The Best American Sports Writing series is appropriately named

Imagine my good fortune when I discovered the 2008 edition of one of my favorite series, The Best American Sports Writing, in a bargain bin at my local Waldenbooks / Borders. Three hundred plus pages of good writing for $3? Score!

For those unfamiliar with the concept and too lazy to click the above hyperlink, the concept of the book is relatively simple. The series editor scours publications and accepts submissions, and pares down thousands of articles to about 50 to 100. He then forwards these to the guest editor, which is normally a sports-writing luminary like Michael Lewis or Mike Lupica or Dick Schaap. This guest editor then makes the final decision on the 20 to 30 articles that will make the final cut for the book.

The best part about the series is the sheer range of the articles. For example, the 2008 edition has fare you would expect, like a great profile piece on how the death of first base coach Mike Coolbaugh rippled through his former team. However, it also has unconventional pieces, like a long piece on the training regimen and background of the Cincinnati Bengals' cheerleading squad.

If you're not into sports, then I'd recommend the other limb of the series that I've read and enjoyed - The Best American Travel Writing. The title sounds cheesy, but they're actually strong pieces of journalism, somewhat Hemingway-esque. I had to read an edition for Travel Writing while I was in college, and I actually found that as an incredibly useful class for a reporter to take, even though it technically qualified as a writing course.