures, and various frameworks people employ to describe the numinous. Four students chose this one. Cross packs a lot of references to the divine / luck here, but she does so in a way that still keeps the action and the two main subjects in sharp focus. (In fact, my weaker students missed the depth; my stronger students focused on those metaphysical allusions.)
Martel, Jay. "Pre-Game Interview." None of them chose this. I loved this satire on interviews, using Sisyphus as the stereotypical (prototypical?) athlete. Originally published in The New Yorker.
Gay, Ross and Noah Davis. "The Ramshackle Garden of Affection." One student chose this epistolatory essay. I enjoyed reading how two men could communicate with each other about a wide range of issues, including masculinity and basketball (and masculinity as defined by basketball).
Thomson, Wright. "The Inheritance of Archie Manning." Three students chose this one. I was inspired reading about Archie's character and how he overcame some childhood trauma. I enjoyed the author's use of religious / hero imagery to describe the social role that football players play in our sports obsessed society.
Stark, Jayson. "There Might Be a Family Secret." More than half the students chose this one for their last paper. Two students shared that they did not know the identity of their birth father. It was a bit emotional, and I didn't anticipate that outcome! Stark tells the amazing story of two MLB pitchers: Turk Farrell b. 1934 who fathered Richard Dotson b. 1959. This relationship did not come to light until 2018 after Dotson took a DNA home test (Anscestry.com). He found out when a cousin contacted him, explaining that the data showed them as first cousins, and that her Uncle Turk was known to "get around." Old photos showed a strong family resemblance between these pitchers when they were in their 20s. Reading about this discovery was a wild ride of emotions.
*Mertens, Maggie. "This Woman Surfed the Biggest Wave of the Year." This is the only essay that discusses professional female athletes. (!) I required all students to read this one as a prompt for a research paper on gender in sports. They all had to quote from Mertens to explain how her essay was a catalyst to look at issues such as equal pay for women in professional sports, transgender athletes, girls playing football for public high school teams, or gender and the increased athleticism in professional ice skating (I had a student who trained as a professional ice skater for a decade, so she was informed and nuanced about the topic.)
*Graff, Michael. "Hook Shot Charlie . . . " This story depicts a middle-aged man finding joy by developing a gimmick--making repetitive hook shots. He's now on social media. Seven (7) of my students chose this because they like basketball but praised it for depictions of resilience.
Rooks, Taylor. "The Most Magical Place on Earth." No one chose this, but it's a great record of the NBA operating under the pandemic by practicing and playing in a somewhat closed environment.
Thomas, Louisa. "Is College Football Making the Pandemic Worse?" Four students chose this essay, many in health care. I read 7 books about the pandemic myself in 2020. This essay ends up being about the limitations of testing and contact tracing around football games. It's very much informed by the field of public health (a mash up of sociology, public policy, and science).
*McGee, Ryan. "The Confederate Flag Is Finally Gone at NASCAR. . . " About eight (8) Students not afraid of an emotionally charged topic read this. McGee, a Southerner, firmly refutes arguments for preserving the Confederate flag.
*Jackson, Mitchell S. "Twelve Minutes and a Life." Many of the students (11) choose this for the "long read" of the semester. They will write two papers about their chosen long read. Yes, this is the shortest (at 18 pages) of the long reads for the category that I created, but many of my white students had not heard about this crime, and they were interested in the topic. All my students of color knew about Arbery's murder, but they really connected with Jackson as highly credible in many ways to write about this modern-day lynching.
Phillips, Brian. "Kobe Always Showed His Work. So We Have to in Remembering Him." One student chose this essay. It's a love letter to Kobe of sorts. It also documents how the press responded to the tragedy in general as well as how Phillips responded specifically.
*Sielski, Mike "How Kobe Bryant's Death Brought Bobby McIlvaine. . . Back to Life." Two students chose this essay for their long read. The author and others discovered old video footage of a high school friend (McIlvaine) when that footage was shown because Bryant was playing the same game. McIlvaine died in one of the Twin Towers, and this footage was a bittersweet reminder of his life.
