In the niches of writing, nestled somewhere under the heading of essay writer, is the sportswriter. It is, to me, an underrated artform as worthy of the name as any other form of writing. Reading a good piece can bring about all kinds of emotions, which is one sign of fine writing. I have on my nightstand The Best American Sports Writing of the Century edited by David Halberstam.  The century referred to in the title is the Twentieth, and as these are the best American sports writing, many of the names are familiar to fans of sports history: Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Heywood Broun, Westbrook Pegler, Red Smith, Jim Murray, Ring Lardner, W.C. Heinz, John Updike, John McPhee, Roger Angell, Tom Boswell, and Jon Krakauer, just to name a few.

I love sports writing. I love the form. I think in some alternate universe, there is a version of me as sportswriter banging out copy on my Olympia portable in a smoke-filled press box. I’ve read lots of great sports writing over the years. There was the fantastic collection Red Smith: On Baseball. There was the book that first turned me on to superlative sports writing, Great Baseball Writing, Sports Illustrated 1954-2004¹. A.J. Liebling’s The Sweet Science is a superlative glimpse into the pugilistic arts. There was a fantastic overview of sports writing in No Cheering in the Press Box edited by Jerome Holtzman. And of course, there is Joe Posnanski’s luminous The Baseball 100².

David Halberstam’s introductory essay is marvelous. He highlights several of the writers who have pieces in the book. His introduction made me excited to read the pieces, but he also piqued my curiosity about the sportswriters themselves. It seems to me to be a fascinating line of work. I once started (but I don’t think I finished) a biography of Red Smith. I read a wonderful memoir of Frank Deford, Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. I’ve read Roger Angell’s This Old Man: All in Pieces. Halberstam’s introduction made me wish for a companion book: call it The Best American Sportswriters of the Century. Instead of featuring their writing, the book would contain dozens of short biographies detailing how they became sportswriters, and the ups and downs of their careers.

How I’d love to read a book like that!