Best Sports Journalism of 2013 - Part 5 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 the final part of this five-part list are excellent works on the national Skee-ball championships (yes, that exists), a mother’s plea to Johnny Manziel to change his bad boy ways, the uncovering of Manti Te’o’s fake dead girlfriend, the unique way of re-telling a season-changing play and the Amish’s love of baseball.

5. "Grand-torino: Shane sends Sox to Series"by Providence Journal's Brian MacPherson (October 20)

Providence Journal sports writer Brian MacPherson gets my award this season for the most interesting coverage of a big play or event with the incredibly unique and to my knowledge original way he covered Boston Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino’s game-winning grand slam in the American League Championship Series that sent the Red Sox to the World Series and an eventual championship. MacPherson was able to capture the grand slam from the viewpoint of many throughout the stadium, including players and coaches in the dugout, bullpen and clubhouse, as well as executives of the team in their offices or team suites. The unique perspective given of the play from those within its vicinity really sets this article apart from the rest of the field.

4. "Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax" by Deadspin's Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey (January 16)

This rather extensive expose from Deadspin’s Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey is quite likely the most read bit of sports journalism from 2013 as the duo uncovered the highly odd and controversial story of former Notre Dame Heisman candidate linebacker Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend being a complete hoax. The Te’o girlfriend hoax would quickly become one of the most overplayed and annoying sports stories of the year and be supremely embarrassing to Te’o himself, but the initial story proves to be one of the most stellar and important sports journalism pieces of 2013.  

3. "At the Skee-ball Super Bowl" by The Classical's Sean Hojnacki (June 27)

Who doesn’t enjoy a good game of Skee-ball every now and then? According to The Classical’s Sean Hojnacki in his great firsthand piece of the Brewskee-Ball National Championship in Austin, Texas some people take the arcade game extremely serious. This piece is fascinating for similar reasons as John Metcalfe’s piece at The Atlantic on thumb wrestling championships, which appeared earlier on this list. Much like the thumb wrestling championship, the Skee-ball championship features unique individuals with nicknames like Joey the Cat and Snakes on a Lane. The fact that something of this caliber takes place annually was incredibly appealing to me.  

2. "An Open Letter to Johnny Manziel" by My Sacred Hideaway's Beth Bates (August 31)

“An Open Letter to Johnny Manziel” is almost certainly the only piece of sports writing on this list that was not actually written by either a journalist or a published writer … in fact, it was written by a Texas mom in her blog. That fact really makes the entire thing more interesting, impressive and just all-around perfect. The blog post is Beth Bates’ open letter to 2012 Heisman Trophy winner and Texas A&M college football quarterback Johnny Manziel on his attitude, and the fact that he’s being a horrible role model to children, like her son, who idolize him. Hopefully Manziel somehow got a chance to read this piece, because it was advice that he really needed to hear.

      1. "The Boys of Lancaster: There's a genius to the way the Amish play baseball" by New Republic's Kent Russell (March 22)

One of the things that will most draw me to a sports journalism piece is its uniqueness. I don’t believe that I read anything quite as unique and interesting this year as Kent Russell’s story on Amish baseball for New Republic. The story of this fantastic bit of culture from Russell’s trip to Lancaster County, Penn. is one that captured me immediately and wouldn’t let go until I had finished. I had never thought of Amish playing sports before, but as Russell states in his piece Amish and baseball seem to be a perfect fit. “’The Amish play baseball! Of course they do.’” The story of this community’s love for the game is well-worthy of the number one spot on this year’s best sports journalism of 2013 list.

Manti Te'o Hoax Could Happen to Anyone or: (How I Was Hoaxed by 'Loy Allen Jr.')

The story about Notre Dame Fighting Irish star linebacker Manti Te’o and his dead girlfriend being a hoax that was broken by Deadspin yesterday is certainly one of the strangest and weirdest sports stories I’ve ever heard and I know that it’s likely bound to only get stranger and weirder. I say that because it’s still to be seen whether or not Te’o was, in fact, duped by an incredibly cruel joke as he’s stated in his written response or if he actually played a knowing role in the hoax.