Babb, Kent. "Andrew Giuliani, Official Sports Guy of the White House, sees a Score in the Big Ten's Return. I did not read this, and I did NOT assign it. I find that if I assign readings about contemporary politics, I have to spend weeks teaching students how to practice civility in public discourse. And I am personally fatigued by the antics of Trump & Co. and the bickering that our polarized political landscape fosters. (I blame cable news striving for ratings via extremism left and right.)
*Verducci, Tom. "Baseball's Fight to Reclaim Its Soul." I've read this myself seven times help my students write an essay that identifies various academic disciplines as pertinent to the content. Technology and big data turn America's favorite pastime into a cold cyborg. What will the union and the MLB commissioner (and other stakeholders) do to address the game moving from the field to the front office?
Lee, Joon. "Inside the Rise of MLB's Ivy League Culture: Stunning Numbers and a Question of What's Next." This essay describes how staffing the front office has reversed the diversity of the management side of MLB, displacing former players of color with white Ivy League technocrats. No one chose this reading, which was surprising given that they read Verducci's essay earlier in the semester. (Again, they almost all chose Stark's from a set of essays 10-15 pages long, because Stark was the first of the 10 page choices, the shortest of the options presented. That selection criteria drives me nuts. Length is not the best criteria for even assessing ease of reading! Complexity of sentence style, diction, and reader's prior exposure to the topics are more pertinent if "easy to read" or even "less time required to read" were their priorities. GAH!)
Stimpson, Ashley, "Shades of Grey." Four students chose this (many of them love dogs and do not particularly enjoy sports). A closer look at the world of dog racing--greyhounds in particular, of course. The essay challenges the notion that dog racing is cruel by some investigative reporting about breeders, trainers, owners, and those who adopt the dogs when they retire.
**Thompson, Nicholas, "A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can't Crack" (with an update; internet sleuths cracked it.) This is my second favorite. Written in a suspenseful manner and with the detail of a true crime podcast, this essay captured my attention while giving me an insider's view to those who hike the Appalachian Trial and explaining some of the particulars of theses hiking enthusiasts' subculture. About eight students chose to read this one.
*Faux, Zeke. "Master Thief." A character study on Sean Murphy, a burglar in the Boston Metro area who stole many (not all) of the NY Giant's 2008 Super Bowl rings. (I used this to write sample papers, so I have read this essay with care multiple times. It's very well written, but it has a strong Boston Bro energy--male criminals and detectives both--which is interesting but not captivating for my tastes, hence one asterisk not two. The only women depicted are sex objects to Murphy. They are key to the "plot," but cartoonish.)
Clack, Cary. "The Bout." This essay describes the segregation of boxing in Texas and the work to desegregate this sport.
"Bromka, Peter. "The Bubble of a Dream." An insider's view of running a marathon. At 30 pages, it's the longest essay in the anthology. My students refused to choose longer essays, and this was not one of the three essays that I assigned without a choice. (I chose Verducci, Shilton and Mertens as must reads.)
Kelly, Devin.** "Out There: On Not Finishing." I loved this essay! I CRIED! I thought it was going to be about the inner game of running an ultramarathon. It has a little bit about that. However, Kelly spends more time scrutinizing his motives for participating in an extreme sport and discovers that his need for external validation should be replaced with greater self-acceptance and commitment to connecting meaningfully with other people and the world around him. He shares a psychological-spiritual journey.
Culpepper, Chuck. "Fifty Years After Its Unfathomable Loss, Marshall Spends Another Nov. 14 with Pain and Memories." Only two of thirty students (football fans) selected this very detailed description of a community grieving a loss that is fifty years old but kept fresh by ritual / traditions.
*Shilton, A.C. "Their Son's Heart Saved His Life. So He Rode 1,426 Miles to Meet Them." Everyone was required to read this. They analyzed its "fit" in Bicycling magazine and suggested another magazine that would publish this as well. They all found the material relatable to a wide readership. I was mesmerized to see a relationship form between a heart recipient and the mother of the heart donor.
At the start of the semester, a half dozen students howled, "BUT I DON'T LIKE SPORTS!" And I kept telling them that these essays are about the human condition--the psychology and sociology of being a person, being a society--and that sports is the venue where all the issues play out. By the end of the semester, they finally understood this as the case. One nontraditional student (studying to be an elem ed teacher) told me, "I am now interested in reading the sports essays in my husband's golfing magazines."
