by Frank Deford
First published 1993
Frank Deford assembles the year's finest sports journalism in this 1993 collection. The anthology opens with William Nack's reporting on Hurricane Carter stepping out of prison after years behind bars. Roger Angell contributes a baseball memoir that traces his own growth through America's pastime. The collection tackles the complex relationship between race and athletic achievement head on. These writers dig beneath game scores and statistics to find the human stories that make sports matter. Deford selects pieces that reveal how athletics intersect with justice, identity, and social change. The book captures a pivotal moment when sports writing moved beyond simple game coverage to examine deeper cultural forces.
Genres: 20th-century, american, sports, non-fiction, journalism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-examination, human-stories
Period: 1993
464 pages · Paperback · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt