The best sports stories of the year? Look no further.
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With all the awards handed out by sportswriters -- MVPs, national champions, hall of fame inductions -- it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are also honors for those who can make the quickest turns (of phrase) and sweetest (key)strokes.
Last week, the Associated Press Sports Editors recognized the best writing of 2008, part of an annual effort to salute their Sultans of Scribe. A number of Southland journalists were named, including several from the Los Angeles Times. Consider the following links your syllabus for great sports writing.
Bill Plaschke was honored as one of the nation’s top columnists (all L.A. Times efforts were judged in the largest-circulation category, 250,000+). He placed fifth for a body of work that included:
- Soccer team helps Westmont College rise from ashes: The story of a college soccer program holding together a community that was all but wiped out by a wildfire.
- L.A. High football team honors fallen teammate Jamiel Shaw II: A team copes with the killing of one of their star players.
- Sneaky, yes, but with a smile: A look back on three weeks of Chinese culture shock during the Beijing Olympics.
- How bad was it? Celtics danced, fans sang: An A-1 story on the Lakers’ collapse in the last game of the NBA finals.
- These guys aren’t feeling super: The NFL can leave a lifetime of memories, and pain.
In addition to his work as a columnist, Plaschke also placed third in the game story category for a writeup of United States wrestler Henry Cejudo winning Olympic gold.
Chuck Culpepper received an honorable mention in the same category for his look at Greg Norman’s surge in the second round of the British Open.
Sam Farmer was recognized in the breaking news category for his discovery that Brett Favre wasn’t quite ready to retire, after all. The story placed fifth overall.
Kevin Baxter received an honorable mention in feature writing on the story about a Cambodian refugee who returned home and tried to introduce baseball to his native country. He also received an honorable mention in the projects category for his work on sports in Mexico. Among those stories:
- USC’s Mark Sanchez has more than pads on his shoulders: A Column One piece about Mark Sanchez‘s Mexican American heritage and what is means to the Latino community.
- Football’s popularity soars in Mexico: The tale of a college football team in Mexico and the growth of the ‘other’ football south of the border.
- They’re American, except in the Olympics: How some athletes are representing the nation of their heritage -- even if that’s not where they grew up.
- Female Mexican golfers going to school in the U.S.: The best female golfers in Mexico are looking to make it to the LPGA via the U.S.A.
Among local colleagues, Brian Dohn of the Los Angeles Daily News (100,000-250,000 circulation category) placed fourth for his game story after BYU beat UCLA 59-0 in college football. The piece, available for purchase online, looked at how Rick Neuheisel‘s relentless optimism was going to be tested -- but nobody knew it would be tested so hard and so soon.
Scott Reid and Dan Albano from the Orange County Register, placed fifth in the APSE’s investigative category (open to all circulations). They found out that secretly taken photos of high school water polo players were showing up on gay porn sites.
Congratulations to all the honorees -- keep up the great work!
-- Adam Rose