Favorite Winter Olympics writing so far - by Farber, Wetzel & Drehs

There's of course been a lot written about the Sochi Olympics and my three favorite stories to date are by Michael Farber, Dan Wetzel and Wayne Drehs.

The first two stories were both about US Men's Hockey with "T.J. Oshie: The new American hero" by Wetzel for Yahoo Sports after the preliminary round shootout defeat of the Russians and then Farber for Sports Illustrated wrote "Uncommonly introspective, Bylsma leads USA hockey into the spotlight," an in-depth profile of head coach Dan Bylsma.

The third story I found interesting in large part because the people it covered in US skeleton competitors Katie Uhlaender and Noelle Pikus-Pace were so captivating. "Smallest Margin Between Victory, Defeat" was by Drehs for ESPN and showed both the great highs and rough lows that can come from the Olympics.

It was really excellent writing in all three pieces and there's I'm sure going to be much more great work published in the next week.

Sports Illustrated Pieces - Brian Burke & Defense in Baseball

Two different stories that I really liked from this week's Sports Illustrated.



The more impactful was "Man Of His Word" about Team USA Men's Hockey GM Brian Burke. Written by Michael Farber, the piece was about how Burke has dealt with the passing of his son Brendan at 21 years of age. Very powerful piece that gets into the support that the elder Burke showed after Brendan came out publicly as a homosexual only a few months ago. Now after Brendan's death, Brian Burke pledges to use his name to help fight for gay rights... great stuff.

-----

On a very different note... "Feel The Glove" was by Albert Chen and a story to get one excited for the upcoming baseball season. All about how defense is the "new on-base percentage" as trumpeted in the Michael Lewis book "Moneyball", the Seattle Mariners are featured as a team built around preventing runs in the field. Can't wait for baseball.

Sidney Crosby Profile by S.L. Price for Sports Illustrated

Great piece on Sidney Crosby in the Vancouver Winter Olympics Sports Illustrated Preview Issue.



Titled "Destiny's Child", it's written by one of my favorite SI writers, S.L. Price, and is an in-depth look at the 22 year old Captain of the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins... and now major piece of the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team's hopes for Gold.

Through Price's story a view of Crosby emerges that is consistent with other truly great athletes... that of someone born with exceptional potential who then works harder than anyone else to maximize that. This concept coupled with a recent Michael Farber SI story about Crosby stepping up his goal-scoring for the Pens by necessity really heightened the respect I've got for the guy.

The other thing that struck me about the Price story, though, was just how important winning Gold in the upcoming Olympics is to Canada. Granted, I'll be rooting for the U.S. (even though I think their shot at winning is slim to none), but unless lightening doesn't strike in the form of Gold for America, I really hope Canada does in fact beat the Russians and take the tournament.

"2008: Best Sports Year Ever" Story from Sports Illustrated

From the same Dec 29 Sports Illustrated issue with "Michael Vick's dog" on the cover comes an excellent piece from Michael Farber (who usually writes about hockey for SI) titled "The Best Year Ever 2008". Chronicling the amazing and incredible in sports from 2008, the story runs the gamut from David Tyree's Super Bowl catch against the Patriots to Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt's record-breaking efforts in the Summer Olympics.

While the above-mentioned story details the inspiring and amazing, a sidebar piece titled (and subtitled) "Precious Medal: An altruistic act by eight high school runners in Washington reaffirmed the value of sportsmanship" is equally inspiring, just in a different way.