America's fascination with sports is the topic of this literary anthology. Through their fiction, poetry, and essays, nearly forty writers reflect on sports as an illumination of our ordinary lives, rather than as a livelihood, a world of celebrities, or a means of escape.
Sports inevitably graze and illuminate our culture, as well. Heather Ross Miller's memories of half-court women's basketball become a powerful metaphor for sexual attitudes during the 1950s. George Garrett's reflections on college football during World War II provide images that symbolize an era, and Neil Isaac's delightful essay on major-league batboys chronicles the American Dream.