The first day is not an easy one for Jean. Normally a strong, confident person, she has grown increasingly nervous about the project, and this first morning she starts out with her heart in her throat. The day is not a complete success. The boat seems an adversary to her, not an extension of self; the strokes that seem so easy for some of the others come hard for her. She constantly thinks of flipping over; she repeatedly bumps into the shoreline.
I first try a Vespoli, a step up in speed from the Alden, and I do not row well. Frustrated, I try seeing myself through the strokes but it does not work. Later, I realize I have rigged the boat badly and that has significantly thrown off my strokes. During the videotape session, the coaches note that I am using my arms too much instead of letting them serve as hinges and using my shoulders and back to apply the power.
In the second session, I set the rigging right and row well. I am pleased. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Jean. She is still struggling, and it is hard. I know this is not fun for her. A little later, at lunch, she is still uneasy. “But there was a moment when I did about four strokes in a row that were just right,” Jean says, “and it was wonderful.” Ah, I think, the first glimmer of the rower within. In the afternoon, I watch as Jean returns to row again. Already there is sign of improvement, more good strokes than bad. At the end of the day, she is more confident and talks less of flipping.
On the second day, there are beginnings of genuine camaraderie. Bonded by our anxieties, comforted that no one in our group is either a super sculler or a boastful gamesman, we help put the boats in the water and begin to root for each other. Jean, with some misgiving, is rowing a Vancouver. The coaches have told her that they think it will be easier for her to handle but also a little easier to flip, clearly a mixed blessing. She accepts it as such.
That morning I am not pleased with my own rowing. The coaches come by and critique me: I am still using my arms too much and am cutting off a major supply of power. When Jean comes back from the first workout of the morning, she is frustrated; she has run into the bushes on the side of the lake several times. But looking at her videotape later that morning, I am impressed: she is slow and self-conscious, but her strokes are strong and her form is good. I am watching a rower. By the end of the day, Jean says that rowing is very good for women like her, who fear any exercise that builds the upper body, particularly the shoulders and arms. Sculling, if done properly, strengthens not only the arms but the legs, the lower back, and the abdomen.
By the third day we can joke about our nervousness. The rain has no effect on me; I am finally rowing well. The last two days have served as a crash course of good, simplified instruction; the videotape, a marvelous coaching instrument showing us how we row, not how we think we row. On what is, for me, surprisingly flat water, I am now doing twelve miles a day rowing a Schoenbrod, a sleek boat, virtually a racing shell; and I love it. I take twelve quick strokes, and it is like going back thirty-two years in time; I am rowing as I had thought I might, and I am thrilled by the speed of the boat. I have pledged to myself that I will not be competitive, but I am rowing so well that I soon find my eye—not me, but my eye—measuring the distance between myself and some of the other equally experienced scullers, trying to see if I have opened any water on them. Shameful stuff. I also wonder privately whether it will be hard to go back to the slower Alden once I get back to Nantucket.
Captivated by the pleasure of my own rowing, I have paid no attention to Jean. As I row back to the dock, I spot another boat. A Vancouver, moving quite nicely. It is my wife, and she is putting her body into it. As she comes up to the dock, her pleasure is self-evident. These are real strokes, and this is real rowing.
Technically, the school has three- or five-day classes; but Fraiman and Sparhawk are nothing if not flexible, and Jean and I decide to stay for a fourth day. The wind is up, and it is a very hard day to row. I stay somewhat closer to Jean, and I am pleased; she is frustrated by the coming of the wind, a new adversary. On this hard day, I see a young woman who has gone from absolute beginner to novice; her strokes are not just good, they are strong and she drives her entire body into them.
When we reach the dock, there is a new confidence to her voice. “In three days,” she says, “you can feel that you’re doing it right and take real pleasure from it. That doesn’t mean you’re a great sculler yet—only that you are doing it correctly enough to take pleasure. If I were starting out in tennis at my age, it might take six months or more of very hard work before I felt good about a serve.” When she gets back to New York, Jean says she intends to take swimming lessons for people who have serious fear of the water. (She does.)
