Books so nice you read them twice

Every so often, usually after she’s watched a few episodes of Hoarders and worries about a future where she’s keeping dead squirrels in the freezer and live ones as pets in our apartment, my wife starts cleaning out her book collection. She’ll get rid of novels and cookbooks, old textbooks, memoirs and coffee table books. Some we donate, others we just leave in our apartment lobby for people to take. Occasionally I think about following this path and ridding myself of some of my books, but then I stop and think: What if I want to read that book again? Or read it for a 12th time?

Top 10 NCAA tourney players ever: Wait, who?

In honor of the 75th year of the NCAA basketball tournament, Sports Illustrated put together a list of the top 75 players in tourney history. It’s important to note that this is just tourney history, has nothing to do with the regular season. So you won’t see Pistol Pete anywhere on the list since Louisiana State never made it to the tournament.

The Top 10:
1. Lew Alcindor
2. Bill Walton
3. Bill Russell
4. Oscar Robertston
5. Larry Bird
6. Wilt Chamberlain
7. Bill Bradley
8. Magic Johnson
9. Christian Laettner
10. Jerry West

So we have some issues.

The Tapes: Sept. 28

Wednesday night, at about 11:30 p.m., I noticed I suddenly had 80 unread messages in my email inbox. They were all mail delivery failure messages. I hadn’t sent any email in a few hours, much less 80 that failed to find a home. Turns out I’d been hacked or hijacked or whatever and a spammer had sent out a GREAT BUSINESS PROPOSAL to dozens of people in my contacts list. So disheartening, confusing. Hopefully the new password fixed things. If you received such a message, I apologize. But if you liked what you read and want to know more about THIS INSANE BUSINESS OFFER, please let me know. We could hit it big.

Anyway, this week’s links:

* The New York Times is doing an interesting series on data centers and the insane amounts of energy required to run them. It’s not something you think about at 11:30 at night as you’re dealing with a hacked email or while looking at 700 pictures on Facebook, but it’s a real issue. The stories have generated – if you will – controversy from technology folks who believe The Times isn’t with the times, and that the stories would have been more relevant six years ago. But as someone who wasn’t really aware of the issue – as is the case with so much technology – they opened my eyes a bit.

* Heart-warming story – or it is making a mockery of the game, take your pick – about former Chicago Cubs player Adam Greenberg, who was beaned on the first pitch he ever saw seven years ago. He never played again, done in by the after-effects of the concussion. But after a campaign by a filmmaker, the Marlins are going to give Greenberg one more at-bat, next week against the Mets.

* Here’s one of Grantland’s new 30 for 30 series, but a short one. It’s on Arnold Schwarzenegger and his life in Austria. Nearly all of the original 30 for 30 films were really good and they’re starting up again soon. Grantland will also be offering these shorter films.

* J.K. Rowling has a new book out. An adult book. A very adult book, apparently. It’s getting bad reviews, but I enjoyed this New York Magazine look at Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani and her love of the word limn.

* Chris Jones on Greg Schiano’s belief that kickoffs should be eliminated from football. That also brings us to the podcast of the week. ESPN The Podcast is an offshoot of – you guessed it – ESPN The Magazine. Hosted by editor Chad Millman, it’s sort of like a DVD extra to supplement the mag. For example, this week Jones came on to discuss his piece and to debate former NFL coach Herm Edwards on the topic. Previously, Wright Thompson gave insight into how his piece on Urban Meyer came to be. While it might be too Inside Baseball for the average fans, journalists should eat it up.

* Because we haven’t had a list for a while … Sports Illustrated has put out its second Twitter 100, a list of must-follows in the sports world. Incredibly, TVFury did not make the list. (That snub will be referenced during our Blog Hall of Fame induction speech in 2037.) But 100 others did. Some we’ve heard of an endorse, others seemed to be a bit of a reach. See for yourself.

Podcast: The renaissance of longform sportswriting

TV and Fury have noticed that there are a bunch of Web sites popping up dedicated to longform – and really good – sportswriting. (Nothing gets by us.)

Grantland, Sports on Earth, the forthcoming Glenn Stout project – we like them all. But what’s prompted the trend, are non-writers into it and can it be maintained given the cost and the constantly changing media industry? That’s the topic of this week’s TVFury podcast.

Here’s the link.

