Book excerpt: For more than eighty years, The New Yorker has been home to some of the toughest, wisest, funniest, and most moving sportswriting around. The Only Game in Town is a classic collection from a magazine with a deep bench, including such authors as Roger Angell, John Updike, Don DeLillo, and John McPhee. Hall of Famer Ring Lardner is here, bemoaning the lowering of standards for baseball achievement—in 1930. John Cheever pens a story about a boy’s troubled relationship with his father and the national pastime. From Lance Armstrong to bullfighter Sidney Franklin, from the Chinese Olympics to the U.S. Open, the greatest plays and players, past and present, are all covered in The Only Game in Town. At The New Yorker, it’s not whether you win or lose—it’s how you write about the game. Including: “The Web of the Game” by Roger Angell “Ahab and Nemesis” by A. J . Liebling “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” by John Updike “The Only Games in Town” by Anthony Lane “Race Track” by Bill Barich “A Sense of Where You Are” by John McPhee “El Único Matador” by Lillian Ross “Net Worth” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “The Long Ride” by Michael Specter “Born Slippy” by John Seabrook “The Chosen One” by David Owen “Legend of a Sport” by Alva Johnston “A Man-Child in Lotusland” by Rebecca Mead “Dangerous Game” by Nick Paumgarten “The Running Novelist” by Haruki Murakami “Back to the Basement” by Nancy Franklin “Playing Doc’s Games” by William Finnegan “Last of the Metrozoids” by Adam Gopnik “The Sandy Frazier Dream Team” by Ian Frazier “Br’er Rabbit Ball” by Ring Lardner “The Greens of Ireland” by Herbert Warren Wind “Tennis Personalities” by Martin Amis “Project Knuckleball” by Ben McGrath “Game Plan” by Don DeLillo “The Art of Failure” by Malcolm Gladwell “Swimming with Sharks” by Charles Sprawson “The National Pastime” by John Cheever “SNO” by Calvin Trillin “Musher” by Susan Orlean “Home and Away” by Peter Hessler “No Obstacles” by Alec Wikinson “A Stud’s Life” by Kevin Conley