Washington Sports

Richard Ben Cramer was editor of The Best American Sports Writing 2004.

Glenn Stout made Richard Ben Cramer editor for that year.

Richard Ben Cramer on sports stories

• “But i do contend that, on any given day, sports will offer us stories — the most human stories — in richer supply, and more reliably, than any other branch of endeavor.
• “Stories are how we understand our lives”

Richard Ben Cramer illustrates the epic that we call sports

• “In sports we have heroes — attractive individuals attractive individuals with exemplary talents.   By their grace, dedication, courage, and the luck of the draw, they have a chance to achieve, not just for themselves but for something larger — for their families or fans, their team, their town or the nation, or history.   They must contend, against long odds and serial difficulties — their own human tendency to weakness or error and the villainy of rivals — to the end of the game, the tournament, or the season, where we have for our story clear winners and losers.”

Richard Ben Cramer on picking the stories to put in his edition

• “I tend to like stories that treat a whole life, or atleast the connection between sports and the rest of life.”

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