The Tapes: July 20

Interesting week at TVFury, as we got a terrifying glimpse into Terry’s mind and life and we can all now picture him stomping around his Sioux Falls home, bread crust hanging out of his mouth, old cereal milk dripping down his chin, sweat pouring down his cheeks because he refuses to use the air conditioner, while he rants about having no desire to watch a six-hour game between the Yankees and Red Sox.

On to the links.

* In MIAC news that doesn’t involve the state of St. John’s football, Carleton made news as the members of its 50th class reunion raised $30 million during their little gathering. Yeah, yeah? Well, you’ve still never beaten St. John’s in football! Yeah! (shuffles off to donate plasma so there will be enough rent money.)

* Do not give a negative review to The Dark Knight Rises. Do not.

* I’ve never had a BlackBerry. Or an iPhone. But if I would have had one of those two, I think it would have been BlackBerry; it would be in line with my desire to go with older-school companies. Hence, Yahoo! mail. But BlackBerry is not doing well and here’s a good look at why it’s dying.

* Culture alert! Boston magazine has a piece on a guy who has spent his whole life training for the 10 minutes he has to impress members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

* Also today, it’s Ma and Pa Fury’s 44th anniversary. Congrats! And please don’t get divorced, it’d be awkward now.

* TV here. My lone entry this week comes from the legendary Gary Smith. How legit is Smith? I’ve not only heard of him, I’ve read one of his books.
Smith recently wrote a piece for Sports Illustrated chronicling Wonman Joseph Williams, a walk-on football player at the University of Virginia who made national headlines for a politically driven hunger strike. The kid’s story is inspiring, but I remain unsold on the idea that student-athletes are taken advantage of. Some are, sure. But all or most? Not the ones that I interact with through my job as an NCAA Division I beat writer.
I may have to delve into that at a later date. Feel free to chime in.

Happy Birthday, America!

Don’t let anyone ever say TVFury doesn’t appreciate — no, love — America. Of course I hate that the 4th is on a Wednesday and I have to work Thursday and Friday, but that’s not really America’s fault, is it?

No big plans in New York City, although I hear Terry is planning a backyard barbecue where he’ll grill up some famous Vandrovec burgers while shooting off legal and illegal fireworks into the South Dakota sky, all while he dictates a 600-word story into a recorder about incoming cross country recruits for South Dakota State, which he’ll finally type up and send to the office while watching the Boston Pops performance on TV. Here, we’ll relax, go to a barbecue and maybe watch some fireworks from a friend’s balcony, where you can see three or four different fireworks shows while having three or four hundred mosquitos attack.

In honor of the Fourth, here’s a…I don’t know, grab bag, potpourri, random things grouped together, of Americana.

The Fury Files: Chris Ballard

Back by popular demand, it’s The Fury Files, the seventh-most downloaded Q&A on Kindle. As always, I will shamelessly plug previous editions, so check out my interviews with Tom Linnemann, John Millea, David Brauer, Joe Posnanski, Pat Coleman, Kevin Van Valkenburg, Michael Kruse and Chris Jones.

When Ballard talks about writing or hoops, you’ll want to listen.

This week’s guest is Chris Ballard, a Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated. Ballard joined SI in 2000 and has been a Senior Writer for about eight years. All he’s done during that time is become one of the best writers in the magazine, not to mention one of the most versatile. Ballard is best-known for his superb NBA writing. And while it’s a well-deserved reputation — as these stories on the dunk and Kevin Durant prove — it would be unfortunate if his skills as a hoops wordsmith overshadowed the fact he’s put together a series of features at SI that stack up against anyone’s.

This year, Ballard was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in profile writing for a November 2011 story about Dewayne Dedmon, a Jehovah’s Witness who went against his mother’s beliefs and eventually became a Division I basketball player. Twice Ballard has earned inclusion in the Best American Sports Writing series. The first time was for his 2006 story on an insane high school football game in Arkansas. The 2011 anthology honored Ballard’s story on Cal crew member Jill Costello and her inspiring fight against cancer. Some of Ballard’s other memorable features include his piece on retired quarterback Jake Plummer, the story of the kissing couple from the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots and a piece from this past February, which you very well might find in next year’s BASW book. The feature focused on Chicago-area high school wrestling coach Mike Powell and his fight against a draining, potentially deadly illness. Ballard did an interview with freelance writer Brandon Sneed and the pair dissected the story on Powell. Make sure to check it out. In the most recent Sports Illustrated — the May 14 issue — Ballard examines Kobe Bryant, his dad, Jellybean, and mom, Pam. The story is “Where Does Greatness Come From?” and is another superb piece by Ballard.

