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6 new sports books for good holiday reading

Here are excerpts from six new sports books.

3. 'Scribe: My Life in Sports,' by Bob Ryan

  • By Ross Atkin

Bob Ryan’s enthusiasm for writing earned him the nickname “Scribe” in high school for his work on the school newspaper. In his memoir, he looks back over his 46-year career as a sportswriter and sports columnist with The Boston Globe and his regular appearances on ESPN.  

“Sportswriters are always being asked, ‘What’s your favorite sport to cover?’ What the questioners usually mean is ‘What’s your favorite sport?’ because they assume the answer will be the same. Not in my case. My answer always surprises them. That’s because my favorite sport to cover is golf.

“The reason is simple: Golf is the last sport television scheduling can’t mess up, because it has to be played during the day. Thus, golf is the only sport that enables you to cover it properly, allowing you to write what you want without rigorous deadlines that force the story to be contrived. This would not be true for me if I didn’t understand golf – if, say, it was NASCAR or UFC. Daylight or no daylight, I wouldn’t enjoy it. But I happen to really like covering golf.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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