What's Wrong with Youth Sports

Harvey Araton is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, author and adjunct college professor based in Montclair, N.J. He has worked for four daily newspapers in the New York City area, including the Staten Island Advance, New York Post, Daily News, and the New York Times, where he served as a Sports of the Times columnist for 15 years, 25 overall, and still contributes on a freelance basis. In 2017, he was the recipient of the Curt Gowdy Award at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, M.A., given annually to print/digital and broadcasting members of the media. He has covered 10 Olympics, many Wimbledon, the U.S. Open tennis tournaments, the French Open, and the Davis Cup in Spain and Zimbabwe. He has also covered many NBA finals, World Series, Super Bowls and men's and women's Final Fours in college basketball. Araton is the author, co-author and editor of ten books, including "Driving Mr. Yogi", about the poignant relationship between Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry—a New York Times bestseller—and "When the Garden Was Eden", on the Knicks' championship teams of the early 1970's. The book was adapted for an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, which Araton co-produced. His first novel, "Cold Type", was published in 2014. In 2020, Araton published "Our Last Season", about his friendship with Michelle Musler, a passionate Knicks fan who sat behind the team's bench for more than four decades. In December 2026, Koehler Books will publish Araton's middle grade novel, "The Goal of the Game". Araton has taught media and writing courses at Montclair State University and at the School of the New York Times, a summer program for high school students.