I had thirty (30) transfer students, some of whom are student-athletes. The all read six (6) essays between August and November 2022. I chose Verducci, Shilton, and Mertens as common to all of them. They got to choose among essays of similar length for the other three reading assignments (one short essay 4-6 pages; one medium essay 10-15 pages; and one long essay 18-30 pages).
I read ALL the essays. Before grading the set of eight papers that I assigned, I reread the three essays all students wrote about and then the several essays from the range of choices the students had. (They almost ALWAYS chose the shortest essay within the range of choices for that particular paper. ARGH!).
My (highly subjective) favorites are indicated with an asterisk *, my two super favorites with two asterisks **.
Glock, Alison "Walk, Run or Wheelbarrow." Half the class chose this one among five of the shortest essays (4-6 pages) because it was the shortest at 4 pages and relatable for the nonathlete students about a woman and her twenty-something daughters coping during lockdown.
**Cross, Kim. "What Happens When Two Strangers Trust the Rides of Their Lives to the Magic of the Universe." This is my FAVORITE essay in the collection, but then again, I am interested in geography, world cultures, and various frameworks people employ to describe the numinous. Four students chose this one. Cross packs a lot of references to the divine / luck here, but she does so in a way that still keeps the action and the two main subjects in sharp focus. (In fact, my weaker students missed the depth; my stronger students focused on those metaphysical allusions.)
Martel, Jay. "Pre-Game Interview." None of them chose this. I loved this satire on interviews, using Sisyphus as the stereotypical (prototypical?) athlete. Originally published in The New Yorker.
Gay, Ross and Noah Davis. "The Ramshackle Garden of Affection." One student chose this epistolatory essay. I enjoyed reading how two men could communicate with each other about a wide range of issues, including masculinity and basketball (and masculinity as defined by basketball).
Thomson, Wright. "The Inheritance of Archie Manning." Three students chose this one. I was inspired reading about Archie's character and how he overcame some childhood trauma. I enjoyed the author's use of religious / hero imagery to describe the social role that football players play in our sports obsessed society.
Stark, Jayson. "There Might Be a Family Secret." More than half the students chose this one for their last paper. Two students shared that they did not know the identity of their birth father. It was a bit emotional, and I didn't anticipate that outcome! Stark tells the amazing story of two MLB pitchers: Turk Farrell b. 1934 who fathered Richard Dotson b. 1959. This relationship did not come to light until 2018 after Dotson took a DNA home test (Anscestry.com). He found out when a cousin contacted him, explaining that the data showed them as first cousins, and that her Uncle Turk was known to "get around." Old photos showed a strong family resemblance between these pitchers when they were in their 20s. Reading about this discovery was a wild ride of emotions.
*Mertens, Maggie. "This Woman Surfed the Biggest Wave of the Year." This is the only essay that discusses professional female athletes. (!) I required all students to read this one as a prompt for a research paper on gender in sports. They all had to quote from Mertens to explain how her essay was a catalyst to look at issues such as equal pay for women in professional sports, transgender athletes, girls playing football for public high school teams, or gender and the increased athleticism in professional ice skating (I had a student who trained as a professional ice skater for a decade, so she was informed and nuanced about the topic.)
*Graff, Michael. "Hook Shot Charlie . . . " This story depicts a middle-aged man finding joy by developing a gimmick--making repetitive hook shots. He's now on social media. Seven (7) of my students chose this because they like basketball but praised it for depictions of resilience.
Rooks, Taylor. "The Most Magical Place on Earth." No one chose this, but it's a great record of the NBA operating under the pandemic by practicing and playing in a somewhat closed environment.
Thomas, Louisa. "Is College Football Making the Pandemic Worse?" Four students chose this essay, many in health care. I read 7 books about the pandemic myself in 2020. This essay ends up being about the limitations of testing and contact tracing around football games. It's very much informed by the field of public health (a mash up of sociology, public policy, and science).
