Losers
Dispatches from the Other Side of the Scoreboard
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
“It's easy to do anything in victory. It’s in defeat that a man reveals himself.” —Floyd Patterson
Twenty-two notable writers—including Bob Sullivan, Abby Ellin, Mike Pesca, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa Hall, and Gay Talese—examine the untold stories of the losers, and in doing so reveal something raw and significant about what it means to be human
The locker rooms of winning teams are crowded with coaches, family, and fans. Reporters flock to the athletes, brimming with victory and celebration, to ask, How does it feel? In contrast, the locker rooms of the losing teams are quiet and awkward, and reporters tend to leave quickly, reluctant to linger too long around loss.
But, as sports journalists Mary Pilon and Louisa Thomas argue, losing is not a phenomenon to be overlooked, and in Losers, they have called upon novelists, reporters, and athletes to consider what it means to lose. From the Olympic gymnast who was forced to surrender her spot to another teammate, to the legacy of Bill Buckner's tenth-inning error in the 1986 World Series, to LeBron James's losing record in the NBA Finals, these essays range from humorous to somber, but all are united by their focus on defeat. Interweaving fourteen completely new and unpublished pieces alongside beloved classics of the genre, Losers turns the art of sports writing on its head and proves that there is inspiration to be found in stories of risk, resilience, and getting up after you've been knocked down.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pilon (The Monopolists), a former New York Times journalist, and New Yorker contributor Thomas (Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams) explore the significance losing and defeat has on the lives of athletes and fans in this thoughtful anthology that gathers works by 22 writers, both living and dead, including Gay Talese, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bob Sullivan, and Louisa Hall. "Ultimately, these are stories about resilience, risk, inspiration, about being knocked down and getting up," the editors observe about their selections. In "The Sporting House," Charles Bock explores the drug-tarnished fortunes of 1980s NCAA basketball star Lloyd "Swee'pea" Daniels, who turns his life around and eventually plays in the NBA. In "The Peanut Vendor and the Curse," Samuel Graham-Felsen, who worked as a peanut vendor at Boston's Fenway Park, writes of his life of disappointment until the 2004 Red Sox World Series win. Pilon explores the up-and-down career of Michigan MMA promoter Scott DiPonio in "Tomato Can Blues." Gay Talese, in his 1964 profile of boxer Floyd Patterson, examines the former champion's view of the emotional toll after his recent defeat by Sonny Liston before stepping into the ring again. This is a stirring tribute to losing, one of life's greatest teachers, the editors conclude.