Notre Dame officials believe based on their response late Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 16) that Te’o was innocent and merely the butt of a cruel joke. However, the Deadspin article leads readers to believe that Te’o could’ve easily had a hand in perpetrating the hoax, along with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. I don’t really have a complete assumption at this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised, though certainly disappointed, if Te’o was in on the entire thing from what I’ve read. However, I can say unfortunately from firsthand experience that if what happened to Te’o was indeed a cruel hoax that it’s entirely possible that he had the wool pulled over his eyes.

Every day in this world people are at the horrible hands of others perpetrating hoaxes against them online. I haven’t seen the movie “Catfish” or the MTV series based off of it, but from what I’ve heard the term “catfishing” apparently is the act of a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information as a means of deceiving others.

There are only a couple of people who know this about me (until now), I’m not even 100 percent sure my girlfriend of seven years is one of them, but about 10 years ago when I was in my mid-teens I was on the receiving end of an online hoax.

Being the big NASCAR fan that I am I frequented a NASCAR message board called Driver Insider, where I would spend a great deal of time discussing and conversing about all sorts of NASCAR topics with other hardcore fans around the country. Myself, and all of the other posters on the message board, soon became enamored with one poster who, I can’t remember his username, but had us all convinced that he was Loy Allen Jr.

Loy Allen Jr. was a mostly unsuccessful NASCAR driver from the early to late ‘90s, who is most famous for two things: becoming the first ever rookie driver to qualify on the pole at the 1994 Daytona 500 and a devastating crash at Rockingham Speedway in 1996 which severely injured his neck and pretty much put an end to any major career plans.

Today, and even 10 or so years ago, Loy Allen Jr. was a name that novice NASCAR fans wouldn’t know and even avid NASCAR fans would have a hard time telling you anything about other than the Daytona pole and the Rockingham crash. Such an obscure name like Loy Allen Jr. made for the perfect cover, whereas other drivers would’ve led to immediate questioning and doubts over accuracy and credibility. If somebody claims they’re Loy Allen Jr. and have the knowledge and facts to back it up you’re likely going to believe them. If they claim they’re Jeff Gordon you’re simply not.

This poster claiming to be Loy Allen Jr. had us all going on the message board for the longest time, but he got to me even more because we added each other to Yahoo Messenger and would talk for hours about his “career,” NASCAR and baseball (which he claimed he was a huge fan of). We developed a friendship and he had me tricked to such an extent that I actually wrote an article about him for the sports webzine I created, edited and wrote for online called Sport Webzine. I thought this was my first “big time” interview, which really excited me.

After a little while I guess this prankster said something that one or two of the other members of the Driver Insider message board didn’t believe and they checked him on his facts and found him out to be a fraud. It bothered everybody on the message board because we had all been duped, but it probably hurt me the most because I’d been taken in so badly and even put my credibility as a writer/journalist on the line (despite only being in my mid-teens).

It’s an embarrassing, uncomfortable and hurtful experience when you trust somebody and you learn that the trust you’ve had in them wasn’t real. It’s especially worse when you realize that the person him/herself never actually existed or wasn’t who they claimed to be. It's definitely not something that bothers me much all these years later, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I'd thought of this until the Manti Te'o story reminded me of it today. But, depending on how deep you get taken in and how close of a relationship you've developed with this "person" I could easily see how it could mess someone up for a long time. 

I consider myself to be a pretty smart person and was certainly smart for my age at that time. I think many people would be calling me gullible, like they are right now to Manti Te’o. But, here’s the thing … these people do their research. They know their “character’s” ins and outs and its easy for somebody to gain another person’s trust when their back-story is as solid as these people can and do make it. I’m sure it’s even more sophisticated these days than it was back then.     

If Te’o was indeed pranked I can understand the embarrassment he feels, because you really do feel like you were played for a fool, except in his case it would be even worse because he developed an attraction and feelings for the apparition. If he was in on the whole thing he should be ashamed of what he’s done and his character will rightfully always be judged. However, if he was the “victim” here as Notre Dame officials have stated then he can join the club of the many who’ve been played for fools by online tricksters and pranksters out there getting their laughs and jollies out of making real people believe in and develop relationships with people that don’t exist or either do exist, but just aren’t who they claim to be. If this is the case his character shouldn’t be judged, because it can happen to almost anybody and you likely know people who have been hoaxed in a similar way.