THE FAMOUS New York newspaperman Jimmy Breslin was said to mark out his life in bad Kentucky Derby bets.
Many of us who gather in this corner of the internet each day will know what he meant.
Packie Bonner saving a penalty is associated with a family wedding. The smell of a wet Mikasa and you’re reminded of a goal scored on a childhood birthday.
Sporting events mark out our lives.
And this year will live long in our memories.
- Galway and Waterford duelled at the end of an incredible summer of hurling.
- Conor McGregor climbed into a Las Vegas ring with Floyd Mayweather.
- Irish football took centre-stage and the rugby world pulled up outside for a women’s World Cup party.
The42 — and its community of hugely engaged readers — was there for it all.
We’re a constantly-operating machine that documents these events in real time with constant feedback from Irish sports fans.
Often your feedback below the line suggests we’re completely wrong and/or don’t know what we’re doing… and another thing, the place is gone to shite since we changed the name.
But more often it’s constructive, interesting and we often act on it:
Behind The Lines is our collection of some of our favourite stories from our award-winning staff of journalists from 2017. Some of you have suggested it often, and now’s your chance to get your hands on it.
The book is available — for just €10! — in our online store The42.shop and in Easons.
Our team of writers chronicled the news-alert events throughout the year but more importantly, I think, found the off-Broadway stories populated with really interesting characters and themes that tell us a lot about our country.
It will, we think, feel at home on the bookshelf of any Irish sports fan.
One of the most celebrated columns from Jimmy Breslin — who started his long career as a journalist covering basketball and football games — was penned when he peeled away from the fray in Washington DC on the day of John F Kennedy’s funeral to, instead, talk to the men digging the president’s grave at Arlington cemetery.
Breslin later explained he merely applied a sportswriter’s logic to covering news.
“Avoid the scrum of journalists gathered around the winner,” he’d advise, “and go directly to the loser’s locker.” That’s how to find your gravedigger.
We hope you’ll enjoy these great stories about the people behind the jerseys by our team of writers as much as we enjoyed putting them together throughout the year.
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
Cheating the first time is difficult but it’s get easier every time. If world athletics bodies are serious there should be a lifetime ban for every offender, no excuses.
@EK:
Exactly, This can be easily done by making it too risky to cheat with illegal performance enhancers, a lifetime ban is the only way for proven cheats.
It’s a pretty big jump to drag Justin into this story other than for clickbait….and if I was offered 250,000 dollars I’d get my hands on some performance enhancing drugs for you too.
@Markonline: ah do you not think the PEDs made that jump a bit easier ??
@Limón Madrugada: it’s his coaches, not Gatlin.
@Markonline: Fair play, its all about the way you were brought up i suppose….
@Minom Pnnomm: so he did win a gold on drugs.
Hgh is everywhere..athletics and most sports at the highest level are a game of not getting caught
“Why always me?”
What a dope
How does this implicate Gatlin? Surely this applies to the BBC sports personality Of The year.
@Darren Egan: good point on the double standards. Plenty of potentially dodge English athletes. Farah and Kelly Holmes at the top of the list
Sir Bradley Williams…sky cycling in general
Who honestly gives a crap. So he runs one hundred metres really fast. Who gives a crap. I still have to go to work in the morning
Gatlin should have never been allowed to compete after the first time. Cheats have destroyed genuine competitors lives and taken the accolades deserving to them, Sonia O’ Sullivan comes to mind.
Seb Coe – what a clown
@Shane Gleeson: disaster of a tenure in his job generally.
And still the British press ignore the stink surrounding Mo Farah.
Anyone on a TUE from Waa is a cheat in my book, I think they are ALL on drugs but that is my personal opinion?