Book Club
One of my favorite things about the book club this month is reading the Forward and Introduction in each edition. The forward is always written by the series editor, Glenn Stout (Appearing on the April, 5 edition of The Sports-Casters). The introduction is written by the guest editor. The guest editor is the true star of each edition of the series. Here is how I understand the book to be put together. First, Glenn reads just about every piece of sports writing published during the given calendar year. They he passes of what he feels are the best 75 or so to the guest editor. The guest editor then picks out the best 25 or so and orders them as you see in the book. The last job of the guest editor is to write the introduction.
I love these introductions. Just think about the people who have written them in the past, Peter Gammons, Buzz Biisinger, Mike Lupica, Rick Reilly, and Michael Lewis.
Right now, I am flipping through the 2006 edition of the series and was immediately sucked in by the introduction that Michael Lewis wrote. Michael Lewis has often been called the Michael Jordan of non-fiction writing. His range is unlike any writer I know of. He has written New York Times best-sellers about finance, baseball, football, and the stock market. He has authored a novel that turned into a #1 Movie and a short story in the New York Times that was featured on 60 Minutes.
I am going to spend the next few days reading what Michael Lewis thinks was the Best American Sports Writing in 2006. He promises in his introduction that the collection has a vast range of articles with subjects like cheerleading, poker, football, and baseball great Rickey Henderson.
I was excited to see that the first article in the collection is one written by New Orleans Saints beat reporter JefF Duncan. Jeff spend most of 2006 writing about the re-building of New Orleans.
Another exciting aspect of the 2006 book is that former guest of The Sports-Casters, L. Jon Wertheim is published. We have has so many great writers on the podcast that it seems I cant open a Best Sports Writing collection without at least one former guest of The Sports-Casters.
March Madness, Quite Mad after a Few Hours
As I write this blog, the first day of the NCAA Tournament is 3/4 of the way done. Four games have been decided by two points or less and that is only game shy of the record. Some things went as planned, Pitt, Florida, UCONN, and BYU all skated to blow out victories. The morning session started with a bang. West Virginia survived a scare from first round winner, Clemson. Butler provided the first buzzer beater of the tournament to crush a game Old Dominion team. Seconds later, Morehead St. wrecked a whole bunch of brackets by eliminating Rick Patino's Louisville team. Kentucky just escaped Louisville's fate with a 2 point victory over the smart kids from Princeton.
The changes that CBS has made to the coverage of the tournament are proving to be fantastic. In the past CBS woud take the excitement hostage and sometimes let us see it and sometimes not. This year, all 67 games in the tournament are on television. The times of the games are staggered perfectly so you almost never have to take a look at first half basketball. March Madness on Demand is still available to watch games on the iPad, the iPhone, or the computer. A college basketball fan couldn't ask for more from the coverage of the tournament this year.
The best part of the tournament remains Luke Winn @ The Tournament.
I owe everyone some links:
- Neil Best spent the first day of the tournament at CBS Studios.
- Thuuz game the Penn St. vs Temple game a 96 on the excitement meter.
- Vincent Scarsella has signed with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL.
- Have you played Poker Squares yet?
- Have you listened to the podcast on instacast yet?
- Give us a rating or review on iTunes
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