Ballard has also written four books, with the newest one hitting bookstores next week. His first, Hoops Nation, chronicled his half-year-long trip across the country playing pickup basketball. The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off The Beaten Path came out in 2006. And in 2009, he wrote one of my favorite basketball books ever, The Art of a Beautiful Game.

His latest effort, which is already receiving a lot of praise, is One Shot at Forever: A small town, an unlikely coach and a magical baseball season, the story of a high school baseball team in Illinois that accomplished great things back in the early 1970s. Hoosiers on the diamond. Ballard first told the story of the Macon Ironmen in a 2010 Sports Illustrated story. The book will be released on May 15.

Back to hoops. Ballard was a good high school player who played a year for Division III Pomona College in California. He’s still pretty tough and if you watch the video in this story Ballard wrote about some magical shoes, you can watch a sports writer dunk.

Below, Ballard talks about the inner editorial workings of Sports Illustrated, playing hoops with his dad, an interesting piece about a boring Tiger Woods, column writing vs. longform, finding your voice as a writer, writing about Kobe, his new book, Hoosiers, and a whole lot more. Thanks a lot for your time, Chris.

The regular-person draft

Tonight in New York City, 32 divisions of one of the most powerful companies in America will gather together and begin divvying up the latest crop of young talent.

That’s essentially what the NFL Draft is, in corporate terms even though we tend not to look at it in that way. But what if we did? What if conventional companies, be it newspapers or trucking firms or schools, filled jobs in the same way. That is: Monitored prospective employees through college, put them through aptitude tests, studied their backgrounds, got to know them through a series of interviews, tested their performance under pressure and then – in ceremonial fashion – drafted them according to a predetermined order.

Could that work?

The Tapes: March 30

It’s been an exemplary week at TVFury in terms of traffic. If you’re reading this, you’re a part of that. So, thanks. Let’s keep the momentum going. Woo!

Sorry. Too many sugar-free Red Bulls again. Furlough did nothing to slow my caffeine intake.

And, now, The Tapes, our week in (other people’s) words:

* Proving that the power conferences don’t have a monopoly on scandals, the University of Montana canned its successful athletic director and football coach Thursday. The story is still playing itself out, but many are connecting the firings with a rash of sexual assault allegations against football players.
A couple outside thoughts on the matter: First, the Football Championship Subdivision programs in that (somewhat renegade) state have had questionable cultures for years. Lots of success and no shortage of legal issues. Something like this was bound to happen. Second, the more time I spend around FCS programs, the more uncertain I am about their cleanliness. Too many incidents involving too many high-level teams in the last few years to give anybody the benefit of the doubt.

* Disgraced. That’s one way to describe outgoing L.A. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Another? The most successful owner in baseball history. That’s what this piece asserts. His rate of return will come out to 26-percent per year. I realize this is just how business works sometimes, but, holy Moses, can’t he be arrested for grand larceny or something? It’s unconscionable to think that anybody – especially an already rich and poorly thought-of man – could turn this kind of profit for essentially being terrible at his job. The guy can’t even pick a decent hot dog, according to Adam Carolla. (Related note: TV is going to see Carolla do some standup Saturday in Lincoln, Neb. He’ll have a review next week. Yeah, he will.)

* Fury here. My chairmanship of the Tiger Woods Will Break Jack Nicklaus’ Record For Majors Fan Club had its best day in, um, four years last Sunday, when Hank Haney’s muse finally won a tournament. Who knows how the Masters will turn out – although it’s going to be incredibly fun to watch, even with Chris Berman broadcasting from Augusta – but in preparation, Michael Bamberger had a great piece on Tiger and Rory McIlroy in this week’s Sports Illustrated.

* The Star Tribune’s Amelia Rayno looks back at the Gophers after their close defeat in the NIT championship game. The verdict: There was improvement at the end of the year and things aren’t as disastrous as they looked Thursday night. Still, I’m glad I went to Tuesday’s semifinal game at Madison Square Garden and not the championship.

 

The Swimsuit Issue has had some good articles

My Sports Illustrated arrives on Wednesdays. Last week I couldn’t wait for it to show up in my mailbox. I was anxious, lonely, ready to spend a good half-hour with the magazine. I checked the mailbox at 2 with no luck, then finally found it at 4 p.m.

See, there’s this amazing article by Thomas Lake I wanted to read.

Also, the SI Swimsuit Issue arrived.