Everyone seems pleased as they leave, but I think I am most pleased of all. There may be few things as sweet in this world as watching the person you love come to appreciate and like the sport you love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editor would like to thank the following institutions and individuals who were of assistance in tracking down material and putting together this volume: John Dorsey, the Boston Public Library, Joe Farara, the Johnson State College Library, Meg Downey, Christine Irizarry, the Nashville Tennessean, John Seigenthaler, Rob Fleder, Richard Johnson, Howard Bryant, Leanne Garland, Deborah May, the Nashville Public Library, Amanda Hicks, Alex Belth and Nate Rau. Special thanks to editors Will Schwalbe and Brendan Duffy at Hyperion Books, John Taylor “Ike” Williams of Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson, and Jean Halberstam for the opportunity to work on this book.
CREDITS
“Death of a Sculler, in Three Acts” reprinted from the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, 57:13 (April 23, 1955)
“Introduction” by David Halberstam from The Best American Sports Writing 1991. Introduction copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
“Sports Can Distract, but They Don’t Heal” © ESPN.com 2002
“The Education of Reggie Smith” originally appeared in Playboy magazine
“Why Men Love Baseball” © 1989 David Halberstam.
Initially published in Parade Magazine, May 14, 1989. All rights reserved.
“The Ultimate Gamer” © ESPN.com 2001
“Torre Makes a Good Boss” © ESPN.com 2001
“If They Strike, I’m Going Fishin’” © ESPN.com 2002
“Say It Ain’t So, Mike” © ESPN.com 2001
“In Admiration of Iverson” © ESPN.com 2001
“The Games Harvard Plays” reprinted from Inc., October 1990
“How I Fell in Love with the NFL” © ESPN.com 2001
“Homage to Patagonia” © ESPN.com 2001
“Ali Wins Another Fight © ESPN.com 2001
“Thanks, Soccer, See You in Four Years” © ESPN.com 2002
“Schaap Was a Pioneer … and a Good Guy” © ESPN.com 2004
INDEX
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.
Aaron, Hank, 50, 125, 196
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, 184, 186, 188, 191, 202
AFL, 228, 240, 249
African Americans, see black athletes; race and racism
Ainge, Danny, 217
Aka, Gary, 355, 359
Ali, Muhammad, 32, 44, 47–50, 195, 215, 253, 333, 364
“Ali Wins Another Fight,” 317–22
Allen, Mel, 98, 113, 114
Altman, Roger, 24
Amateurs, The (Halberstam), xxi, 330
Amaya, Naohiro, 34
America, 29–39, 41, 44, 49, 51
“Baseball and the National Mythology,” 61–69
as fair and just society, 123–24
American League, 75–76, 86, 96, 157
Anderson, Dave, 18
Andrews, Harley and Arley, 178–79
Andrews, Harold, 178
Angell, Roger, 218–19
Are
tsky, Ken, 349–50, 352, 354–55, 360
Arlen, Michael, 244
Arroyo, Bronson, 157
automobiles, 35
Babbitt, Bruce, 22
Bach, Johnny, 211
Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues (Bouton), 66–68, 69
Baltimore Colts, 44, 45–46, 223, 224, 225, 244–47, 286
Baltimore Orioles, 76
Baltimore Ravens, 281, 284, 285–86
Banks, Ernie, 28
Barber, Red, 37
