The SportsThink Weekly Review #5
July 10, 2020
Hello and welcome to the fifth installment of the Weekly Review. Many thanks to those of you who sent feedback on last week’s very long issue, which new readers can find here.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming this week.
Inside The Lines: The Best Writing On Sports I Read This Week
The Hero of Goodall Park: Inside a true-crime drama 50 years in the making by Tom Junod, via ESPN. Only tangentially a sports story, but I expect that this will be on many year-end lists (deservedly so). Make time for this one and then hug a loved one.
The Price of Gold, by Bill Donahue, via the Washington Post Magazine. A reminder of the very real costs of hosting the Olympics (or the World Cup, etc.)
The Coronavirus Shows How the NCAA Isn’t Built to Protect Athletes by Patrick Hruby, via his Hreal Sports Newsletter. Worth subscribing to.
“The Trivia Is Exceptional”: The Making and Disappearance of Don DeLillo’s ‘Game 6’ by Ross Scarano, via The Ringer. An unexpected story of the great author’s mostly unknown film.
How NFL offensive linemen escape the 5,000-calorie lunch and transform in retirement by Emily Kaplan, via ESPN. The title pretty much sums it up, interesting stuff.
The Week on SportsThink
A couple short editorials, one on the risks of putting our faith in sports organizations and one on the long-overdue name change for the DC NFL team. And some Friday Links, in case you need more reading.
Non-Sports Reads
The dark side of the South’s Mexican combo-plate dream by Gustavo Arellano, via the LA Times. Murder, enchiladas, and more. Great read.
Breath by James Nestor. How good can a book about the history and techniques of human breathing be? Apparently, very very good. Nestor is a great science journalist and sets off on a journey to understand the relationship between our breathing and…well, pretty much everything that we do. Recommended if you’re interested in human performance, but also if you suffer from asthma, allergies, sleep apnea, and basically any other ailment of the body. Reads incredibly fast for a science book on a subject that doesn’t seem totally interesting at first. If you don’t have time to read it, the easiest and most impactful advice seems to be: shut your mouth and breathe through your nose, as much as possible.
The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian. Scientist and baseball nerd opens a pack of 1986 Topps baseball cards and sets off on a journey to track down all of the players it contains. A must for the baseball heads, but just a really good road trip/meditations-on-life kinda book too. Will probably write more on this one; almost finished and sad that it’s not twice as long.
Department of Putting Smiles on Your Face
World got you down? This should help.
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
Tolga