Dave Zirin: A Writer Every Sports Fan Should Read

By Mike Takeuchi

As someone whose natural curiosity often goes to the depths of ridiculousness, I here are few sportswriters/columnists that really focus on stories with depth-often writing more for the subject or worse yet, for themselves as opposed to their readership. While George Vescey and Bill Rhoden, two true gentlemen from the New York Times still capture my fancy, very few contemporary scribes (Jeff Pearlman and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! are the only two I can think of off the top of my head), elicit contemplation.

However, the one writer that brings out the passion towards sports in me more than any other is Dave Zirin. Not at him mind you. Dave’s a good guy. But like the HBO show “Real Sports”, his work often inspires ire towards the subjects he writes about.

I first met Dave a few years ago for an interview in a coffee shop near the independent IMIX bookstore in Eagle Rock. As a typical avid viewer of ESPN (a network I loathe now btw), I thought I knew the inside of sports pretty well until I spent an hour with Dave. He literally opened my eyes to look critically at the entities that surround the games we love. And since then, when given the space and finding the subject, have tried to emulate myself.

Below is a previously published book review on his latest book-"Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love".

BAD SPORTS: HOW OWNERS ARE RUINING THE GAMES WE LOVE

Nonfiction

By Dave Zirin

Scribner, $25

Having been called everything from dangerous to a thorn in the sports establishment's side (by those who like him, no less), sportswriter Dave Zirin has ventured where most imbedded sportswriters refuse to go to become the definitive expert on the inseparability of sports and politics. In his latest offering, "Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love," he takes on the subject of the individuals who offer us the games we love at a cost that is high in more ways than one.

Often appearing on television whenever a political issue in sports comes up, this Tom Joad in the press box has been called "the conscience of American sports writing" by The Washington Post. The author has published four other books, including 2008's "A People's History of Sports in the United States: From Bull-Baiting to Barry Bonds," and is now the only sportswriter in the 145-year history of The Nation, the longest continually run magazine in the country.

In "Bad Sports," Mr. Zirin's voice resonates to anybody who has spent hundreds of dollars a pop to attend sporting events with family and worried about it during the game. He critically looks at sports czars who manipulate the system through political and civic connections, the entities their teams belong to, and, yes, even the media in getting new publicly funded stadiums, uprooting teams to new towns over the protestations of local residents, and, ultimately, making even more money than the public record states.

The book pulls the reader in immediately when it addresses the plight of the communities of three tax-subsidized stadiums — the Louisiana Superdome, Target Field in Minnesota and Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. All three were built at the expense of needed metropolitan infrastructure and were later hit with man-made disasters — the New Orleans levees breaking after Hurricane Katrina (2005), the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapse (2007), and two D.C. Metro trains colliding in 2009 that killed nine people, respectively.

While attacking a serious subject, Mr. Zirin keeps the reader enthralled by writing in a style without the effect of the corner zealot on a soapbox and often with an intelligent humor ("It would be like putting Jon and Kate in charge of a day-care center.") that elicits knowing chuckles.

Because Mr. Zirin's reputation precedes him, the one thing missing is commentary from the owners themselves. Only Ed Snider, CEO of Comcast, parent company of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and NHL's Flyers, is willing to go on record. It would have been interesting to hear the thoughts of colorful owners like basketball's Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban or the Raiders' Al Davis.

Then again, getting the sports bosses to talk may only reveal sound bites or double talk that fans hear in press conferences or reported by defacto shills for the respective teams (read ESPN). It is more definitive in the actions of ideological opposites such as the decidedly politically liberal NBA commissioner David Stern and staunch Reaganite Clay Bennett who conspire to move the Seattle Supersonics to Mr. Bennett's much smaller hometown or Oklahoma City, despite protestations from an entire city of Sonics fans.

At first glance, the average sports fan who lives for the insipid sound-bite coverage may not want to read "Bad Sports," because even if they agree with it and complain about it, quite frankly, they need to go to games. But upon closer inspection, the reader will find that Mr. Zirin's book is for anyone who has complained about high ticket prices or even paid $15 for parking at Dodger Stadium. Heck, it may encourage them to park outside the stadium and walk in with food from home in tow.