Isn't that what Bob Costa does except in video?
I thought sports blogs like Deadspin and [look up another sports blog; insert name here] had been expected to put paid to the Gary Smith/SI meditation-on-a-character-study-in-pastels-let-me-tell-you-about-my-dad school of sportswriting as, inter alia, too old, uncool, slow, ignorant of political/social/racial/sexual realities, etc., etc., in favor of a more audience-responsive style and themes.
I associate sports journalism with a skier tumbling heels over head while a guy says, "... and the agony of defeat."
3: [Hodge-podge of obscenities, statistics, accusations of embezzling/doping/discrimination, quotes from Anchorman, disparaging remarks about Bill Simmons. ALL CAPS PUNCHLINE.]
3: I've sometimes thought that it must be weird to know that you'll forever be known as "the agony of defeat guy".
It seems like the internet has made some of the core skills of the sports announcer obsolete. Back in ye olde days it took genuine obsessive dedication to be able to have some obscure statistic at your fingertips for any occasion. Now anyone can do it.
I don't think that's right, the old school sportswriter had to slowly build his career by getting to know the athletes, coaches, and the feel of the game so as to opine on the intangibles and psychology involved in being clutch. Advanced stats were the realm of nerds in their mom's basements who didn't understand the human element.
Carbon is the human element, I guess.
Link up atoms of the human element and you get the human molecules.
Advanced stats were the realm of the off-camera production crew who piped in stats to the announcers via the always connected earpiece.
Jim McKay is known for more than just "the agony of defeat." In my family, he's the guy I (maybe accidentally, but it became a running joke) referred to as "Jim Decay" when I was a little kid.
I love Brian Phillips, who once retweeted something I wrote about Jujubes.
This is pretty great:
Meanwhile, having retired to his quiet, private life in Slovenia, Vinko Bogataj was unaware of his celebrity, and so was quite confused to be asked to attend the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981. He was stunned when other, more famous athletes present, such as Muhammad Ali, asked him for his autograph."
Well, the part quoted in 11 is 95% of the greatness.
Carbon is the human element, I guess.
It's also the slime mould element.
14: the slime mould is a noble and underrated organism. In times of plenty it lives as a lot of separate and independent single-celled amoebae. But when times get tough, the slime moulds work together to produce a fruiting body, most of the members of the collective sacrificing themselves that some may escape their dying world and travel to a new, more friendly one. Inspirational, really.
Interesting take on Adam Roberts' Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea. I wasn't thrilled by its thematic clash between down-to-earth Junes-Vernean scientific adventurers and a psychedelic universe of impossible wonders and inexplicable monsters. "More things in heaven and earth" plots are ten a penny in science fiction. But a metaphor for the extended career of Roger Federer--that's an inventive reading.
This is great:
"Every time I'm on ABC, I crash."
--Vinko Bogataj, having suffered a minor car accident while on his way to be interviewed by ABC's Terry Gannon
I don't get the OP -- all major city papers have one or 2 sports columnists, right? Their job is to watch sports and write 2-3 articles a week about it.
Phillips only writes one article per week.
At his best, he's really good.
There's a ton of good longform sports writing on SB Nation, motreso than Grantland.
http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/7/30/4567960/dick-trickle-suicide-nascar-profile for example.
Slime mold cells compete to be in the sexual fruiting body or the base tissue that might survive, not the doomed stalk. Next, tissue differentiation, class war, gastropod boot on IRS own face forever.
SB Nation also has Breaking Madden, which is the best sports thing ever.
CLEARLY THE FRUITING BODY REPRESENTS THE OVERCLASS, WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY THE SERVILE AND DECEIVED MIDDLE CLASS - WHOM IT ULTIMATELY DESERTS AND LEAVES TO DIE.
sports columnist
longform sports writing
Neither of these is really what Phillips does. He does these "what's it all mean?" pieces that are actually good. He seems like an interesting guy. He also reviews poetry.
I didn't finish the article. What does hitting a small yellow ball over a net mean?
Well, Brian Philips wrote this novel of an article.
And since this is a sports thread: GUUUUUUUULD!
Is the Iditarod piece linked in 30 the one that was making the rounds a couple years ago? It appears to be, although the timestamp is much more recent and I can't find the original posting on the Grantland website. Anyway, I didn't read it then and don't intend to now, but it got a lot of mockery from Alaskans at the time for the overwrought tone.
In other local color, one of my FB friends just posted some pictures from a flight he took recently where the pilot was the guy who shot the bear that ate Timothy Treadwell.
The guy who shot the bear that ate Timothy Treadwell is the new man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
Something something Liberty Valance.
"Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you. On those days, I will then get the bear."
They shot the bear? That seems a bit harsh. It's not like it was roaming into town and eating people.
When I was in high school we would discuss an imaginary award for who was the biggest loser. We called it the Vinko Bogataj award.
Breaking Madden is the greatest thing ever. It's a gimmick that should run out of steam after about three columns, but it's still funny after two years.