Shortly after his 2007 death, it was discovered that Kurt Vonnegut had once written for Sports Illustrated.
The story goes that he was told to write about a horse that jumped the rail and ran amok in the infield, but after sitting at his desk for hours he left the building silently.
The only thing written on his now abandoned typewriter was this:
The horse jumped over the fucking fence.
It would seem that these seven words are all that Vonnegut would contribute to the world of sports journalism, truly a devastating blow for a genre that now includes Jay Mariotti, Bill Plaschke and Skip Bayless.
Fortunately, after almost two years of research, I’ve found an astounding number of other such attempts by the illustrious writer. These items were not easy to track down as they did not appear in reputable publications. It seems as though most of his work was published by World Classics Library, a Los Angeles based company that specialized in hardcore pornography. For these magazines he wouldn’t have to worry about editors or deadlines, as they simply used what he wrote to add bulk to their issues so they could charge a higher price. Oftentimes they would change the name of what he had written. For instance, a story on Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, originally titled The Catch became Giant Snatch.
It might come as a surprise that towards the end of his life Vonnegut began to write about a subject he never showed any real affinity for. Maybe he wanted to remark about the cultural impact of the games and their historic moments or maybe he just wanted to show that he could write a story about a horse jumping over a fucking fence. And although Kurt is up in Heaven now, I’m sure he would be thrilled that these works finally reach a more suitable audience.
The Catch or Giant Snatch, after the jump
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