The Best American Sports Writing 2018 (The Best American Series ®)

I have a copy of every volume in this series, all the way back to the first one from 1991, and I have never read a more depressing collection of articles. It seems as if the guest editor was trying to make sure that readers shared his obvious hatred of all thing sporting (ironic, since he is a sportswriter). We have 1) multiple articles on concussions in football 2) a high school football player who died on the field from a cause that is most likely not related to football, but football is blamed anyway 3) two articles on women who are obsessed with running, to a degree where it is possible it has taken over their lives and even may have ruined their relationships 4) a long and detailed article on the funeral preparations for Muhammad Ali (including far too much on the embalming process) and 5) a long anti-NFL screed, tying in politics, protests and patriotism, all from a single perspective.Of course, what modern sports writing collection would be complete without multiple anti-Trump articles, the height of current sports writing.Very few of the articles included celebrate sports in any way. Almost the only positive story was Steve Rushin's love letter to his wife.In the preface, the series editor mentioned that of the 25 articles in this collection, 15 were included, not from the list from the series editor, but included at the request of the guest editor. If fact, for the first time I can recall, the series editor specifically encouraged readers to seek out and read articles listed in the Notable Sports Writing of 2017 appendix.Hopefully, next year's edition will be back to the previous standards.

PASSED THE TIME DURING WHICH THERE WAS NO POWER FOLLOWING ZETA

I have been reading the Best American Sports Writing series since the late 1990s. I preorder it every year with great anticipation, and always seem to get through it so fast that I have to consciously slow down to enjoy it more. It pains me, therefore, to write such a poor review for this latest edition. I found the selection of stories to be depressing and even repetitive-- stories of brain trauma, shattered dreams, early deaths, dark social issues, and painful narratives of athletes broken and down. I don't mind the increased focus on social issues in the last 10 or so years of this series, and think the addition of these stories balances out the mindless treatment of sports on most platforms, but would like to have a better balance of stories that make you also want to embrace what sports have to offer this society. I do not see myself re-reading stories as I always have done with past editions and hope future editions can provide a more heterogenous selection of stories. The bright spot of this edition was series editor Glenn Stout's forward to the book, which was very insightful and interesting, followed by the introduction by the author, Jeff Pearlman. I just wish the selected stories followed suit.

Another year, another great collection of sports writing. My only criticism is that too many of the stories dealt with concussions or tragic death... Would have preferred more topics being covered. But most of the concussion and tragic death stories brought me to tears

This was my leastliked edition of the years bestsports writing . Except the Lannana thing about the Vandy pitcher..that was a bit of touch right there...felt that,deeply. Made the whole book worth it.The Kindred thing on Lefty was pretty good too..my bil played for Ol left..he was hard of hearing in that side,y’know. Mike was guarding,supposedly,Charlie when he made that shot to put NC over Davidmum in the semi-finals.

This book series has just gone downhill. As reported by other reviewers, too many articles on concussions. This was also the case in the last couple of ones as well. Enough already- we get it. Most of the other articles in this edition were just really sad, and you felt down after reading them.Mr Stout: How about this: let the readers take all the entries and reduce them down to the top 50, and then the editor can select the remaining. How about it?

The strength or weakness of this series falls on the guest editor. I have nearly every book since 1991, they've had some odd choices for editor -- novelists and writers, who didn't write sports, and only one woman picked, and so forth. I was excited when Jeff Pearlman was selected as guest editor as he's one of the best sports writers/authors out there today.I particularly enjoyed the story on the minor league baseball player. Minor leaguers are infinitely more interesting than their MLB giant ego counterparts. Not a Pat Riley fan per se, not a hater either, but I liked the long read on him and his obsession with coaching and being a G.M. The Jimmy Butler article was very fascinating, and again, I'm not a big Butler fan, but the guy is interesting. There are a lot of good reads in this edition.Here's what's keeping it from being a 5-star book: Pearlman himself needed to be edited, perhaps by the series editor or someone else. Question 1: Why are you picking so many CTE/Death stories? I know it's a hot topic, but you're overdoing it. The two running stories were somewhat repetitive. Death, death, and more death. I'm stunned a guy as smart as Pearlman didn't see the pattern here, and neither did his editors ... that is if he had any.I loved Pearlman's introduction about great writing, though I grossly disagree with what he thought was the best lede of all time from his collegiate newspaper. That was just a 'bro-hug from college, not great writing. That said, Pearlman is right about making the reader think. Editors need to think, too. At least they're not handing us a diet of fishing and rock climbing stories like they did for about a decade.This is still a great series and I'll buy next year's book. Here's a suggestion for editor: Sally Jenkins.