Review: The Best American Sports Writing 2020

Edited by Jackie MacMullan

To use a newspaper term, it's sadly time to put a "-30-" at the end of the Best American Sports Writing series. 

Series editor Glenn Stout announces in the foreward that the yearly edition has come to an end after 30 years. It's been quite a run. Such anthologies have been around for decades; you might be able to find a few dusty copies in a second-hand bookstore or a big city library. The Sporting News picked up the tradition for a while. Then in 1991, the tradition resumed under the caring, watchful eye of Stout. 

We've seen through the pages of these anthologies how the business has changed so dramatically in the past three decades. The sources for material no longer are almost exclusively devoted to major newspapers and magazines. Plenty of good work has been presented by websites in relatively recent years.

You can also look at the names of the editors of the annual editions since 1991 and see another worthwhile change. There are some great names on the list - David Halberstam, Frank Deford, Tom Boswell, Dan Jenkins, Rick Reilly, Peter Gammons, Wright Thompson. In 2011, a woman joined the formerly all-male club when Jane Leavy got the job. Now she is joined by Jackie MacMullan, a former Boston Globe reporter who now does work for ESPN. 

Reviewing books in this series always has been a bit of a challenge, because usually the stories are almost always worth reading. The difference from year to year usually comes from the editor's picks, which are a matter of personal preference. That's certainly true for the 2020 book. MacMullen writes in her introduction, "None of the stories highlight exploits of stars from the major professional sports teams. Increasingly, elite athletes have opted to create their own 'brand,' churning out self-made glossy presentations shellacked with a veneer that lacks the authenticity of a story well told."

That's certainly true here. It's also true that the definition of "sports writing" is a bit stretched here, and that it's a rather dark collection of articles. There are stories here that you'd never find in the sports section of a newspaper, or in a sports magazine (remember them?). 

We need examples. A soccer game provides just a bit of framework on a story by Roberto Jose Andrade Franco on the problems in Juarez, Mexico. Kurt Streeter has an essay on the monuments of Richmond, which includes Arthur Ashe. Bryan Burroughs writes about killer tigers in India. Steven Leckart chips in with a story of a unique bank robber who uses a bicycle for his getaways. John Griswold has a fine look at a Louisiana prison rodeo - who knew? Emily Giambalvo tracks down some of the dogs who were involved in Michael Vick's dogfighting ring - many of whom are living happily ever after as pets. 

The book has plenty of other stories of course, but many come at issues from a different angles. There's the physical toll of playing championship chess, a recreational hockey player's experiences with concussions, the top women's college basketball player who turned down the pros to become a cloistered nun, the death of an Olympic cyclist, a complete novice tries to cover a tennis tournament, and so on. There are even some good old-fashioned investigations - the Astros' sign-stealing scandal, the NBA executive who turned into a $13 million crook, and the sexual predator lurking around track programs.

No, there aren't a whole lot of feel-good stories here. At least the book opens with a Bill Plaschke piece on how baseball is used to help those suffering from Alzheimer's. But there's a key point to be made here: I started every article, and finished almost every article (I must admit I skimmed the end of one from the halfway point). Therefore, MacMullen was clearly doing something right. 

This final collection may not be for those who have a narrow definition of sports or like their fun and games to be mostly fun, but those who read it should find it rewarding. And a word of thanks goes to Stout and Co. for 30 years of good reading. Let's hope someone picks up the ball and runs with it, as they say in corporate America, in the future. 

Four stars

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Review: The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell (2021)

By Lonnie Wheeler

The book, "The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell," carries with it more than a little poignancy before reading a single page.

Author Lonnie Wheeler had just finished this book when he died in June. He was a sports writer who had written 12 books. The best-known of those efforts might have been with Henry Aaron and Bob Gibson. Most of the books were about baseball, although Wheeler could do more than that.

For whatever reason, the good folks at NetGalley provided reviewers like me an electronic copy of the book about six months before it was scheduled to be sold to the public. This is kind of like getting a Christmas gift in July, or at least having ice cream before dinner.

In any event, it is good to note that Wheeler - by all accounts a fine person and a fine writer - at least exited with another winner for his legacy. And who wouldn't want to write a book about a man named "Cool Papa?" The Negro Leagues had a great way with nicknames, with such names as "Turkey," "Mule," "Boojum," and "Double Duty." Cool Papa is lovely.

Wheeler admits in the opening pages that tracking down the full story of Bell's life is not exactly easy. We can get the idea of the music he created on the field during a career that lasted well over 20 years, but it's difficult to see all of the notes individually. After all, the Negro Leagues of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s were not particularly well organized, especially in the area of record keeping. We don't know how many games Bell played, or how many batting titles he won, or how many hits he had. We just know that he was really good.

