The year in sports and politics
Looking back on 2025
In the four months since I moved to Paris, I’ve written three short stories,1 a poem, several other assignments for my MFA program, and dozens of pieces in the Substack-verse. It has amounted to 50,000 words. To quote Happy Gilmore, my fingers hurt.
I come back to the States for the holidays ready for a break. In lieu of new content that I am incapable of producing right now, I offer a curated selection of my writing this year, along with some fresh perspective on each piece. Some were well-read, some were not, but all helped me become a world-famous writer. More importantly, they allowed me to express myself and make sense of the world around me. Sincerely: thank you for caring about that. See you in the new year.
All posts below are free/unlocked.
January
How Carlsbad became the golf equipment capital of the world
Among the lessons I learned while being the sports guy at San Diego Magazine, my first professional journalistic gig, is how to wring out a story. I can’t remember if I pitched this piece on Carlsbad’s golf industry—no pun intended—or if it was assigned to me, but in any case, I couldn’t figure out how to make metal sticks interesting. My deadline approached, no one at the “Big Four” was getting back to me, and I also had a day job to attend to. Finally, I got a rep at Honma Golf on the phone, which gave me the “in” I needed to write a piece that served the SEO gods.
February
San Diego FC Has Arrived—Here’s What it Means for the City
This was my first cover story, and San Diego FC’s improbable run to MLS’s Western Conference finals ensured I didn’t look like an idiot when I wrote:
The sports scene here has long been defined by what it lacks. The Padres are one of five MLB teams without a World Series championship. The Clippers and Chargers, devoid of trophies themselves, left for the city that San Diego says it is not. San Diego FC’s arrival ushers in a new era in which San Diego can define what it actually is: a soccer-mad city driven by everyday people’s hope for greatness and connection.
March
San Diego sent four teams to March Madness and no one cared
San Diego is the best college basketball city in the country.
The first half of this piece, before the horizontal break, I wrote on spec for San Diego Magazine. They rejected it, so I added the second half, turning it into a polemic, and posted it here. I’m still flabbergasted at San Diego ignoring their March Madness full house.
April
One of my running sports bits is my disdain for Alec Bohm, and when the Phillies’ season started I was reading At the Existentialist Cafe, Sarah Blakewell’s survey of the philosophical movement. I combined the two and wrote—in my estimation—a groundbreaking and original piece of baseball analysis. The final verdict?
Good, but he needs to convert to first base/designated hitter so that he can focus on hitting and diminish the impact of poor defense on his overall value; however, that’s not going to happen on the Phillies, which has, like, 13 first basemen/designated hitters, so the Phillies should trade Bohm, which will make all parties, especially me, happy.
May
Can we all just admit that MLS is terrible?
Why US’s top flight is bad, why it matters, and what to do about it
This piece struck a nerve. Or, probably more accurately, it satisfied the Substack algorithm, for it is Out in Left’s best-read piece by a mile. Why? I’m honestly not sure. It is a long, wordy treatise on MLS’s league structure, which isn’t exactly accessible pop culture. But it does touch on something universal right now—us normal people are getting screwed.
June
A years-old tip alleged fake papers. So agents of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement dressed for the Battle of Fallujah and came to my city, to a pizza joint. They found middle class people eating pizza and the staff that served it. ICE arrested four people, dishwashers and servers.
No one served pizza or washed dishes that night. The restaurant had closed after the raid. No one served pizza or washed dishes the following Monday or Tuesday. The restaurant had closed to regroup. A community reeled. Democratic lawmakers demanded answers. Republican lawmakers gloated, or they said nothing. The Otay Mesa Detention Center processed four new detainees.
ICE pointlessly descending on San Diego’s South Park neighborhood still angers me.
July
Walking in America: Leaving San Diego edition
'Walking in America’ is a series that documents what it’s like to walk in America. You can view previous entries here.
Just some good old fashion satire.
August
I pitched versions of this story to several outlets. They all either rejected or ignored me. That’s a shame, because mine is the most incisive and original take on Oasis’s reunion.
September
“France girded this week for ‘Block Everything’ protests, and they went off like the last fart of a withering balloon” might be my favorite sentence I drafted this year. Three months later, I’m still trying to figure out French politics.
October
I will say it until I’m (Dodger) blue in the face:
THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS WINNING THE WORLD SERIES IS NOT A BAD THING. IT’S A GOOD THING. THE PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT HOW IT IS UNFAIR ARE DOING THE BIDDING OF BILLIONAIRE MONOPOLISTS. DON’T BE A SHILL. WANT YOUR TEAM TO BE BETTER? THEN DEMAND THAT THEY BE BETTER. HOLD YOUR OWNERSHIP ACCOUNTABLE. DON’T TRY TO CHANGE THE RULES OF THE GAME. DON’T BE A SORE LOSER.
*takes deep breath*
November
George Saunders is always right about American politics
I want to be George Saunders when I grow up.
I wrote this piece in a rush of energy and inspiration during a writing retreat at L’abbaye de Royaumont. At the time, I was studying George Saunders’ “Love Letter” and trying to write a story in the epistolary form myself. I eventually changed my story’s format because it is impossible to write like Saunders. He is a literary genius, as well as an underrated American intellectual.
December
I will never forget when I watched the FIFA 2026 World Cup Draw. This was as fun to put together as it was painful to watch. It also doesn’t portend well for next summer’s World Cup. FIFA is subordinating its flagship event—perhaps the world’s flagship sporting event—to a deranged, immoral man whose popular support at home has withered. What could go wrong?
If you’re a publisher or agent: Hi, my name is Brendan and I’m an Aquarius.
Really solid curation here. The MLS piece and the ICE raid piece both hit on something thats been bothering me all year, how normal people keep getting squeezed by systems that pretend to be serving them. I've been thinking alot about how sports journalism can do more than just cover games and this roundup shows that when you connect sports to politcs and actual lived experience, the writing gets way more interesting. Also 50k words in four months while doing an MFA is kinda wild, your fingers deserve a break lol.
And the award goes to . . . “Walking in America: Leaving San Diego.” It takes much courage to convert SD into the dystopian landscape much of the U.S. has become. Death by strip center.
We need the John Steinbeck in you, as in Travels With Charley. Time to rescue a dog?