Beyond the Game: The Collected Sportswriting of Gary Smith

There's a reason that Sports Illustrated's Gary Smith was named by a national poll of sports editors as the writer they'd most like to hire. He sees the game, but as the title of this marvelous collection of his work from the magazine implies, he also sees beyond. "Sports comes to us in boxes," Smith explains in his preface, "the perimeters of our TV screens or the boundary lines of fields and courts. As much as I enjoy what goes on inside the boxes, I've always had the urge to bust out of them." Does he ever. What's so remarkable about the 15 pieces that comprise Beyond the Game is how much human drama--and humanity--he reveals without resorting to fanfares and violins to enhance his soundtrack.

Final scores are less important to Smith than personal journeys. He doesn't write game stories; he writes stories about compelling people who happen to play our games, some famous--like Ali, Magic Johnson, Mike Tyson, Jim Valvano, and a series of world-record holders in the mile--some hardly footnotes, like John Malangone, the "Damned Yankee" in the title of the volume's leadoff piece. Malangone's saga is unforgettable. Once a sure-fire bet to replace Yogi Berra behind home plate, he carried enormous expectations, which seemed to crush him. But it wasn't the expectations that derailed him; it was a childhood memory he couldn't shake, "the whip," writes Smith, "he has used to flog himself for 60 years." With great understanding, Smith explores the horror encased in the memory, how carrying it corroded Malangone's potential, and how, ultimately, Malangone confronted his psychological baggage and, in his 60s, rediscovered his passion for the game he once walked away from. It is a tour de force of writing and reporting, set within the game but expanding well beyond it. But then every piece in this exceptional collection manages to do the same. --Jeff Silverman