Advertisement
Well read

Jeter, bigamy and 'fun in the mundane': It's the week's best sportswriting

You deserve a break from the big bad outdoors. Stay in and catch up on some reading.

1. Even if the Yankees weren’t a death cult, even if the Yankees didn’t have a past, like the Rockies, or pretended they didn’t have a past, like the Brewers, Jeter’s Long Goodbye would still be a painful reminder of mortality, which baseball is supposed to make us forget.

Pulitzer Prize winner JR Moehringer wrote this about Derek Jeter’s retirement, for ESPN.

Yankees Red Sox Baseball AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

2. “O’Connell did not just meet success and acclaim in Betis, he also met another wife, who, improbably, was also Irish, also named Ellen and looked very similar to the woman back in England to whom he was still married. While the coincidence was quirky, the bigamy was an open secret in Sevilla, though was not mentioned so much during the couple’s holidays in Ireland.”

Paul Doyle tells the untold story of Paddy ‘Don Patricio’ O’Connell for The Guardian.

3. “Something struck me during my tour — everyone who works on these game broadcasts calls them “shows,” including the camera operators. And one of this particular group’s specialities is finding fun in the mundane.”

Bay Area Sports Guy Steve Berman goes behind the scenes of a live broadcast of a San Francisco Giants game.

TheBurn1976 / YouTube

4. “A goal that “conned me out of a million quid” according to Brian Clough in his first autobiography, Justin Fashanu’s fantastic strike against saw him win the Match of the Day Goal of the Season award in 1979/80…”

That 1980s Sports Blog looks wistfully back through old Match of the Day goal of the season awards and picks out their favourites.

5. “One of the most depressing things about the way that football is filtered through the media, fans and players is that it has created a situation in which it often appears that no one is allowed to just say what they think. And then when they do, you can’t help wondering whether they really are. ”

Sid Lowe takes the time to point out when Carlo Ancelotti really is telling the truth.

6. “That first 10 seconds you wake up, you don’t remember what’s going on. You have your normal waking thoughts. It’s another day. But after that 10 seconds it kind of dawns on you where you are, the situation you are in.”

We don’t normally feature our own writers here, but Fintan O’Toole‘s interview with the inspirational Jamie Wall is well worth your time.

If LeBron and Kyrie Irving play like this every night, the Cavs will be unmissable

Baseball’s postseason kicked off with some serious extra-innings drama

Your Voice
Readers Comments
3
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.