Sports Literature -- a genre?

[byquist]

Last night ran across, in a sports pullout of the NY Times, an article by David Foster Wallace entitiled, "Federer as Religious Experience." It also includes pictures of court maneuvers and strategies that the great Fed. employs to massacre his opponent. I just looked and you can get the entire article free from "Adam Ash" .com or something like that, easy find.

Now, occasionally I run into good sports stuff, like a Q&A with Joe Paterno where he tells his sports philosophy.

Is there an entire genre of all this sports stuff? (There are certainly movies out there by the dozens - "Angels in the Outfield" and "Sandlot" are fun fare, the original Burt Reynolds prison football "He broke my nose!", Denzel coaching h.s. training, Kurt Russell with his hockey coaching; the one about the Caribbean team doing the louge; endless sports entertainment stuff) But how about literature?

What are the titles of sports fiction and non-fiction that you recommend?

[lavendar1]

Athletic Shorts by Chris Cutcher (I think I spelled it right) is a good short story collection for adolescents. There are only five or six stories, and they've got themes like courage and perseverance that are nicely wrapped in contemporary packaging -- they make for good discussion for late middle/early high schoolers.

...I just thought of the Irish writer Conor Calaghan (I hope I spelled it right). He wrote an interesting piece on Ireland's part in the 2002 World Cup competition called Red Mist.

[Diceman]

"The Club" by David Williamson. This is a play about the wheelings and dealings which occur at an Australian Rules Football Club.

Also "Deadly, Unna?", a story of racism and coming of age set against the backdrop of a country Australian Rules team. I forget the Author's name, but the book was turned into a movie called "Aussie Rules".

[bazarov]

Nick Hornby wrote some very nice fan-books.