As we near the announcement of who will advance to Week 2, we wanted to take a moment to comment on some of the work done in Week 1.

Received highest scores from judges

joshhoskins55
Peter: Enjoyable, random, informative. Something different. Fabulous.
Tom: Very enjoyable read. Story could have easily devolved into something just about him growing up, but that part stayed in the background enough and served as a strong theme to keep the story moving. Some great turns of a phrase in here too ("the band geek of baseball" for example)

HiPlainsDrifter
Peter: As always, a pleasant read. Take on Barrett is unique, well thought out and timely. Really enjoyed it.
Tom: Timely topic, good lead and some more great phrases ("sophists of the sucker punch")

nappytemple
Peter: Loved it from start to finish. Informative, too.
Tom: An enjoyable read. Very similar to a recent ESPN The Magazine piece. Would have liked to know why Larry Johnson does the diamond celebration mentioned at the end. 

Received lowest scores from judges

xea76
Peter: On a technical level, this is not the best written piece. A little too sentimental.
Tom: Reads too much like a fan fawning over his hero. And turns into something that's more about the writer than the athlete.

tombradyquinn
Peter: This was an SI cover story two years ago, and there's nothing new here. Not sure the three-paragraph intro was the way to go either.
Tom: Spends the whole piece talking about how Sanders left for the love of the game, and then at then end says "As for the reasons (why athletes leave in their prime), such decisions are personal, and should remain personal unless disclosed by the individual who harbors them." Seems to be contradicting the whole piece on some level. Also makes a lot of wide, sweeping statements without much there to back it up. And then phrases like "Today, I will comment on ..." just make the piece read like a book report.

ShooterB
Peter: I'm not sure this piece flows very well. And the summary of Ward's pro basketball career is a bit light.
Tom: Good subject choice, but not much of a follow-through. Like the idea that Ward's time came too soon, but would have liked to hear more about why that was.

Other comments

absolutebest
Tom: Got kind of blah in a hurry. Far from as good, and as thought-provoking, as absolutebest's other work. The X-Men piece on his blog now is a much better piece even.

DrMidnight
Peter: Love the analysis. More than just a Shaq fluff piece, with good insight. But a number of glaring errors, probably due to pushing the deadline so much. Number of missing words and a glaring "Insert stats" comment in the middle of a paragraph.

Dudski
Tom: Liked going off the beaten path a little, but didn't understand why I should really care about this guy beyond his connection to the author. For better or worse, there are literally hundreds of stories like this about small-town legends and didn't understand what made this guy special. More personal anecdotes about interaction with Moore or things he did might have helped a lot.

edhardiman
Tom: The format of this piece made for a pretty frustrating read. Might have worked better for a narrative. Also didn't really understand the "Philly" aspect of this. Certainly there are tons of great ways to mine the Philly sports phenomenon, just didn't understand how it applied in this case.

Elizabeth_Bennet
Tom: Not sure you defend some of these points, but overall an interesting read.

GBrent
Peter: A lot of insight and research, but is about 1,000 words too long. Takes a whole paragraph to say something that you could say in one sentence.

JWatters
Tom: A good read, with some good analysis. But also could benefit greatly from some tightening up. 

MooreSports
Peter: Another Bonds piece? Haven't we heard enough? That said, this is a pretty decent angle and the writing style is unique. Just not sure it was an exciting read.

Rivjo
Tom: Kudos on the topic choice and a decent read, but would have liked it more if it went beyond a little of the small-town-boy-makes-it-big cliche.

tjw118
Peter: Really dug this and liked that you chose a person so close to your heart. A little fluffy and corny at times, but still pretty good.