Skip to main content

SI archives now available online

Okay, I think this is really cool, though I don't know if anyone else will care: Sports Illustrated has made its archives available online, and as far as I can tell they're complete.

The site was up last week, technically, but I couldn't actually get to very many articles. They seem to have ironed out whatever problems they were having and if you have some free time, I recommend you check it out.

Two articles have already caught my eye: this one, about Michael Jordan's struggles in professional baseball, and Rick Reilly's fantastic tour-de-force he wrote on John Elway late in Elway's career.

If I recall correctly, the Jordan piece led to his not speaking with the magazine for several years, which SI must have regretted when he returned to the NBA. I'm not sure I blame him, either: the article is chock-full of cheap shots, and the writer and several people quoted find a shameless glee in his struggles, which is kind of hilarious, considering how their professional accomplishments look next to Jordan's. (I especially love the Astro who wouldn't even go on the record, and whose cutdown sucked anyway. Also, Randy Johnson's "I'd like to see how much air time he'd get on one of my inside pitches" line calls to mind Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance as Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, but only if you capitalize AIR TIME. "I'd like to see how much AIR TIME His AIR-NESS will find in this AT-MOS-PHERE...HUH HOO HA HA...MY HEART IS COLD.")

As for the Elway piece, it was reprinted in one of those "Your team just won the championship of the world!" special edition magazines, which I have and cherish to this day.

Go ahead and give it a look-see. Who knows? You might even learn something!

Comments

John said…
Reilly's piece about the Duke is classic, as was the Duke himself. Winning Super Bowls behind the greatest player ever - those were the days. Not quite like slipping (or not) on a McDonald's wrapper and falling through an entertainment center.

What about the Frank DeFord what the NFL will look like in 2000 piece? I used to think that guy was a legit journalist.
7:31 AM
Mike said…
If anyone (else reads this site &) missed it, John's referring to this article, some excerpts of which ended up on Deadspin and another blog...Fan IQ or something.

First off, Frank Deford is the absolute man, and when I used to hit up the library on my lunch break to read old SIs, I especially enjoyed checking out his articles on the '60s Celtics. So I've been a fan for forty years. But the article is pretty funny, especially when you get around to the crazy-sounding guy who invented the flak jacket football players wear.
8:54 AM
Anonymous said…
Punchy,
That article you linked to on John Elway was awesome! Thanks for the great blog . . .
DG
8:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mitchell Report

It came out today, and you may have already looked at it. If not, you can download it as a pdf all over the place, including from ESPN.com . Anyway, the big name named in it was Roger Clemens. That's what we've been waiting all this time for? I don't even know what to say, because this is like the least-surprising report of all time. I hate the gotcha crap that goes on when stuff like this happens. You know, the know-it-alls who say how obvious it was that Clemens had been cheating for years—hey, just look at his age! (Did these people say this so confidently  before Clemens was named? No. And have they ever heard of Nolan Ryan?) But seriously. He's huge, he put really big numbers for a really long time, and he's considered this super-intense jerk—basically, he's Barry Bonds on the mound. Setting aside the moral issues of steroid use (and believe me, I'm against it), I was hoping for some entertainment out of today's revelations, and I was sorely dis...
5 comments
Read more

The Top Dozen Pro Quarterbacks

With the NFL season over, it’s time for year two of my annual quarterback rankings . Actually, last year the list was of quarterbacks I’d take over Jake Plummer. Since such a list this year would be at least a novella, I’ve changed it to the top twelve quarterbacks. This list is intended to be the best quarterbacks as of today and/or next season. Thus, it won’t correspond perfectly with, say, my list of the best young quarterbacks . Vince Young’s completion percentage, for example, will count against him more here. That said, some predictions are still involved. (For example, will Jake Delhomme and Ben Roethlisberger bounce back?) The winners: 12. Philip Rivers, San Diego. Rivers may deserve a higher spot on this list. I’m just trying not to get too carried away. On the plus side, he’s on a fine team (if they have coaches next year) and has a fantastic arm. On the downside, he’s young and was nothing special in the playoffs. So there’s a chance he won’t be quite so good next year, tho...
9 comments
Read more

Who cares?

So we finally got done with the NBA playoffs after nearly two months of stretched-out play, and tomorrow's the draft. I really couldn't care less. I'm so burned out on the sport. Sadly, there's nothing else going on worth mentioning, so we might as well get into it. (Yes, baseball, Pugs, but I haven't really started following that this year yet, sorry.) Would the NFL hold its draft five days after the Super Bowl? Of course not, and not just because the league doesn't want to distract from the highlight of its annual calendar, the Pro Bowl. Of course, the NBA's situation is a little different. College play ended two and a half months ago, and the teams want to get draftees ready for the all-important summer league play (because the kind of guys that need the summer league always end up players). Not that when college basketball is over is relevant, anyway-the league is overrun by a bunch of high school players "just months removed from their prom" (...
12 comments
Read more