Barkley, Charles, 207, 210, 211, 217
Barnes, Jimmy, 172
Barney, Rex, 133
Bartha, Miklos, 296
Baryshnikov, Mikhail, 195
baseball, 13, 56, 59–157, 196, 248
“And So It Happened,” 153–57
“Baseball and the National Mythology,” 61–69
black players in, 28, 40–41, 65, 67, 80–81, 86–87, 122–25, 126–27, 144, 196
“The Education of Reggie Smith,” 70–95
“The Fan Divided,” 96–105
“The Good Old Days—for Baseball Owners,” 115–18
“History’s Man,” 122–25
“If They Strike, I’m Going Fishin’,” 146–52
Jordan and, 200
“Maybe I Remember DiMaggio’s Kick,” 126–28
“My Dinner with Theodore,” 119–21
“The Perfectionist at the Plate,” 142–45
radio and, 43, 250
“Renewed Spirits at Fenway Opener,” 106–10
television and, 225–26
“Torre Makes a Good Boss,” 137–41
“The Ultimate Gamer,” 129–36
“Why Men Love Baseball,” 111–14
Baseball: The Perfect Game, 59
basketball, 13, 56, 65, 159–219, 248
“The Basket-Case State,” 161–82
black players in, 65, 174–77, 186–87, 188–89, 190, 342
“Character Study: Pat Riley,” 201–5
“He Got a Shot in the NBA, and It Went In,” 337–43
“A Hero for the Wired World,” 193–200
“In Admiration of Iverson,” 212–20
“Say It Ain’t So, Mike,” 159, 206–11
statistics in, 66
“The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of,” 183–92
women’s, 304
Batts, Matt, 22–23
Bayer, Cliff, 290, 291, 296–99
Bayer, Greg, 296, 297–98
Bayer, Michael, 296
Baylor, Don, 104–5
Baylor, Elgin, 196, 342
Belichick, Bill, 366–67, 369, 373
Belichick, Jeannette, 370–71, 372
Belichick, Steve, 366–73
Berkow, Ira, 18
Berlin, Richard, 146, 147, 152, 282–83, 344, 347–48, 350–56
Berman, Chris, 245
Berra, Yogi, 19, 28, 68–69, 90
Berry, Charley, 109
Berry, Raymond, 46 Best American Sports Writing, The (Halberstam and Stout, eds.), xxi–xxii
introduction to, 13–21
Best and the Brightest, The (Halberstam), xviii, 26
Best Sports Writing of the Century, The (Halberstam and Stout, eds.), xxii–xxiii, 364
Bianchi, Al, 342
Bias, Len, 185
Biasone, Danny, 342
Bigart, Homer, 18
Bilicic, Mary, 368
Bird, Larry, 183–84, 185, 186, 187, 189, 190–92
black athletes, xiv, 39, 191, 215
African, 325–26
in baseball, 28, 40–41, 65, 67, 80–81, 86–87, 122–25, 126–27, 144, 196
in basketball, 65, 174–77, 186–87, 188–89, 190, 342
in football, xv–xvi, 65, 190, 232, 240
media and, 191
as natural athletes, 188–89
sportswriters and, 319–20, 362–64
Williams and, 144
see also race and racism
Blackmon, Mars, 197
Boggs, Wade, 108
Bonds, Bobby, 122
Bonham, Tiny, 99, 142
Borack, Carl, 289–90
Boston Celtics, 183–92, 205
Boston Globe, 26, 135, 147, 186, 192
“And So It Happened,” 153–57
“The Day That the Striper—and Memories of Bob Francis—Came Back,” 259–63
“The Fan Divided,” 96–105
“Renewed Spirits at Fenway Opener,” 106–10
Boston Magazine, xx
Boston Red Sox, 22, 28, 54, 70, 77, 81–82, 86, 106–9, 112, 113, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 154–57, 216
“The Fan Divided,” 96–105
“If They Strike, I’m Going Fishin’,” 146–52
Boudreau, Lou, 106, 109
Bouton, James Allen, 66–68, 69
boxing, 195, 248
“Ali Wins Another Fight,” 317–22
Boyd, Oil Can, 107–8
Boyle, Michael, 300, 301–2, 303, 304
