The Literature of Sport

petitchou:

Hello. I am currently teaching an elective class titled, “The Literature of Sport.” I am teaching this class to some fairly elite high school athletes, from soccer players to golf prodigies. Suffice it to say, I know very little about sport, though I did grow up in the same neighborhood as many of the San Francisco Giants players of the late ’80s. I was Will Clark’s papergirl! He had a floor to ceiling aquarium built into his foyer! But I digress. I have immersed myself in “Friday Night Lights” (Clear eyes! Full hearts! Can’t lose!) and The Best American Sports Writing of the Century anthology. I am actually and verifiably becoming interested in sports. I would like to access Tumblr’s hive mind to compile some excellent sports writing essays/fiction around the following ideas:

1) Sports Writing as Narrative

2) Sports Writing as Social Commentary

3) Sports Writing as Myth, Metaphor, and Transformation

In the spirit of sharing, here are some great pieces of writing I’ve come across:

The Enlightened Man by Jeanne Marie Laskas

What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now? by Richard Ben Cramer

Shadow Boxing by Wright Thompson

Offensive Play by Malcolm Gladwell

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines by Andrew Sean Greer

Dreams, Steroids, Death by Mark Fainaru-Wada

The No-Stats All-Star by Michael Lewis

Time to out yourselves as the that jocks you are, tumblrs. What can you recommend?

Help a lady out!

FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE IS READY FOR YOU

If you wanted to play fantasy baseball, the league is ready! PLEASE email me at curvesball@gmail.com so I can give you the link to the league (which is head to head, by the way) and the password. If the draft date doesn’t work for you, we can discuss this as there is still time. Hooray!

So who wants to play fantasy baseball?

(img via) We are back from a long winter (and an even longer hiatus at this blog) and spring is in the air. Those boys go to spring training next week and baseball can take over its rightful place on the throne of America’s favorite sport (bye bye, football). So who wants to play fantasy baseball? A show of hands? If you have any questions or are interested in playing, reply here or email us at curvesball@gmail.com. And spread the word!

The Dark Hour of the Soul

So your team didn’t make it the playoffs. Mine either. As I believe Fitzgerald once referred to “the dark hour of the soul”, this can be a baseball fan’s dark hour. Your team isn’t in contention. Or your team made it to the playoffs! But then it ran into the damn Phillies or the man with the golden arm, Cliff Lee. This is a tough time to be a fan if you’re not the Yankees, Phillies, Giants, or Rangers. 

So what do you do? Do you jump enemy lines and root for another team? How do you even choose another team after 162 games of cheering and yelling at your tv screen and drowning your sorrows in pre, during, and post game alcohol choices? Are you disloyal for suddenly jumping on ship with the Yankees and hoping that there’s a repeat of last year just so they kill the Phillies? Or do you wish the Rangers the best even though you’re still bitter that after a few Golden Sombreros in April, you dropped Josh Hamilton from your fantasy team and then he became a sober wunderkind and your boyfriend beat you in fantasy baseball? No, you’re not bitter at all.

This is the time when we put aside our alliances and we watch good, solid, postseason baseball. You don’t have to find a new alliance or root for anyone if you don’t want to, I know how fragile egos can be after watching your team not make the cut. Just watch what we all love to begin with: the actual game of baseball. In the postseason, it’s even more dramatic and sometimes poetic. Finish your beer, put aside your anger at this season, pray for some moves in the offseason for your team, and play ball.