A great list of the best U.S. sports reporting and writing of 2011

Hangover cure

You’ve got a long weekend coming up, and the Bleacher Report crystal ball says you’re not going to feel like doing much on one of the days.

We’ve got some reading for you.

Patrick Hruby, who writes for the Washington Times, ThePostGame, ESPN.com and the Atlantic online, has posted his favorite American sportswriting of 2011, and it’s a terrific list.

You’d have to have a pretty quiet weekend to read all the worthwhile pieces Hruby lists, which include stories about concussions by John Branch, Ken Dryden and Irv Muchnick and some long-form writing from Deadspin, which, Hruby points out, doesn’t get enough credit for that sort of thing.

One interesting feature of Hruby’s list: He writes that he’s “biased toward reported pieces and against non-reported memoirs and opinionating, no matter how well written.” So his list is full of the hardest work of journalism, reported pieces that bring new facts and circumstances to light.

Reading is a key to becoming a good writer. So read.

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Photo by Daniel Williams / Flickr Creative Commons