*McGee, Ryan. "The Confederate Flag Is Finally Gone at NASCAR. . . " About eight (8) Students not afraid of an emotionally charged topic read this. McGee, a Southerner, firmly refutes arguments for preserving the Confederate flag.
*Jackson, Mitchell S. "Twelve Minutes and a Life." Many of the students (11) choose this for the "long read" of the semester. They will write two papers about their chosen long read. Yes, this is the shortest (at 18 pages) of the long reads for the category that I created, but many of my white students had not heard about this crime, and they were interested in the topic. All my students of color knew about Arbery's murder, but they really connected with Jackson as highly credible in many ways to write about this modern-day lynching.
Phillips, Brian. "Kobe Always Showed His Work. So We Have to in Remembering Him." One student chose this essay. It's a love letter to Kobe of sorts. It also documents how the press responded to the tragedy in general as well as how Phillips responded specifically.
*Sielski, Mike "How Kobe Bryant's Death Brought Bobby McIlvaine. . . Back to Life." Two students chose this essay for their long read. The author and others discovered old video footage of a high school friend (McIlvaine) when that footage was shown because Bryant was playing the same game. McIlvaine died in one of the Twin Towers, and this footage was a bittersweet reminder of his life.
Babb, Kent. "Andrew Giuliani, Official Sports Guy of the White House, sees a Score in the Big Ten's Return. I did not read this, and I did NOT assign it. I find that if I assign readings about contemporary politics, I have to spend weeks teaching students how to practice civility in public discourse. And I am personally fatigued by the antics of Trump & Co. and the bickering that our polarized political landscape fosters. (I blame cable news striving for ratings via extremism left and right.)
*Verducci, Tom. "Baseball's Fight to Reclaim Its Soul." I've read this myself seven times help my students write an essay that identifies various academic disciplines as pertinent to the content. Technology and big data turn America's favorite pastime into a cold cyborg. What will the union and the MLB commissioner (and other stakeholders) do to address the game moving from the field to the front office?
Lee, Joon. "Inside the Rise of MLB's Ivy League Culture: Stunning Numbers and a Question of What's Next." This essay describes how staffing the front office has reversed the diversity of the management side of MLB, displacing former players of color with white Ivy League technocrats. No one chose this reading, which was surprising given that they read Verducci's essay earlier in the semester. (Again, they almost all chose Stark's from a set of essays 10-15 pages long, because Stark was the first of the 10 page choices, the shortest of the options presented. That selection criteria drives me nuts. Length is not the best criteria for even assessing ease of reading! Complexity of sentence style, diction, and reader's prior exposure to the topics are more pertinent if "easy to read" or even "less time required to read" were their priorities. GAH!)
Stimpson, Ashley, "Shades of Grey." Four students chose this (many of them love dogs and do not particularly enjoy sports). A closer look at the world of dog racing--greyhounds in particular, of course. The essay challenges the notion that dog racing is cruel by some investigative reporting about breeders, trainers, owners, and those who adopt the dogs when they retire.
**Thompson, Nicholas, "A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can't Crack" (with an update; internet sleuths cracked it.) This is my second favorite. Written in a suspenseful manner and with the detail of a true crime podcast, this essay captured my attention while giving me an insider's view to those who hike the Appalachian Trial and explaining some of the particulars of theses hiking enthusiasts' subculture. About eight students chose to read this one.
*Faux, Zeke. "Master Thief." A character study on Sean Murphy, a burglar in the Boston Metro area who stole many (not all) of the NY Giant's 2008 Super Bowl rings. (I used this to write sample papers, so I have read this essay with care multiple times. It's very well written, but it has a strong Boston Bro energy--male criminals and detectives both--which is interesting but not captivating for my tastes, hence one asterisk not two. The only women depicted are sex objects to Murphy. They are key to the "plot," but cartoonish.)
Clack, Cary. "The Bout." This essay describes the segregation of boxing in Texas and the work to desegregate this sport.
"Bromka, Peter. "The Bubble of a Dream." An insider's view of running a marathon. At 30 pages, it's the longest essay in the anthology. My students refused to choose longer essays, and this was not one of the three essays that I assigned without a choice. (I chose Verducci, Shilton and Mertens as must reads.)
