The Best American Sports Writing 2007

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For fans of sports and just plain great writing, this absorbing collection, featuring twenty-eight of the finest pieces from the past year, has something for everyone. Guest editor David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, has assembled a fresh crop of the people and stories that dominated the sports world in 2006.

Michael Lewis gives a behind-the-scenes look at the legendary football coach Bill Parcells. Bob Hohler delves in the murky waters of modern amateur basketball, where teams blatantly dole out cash to players and shoe companies set their sights on prospects as young as twelve. William Rhoden traces the fate of an unknown filly injured on the racetrack. Jeff MacGregor describes the unforgettable Friars Club roast of boxing's provocative promoter Don King. Daniel Coyle follows a forty-year-old Slovene soldier who might be the world’s best ultra-endurance athlete. L. Jon Wertheim tells of a young pro-basketball player who found himself wrestling the shoe bomber Richard Reid to the ground during a transatlantic flight. And Derek Zumsteg provides a hilarious and utterly original in-depth account of the baseball career of Bugs Bunny, “the greatest banned player ever.”

These pieces and many more go beyond the spotlight, revealing the people and issues that make sports so relevant and important to all of us.

The white coon / Larry Brown --
Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever / Derek Zumsteg --
Ready for some fútbol? / Oscar Casares --
The game of the year / Chris Ballard --
Filling in the pieces of Jake Scott / Dave Hyde --
Fading away / Wright Thompson --
Deal of the century / John Klima --
An unknown filly dies, and the crowd just shrugs / William C. Rhoden --
Let us now raze famous men / Jeff MacGregor --
Only medal for Bode is fool's gold / Sally Jenkins --
That which does not kill me makes me stranger / Daniel Coyle --
Polite when in neutral / Mimi Swartz --
Snook / Ian Frazier --
Blank Monday / William Finnegan --
What keeps Bill Parcells awake at night / Michael Lewis --
The madness of John Chaney / Robert Huber --
The real deal in so many ways / Michael Wilbon --
$neaker war / Bob Hohler --
Baseball for life / Sara Corbett --
A new game plan / Eli Saslow --
The Saturday game / Eric Neel --
Playing 4 keeps / Bryan Smith --
The ultimate assist / L. Jon Wertheim --
In Iraq, soccer field is no longer a refuge / Bruce Wallace --
A moment of silence / Steve Friedman --
Team Hoyt starts again / John Brant --
The big show by little people / Paul Cullum --
Talking turkey / Bill Buford