Detroit Writing from Time & Sports Illustrated

Interesting concept from Time, Inc. that’s already resulted in some compelling writing…

The idea is for Time Magazine and its affiliated publications including Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated to continually report on the once thriving city of Detroit.

Both Sports Illustrated and Time had cover stories about Detroit this week and each issue featured pieces from the editor about why Time Inc. made this decision. Both that from Time Inc.’s Editor-in-Chief John Huey and the essay from Sports Illustrated’s Terry McDonell detail how far the city has fallen. The statistics referenced are 29% unemployment, 50% illiteracy and 70% unsolved murders… all from a place that used to be the epicenter of American manufacturing.

As Huey describes, the goal of Time Inc. in reporting so thoroughly on the city is to shine a spotlight and perhaps help Detroit “recover and find it’s way into the future.”

On to the first stories…

The Time Magazine cover piece is titled “Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City” and written by Daniel Okrent. It’s a broad overview of Detroit and it’s current struggles from someone who grew up there.



Solid writing from Okrent, but probably more compelling to me was the Sports Illustrated cover story by Lee Jenkins. The frequent baseball writer contributes “Tigertown” about the team and efforts led by owner Mike Ilitch, to help revitalize the city.



While the role a sports team can play in such a big task may seem insignificant, the franchise has worked hard to put a contending team on the field as well as make games affordable to its fans.

An additional anecdote from the Jenkins piece showed the team’s support of local industry. When General Motors found itself unable to continue sponsoring the popular "home run water fountain", Ilitch decided to not seek different sponsor dollars. Instead, he simply added Chrysler and Ford alongside the GM name in centerfield... at no cost to any of the beleaguered automakers. Not a bottom-line based decision, but a very cool one.

Sports Illustrated Piece on MSU Spartans Basketball

Not considering myself a huge college basketball nor Michigan State fan, I almost didn't read and didn't expect much from the recent story on the Spartans in Sports Illustrated.

Having now finished this piece by Lee Jenkins titled "The Fire Still Burns"... I'm glad I did and found it to be pretty compelling. The story is part profile on head coach Tom Izzo and his longtime ties to the area and University, but more than that, it's a look at how a team, school and championship run connected with a community.

The fact that the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament culminating in the Final Four held in Detroit's Ford Field resulted in a Spartans loss rather than win against North Carolina is almost secondary to the emotions brought out through MSU's improbable advancement to the Final and how it resonated with the city of Detroit.

It's pretty common knowledge that there's been tough economic times there of late and one team's efforts on the court led by some hometown players certainly doesn't change living conditions, but in this case, it seemed to give people something to rally behind and get excited about. At the end of day, that's not a bad thing to be accomplished through sports.

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Also from this issue was a mention of NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield and his drug-testing problems with NASCAR as an organization. In short... multiple failed tests for meth, denials from Mayfield, quotes from his stepmother saying he does in fact do meth, rebuttals from Mayfield calling her a whore and saying she murdered his father. All of this combined with other Mayfield quotes about how NASCAR spiked his testing samples and is led by someone with a drug problem.

Good stuff... makes me think of slightly modifying a famous quote and saying "you can take the driver out of the trailer park, but can't take the trailer park out of the driver."