Best Sports Journalism of 2013 - Part 4 of 5

All year long I’ve been reading great sports journalism online to recommend to the followers of my podcast’s (Basement Sports) Facebook fanpage. I’m a writer and a huge sports fan, so the two mingling together to form great journalism has always mesmerized me. The year has truly seen some great sports writing, and I wanted to share the best of the best that I’ve read from 2013.

Over the next few days I will be unveiling the ‘25 Best Sports Writing Articles of 2013’ from the many that I have read. While I’ve read more than 100 fine pieces this year I’m sure that some truly fantastic online sports writing has slipped through my grasps, so I do apologize if an obvious piece of great sports writing has been omitted.

In part four of this five-part list are excellent works on the beast with the baddest body in all of sports, the English tavern where thumb wrestlers from around the world decide who’s the very best, what it’s like to try to make a professional football team out of training camp, the secret of a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback who simply seems average most of the time and the possibility that a great sporting event from 40 years ago may have actually been fixed.

10. "The Secret of Eli Manning" by Grantland’s Brian Phillips (October 11)

Eli Manning is one of the real tough cases to crack of any athlete in sports. He’s a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback who looks terrific at times, but simply average for most of his career. He’s also known for as being aloof and having a seemingly uncaring attitude.  But, as Brian Phillips writes in his Grantland.com piece (his second outing on this list) there’s a secret side to Eli Manning that many people apparently don’t know about … and it’s far more interesting than the character we believe him to be.  

9. "The Saddest, Most Inspiring Story You'll Ever Read About Thumb Wrestling" by The Atlantic's John Metcalfe (June 28)

John Metcalfe’s story of an aspiring actor working in a Los Angeles restaurant that ended up as a championship level thumb wrestler for The Atlantic is one of those truly great sports stories because it lets you into a world that you never knew existed. When you find out that these all-star thumb wrestlers go by pseudonym’s like Thumberlina, Thumbertaker and Jack the Gripper and travel from all across the world every year to meet up in a tavern in England it truly becomes a must-read.

8. "What It's Like to Make the Cut" by Monday Morning Quarterback's Jenny Vrentas (September 2)

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King debuted his new football-only website “Monday Morning Quarterback” this year and within just a few days of its debut it was featuring top notch football articles such as Jenny Vrentas’ “What It’s Like to Make the Cut,” which followed Minnesota Vikings training camp invitee Zach Line in his attempt to make the Vikings’ season roster. The story of how hard this fullback had to work to make the team is a unique insight to the toughness a football player must exhibit and the drive he must have within him just to be one of 53 players to make the team.  

7. "The Match Maker: Bobby Riggs, The Mafia and The Battle of the Sexes " by ESPN/Outside the Line's Don Van Natta Jr. (August 25)

One of the biggest shockers I read this year was Don Van Natta Jr.’s piece for ESPN.com and “Outside the Lines” on the possibility of Bobby Riggs having thrown the famed “Battle of Sexes” exhibition tennis match in 1973, losing to Billie Jean King. The expose on Riggs, his Mafia ties and his debts makes me believe that this legendary event 40 years ago may have been fixed. How it came about and why it took 40 years to uncover is part of this great mystery.  

6. “Unridable” by ESPN the Magazine’s Wright Thompson (July 9)

Every year ESPN the Magazine publishes its “Body Issue,” basically the magazine’s answer to Sports Illustrated’s “Swimsuit Issue,” which features fitness and the chiseled physiques of nearly nude professional athletes. But, it came as a surprise when one of the best bodies in the sports world this year tipped the scales at a whopping 1,700 pounds, kicked dirt and snorted snot from his massive nostrils. But, as Wright Thompson (in his second piece to make this list) tells us Bushwacker, the meanest and best bull on the Professional Bull Riders circuit, had the baddest body in all of sports. The article is must-read, but the segment for ESPN’s news program “E:60,” which was awesomely narrated by Thompson, is a classic (but, unfortunately cannot be found in its entirety).   