There may have been faster people that played baseball, but not many. What's more, Bell played with a sense of daring that isn't seen in today's game. For example, how many players can score from first on a sacrifice bunt. Bell did it. When a batter bunted toward the third-base side of the pitcher's mound, Bell took second. Seeing that many of the fielders were out of the position, Bell rounded second and saw an open third base. He only had to beat a catcher to take third, and that was easy. But then when Cool Papa got to third base, he noticed that there was no one close to home - and he had a running start to get there. Mookie Betts sometimes goes from first to third on a sacrifice, but I don't think he has scored on that play.

The story that most people have heard about Bell involves a hotel. He had already established a reputation for speed when he noticed that a switch in his room when thrown had a delay of a few seconds before the light went out. Bell called in a teammate, and told him he was so fast he could turn out the light and be in bed before the room was dark. The response was along the lines of "yeah, sure," and then Cool Papa did it thanks to the pause.

Wheeler goes through the outline of Bell's. He was born with the name James Nichols, but eventually took the last name of Bell as a teen. Jim moved from Mississippi to St. Louis as a youngster, and used that city as a home base for the rest of his life. It was the launching point for his career in baseball. Bell did some pitching early in his career, but found a home in the outfield. Center field was a place where hits went to die in Bell's glove, because he covered so much ground.

The author makes one good move here in his approach to the book. He supplies the information that he has compiled about Bell, but he's more concerned with providing a look at his life and times. Bell played with many of the greats of the Negro League over the years  - Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, etc. The book gives a good idea what the era was like for all concerned. It's hard not to fall in love with the idea of the Negro Leagues - top players who were denied the opportunity of playing against the best competition in the world because of the color line, but who pressed on anyway.

By the time integration came to major league baseball, it was too late for Bell. His playing days were about over. After retirement, he couldn't even find a job in the sport although he was an obvious expert in hitting, running and fielding. Bell became a janitor and then a night watchman in St. Louis.

Happily, though, Bell lived long enough to learn that his skills were appreciated. (This is in contrast to Gibson, who died of what was said to be a broken heart when he realized he was too old to go to the majors.) The Baseball Hall of Fame started taking Negro League stars in its ranks when Paige entered in 1971. Cool Papa went in in 1974. Bell had about 20 years to tell stories about his exploits in the Negro Leagues before he died in 1991, so Wheeler did have a good supply of oral interviews with Bell available that he could use to fill in some gaps.

We're coming up on the 100th anniversary of Bell's first pro game in 1922. Certainly that's a little dusty for some people, who prefer their history to be a bit more timely. But those looking for an overview of Bell and his times should be quite satisfied by "The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell."

Four stars

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Review: Baseball Prospectus 2020

Edited by R.J. Anderson, Craig Goldstein and Bret Sayre

Milestones can sneak up on you ... sort of like an unexpected fastball.

The ever-changing group from Baseball Prospectus celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. That means it is a good time to look back a little bit.

We've come a long way since Bill James started producing Baseball Abstracts in the 1970s out of his house in Lawrence, Kansas. He more or less pointed the way to using data to test theories about sports, and it started a revolution. Since that time, when the information hasn't been available, we've figured out a way to get it.

The folks from Baseball Prospectus have been the leaders in that movement in baseball. They've got an avalanche of tools in their kits, which can be a little intimidating. Luckily, there's an effort to drive the numbers toward conclusions about player development. They aren't always accurate - we are dealing with humans, after all - but it's become a heck of an annual resource.

We're now at the point where analytics is an important part of almost every sports organization. Graduates from Baseball Prospectus are littered throughout organized baseball. One of the most famous now might be Chaim Bloom, the Chief Baseball Officer of the Boston Red Sox. Oddly, the head of the alumni association might be Nate Silver, who became famous through his political analysis. Data is still data, no matter what form it comes in.

There are bunches and bunches of contributors to this book now. You can have the best editors in the world under such circumstances, and the writing is going to come out uneven in such circumstances. The book has gotten away from its old snark since its origin, which is missed a little bit at times but probably helps the product be taken more seriously.  The team essays are the best example of that. A few seemed a little pointless, while others were off target. But the player essays, the meat of the book, are fine as usual. You'll refer to it during the season every so often.

Most of the complaints center on a couple of points:

* The Kindle version of this book is a mess. Without seeing it, I would guess that a publication with so many charts and graphics wouldn't translate well to a Kindle. Easy solution - buy the actual book.

* There are a few comments that could be considered left of center politically along the way - emphasis on "a few" - mostly connected to domestic abuse charges of players. The material comprises a tiny percentage of the words in a 588-page book ... but don't say you haven't been warned.

There's not much new in this year's edition. One addition was to highlight the player capsules of the top 100 prospects in baseball within the team sections. I usually don't spend much time reading the capsules of players who haven't appeared in the majors yet, but those now carry a "must read" signal to casual readers like me. It's a good move.

After finishing "Baseball Prospectus 2020" you'll feel ready for the upcoming season. Can't ask for more than that. It's another great job.

Five stars

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