In the recent Bissinger vs. blogs discussion, I mentioned Kansas City Star sportswriter Joe Posnanski as one of the best sports bloggers on the planet. Joe has
a great entry up on his blog today, describing the best story he ever covered in person, and how it eventually threatened to become
too good for his purposes. One of the readers even dug up a copy of the column Joe write and posted it in the comments. I've never written sports, but I've had days in my career where a story I was covering became so rich with detail that I didn't know what to do with it all. Joe's a hell of a writer, in print and online, so even if you don't know or care about sports in general or Greco-Roman wrestling in particular, it's absolutely worth the read.
Absolutely fantastic! I've never read Joe's blog, but I will be sure to read it in the future. I am a HUGE sports fan as well as a fan of great TV (and TV critics!). So to see my favorite TV critic post one of the best sports blog posts I've ever read is really something!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link!
Amen! I'm a huge JoePo fan. I feel lucky to have two great columnist working for my local paper. (Whitlock, though controversial, is really great too.)
ReplyDeleteI just wish the Royals would get it together. Joe loves baseball deserves to write about a winner!
Thanks Alan - I don't usually read sports blogs but I will now - that story was brilliant! One of the best posts I've read in a long time.
ReplyDeleteWilford Brimley makes every story better.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alan. I appreciate that your blog is mostly about television but takes time to talk about the occasional movie or point out other entertaining blog entries. And I'm one of the people you mentioned who's not really into sports but loved the story nonetheless.
We're very lucky in Kansas City. National sports sites (and other newspapers) have taken a lot of our other local writers (Jeff Passan, Ivan Carter, Elizabeth Merrill). Fortunately, we have been able to hang on to Mr. Posnasnki. His book on Buck O'Neill last year is among my all-time favorites.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see one of my favorite writers linking to another of my favorites. Thanks, Alan.
This was fantastic enough to be an episode of "Sports Night"...
ReplyDeleteWhat a great piece. And really, Rulon Gardner remains the story that keeps on giving. Quite apart from his Olympics exploits, the guy has survived about four near-death experiences, including a disastrous snowmobile trip where he was stranded for long enough to have a frostbitten toe amputated and a plane crash in Lake Powell, Utah where he had to swim an hour in 44-degree water to reach shore.
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible that no one's made a movie about this guy? More specifically, how is it possible that Werner Herzog hasn't made a movie about this guy?
And yes, Joe is definitely on my RSS radar now.
Pleeeeease.. what a joke. A guy writes 1,000 words on a sport he doesn't understand with all expenses paid.
ReplyDeleteThe Ledger should hire a guy like that.
Oh never mind, they already have Politi.
Thanks for the referral to Joe's blog -- great story!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous above, I found it all a bit insulting to Gardner. Didn't really care for the guy's writing style, either.
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