Adam Doster

If you don’t have a job, read my Jackie Mitchell piece for...

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:21:52 -0500

If you don’t have a job, read my Jackie Mitchell piece for free99 at The Daily Beast. If you do have a job, go subscribe to The Classical’s app, and then read my Jackie Mitchell piece.

I visited Chicago’s top table tennis club for Chicago and...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:14:35 -0500

I visited Chicago’s top table tennis club for Chicago and wrote this when I got home.

The Classical has an app, and in that app is a new magazine, and...

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:08:25 -0500

The Classical has an app, and in that app is a new magazine, and in that magazine is a feature I wrote about female baseball pitcher Jackie Mitchell. Subscribe so you can download so you can read so you can smile.

I profiled Simeon’s baseball manager Leroy Franklin for...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:52:24 -0500

I profiled Simeon’s baseball manager Leroy Franklin for The Reader.

Get Lucky Daft Punk, Random Access Memories 2013 The robot...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:21:00 -0500

Get Lucky

Daft Punk, Random Access Memories 2013

The robot makes it get funky.

edgmont: newsbound: Our latest explainer tackles the...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:09:49 -0500

edgmont:

newsbound:

Our latest explainer tackles the concussion crisis in professional football. It’s a tragic story and one we’re going to be hearing a lot about this offseason, thanks to a class-action lawsuit against the NFL. Over 4,000 former players have joined the suit. It kicked off earlier this week.

Adam Doster wrote this latest explainer and Newsbound designed/produced it. Let me know what you think.

In which Rupert Murdoch cuts me a check to cite KenPom stats....

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:50:07 -0500

In which Rupert Murdoch cuts me a check to cite KenPom stats. (One love, Rupert!)

Long Time Chance the Rapper, #10Day, 2013 You better not miss...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:11:00 -0500

Long Time

Chance the Rapper, #10Day, 2013

You better not miss this, overdose dope and mixes. Let ya throat close with a boatload of dope quotes within it.

I profiled Nik Stauskas for ESPN the Magazine. He’s a good...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:00:28 -0600

I profiled Nik Stauskas for ESPN the Magazine. He’s a good kid. Read up.

Surma’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, 175th & Western...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 09:02:42 -0600

Surma’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, 175th & Western Avenue, Homewood, Illinois

Circa 1930s, by the Tichnor Brothers

(Here, via @metroblossom)

Druzhba Boarding House; Yalta, Ukraine (via)

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:10:34 -0600

Druzhba Boarding House; Yalta, Ukraine

(via)

For The Classical’s #KennyLoftonWeek, I wrote a feature on...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:04:33 -0600

For The Classical’s #KennyLoftonWeek, I wrote a feature on Lofton’s college hoops career at the University of Arizona. The piece ran yesterday, with killer art from Patrick Truby, and was republished at Deadspin today. You should read it!

This week’s issue of The Reader features my cover story on...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:10:39 -0600

This week’s issue of The Reader features my cover story on the rich history and uncertain future of DePaul men’s basketball. You can read it here. And I hope you do!

You Walk Your Way The Isley Brothers; 3 + 3; 1973 And...

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:16:00 -0600

You Walk Your Way

The Isley Brothers; 3 + 3; 1973

And we’ll meet again, we will my friend, and things will be much better then.

"To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory,..."

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:03:18 -0600

“To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games and contests.”

- Emily Post, “Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home,” 1922

Trying to identify the best 10 articles of the year is a fool’s...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:26:43 -0600

Trying to identify the best 10 articles of the year is a fool’s game, but it’s one I like to play, if only so I can revisit some great writing. My criteria is simple: listed below are the 10 stories I enjoyed reading the most in the past 12 months, either because they knocked me on my ass, made me laugh, or made me jealous I didn’t come up with the idea first. There’s lots of stuff I loved but had to leave off, like Jon Mooallem on a runaway monkey, Burkhard Bilger on strongmen, John Jeremiah Sullivan on Cuba, Ben McGrath on high school football, David Wanczyk on the National Wife-Carrying Championships, Ta-Nehisi Coates on our black president, et al. Here are the 10 that made the cut:

