The art and science of cloud seeding, from the pilots who fly directly into storms to help save farmers’ crops.
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Roger Angell on Baseball, the Game of the Summer
Baseball has one saving grace that distinguishes it—for me, at any rate—from every other sport. Because of its pace, and thus the perfectly observed balance, both physical and psychological, between opposing forces, its clean lines can be restored in retrospect. This inner game—baseball in the mind—has no season, but it is best played in the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Breaking Ball: A Father and Son’s Pitch for Baseball Glory
In Japan, where baseball is a cherished pastime and players practice relentlessly, a father and his talented son decide to take a different approach to training and pitching: playing in fewer games to avoid injury.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Baseball’s Best Lobbyist
Meet Scott Boras, the superagent who scored the Nats their top talent—at top dollar. Boras seems to get his way at least in part through willpower. Jerry Maguire he is not. During negotiations, Boras doesn’t scream. He isn’t manic. Baseball insiders consistently describe him with two words: prepared and relentless. “At meetings, a GM might […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
When Baseball is the Most Dangerous Game to Watch
In Atlanta Magazine, Christine Van Dusen tells the story of the Fletcher family, who sat behind the dugouts at a baseball game at Turner Field and experienced the horror of having one of their children struck by a foul ball, fracturing her skull. Cabrera’s swing, so quick and effortless as to seem almost an afterthought, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Curses: A Tribute to Losing Teams and Easy Scapegoats
Barry Grass | The Normal School | Spring 2014 | 18 minutes (4,537 words) 1st Late in every February, Major League Baseball players report to Spring Training. Every year in Kansas City this is heralded by a gigantic special section in The Kansas City Star crammed full of positive reporting and hopeful predictions about the […]
Posted inNonfiction
Curses: A Tribute to Losing Teams and Easy Scapegoats
Barry Grass | The Normal School | Spring 2014 | 18 minutes (4,537 words) 1st Late in every February, Major League Baseball players report to Spring Training. Every year in Kansas City this is heralded by a gigantic special section in The Kansas City Star crammed full of positive reporting and hopeful predictions about the […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Where Does the Term “Spin Doctor” Come From?
Its earliest citation in the Nexis computer files is from an editorial in The New York Times on Oct. 21, 1984, about the Reagan-Mondale televised debates. ”Tonight at about 9:30,” wrote the editorialist, ”seconds after the Reagan-Mondale debate ends, a bazaar will suddenly materialize in the press room. . . . A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won’t be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They’ll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates. . . .”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Longreads Best of 2014: Sports Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in sports writing.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
When the Messiah Came to America, She Was a Woman
On the rise and fall of American utopia.
