The Best Story I Read This Year That Wasn’t Technically Written This Year
The Courage of Jill Costello by Chris Ballard
Sports Illustrated
The Top Five:
A Rough Guide to Disney World by John Jeremiah Sullivan
The New York Times Magazine
Chris Evans is Captain America by Edith Zimmerman
GQ
Cranking by Merlin Mann
43 Folders
Paul Haggis vs. The Church of Scientology by Lawrence Wright
The New Yorker
Three-Man Weave by Chuck Klosterman
Grantland
Honorable Mentions aka Five Sports Stories of a Part:
Welcome to the Far Eastern Conference by Wells Tower
GQ
Allen Iverson: Fallen Star by Robert Huber
Philadelphia Magazine
Why Isn’t Mike Vanderjagt Still Kicking In The NFL? by Eric Adelson
The Post Game
Searching for the Meaning in the Mistake by Amy K. Nelson
ESPN
Tony Gwynn Returns After Facing Cancer by Tom Friend
ESPN
Additional Thoughts
I’m not a particularly big sports fan, but you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong by pegging me as one after taking a look at this list: out of a total of eleven entries, a total of seven article focuses on current or former athletes. Five of those stories were written specifically for sports publications.
It’s a not a new insight, but the best sports stories contain many, if not most, of the qualities of a compelling narrative: a hero fallen from grace, a tiny underdog going up against Goliath, a quest for redemption. Those qualities are built into the DNA of good sports reporting.
No story this year moved me as much Chris Ballard’s article about Jill Costello, the coxswain from Cal State. There’s nothing I can add to it, except to say that everybody should read it, an nobody who does will make it through with dry eyes.