This week’s interview subject is Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Gonzalez. He took a break from 24-7 Mike Vick coverage to talk about his failed political run in Texas, not taking sports coverage too seriously all the time, watching the NCAA tournament in Holland, and of course, Vick. You might remember Gonzalez as the guy who ignited the Raul Ibanez-blogger-steroids firestorm. As an added bonus, there’s a mention of Shawn Bradley getting dunked on (though not by Gonzalez). Also, we finally updated the full interview archive in case you’ve missed any this summer traveling the globe. Read the rest of this entry »
Tony Barnhart is one of the foremost voices in college football. He’s been covering the sport in some fashion (writing, TV, and now, blogging) for three decades, and the kind folks at the CBS College Sports Network – where he has a show debuting Sept. 8 – were kind enough to pry him away from his preseason duties for a few minutes to answer our questions. Though he passed on talking about sideline reporters, he does have a strong opinion about the potential Tim Tebow backlash this fall, the greatest line written in SEC history, and he wishes he had an answer for newspapers. Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s interview subject, Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer, might seem like a veteran in the newspaper business because he’s already written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Orlando Sentinel, and Louisville Courier-Journal. But he’s only 31. That kind of early success breeds contempt. He talks about that as well as the ESPN-Ben Roethlisberger quagmire, hoops in Seattle, and standing tall when Andruw Jones of the Rangers tried to scoop a girl he was hanging out with. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s interview is with Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, who covers soccer and college basketball for the magazine. He’s got a book out that you may have heard of: The Beckham Experiment. Wahl’s also the guy who wrote the first SI cover story on Lebron James (where we first bumped into Wahl, in 2002) and he penned the memorable Redick-Morrison SI cover story. He talks soccer, college hoops, and journalism after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
At last weekend’s Blogs with Balls shindig, we cornered Sportscenter anchor Josh Elliott, and after some cajoling, convinced him to do an interview with this site. Outside of his lust for all the LA sports teams, he’s a pretty fascinating guy who’s had quite a meteoric career rise in the last four years: writer at Sports Illustrated, hosting a show on ESPN, and now hosting the morning Sportscenter. Among the topics covered below: His love for water polo and soccer, dodging camera phones at bars, putting bloggers on TV, and a family history that is likely to blow you away. Read the rest of this entry »
We usually interview media members, and sometimes we talk to athletes (and even an actor!), but never before for this blog have we spoken with winners of a contest who put themselves on track to becoming pro athletes. Last night, we chatted briefly with Pirates Pirates prospects Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, the first Indian-born players to sign with a MLB team. In 2008, they competed in the Million Dollar Arm contest, and despite both of them having zero baseball experience, they threw pitches at over 85 mph. After that, it was a whirlwind – fly to the United States, throw pitches in front of scouts, sign with the Pirates, extended spring training. Read the rest of this entry »
Joe Buck needs no introduction. He’s been FOX’s lead NFL announcer since 2002, and the network’s top MLB voice since 1996. Recently, HBO gave him a quarterly sports show, Joe Buck Live (premieres June 15th). He was kind enough to chat with us on the phone this morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Investigative sports writers are on the wane for a variety of reasons, but ESPN.com has one of the best in the business: Mike Fish. His recent piece on Lenny Dykstra generated a lot of news, but he also has done tremendous work on the Patriots Spygate story, as well as perhaps his most famous piece, Pat Tillman, an Un-American Tragedy, which made national headlines. After the jump, he talks in depth about his investigative work. Read the rest of this entry »
We first stumbled upon Tim Kawakami’s work about 10 years ago when the Shaq and Kobe era was beginning, and Kawakami was on the Lakers’ beat for the LA Times. (So naturally, we’ll ask about everyone’s favorite topic: Kobe forcing out Shaq.) If you think his name sounds familiar, it might be because of an incident at an Oakland Raiders press conference last Fall. Better than that dust-up and his days covering the Lakers? One of the best Al Davis stories we’ve ever heard.Read the rest of this entry »
After two months of weekly interviews, we took a brief respite during the NCAA tournament. And now, we’re back. Today: longtime St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz took some time this week to answer a few of our questions. He talked about filing a column from a crack house on the afternoon of the earthquake during the 1989 World Series, Pujols and PEDs, why Chris Berman is still the most annoying person in sports media, and his famous youtube confrontation with Tony La Russa. He’s seen here walking with Mike Martz, former coach of the St. Louis Rams. Read the rest of this entry »
This week’s interview subject is Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Gonzalez. He took a break from 24-7 Mike Vick coverage to talk about his failed political run in Texas, not taking sports coverage too seriously all the time, watching the NCAA tournament in Holland, and of course, Vick. You might remember Gonzalez as the guy who ignited the Raul Ibanez-blogger-steroids firestorm. As an added bonus, there’s a mention of Shawn Bradley getting dunked on (though not by Gonzalez). Also, we finally updated the full interview archive in case you’ve missed any this summer traveling the globe. Read the rest of this entry »
We usually interview 
