Glenn Stout - The Best American Sports Writing 2020

Copyright 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Introduction copyright 2020 by Jackie MacMullan

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Best American Series is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Sports Writing is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Cover image Longchalerm Rungruang/Shutterstock

MacMullan photograph Maureen Fletcher

ISSN 1056-8034 (print) ISSN 2573-4822 (e-book)

ISBN 978-0-358-19699-0 (print) ISBN 978-0-358-18183-5 (e-book)

v1.1020

How NBA Executive Jeff David Stole $13 Million from the Sacramento Kings by Kevin Arnovitz. First published on ESPN.com, November 19, 2019. Copyright 2019 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

Olympic Cyclist Catlin Was Driven to the End by Kent Babb. First published in the Washington Post, July 29, 2019. Copyright 2019 by the Washington Post. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Reprinted courtesy of Sports Illustrated: Fumbled Recovery by Chris Ballard, October 2, 2019. Copyright 2020. ABG-SI LLC. All rights reserved.

Shooting a Tiger by Bryan Burrough. First published in Vanity Fair, May 2019. Copyright 2019 by Bryan Burrough. Reprinted by permission of Bryan Burrough.

As the Border Bled, Jurez Watched the Game It Waited Nine Years For by Roberto Jos Andrade Franco. First published in Deadspin, August 7, 2019. Copyright 2019 by G/O Media, Inc. Reprinted by permission of G/O Media, Inc.

A Second Chance by Emily Giambalvo. First published in the Washington Post, September 18, 2019. Copyright 2019 by the Washington Post. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Gritty All Day Long by Mark Gozonsky. First published in The Sun, November 2019. Copyright 2019 by Mark Gozonsky. Reprinted by permission of Mark Gozonsky.

The Exiled and the Devils Sideshow by John Griswold. First published in The Common Reader, December 13, 2018. Copyright 2019 by The Common Reader Washington University in St. Louis. Reprinted by permission of The Common Reader Washington University in St. Louis.

Chaos at the Top of the World by Joshua Hammer. First published in GQ, December 4, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Joshua Hammer. Reprinted by permission of Joshua Hammer.

Patriot Act by May Jeong. First published in Vanity Fair, October 4, 2019. Copyright 2019 by May Jeong. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

Champion Moves by Chlo Cooper Jones. First published in Racquet, Issue No. 9, Spring 2019. Copyright 2019 by Chlo Cooper Jones. Reprinted by permission of Chlo Cooper Jones.

The Champion Who Picked a Date to Die by Andrew Keh. First published in the New York Times, December 5, 2019. Copyright 2019 by The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

44 Years. 41 Allegations. Now the Past Is Catching Up by Mike Kessler and Mark Fainaru-Wada. First published by ESPN.com, August 1, 2019. Copyright 2019 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

The Grandmaster Diet by Aishwarya Kumar. First published by ESPN.com, September 13, 2019. Copyright 2019 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

Reprinted courtesy of Sports Illustrated: Disqualified by Tim Layden, May 5, 2019. Copyright 2020. ABG-SI LLC. All rights reserved.

The Bicycle Thief by Steven Leckart. First published in Chicago Magazine in partnership with Epic Magazine, January 29, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Vox Media, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Vox Media, LLC.

Whatever Happened to Villanova Basketball Star Shelly Pennefather? So I Made This Deal with God by Elizabeth Merrill. First published on ESPN.com, August 3, 2019. Copyright 2019 by ESPN, Inc. Reprinted by permission of ESPN.

The Symptoms by Nick Paumgarten. First published in TheNew Yorker, November 4, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Nick Paumgarten. Reprinted by permission of Nick Paumgarten.

For People Suffering from Alzheimers and Dementia, Baseball Brings Back Fun Memories by Bill Plaschke. First published in the Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2019. Copyright 2019 by the Los Angeles Times. Used with permission.

He Told a Kid to Slide. Then He Got Sued by Steve Politi. First published in NJ.com, November 12, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Advance Local Media. Reprinted by permission of Advance Local Media.

What Its Like to Die from Heatstroke by Amy Ragsdale and Peter Stark. First published in Outside, June 18, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Amy Ragsdale and Peter Stark. Reprinted by permission of Amy Ragsdale and Peter Stark.

The Astros Stole Signs Electronically in 2017Part of a Much Broader Issue for Major League Baseball by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. First published in The Athletic, November 12, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. Reprinted by permission of The Athletic.

The Believer by Davy Rothbart. First published in TheCalifornia Sunday Magazine, May 14, 2019. Copyright 2019 by Davy Rothbart. Reprinted by permission of 21 Balloons Productions.

Which Way, Richmond? Which Way, America? by Kurt Streeter. First published in the New York Times, June 21, 2019. Copyright 2019 by The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Did Venus Williams Ever Get Her Due? by Elizabeth Weil. First published in the New York Times Magazine, August 25, 2019. Copyright 2019 by The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Dont expect a eulogy.

This is the thirtieth and last edition of The Best American Sports Writing, a series that began in 1991 and one that, accidently, commenced one year after the old Best Sports Stories series, which began in 1945, ceased publication. That makes this the seventy-fifth year an annual collection of sports writing has been published in the United States.

At such a time there is a great temptation, and maybe even an expectation, to provide some kind of grand summing up of the genre over the past three decades, charting the changes I have witnessed and noting the evolution that takes place in any field over time.

I might do that at some point, but it wont be here. Not that I dont have any thoughts about what has been taking place over the last three decadesI dobut right now this isnt about what I think, as Ive never considered this book in any sense mine. Ive only thought of myself as the custodian of something that rightly belongs more to the readers of this book and, in particular, to the writers whose work has appeared in these pages. It is their effort and creativity that sustained this series and inspired a generation of writers and readers.

It has been an honor to serve as your caretaker. And I mean that. My role, from the start, has been to facilitate the process under standard Best American title guidelines and ensure that everyonereaders and writersalways felt welcome to submit material while surveying on my own as much other work as I could. In a business that is not always fair, I did my best to keep the process equitable and free of favoritism. After that, I tried to stay out of the way and allow the guest editors the latitude to make their own decisions according to their own standards and taste.