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The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan | 
 enlarge | Author: Pat Jordan
Creator: Alex Belth
Publisher: Persea
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $17.31
You Save: $10.64 (38%)
New (24) Used (2) from $17.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 61581
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0892553391
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.0973
EAN: 9780892553396
ASIN: 0892553391
Publication Date: April 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: unread.cloth binding, 1st edition, immediate shipping
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A highly-entertaining collection of sports journalism from a forty-year veteran.
For decades, Pat Jordan has been one of the best sports writers in America. This engrossing book compiles twenty-six features from throughout his career, among them his most famous magazine pieces and a small selection of previously unpublished gems.
Included is an exciting selection of Jordan's profiles of sports legends such as Wilt Chamberlain, Tom Seaver, Greg Louganis, Venus and Serena Williams—each one frank, insightful, and salty—as well as an extraordinary sampling of the pieces with which Jordan made his name: those about athletes who are obscure, unsuccessful, or have fallen from grace. Whether writing about the marginal, the famous, or the infamous, Jordan displays a hard-boiled, highly literate prose and a capacity to convey how the idiosyncratic mindsets of athletes lead to success or failure.
The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan covers a variety of mainstream sports and some less athletic (but equally competitive) pastimes like poker, pool, and child beauty pageants. A Q&A with Jordan gives intriguing behind-the-scenes scoops on select stories. Fun, revealing, and very readable, this book represents the best work from a standout in his field.
Highlights from The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan:
"Trouble in Paradise": L.A. Dodger all-star (and presumed future-U.S. Senator) Steve Garvey takes a hit to his public image—from his unsatisfied wife.
"Roger Clemens Refuses to Grow Up": The greatest pitcher of his generation is really just a big baby.
"The Outcast": O. J. Simpson stars as O. J. Simpson and has a thing for Jennifer Love Hewitt.
"Of Memory, Death, and the Automobile": Phil Hill, Renaissance Formula 1 racecar driver, obsesses over his obsessions.
"Renee's Retreat": Transsexual tennis pro Renee Richards reflects on her life on both the women's and men's tours.
"Duquesne, PA": In a down-and-out factory town, high school football provides the only escape.
"Is this Man the Future of Poker?": Poker phenom David Williams beats the odds, but can't bluff his girlfriend.
"The Noble Turtle": A wannabe actor can't escape his boxing past. His name? Sylvester Stallone.
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| Customer Reviews:
Wonderful writing, tons of errors May 13, 2008
First, I'm really, really enjoying the stories (I'm about halfway through the book). Jordan is a wonderful, no-frills writer with an amazing eye for the telling detail. That said, I have to dock one star for all the spelling and factual errors. In one story alone, on Whitey Herzog, he misspells the names of Garry Templeton, Dann Bilardello, Gussie Busch, and Busch Stadium, as well as placing New Athens, Illinois west of St. Louis.
In an otherwise wonderful piece on the race driver Phil Hill, he repeatedly misspells the names of two of the biggest names in racing, Hill's competitors Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney, as well as referring to those devices that stop cars as "breaks." And he calls Moss an American. I'm no racing fan at all, but even I knew how to spell Moss's and Gurney's names and that Moss is English.
That complaint aside, this is some of the best sportswriting I've ever read, nearly Angell-ic in quality.
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