In his recently released memoir, “An Accidental Sportwriter,” Robert Lipsyte tells stories about the many social issues he’s addressed in his distinguished career as a sports journalist, including a long stint as a sports columnist at the New York Times. Lipsyte, who Howard Cosell once called “the best sports columnist of my lifetime,” wrote a landmark book in the sports reform field in 1975 called “SportsWorld: An American Dreamland,” a probing look at the social, cultural and economic aspects of the American sports system. Writing that book was a courageous move for a sportswriter at the time. In effect, it was the first in-depth critical look at the socio-cultural ramifications of Big Sport in the United States.
Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries in sports journalism, Lipsyte has succeeded in avoiding a common affliction among sports journalists called Sports Syndrome, a condition that describes people who are hero-worshipping sports fans at heart and prefer the blind sanctification of sports to a comprehensive analysis of sports’ impact — pro and con — on our culture. Lipsyste’s passions are people and the social issues of the day, not sports. It’s this perspective, combined with a beautiful writing style, that makes “An Accidental Sportswriter” a must read for everyone who believes in the potential of sports but also feels SportsWorld can be so much better than it is today.
If you like sports and care deeply about how they impact our society,visit robertlipsyte.com
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