Best Sports Journalism of 2013 - Part 2 of 5

All year long I’ve been reading great sports journalism online to recommend to the followers of my podcast’s (Basement Sports) Facebook fanpage. I’m a writer and a huge sports fan, so the two mingling together to form great journalism has always mesmerized me. The year has truly seen some great sports writing, and I wanted to share the best of the best that I’ve read from 2013.

Over the next few days I will be unveiling the ‘25 Best Sports Writing Articles of 2013’ from the many that I have read. While I’ve read more than 100 fine pieces this year I’m sure that some truly fantastic online sports writing has slipped through my grasps, so I do apologize if an obvious piece of great sports writing has been omitted.

In part two of this five-part list are fine writings on a Major League Baseball player who must make sacrifices to care for his beloved dog, a baseball player who realized the game was no longer for him, the perfect response to performance enhancing drug allegations, capturing the horror of the Boston Marathon bombings and the tale of how women must first defeat their own breasts before setting their sights on their opponent. 

20. "Playing Defense: What's the smartest PED response strategy?" by SportsonEarth's Will Leitch (August 13)

In August, the NFL’s best running back Adrian Peterson, of the Minnesota Vikings, kind of surprised the sports media/world when asked if he used performance enhancing drugs. His response: "... it makes me feel good. When you know you don't do it, and someone's saying you do, you're like, 'Wow. They think I'm on HGH? I'm doing that good? It's a compliment. I don't get mad about it at all." It was a reaction unlike any other athlete who'd ever answered the question and according to Sports on Earth's Will Leitch is the smartest strategy to responding to PED questioning. 

19. "Lonely Days Ahead for Mark Buehrle" by ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick (February 7)

Jerry Crasnick’s piece on newly acquired Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle and his love of his dogs was intriguing because it shows the sacrifices, sometimes ones you wouldn’t even think of, that professional athletes sometimes have to make during their season. Buehrle and his family own a 2-year old American Staffordshire terrier and bulldog mix, part of the pitbull family, which happens to be outlawed in the entirety of Toronto’s province Ontario. Because of their bond with their pup, Buehrle’s family chose to stay at home in St. Louis and take care of the dog, meaning that they would be away from each other for most of the season. Buehrle’s sacrifice and the love and care he has for dogs makes for a supremely touching story. 

18. “Why I Quit Major League Baseball” by Adrian Cardenas for The New Yorker (October 30)

Becoming a Major League Baseball player (or a professional athlete of another kind) is a dream shared by millions throughout the world. One would think that making it to the highest level in your sport would be the ultimate goal, but Adrian Cardenas, a former Chicago Cubs player, realized once he finally made it to “the show” that it really wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t his American dream. His telling of why in The New Yorker is an interesting tale of how one can seemingly have what millions desire, but not really want for himself.

17. "You Can Only Hope to Contain Them" by ESPN The Magazine's Amanda Hess (July 16)

Sometimes great articles are the ones that make you think of things that you never would have imagined. For instance, as a man I had never thought about how uncomfortable it must be for female athletes to compete because of their breasts until I read Amanda Hess’ “You Can Only Hope to Contain Them” for ESPN the Magazine. Hess’ piece made me realize that for women sometimes you have to battle your own breasts before even thinking about defeating your opponent.

16. "You Are Not Safe Here": The Remains of a Horrible Day in Boston" by Esquire's Charles P. Pierce (April 15)

The day of the Boston bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15 was a day that most Americans will probably always remember, but for the people who were actually there will be engrained in their memories – the horror, the blood, the gruesomely maimed and the panic that permeated throughout the area. Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce in just five short paragraphs was able to perfectly capture the panic of the moments directly after the bomb blasts, including the unnerving quote from an officer stating to passer-bys, “you are not safe here.” However, it’s his final sentence that truly lets the horror of that afternoon sink in: "And you can smell the blood two blocks away."