The Best American Sports Writing 2014 (62 page)

H
OWARD
B
RYANT

TV Money Inflates Sports Bubble.
ESPN.com
, March 13

B
RIN
-J
ONATHAN
B
UTLER

Requiem for a Welterweight.
SBNation.com
, November 20

 

L
ES
C
ARPENTER

Search for Basketball's Next Great Seven-Foot Center Leads to India and China.
Yahoo Sports
, May 8

A
NTHONY
C
ASTROVINCE

Drews, Olin Families Persevering 20 Years Later.
MLB.com
, March 21

D
IRK
C
HATELAIN

The Disappearance of Small-Town Football.
Omaha World-Herald
, December 22

J
AMES
C
HESBRO

Overtime.
Stymie
, November

J
ASON
C
OLLINS WITH
F
RANZ
L
IDZ

Why NBA Center Jason Collins Is Coming Out Now.
Sports Illustrated
, May 6

L
AUREN
C
OLLINS

The Third Man.
The New Yorker
, September 2

J
ORDAN
C
ONN

A Death in Valdosta.
Grantland.com
, September 6

M
ICHAEL
C
ROLEY

Ground Down.
Paris Review Daily
, August 21

M
ATT
C
ROSSMAN

Bobby Allison Still Struggles to Remember.
Sporting News
, February 18

B
RYAN
C
URTIS

Friday Night Tykes.
Texas Monthly
, January

 

S
ETH
D
AVIS

Shades of Blue.
Sports Illustrated
, November 18

S
ARA
D
EMING

A World Champion, Punching and Playing Hard.
Washington Post
, October 3

J
OE
D
E
P
AOLO

The Importance of Being Francesa.
SBNation.com
, January 8

 

T
IM
E
LFRINK

The Steroid Source.
Miami New Times
, January 31–February 6

D
AVE
E
SSINGER

Hallucinating in Suburbia.
Sport Literate
, “Body and Mind” issue

 

K
ATE
F
AGAN

Owning the Middle.
ESPN: The Magazine
, May 29

N
ATHAN
F
ENNO

Dying to Win.
Washington Times
, November 12

M
ATTHEW
F
ERRENCE

The Slashing.
Gulf Coast
, Summer/Fall

D
AVID
F
LEMING

The Marathon of Their Lives.
ESPN: The Magazine
, October 10

S
TEVE
F
RIEDMAN

Bret, Unbroken.
Runner's World
, June

 

S
ONNY
G
ANADAN

Va'a, Va'a, Va'a Voom!
Hana Hou!
October/November

W
ILLIAM
G
IRALDI

Atlas Flexed.
Grantland.com
, September 27

J
EFF
G
OODMAN

Blindsided.
CBSSports.com
, January 24

I
AN
G
ORDON

Inside Major League Baseball's Dominican Sweatshop System.
Mother Jones
, March/April

S. C. G
WYNNE

Who Is Johnny Football?
Texas Monthly
, September

 

A
SHLEY
H
ARRELL AND
L
INDSAY
F
ENDT

The Legend of Malacrianza.
SBNation.com
, May 14

S
EAN
H
OJNACKI

Skeeing There.
The Classical
, June 27

S
KIP
H
OLLANDSWORTH

Hoop Queens.
Texas Monthly
, April

P
ATRICK
H
RUBY

The Sports Cable Bubble.
SportsOnEarth.com
, July 12

R
OBERT
H
UBER

The Real Chase Utley.
Philadelphia
, April

 

B
RUCE
J
ENKINS

World Record Surfer a Prisoner of His Talent.
San Francisco Chronicle
, December 2

P
AT
J
ORDAN

The Constant Gardener.
SportsOnEarth.com
, December 12

 

C
OLIN
K
EARNS

Life, Death, and Steelhead.
Field & Stream
, November

P
AUL
K
IX

Breaking Good.
ESPN.com
, September 26

 

T
HOMAS
L
AKE

The Ghost of Speedy Cannon.
SportsIllustrated.com
, October 8

T
IM
L
AYDEN

Out of the Darkness.
SportsIllustrated.com
, October 30

A
RIEL
L
EVY

Trial by Twitter.
The New Yorker
, August 5

 

