Everything They Had (51 page)

By the third day we can joke about our nervousness. The rain has no effect on me; I am finally rowing well. The last two days have served as a crash course of good, simplified instruction; the videotape, a marvelous coaching instrument showing us how we row, not how we think we row. On what is, for me, surprisingly flat water, I am now doing twelve miles a day rowing a Schoenbrod, a sleek boat, virtually a racing shell; and I love it. I take twelve quick strokes, and it is like going back thirty-two years in time; I am rowing as I had thought I might, and I am thrilled by the speed of the boat. I have pledged to myself that I will not be competitive, but I am rowing so well that I soon find my eye—not me, but my eye—measuring the distance between myself and some of the other equally experienced scullers, trying to see if I have opened any water on them. Shameful stuff. I also wonder privately whether it will be hard to go back to the slower Alden once I get back to Nantucket.

Captivated by the pleasure of my own rowing, I have paid no attention to Jean. As I row back to the dock, I spot another boat. A Vancouver, moving quite nicely. It is my wife, and she is putting her body into it. As she comes up to the dock, her pleasure is self-evident. These are real strokes, and this is real rowing.

Technically, the school has three- or five-day classes; but Fraiman and Sparhawk are nothing if not flexible, and Jean and I decide to stay for a fourth day. The wind is up, and it is a very hard day to row. I stay somewhat closer to Jean, and I am pleased; she is frustrated by the coming of the wind, a new adversary. On this hard day, I see a young woman who has gone from absolute beginner to novice; her strokes are not just good, they are strong and she drives her entire body into them.

When we reach the dock, there is a new confidence to her voice. “In three days,” she says, “you can feel that you're doing it right and take real pleasure from it. That doesn't mean you're a great sculler yet—only that you are doing it correctly enough to take pleasure. If I were starting out in tennis at my age, it might take six months or more of very hard work before I felt good about a serve.” When she gets back to New York, Jean says she intends to take swimming lessons for people who have serious fear of the water. (She does.)

Everyone seems pleased as they leave, but I think I am most pleased of all. There may be few things as sweet in this world as watching the person you love come to appreciate and like the sport you love.

The editor would like to thank the following institutions and individuals who were of assistance in tracking down material and putting together this volume: John Dorsey, the Boston Public Library, Joe Farara, the Johnson State College Library, Meg Downey, Christine Irizarry, the Nashville
Tennessean
, John Seigenthaler, Rob Fleder, Richard Johnson, Howard Bryant, Leanne Garland, Deborah May, the Nashville Public Library, Amanda Hicks, Alex Belth and Nate Rau. Special thanks to editors Will Schwalbe and Brendan Duffy at Hyperion Books, John Taylor “Ike” Williams of Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson, and Jean Halberstam for the opportunity to work on this book.

“Death of a Sculler, in Three Acts” reprinted from the
Harvard Alumni Bulletin
, 57:13 (April 23, 1955)

“Introduction” by David Halberstam from
The Best American Sports Writing 1991
. Introduction copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

“Sports Can Distract, but They Don't Heal” © ESPN.com 2002

“The Education of Reggie Smith” originally appeared in
Playboy
magazine

“Why Men Love Baseball” © 1989 David Halberstam.

Initially published in
Parade Magazine
, May 14, 1989. All rights reserved.