1) Grame Wood, How a Salafi Preacher Came for My Soul, The New Republic

2) David Grann, The Yankee Commandante, The New Yorker

3) David Samuels, Wild Things, Harper’s

4) Brian Phillips, A Fighter Abroad, Grantland

5) Jon Baskin, Coming to Terms, The Point

6) Pamela Colloff, The Innocent Man, Texas Monthly

7) Multiple reporters, What Happened at Dos Erros?, This American Life

8) Annie Lowrey, Where’s _why?, Slate

9) Jill Lepore, The Lie Factory, The New Yorker

10) Mike Sula, Chicken of the Trees, Chicago Reader

I’ve got a piece in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine on...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:56:14 -0600

I’ve got a piece in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine on Bryce Drew and the Valpo Crusaders, and I’m pretty excited about it. I hope you’ll give it a look.

Because space in the print edition was limited, there was a ton of quality material I couldn’t quite work into the story. I figured I’d note some of the more interesting outtakes here.

1) Let’s start with the basics: Valpo is currently 5-2 and ranked 95th in the country by Ken Pomeroy. Before the season started, Ken’s system had them at 131. They took it on the chin in St. Louis yesterday afternoon, but it was 24 hours after Rick Majerus passed, so the Billikens were really dialed up. The next big test comes on Saturday, when they travel to The Pit for a game against New Mexico.

2) Also via Pomeroy, the Crusaders are literally the most experienced team playing Division I ball this year. (Ken’s player stats for 2013 didn’t come out until after we closed the issue; otherwise, that nugget would have made it in for sure.) That’s partly because the roster features eight transfers, mostly kids who weren’t getting enough tick at programs in the major six conferences. Backup big man Bobby Capobianco, for example, left Indiana in 2011 after playing just 13 percent of the Hoosiers’ available minutes. (IU dropped nine straight to close out that season. Things are a bit different in Bloomington these days.)

3) The ARC, where Valpo plays its home games, is snug, to put it charitably. It also has those old metal lights that make everything look yellow.

4) Roger Powell Jr.—the Joliet product who started for Illinois’ Final Four team in 2005—is in his second year on Bryce’s staff. Folks around the program say he’s been a giant help on the recruiting trail. We joked about his trip to H-F in 2000, when he dropped 33 and 19 on the Vikings as I watched helplessly from the stands. Nice dude.

5) Bryce said some of the players he brings to campus now admit they’ve never seen The Shot. This made me feel incredibly old.

As always, thanks for reading.

Here’s a new feature I wrote for The Classical on the...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:33:13 -0600

Here’s a new feature I wrote for The Classical on the crazy new sport of hardcourt bike polo. I hope you’ll give it a read.

Backseat Freestyle Kendrick Lamar; good kid, m.A.A.d. city;...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:41:00 -0500

Backseat Freestyle

Kendrick Lamar; good kid, m.A.A.d. city; 2012

Kendrick have a DREAM!

Before the 40/40 Club, there was the Forty Club.At the turn of...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:31:00 -0500

Before the 40/40 Club, there was the Forty Club.

At the turn of the century, a select group of Chicago’s well heeled met on the third Tuesday of every month to have dinner. The organization’s origins are cloudy; the official history book mentions that the club “just happened because it had to be.” The rules, however, were strict. Only 40 “resident” members could attend, with “associate members” waiting in the wings for someone to move or pass on, and “the ladies are always present, whether they are here or not.” Some dude named Biff Hall was the group’s president. George Hancock, Board of Trade reporter and the inventor of 16-inch softball, was a charter member.

On April 26, 1906, the Forty Club put on its annual Ladies’ Dinner, held inside Louis Sullivan’s iconic Auditorium Building. On the menu was black bass, roast Philadelphia squab, and cream of celery.

Via GB and the NYPL’s “What’s On The Menu?” project.