R
ICK
M
AESE

Guts, Glory, and Goodbye.
Washington Post
, June 23

E
RIK
M
ALINOWSKI

The Shining.
Buzzfeed.com
, April 7

J
EFF
M
AYSH

Half-Time Hero.
The Howler
, Summer

J
AMES
M
CKEAN

So Much More.
Southern Humanities Review
, “Cultural Memoir” special issue

E
LIZABETH
M
ERRILL

Tommy Morrison's Latest Big Fight.
ESPN.com
, August 21

R
OB
M
IECH

Westwood to the Far East.
Basketball Times
, June

J
AMES
A
NDREW
M
ILLER
, S
TEVE
E
DER, AND
R
ICHARD
S
ANDOMIR

Remote Control.
New York Times
, August 24–27

H
ELEN
M
ORT

Footfalls.
The Alpinist
, Autumn

B
ROOK
M
ORTON

Operation No Fear.
Scuba Diving
, August

 

J
OHN
C
AGNEY
N
ASH

The Hail Mary for Ryan Leaf.
Playboy
, September

E
RIC
N
USBAUM

Who Doesn't Exist.
Deadspin.com
, September 11

 

B
RIAN
P
HILLIPS

Out in the Great Alone.
Grantland.com
, May 9

B
ILL
P
LASCHKE

As Jackie Robinson Was Making History, Wendell Smith Wrote It.
Los Angeles Times
, April 14

S. L. P
RICE

What We Lost.
Sports Illustrated
, December 9

E
RIC
P
RISBELL

Kansas' Ben McLemore Fights Through Poverty to NCAA's Center Stage.
USA Today
, June 21

D
AVID
P
ROFUMO

A Town Without Soup.
Gray's Sporting Journal
, vol. 38, issue 7

S
HANNON
P
ROUDFOOT

Going Overboard.
Sportsnet
, May 6

J
ANA
P
RUDEN

Fear on the Family Farm.
Edmonton Journal
, March 16

B
EN
R
EITER

The World's Most Interesting Unicorn.
Sports Illustrated
, December 9

S
TEVE
R
OSENBLOOM

17 Seconds.
Chicago Tribune
, June 30

 

R
OBERT
S
ANCHEZ

Max Scherzer: A Brother's Passage.
ESPN.com
, December 30

G
RAYSON
S
CHAFFER

A Dangerous World Waits Above.
Outside
, May

M
ARK
S
EAL

The Shooting Star and the Model.
Vanity Fair
, June

M
ELISSA
S
EGURA

The Beautiful Game Turned Ugly.
Sports Illustrated
, May 27

D
AN
S
HAUGHNESSY

Your Sports Columnist Is Here to Write, Not to Root.
Boston Globe
, December 18

R
OBERT
S
ILVERMAN

Everything and More: Excess, Success, and Acronyms at Sloan.
The Classical
, March 11

G
ARY
S
MITH

Frank Hall, American Hero.
Sports Illustrated
, June 24

B
RANDON
S
NEED

The Prospect.
SBNation.com
, June 6

J
ASON
S
OBEL

Eddie Pearce.
TheGolfChannel.com
, March 12

M
ATTHEW
S
TANMYRE

A Holiday Lesson.
Newark Star-Ledger
, January 29

W
ARREN
S
T
. J
OHN

Sympathy for the Devil.
GQ
, September

M
IMI
S
WARTZ

Failure Is Not an Option.
Texas Monthly
, October

 

W
RIGHT
T
HOMPSON

Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building.
ESPN: The Magazine
, February 22

 

J
OHN
V
ANDERSLICE

Thirteen More Miles.
1966: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction
, Fall

 

M
ICHAEL
W
EINREB

The Kings of Q*bert.
Grantland.com
, December 1

S
ETH
W
ICKERSHAM

The Book of Coach.
ESPN: The Magazine
, February 4

C
HRIS
W
IEWIORA

Skatespotting.
Stymie
, September

L
UKE
W
INN

The Endless Summer of Bob Uecker.
Sports Illustrated
, July 1

B
RAD
W
OLVERTON

With God on Our Side.
Journal of Higher Education
, November 24

 

D
AVE
Z
IRIN

The NFL's Bully Problem.
The Nation
, November 4