Pittsburgh Sports Article of the Week

Those of you that read Sports Illustrated, you know that after flipping through the occasional jibber jabber and ad scatter, there is a high quality-well written article that will turn up once in a while. And although I usually appreciate SI more for their online coverage and large printed pictures in their magazine preface, I really enjoy reading the feature articles that SI digs up.

This week's SI Issue had such a great article, that it was a no brainer for Pittsburgh Sports Article of the Week. The article, titled "A Gift from Africa," tells the heartwarming story of a South African Pirates' prospect that goes by "Gift"(his middle name and translated first name). The article follows him as he arrives in Bradenton, Florida and goes back to his struggles as a young child. Gift is still a Pirate Prospect and he's got some great potential to hit a major league field one day.

It's just an amazing story. And to boot, Gary Smith does a great job with writing it. I'm not sure i've read a more high-quality sports article in any magazine of sort. The piece is long, but the story doesn't get boring and the writing flows like koolaid in an ice pitcher. Smith is a veteran SI writer, and he's got some other great stuff in his article bank.

Kudos to SI for digging this story.