Kelly, Devin.** "Out There: On Not Finishing." I loved this essay! I CRIED! I thought it was going to be about the inner game of running an ultramarathon. It has a little bit about that. However, Kelly spends more time scrutinizing his motives for participating in an extreme sport and discovers that his need for external validation should be replaced with greater self-acceptance and commitment to connecting meaningfully with other people and the world around him. He shares a psychological-spiritual journey.
Culpepper, Chuck. "Fifty Years After Its Unfathomable Loss, Marshall Spends Another Nov. 14 with Pain and Memories." Only two of thirty students (football fans) selected this very detailed description of a community grieving a loss that is fifty years old but kept fresh by ritual / traditions.
*Shilton, A.C. "Their Son's Heart Saved His Life. So He Rode 1,426 Miles to Meet Them." Everyone was required to read this. They analyzed its "fit" in Bicycling magazine and suggested another magazine that would publish this as well. They all found the material relatable to a wide readership. I was mesmerized to see a relationship form between a heart recipient and the mother of the heart donor.
December 31, 2021
I got it for my friend, he read it in 2 days, gave it back to me raving about it. 4 days later, I'm done. Real great collection of pieces, a number of them about the effects of covid on the sports world and all involved. Some very strong emotion in these. Highly recommend for anyone who loves sports.
January 11, 2022
These books never get old. Glad to see Glenn Stout back in a different, but basically the same, series.
May 12, 2022
Thoroughly enjoy this annual compilation. The only drawback for me was COVID fatigue. It has been too much a part of my life this year, so I found myself desensitized to the COVID-related stories. A few years from now, I'll read this again and likely feel a deeper connection. However, there were a number of non-pandemic related stories that I found compelling.
January 1, 2022
Highlight pieces include "The Ramshackle Garden of Affection", "The Inheritance of Archie Manning", and the sublime "Twelve Minutes and a Life".
February 14, 2022
Features a ton of brilliant stories. Some capture the beauty of sports, some focus on deeper issues in the context of sport, nearly all are brilliant.
March 31, 2022
THE YEAR’S BEST SPORTS WRITING 2021 is a smorgasbord of stellar sports journalism. Full review here: https://youtu.be/krRNUF0wabU
March 17, 2024
I have long made this collection an annual purchase, but this is the weakest anthology I've seen.
I typically enjoy the wide ranging mix of stories and perspective involved with these collections, but this year's mix found me skimming and skipping at least half of the stories.
Biggest Wave of the Year had me absolutely shaking my head as to how it got into a 'Best Of' collection.
And that was the most pronounced of many entries that I found mind boggling.
Disappointed to the point where I'm giving thought to whether I want to search out the next installment. This used to be a slam dunk automatic purchase.
I typically enjoy the wide ranging mix of stories and perspective involved with these collections, but this year's mix found me skimming and skipping at least half of the stories.
Biggest Wave of the Year had me absolutely shaking my head as to how it got into a 'Best Of' collection.
And that was the most pronounced of many entries that I found mind boggling.
Disappointed to the point where I'm giving thought to whether I want to search out the next installment. This used to be a slam dunk automatic purchase.
January 22, 2023
Great reading, as always, but a bit of a slog this year. Not sure why it took so long for me to get through it but I didn’t find the writing to be as notably gorgeous as usual and less human nature insight for me than I always get. Hopefully it’s an anomaly.
April 19, 2025
The memorable stories were:
- The Depths She'll Reach by Xan Rice
- Super League Rage, Ronaldo Mania and the Fight for the Soul of Manchester United by Wright Thompson
- Paspalum Shadows by Andrew Lawrence
- The Depths She'll Reach by Xan Rice
- Super League Rage, Ronaldo Mania and the Fight for the Soul of Manchester United by Wright Thompson
- Paspalum Shadows by Andrew Lawrence
May 23, 2022
The title holds up: There are some outstanding examples of sports writing in this book. I really enjoyed reading it.
December 14, 2022
Always enjoyable. Always easy to pick up and put down through the year.
November 11, 2021
Another great collection, some particularly moving pieces of writing. Lack of sport in 2020 somewhat of a factor.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews