Compiling a reading list for the Playing the Field section was tricky–after all, sports have long been the subject of some of nonfiction writing’s most elegiac and intelligent prose. But whittle it down we did. Here’s our introduction to issues of innovation and scientific inquiry in sports.
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play “¦ It is war minus the shooting.”
–George Orwell (“The Sporting Spirit,” 1945)
Start Here
- Moneyball (Michael Lewis, 2004)
The definitive text on the impact of data analysis on sports. Baseball manager Billy Beane breaks records with his minor league team, built from players other coaches didn’t appreciate.
- Beyond a Boundary (C.L.R. James, 1963)
Regularly cited as one of (if not) the greatest sports book ever written. James explores issues of imperialism, class, race, family, and more throughout the British Empire and his home, Trinidad, through the lens of cricket.
- “Roger Federer as Religious Experience” / “Tennis Player Michael Joyce’s Professional Artistry as a Paradigm for Certain Stuff About Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness“* (David Foster Wallace, 2006/1997)
Foster Wallace’s profile of possibly the greatest tennis player of all time is in the hall of fame of sports writing, but his other big tennis profile–about the daily grind for a pro player at the lower end of the sport–is also excellent.
Then Try
- The Fight
Norman Mailer, 1975 - “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu“
John Updike, The New Yorker, 1960 - “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved“
Hunter S. Thompson, Scanlan’s Monthly, 1970 - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Haruki Murakami, 2009 - “The Silent Season of a Hero“
Gay Talese, Esquire, 1966 - “We Are Grown Men Playing a Child’s Game“
Gilbert Rogin, Sports Illustrated, 1963 - The Boys of Summer
Roger Kahn, 1972 - “Soccer, Fire, and a Game at the World’s Crossroads“
Spencer Hall, SBNation, 2014
Shorter Reads
Changes
- “Why Russia Should Host a Doper’s Olympics“
Multiple writers, The Ringer [4-minute read] - “The People V. Football“
Jeannie Marie Laskas, GQ [15-minute read] - “Good Game: The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete“
Ben McGrath, The New Yorker [18-minute read] - “What Could the World of Sports Look Like in 25 Years?“
Erik Brady, USA Today [3-minute watch] - “Is “‘American Ninja Warrior’ the Future of Sports?“
Jason Gay, The Wall Street Journal [7-minute read] - “The Future of Sports Is Streaming“
Ferguson Mitchell, The Kernel [4-minute read] - “How the New Science of Game Stories Could Change the Future of Sports“
MIT Tech Review [3-minute read] - “Introducing the Stadium of the Future, Where Technology Is King“
Patrick Sisson, Curbed [9-minute read]
What even is a sport?
- “Why Sports Are for Losers“
Matt Taibi, Men’s Journal [4-minute read] - “Life’s Rich Pageant: Meet a Florida Man“
Holly Anderson, Grantland [8-minute read] - “Out in the Great Alone“
Brian Phillips, Grantland [20-minute read] - “The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever Told“
Michael J. Mooney, D Magazine [13-minute read] - “The King of the Ferret Leggers: The Classic Tale of Sportsmen Who Put Carnivores Down Their Pants“
Donald Katz, Deadspin [8-minute read]
Record-breakers
- “How Yuriy Sedykh’s Hammer Throw Became One of the Most Unbeatable Records in Sports“
Brendan I. Koerner, ESPN [7-minute read] - “Which Professional Sports Leagues Make the Most Money?“
howmuch.net [4-minute read]
Watch
When We Were Kings (1996)
The 1996 Oscar winner for best documentary, it’s Leon Gast’s masterful record of the Rumble in the Jungle between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali.
Murderball (2005)
Covers the rivalry between the U.S. and Canadian wheelchair rugby teams in the run-up to the 2004 Paralympic Games. A masterpiece in low-budget filmmaking.
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
A documentary about the birth of a new sport–skateboarding–filmed while it happened, during the era of home video. Southern California’s surfers morph into skateboarders, and export their local subculture to the rest of the world.
30 For 30: The Two Escobars (2010)
ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series has many fantastic entries, but for our money this is the best–charting the linked fates of Pablo and Andres Escobar. Though not related, they shared a name and a country. The rise of the Colombian national football team in the 1990s was, in part, funded by Pablo Escobar’s cartel; Andres accidentally scored an own-goal that sent the team out of the 1994 World Cup, and he was murdered soon after in a cartel hit. Soccer as life and death.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
One of the first of what will no doubt become an entire subgenre in its own right, this esports documentary manages to turn the battle for world champion of the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong into an intense portrait of good versus evil. (This movie is also partly responsible for the surge in popularity of speedrunning in recent years.)
[*Esquire originally commissioned a shortened version of this story, which appeared in the magazine in 1996 under the title “The String Theory.” We’ve linked to it here, since its longer version from the book A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again isn’t available online.]
How We Get To Next was a magazine that explored the future of science, technology, and culture from 2014 to 2019. This article is part of our Playing the Field section, which examines how innovations in sports affect the wider world. Click the logo to read more.
