I WAS given the 2013 Best of American Sports-writing book. This is the latest chapter in a long-running trans-Atlantic series, which truly demonstrates how much more seriously our cousins in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave take this much-maligned craft of sports-writing, which I have indulged in for most of my life.
In particular, through various magazines, most-notably the illustrious Sports Illustrated, the children of Uncle Sam enjoy a format which is so-rare as to be almost extinct in these islands - long-form sports-writing.
This is the lengthy, in-depth examination of a particular sports subject, practitioner of story. What also strikes one when reading the BOASW 2013 is the sheer scale of the subject matter.
Thirty years ago, when I was writing for the glorious but too-short-lived Sunday Standard, I wrote lengthy articles on tug-of-war, veterans' football, rallying, curling, ice hockey, basketball, water polo and hockey, as well as the obligatory football and rugby. Other scribes did pieces on athletics, swimming, equestrian pursuits and volleyball, all sports which, if they get mentioned at all in today's Scottish newspapers, it's in the tiny print of the "Other Sports" digest.
Take the trouble to visit the excellent Glasgow Room of the Mitchell Library to view the microfiche files of our daily and Sunday newspapers and, you are immediately struck by the diversity of their sports content, even 15-years ago, compared to today's wall-to-wall football coverage.
We, the public, are being short-changed by a generation or two of desk executives who, because they are obsessed with the Bigot Brothers, think the rest of the world is. When I started in this business, there were far-more staff men with a dedcated beat, be it football, rugby, golf, curling, motor sport or athletics. There were full-time freelances who made a good living covering the "minority" sports: Gordon Dunwoodie did bowls, as his widow Anne still does today; Sandy Sutherland did basketball and volleyball and athletics, there was a full-time hockey reporter covering for the Scottish media.
Today, there is far more of the same PA copy going in as is, still one or two one-sport freelances, but, if you're not the Chosen One for your sport - forget it.
And, certainly, the sort of one-of feature on a minority team or sport which I would regularly write 30-plus years ago, is seldom seen today. Which is bad for sport.
Also, with the obsession with manager's quotes and the opinions of retired players, the Scottish sporting press, and in particular the majority football section, is giving the current crop of crap officials free rein to further damage the already damaged national obsession with fitba.
But, there are moments of hope, such as today's Herald piece, by Graeme Macpherson on one young Celtic player, Callum McGregor, who is currently enjoying a successful loan spell at Notts County.
Good for young Callum, but, I fear, like the perhaps better-known and more-celebrated Tony Watt, now in Belgium, he may well find, if and when he returns to Celtic, himself banging his head off the glass ceiling which lies between the second and first teams at Parkhead. He will, if past experience is anything to go by, find himself forced to go elsewhere to find first team football.
How I wish our top-flight teams could have something like the American system whereby they would be farmed-out to feeder clubs to make the transition from trainee professional to the real thing, without, however, the dog-eat-dog pressure of beating the American system to make it to the Big Show - the Pro Leagues.
Mind you, this alleged land of milk and honey for those who make it, isn't so in reality, as I learned from some of the pieces in BOASW 2013. The American sports culture and system is so designed that only the very best, the absolute cream of the crop, ever get to be able to call themselves professional sportsmen.
It is certainly a whole lot harder to make it over there than over here.
And, if getting there is hard - staying there is even harder.
Good for young Callum, but, I fear, like the perhaps better-known and more-celebrated Tony Watt, now in Belgium, he may well find, if and when he returns to Celtic, himself banging his head off the glass ceiling which lies between the second and first teams at Parkhead. He will, if past experience is anything to go by, find himself forced to go elsewhere to find first team football.
How I wish our top-flight teams could have something like the American system whereby they would be farmed-out to feeder clubs to make the transition from trainee professional to the real thing, without, however, the dog-eat-dog pressure of beating the American system to make it to the Big Show - the Pro Leagues.
Mind you, this alleged land of milk and honey for those who make it, isn't so in reality, as I learned from some of the pieces in BOASW 2013. The American sports culture and system is so designed that only the very best, the absolute cream of the crop, ever get to be able to call themselves professional sportsmen.
It is certainly a whole lot harder to make it over there than over here.
And, if getting there is hard - staying there is even harder.
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