Inside the Ropes : Sportswriters Get Their Game On

Most of us will never know what it's like to parachute out of a Cessna, tend goal for the Boston Bruins, burn rubber on a NASCAR track, scale Everest, or quarterback the Detroit Lions. So it's our good fortune when dauntless literary journalists actually play the sports they cover-returning with firsthand tales from "inside the ropes." Here, in the tradition popularized by George Plimpton, is participatory sports writing at its finest and most far-out. Editor Zachary Michael Jack fields a dream team of today's best sports journalists, hotshots, and rising stars in search of the game behind the game.More than three dozen decorated writers take the field. Heir apparents such as Tom Verducci, Jack McCallum, Melissa King, and Sam Walker join veterans Paul Gallico, George Plimpton, Davis Miller, Donald Katz, Tim Cahill, Grace Butcher, and James McManus in swinging for the journalistic fence. Together these thrill-seeking men and women capture the mojo of returning John McEnroe's serve, taking a punch from Ali, paddling Jack London's Alaskan river route, coaching the Suns' Steve Nash, umping Manny Ramirez. Forty eye-popping accounts offer the straight scoop as never before dished-not justinthe field butonit.

Former newspaper sportswriter and editor Zachary Michael Jack is an assistant professor of English at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, where he teaches workshops in literary and participatory journalism. The editor of many essay collections on the environment and outdoor life, Jack also has authored two volumes of poetry. Contributors: Billy Anderson, Barbara Beckwith, Dan Bishop, Grace Butcher, Tim Cahill, Betsy Crowfoot, Michael Finkel, Steve Friedman, Paul Gallico, Helga Hengge, Leslie Heywood, John Hildebrand, Zachary Michael Jack, Mark Jenkins, Ron C. Judd, James Kaplan, Don Kardong, Donald Katz, Melissa King, Davis Miller [aka Davis Lee], Corey Levitan, Jeff MacGregor, David Mamet, Jack McCallum, Bill McKibben, James McManus, T. Edward Nickens, Nick Paumgarten, George Plimpton, Rodney Rothman Bob Shacochis, Rob Story, Robert Twigger, Tom Verducci, Sam Walker, Dan Washburn, Dana White, and Randy Wayne White.