S.L. Price Book Excerpt from Sports Illustrated

Really interesting book excerpt from S.L. Price in the April 20 issue of Sports Illustrated.

The story is titled "Hit in the Head" and adapted from Price's book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America". The book itself is about Colorado Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh who was killed by a batted ball while coaching first base in 2007 and much of the SI piece is about the bigger picture of dangers from projectiles faced by baseball players, coaches and fans.

I did a post referencing a different S.L. Price story several weeks ago and was very interested to read about this new book from him... enjoyed his "Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey" quite a bit.

There was quite a bit of press in 2008 about shattered bats and the risk on injury these cause, but not as much attention has been paid to what a batted ball can do. However, as pitcher Joe Martinez of the San Francisco Giants found in a game earlier this month, the batted ball has huge potential for damage... video below:



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From the SI issue one week prior, Michael Bamberger wrote a profile of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer.

I note this and link to the story not because I'm a huge Phillies or Moyer fan (he does come across as a good guy in the piece). The reason I do so is because Bamberger has done some excellent work in SI (which can be through a search for him in the CNNSI Vault) and is the author of the book "The Man Who Heard Voices" about M. Night Shyamalan and the making of the movie "Lady in the Water".

Fully understand I'm in the minority on this, but I really enjoyed the movie... and found Bamberger's account of it's creation by Shyamalan to be quite interesting.

CC Sabathia Profile from Sports Illustrated

Great piece in the 2009 Baseball Preview issue of Sports Illustrated on New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia.



Written by S.L. Price and titled "Big Love 'CC'" the piece gives a very nuanced portrait of a guy that many sports fans would only associate with his recently signed $161M free agent contract. In this, there were a lot of parallels to a blog post I did about a Lamar Odom profile... both show wealthy athletes who have a lot more layers of complexity than would be expected by the casual observer.

The story on Sabathia is longer than that on Odom and able to give more details into his life and family. Additionally, though, what makes it an excellent read is really good writing provided by S.L. Price.

Further work by Price can be found through a search of the CNNSI Vault archives or through reading (as I have) his book "Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey". Chronicling his time living with his family as an expat in the French countryside, it's an interesting look at a lifestyle from an outsider perspective.