Giving Thanks

by

Pete Croatto

The go-to move for most columnists around this time is to offer thanks in 800 words or fewer, which inevitably degenerates into a paean to family and friends and the troops. It’s the kind of easy sentiment that further curdles my cynical heart. 

For years, I was perplexed why they were such a staple. Now, I understand. During a busy holiday season, they’re a necessity. As deadlines get pushed aside and vacation looms, the well that pumps out ideas tends runs a little dry. Especially, when it threatens the glorious promise of a four-day weekend.

So, what do you know? After some careful thought—and a sobering look at my weekly planner—it turns out there were several things in my reading life this year that made me feel, for the purposes of meeting this deadline, thankful.

Jeff Pearlman’s blog. I go here at least once a day, because Pearlman (Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton) frequently provides an honest look into the writer’s life. Recently, the city of Chicago couldn’t comprehend the not-so nice behavior that Pearlman unearthed about the saintly Payton. Pearlman devoted posts to his frustration, anger, and utter confusion. (What bothered him the most? Frequently, detractors made comments without bothering to actually read the book about the Chicago Bears legend.) He talks about the frustration of having an article he cared about rejected by Westchester Magazine. He outlines his process for researching books.

Pearlman's blog shows the boredom, annoyances, and hard work required in being a writer—even one with an established, high profile career.

The Educational Value of Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand by John Schulian. Schulian’s collection of sportswriting is outstanding, and not just because he writes lean, clear, and colorfully. Most of the pieces come from The Philadelphia Daily News and The Chicago Sun-Times, daily newspapers. To write with such skill under the daunting realization that once the story is filed, that’s it, is an extraordinary talent.

With newspapers becoming increasingly irrelevant, an invaluable training ground for writers is vanishing. There’s something to be said for writing without a safety net. Aspiring journalists should read the old guard like Schulian, who later retreated to the world of television. If anything, they’ll learn that there’s little use in waiting for the muse to strike. Writing, I’m afraid to say, is a job.

Roger Ebert’s writing advice, which he received as a teenage sportswriter: From his sublime memoir, Life Itself: “One, don’t wait for inspiration, just start the damn thing. Two, once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it’s going?” I wish I had learned these lessons at twenty-four, not thirty-four. If anything, I wouldn’t have watched so much daytime television.

Grantland. I’ve been rough on ESPN in recent months, but I absolutely love Bill Simmons’s literary-minded website focusing on sports and pop culture. Part of it is that he recruited a stable of terrific writers: Michael Weinreb, Jane Leavy, Katie Baker (formerly of Deadspin), Chris Jones. The articles are substantive and meaty, harking back to the day when newspaper stories jumping pages wasn’t considered a sin. With Grantland, Simmons has revealed to the masses what some of us have known for years: sportswriting is as insightful and thoughtful as anything else published in a major magazine.

And speaking of the Worldwide Leader . . .

Tony Kornheiser in Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN. On his ill-fated pairing with Mike Tirico during Monday Night Football, a job Kornheiser says he reluctantly took: “…This guy was poured into a tuxedo, he was so smooth. I watched what he did in golf. He took unlikable Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger and he made them into Desi and Lucy. He’s got a great ability to bring out the best in people when he wants to . . . But for two years he didn’t even look at me.”

To paraphrase William Goldman, please, God, don’t let anything happen to Tony Kornheiser. Just keep him forthright and eloquently cranky.

And the rest: When the Garden Was Eden, Harvey Araton’s appreciation of the legendary Knicks teams from the late 1960s and late 1970s. For this frustrated Knicks fan, it was a reminder of better times . . . Jerry West’s unflinching honesty about his childhood in West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life . . . Leavy’s exquisite biography of Mickey Mantle, which still haunts me weeks after finishing it . . . Jones’s blog on writing, Son of Bold Venture.

Books mentioned in this column:
Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert (Grand Central Publishing, 2011)
The Lost Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy (Harper, 2011)
Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand: Portraits of Champions Who Walked Among Us by John Schulian (Bison Books, 2011)
Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton by Jeff Pearlman (Gotham, 2011)
Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales  (Little, Brown and Company, 2011)
West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life by Jerry West and Jonathan Coleman (Little, Brown and Company, 2011)
When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, The Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the Old Knicks by Harvey Araton (Harper, 2011)

Pete Croatto’s essays, criticism, and humor writing have appeared in MAD, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, AMC Filmcritic.com, and the (Newark) Star-Ledger. He also reviews movies for ICON and The Weekender, and maintains a movie blog. A longtime Mets fan, Pete currently lives in Bucks County, PA, which is Phillies territory. Pray for him. Contact Pete.