on-writing-well

Sports 193
matic personal moments that we are callused. To some, we live
romantic lives. To me, every day is a struggle to stay in touch
with life's subtleties."
Those are the values to look for when you write about sport:
people and places, time and transition. Here's an enjoyable list
of the kind of people every sport comes furnished with. It's from
the obituary of G. F. T. Ryall, who covered thoroughbred racing
for The New Yorker, under the pen name Audax Minor, for
more than half a century, until a few months before he died at
92. The obituary said that Ryall "came to know everyone connected
with racing—owners, breeders, stewards, judges, timers,
mutuel clerks, Pinkertons, trainers, cooks, grooms, handicappers,
hot-walkers, starters, musicians, jockeys and their agents,
touts, high-rolling gamblers and tinhorns."
Hang around the track and the stable, the stadium and the
rink. Observe closely. Interview in depth. Listen to old-timers.
Ponder the changes. Write well.