Bradlee, Ben, 22
Bravin, Jess, 291, 292, 294
Bravin, Nick, 288–96, 298–99
Bravin, Shawn, 291–92
Breaks of the Game, The (Halberstam), xviii, xxi, 26
Brennan, Pete, 340
Breslin, Jimmy, xv, 15–16
Britain, 325
Brock, Lou, 25, 28, 86
Brooklyn Dodgers, 40, 41, 87–88, 135
Brown, Jim, 223, 242, 363
Brown, Paul, 369
Brown-Miller, Lisa, 304
Bryant, Kobe, 213
Buchanan, Ted, 355
Buckheit, Mary, 325
Buckner, Bill, 130
Buechler, Jud, 207–8
Burrell, Scott, 207
Busch, Augie, 87
Butte, Glen, 166
Campanis, Al, 87
Cannon, Jimmy, xv, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20–21, 116
Cardwell, Don, 64
Carlton, Steve, 73–74, 132
Carnesecca, Lou, 339
Carp, Hiroshima, 93–94
Carter, Al, 293, 294
Carter, Vince, 211
Carville, James, 22–23, 27
Casterlow, John, 171
Castro, Jorge, 283, 287
Cater, Danny, 104
Cerioni, Stefano, 298
Cey, Ron, 88
Chamberlain, Wilt, 172, 338, 341, 364
Russell and, 216–17
Chamberlain Syndrome, 66
Charles River, sculling on, xiv, xvii, 1, 3–5
Charlton, Bobby, 323
Chavarria, Javier, 272, 273
Checketts, David, 203, 205
Chevtchenko, Dimitri, 291
Chicago Bulls, 193, 199, 204, 207–9
Chrysanthemum and the Bat, The (Whiting), 79
civil rights movement, 14, 17, 26, 49–50, 215, 238, 318, 332, 333, 363
Clemens, Roger, 115, 129, 132
Clemente, Roberto, 85
Clendenon, Donn, 63
Cleveland Browns, 251
Cobb, Ty, 131
Collins, Kerry, 286
Communism, 5, 6, 7
Condé Nast Sports for Women
“Ice Breakers,” 300–316
Conigliaro, Tony, 101
Cooper, Gary, 62
Cooper, Michael, 184
Cosell, Howard, 141, 230, 231, 245
Costas, Bob, 201, 203
Costello, Larry, 342
Cronin, Joe, 143, 145
Crowe, Ray, 175, 176
Cruz, Hector, 89–90, 92
Cruz, Tommy, 89
Cunningham, Bobby, 340
Cuomo, Mario, 194
Cutler, Lloyd, 22
Dallas Cowboys, 30, 224
Daly, Chuck, 338
Davis, Bummy, 16
DeBusschere, Dave, 65
democracy, 5, 35, 38, 39, 41, 123, 124–25
Dent, Bucky, 130
DeRogatis, Al, 231
DeShields, Delino, 135
Detroit Lions, 368, 369
Detroit Pistons, 186, 204
Devine, Peter, 289, 290, 291
Digby, George, 154
Dilfer, Trent, 286
DiMaggio, Joe, xv, 16, 17, 28, 38, 96, 98, 101, 107, 109, 111, 113, 126, 147, 194, 196, 199
background of, 32, 62, 124
character of, 62
Williams and, 216
Doerr, Bobby, 97, 109, 112, 113, 120, 147
Donaldson, Sam, 22
Downing, Al, 25
Drogin, Jeff and Linda, 128
Dropo, Walt, 117
Durant, Tom, 55, 102
Easter, Luke, 117
Edwards, Bill, 369, 370, 371
Emmons, Bill, 308–9
Erving, Julius, xxiv, 190, 196
ESPN, 253
ESPN.com
“Ali Wins Another Fight,” 317–22
“Homage to Patagonia,” 281–87
“How I Fell in Love with the NFL,” 237–43
“If They Strike, I’m Going Fishin’,” 146–52
“In Admiration of Iverson,” 212–20
“Say It Ain’t So, Mike,” 159, 206–11
“Schaap Was a Pioneer … and a Good Guy,” 361–65
“Sports Can Distract, but They Don’t Heal,” 52–57
“Thanks, Soccer, See You in Four Years,” 323–28
“Torre Makes a Good Boss,” 137–41
“The Ultimate Gamer,” 129–36
ESPN Sportscentury
“A Dynasty in the Making,” 29–51
Esquire
“The Basket-Case State,” 161–82
Ewbank, Wilbur “Weeb,” 45–46
Exley, Freddy, 357
Falk, David, 198, 210
Faulkner, William, 103
Fehr, Donald, 151