The Best American Sports Writing 1998

This, the eighth edition of the annual anthology of the best sports articles culled from more than 300 sports and general interest periodicals, includes a broad selection covering almost every sport from bird watching to ultra-marathons. The best pieces, not surprisingly, are the more personal accounts. In ""Blond and Sand,"" Tony Hendra recounts his failed efforts to interview the famed female bullfighter, Christina Sanchez. He's seen Sanchez in the ring and longs for the chance; ""for a few moments, I actually wanted to be a 1,200 pound mountain of mad, black muscle armed with two-foot-long ice-pick horns and see--against all odds--if I couldn't tag her. I know. Sick."" Unfortunately, Sanchez keeps canceling their appointments so Hendra must return home without having met his goddess. Writing about the more pedestrian sport of soccer in ""The Soccer Parents,"" Susan Sterling perfectly captures the dedication and enthusiasm of the parents as well as the young girls learning how strong they can be, even when they're losing their match. Other particularly effective pieces include one on tennis player Venus Williams by Linda Robertson and others on quirkier subjects, like Gary Smith's ""A Delicate Balance,"" about the Guerrero circus performers, or Tad Friend's account of harrijasotzaile, or stone lifting, a Basque pastime about which one champion tersely notes, ""An Italian man with the same muscles can't pick up our stones--because he has no reason to."" Littlefield and Stout have combined to come up with a quirky, personal and first-rate collection for spectators and participants alike. (Oct.)