“The Ultimate Gamer” © ESPN.com 2001

“Torre Makes a Good Boss” © ESPN.com 2001

“If They Strike, I'm Going Fishin'” © ESPN.com 2002

“Say It Ain't So, Mike” © ESPN.com 2001

“In Admiration of Iverson” © ESPN.com 2001

“The Games Harvard Plays” reprinted from
Inc
., October 1990

“How I Fell in Love with the NFL” © ESPN.com 2001

“Homage to Patagonia” © ESPN.com 2001

“Ali Wins Another Fight © ESPN.com 2001

“Thanks, Soccer, See You in Four Years” © ESPN.com 2002

“Schaap Was a Pioneer … and a Good Guy” © ESPN.com 2004

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

Aaron, Hank, 50, 125, 196

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, 184, 186, 188, 191, 202

AFL, 228, 240, 249

African Americans,
see
black athletes; race and racism

Ainge, Danny, 217

Aka, Gary, 355, 359

Ali, Muhammad, 32, 44, 47–50, 195, 215, 253, 333, 364

“Ali Wins Another Fight,” 317–22

Allen, Mel, 98, 113, 114

Altman, Roger, 24

Amateurs, The
(Halberstam), xxi, 330

Amaya, Naohiro, 34

America, 29–39, 41, 44, 49, 51

“Baseball and the National Mythology,” 61–69

as fair and just society, 123–24

American League, 75–76, 86, 96, 157

Anderson, Dave, 18

Andrews, Harley and Arley, 178–79

Andrews, Harold, 178

Angell, Roger, 218–19

Aretsky, Ken, 349–50, 352, 354–55, 360

Arlen, Michael, 244

Arroyo, Bronson, 157

automobiles, 35

Babbitt, Bruce, 22

Bach, Johnny, 211

Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues
(Bouton), 66–68, 69

Baltimore Colts, 44, 45–46, 223, 224, 225, 244–47, 286

Baltimore Orioles, 76

Baltimore Ravens, 281, 284, 285–86

Banks, Ernie, 28

Barber, Red, 37

Barkley, Charles, 207, 210, 211, 217

Barnes, Jimmy, 172

Barney, Rex, 133

Bartha, Miklos, 296

Baryshnikov, Mikhail, 195

baseball, 13, 56, 59–157, 196, 248

“And So It Happened,” 153–57

“Baseball and the National Mythology,” 61–69

black players in, 28, 40–41, 65, 67, 80–81, 86–87, 122–25, 126–27, 144, 196

“The Education of Reggie Smith,” 70–95

“The Fan Divided,” 96–105

“The Good Old Days—for Baseball Owners,” 115–18

“History's Man,” 122–25

“If They Strike, I'm Going Fishin',” 146–52

Jordan and, 200

“Maybe I Remember DiMaggio's Kick,” 126–28

“My Dinner with Theodore,” 119–21

“The Perfectionist at the Plate,” 142–45

radio and, 43, 250

“Renewed Spirits at Fenway Opener,” 106–10

television and, 225–26

“Torre Makes a Good Boss,” 137–41

“The Ultimate Gamer,” 129–36

“Why Men Love Baseball,” 111–14

Baseball: The Perfect Game
, 59

basketball, 13, 56, 65, 159–219, 248

“The Basket-Case State,” 161–82

black players in, 65, 174–77, 186–87, 188–89, 190, 342

“Character Study: Pat Riley,” 201–5

“He Got a Shot in the NBA, and It Went In,” 337–43

“A Hero for the Wired World,” 193–200

“In Admiration of Iverson,” 212–20

“Say It Ain't So, Mike,” 159, 206–11

statistics in, 66

“The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of,” 183–92

women's, 304

Batts, Matt, 22–23

Bayer, Cliff, 290, 291, 296–99

Bayer, Greg, 296, 297–98

Bayer, Michael, 296

Baylor, Don, 104–5

Baylor, Elgin, 196, 342

Belichick, Bill, 366–67, 369, 373

Belichick, Jeannette, 370–71, 372

Belichick, Steve, 366–73

Berkow, Ira, 18

Berlin, Richard, 146, 147, 152, 282–83, 344, 347–48, 350–56

Berman, Chris, 245

Berra, Yogi, 19, 28, 68–69, 90

Berry, Charley, 109

Berry, Raymond, 46
Best American Sports Writing, The
(Halberstam and Stout, eds.), xxi–xxii

introduction to, 13–21

Best and the Brightest, The
(Halberstam), xviii, 26

Best Sports Writing of the Century, The
(Halberstam and Stout, eds.), xxii–xxiii, 364

Bianchi, Al, 342

Bias, Len, 185

Biasone, Danny, 342

Bigart, Homer, 18

Bilicic, Mary, 368

Bird, Larry, 183–84, 185, 186, 187, 189, 190–92

black athletes, xiv, 39, 191, 215

African, 325–26

in baseball, 28, 40–41, 65, 67, 80–81, 86–87, 122–25, 126–27, 144, 196

in basketball, 65, 174–77, 186–87, 188–89, 190, 342

in football, xv–xvi, 65, 190, 232, 240

media and, 191

as natural athletes, 188–89

sportswriters and, 319–20, 362–64

Williams and, 144

see also
race and racism

Blackmon, Mars, 197

Boggs, Wade, 108

Bonds, Bobby, 122

Bonham, Tiny, 99, 142

Borack, Carl, 289–90

Boston Celtics, 183–92, 205

Boston Globe
, 26, 135, 147, 186, 192