Slinging Yang with Jeff Pearlman

Today's Yang is Wright Thompson.

 

I enjoy Thompson's work quite a bit. People bitch about the use of first person, but I think of him as a sports travel writer.

 

His voice is like dark chocolate fudge straight out of the oven.

 

That's a douchey hat, though.

 

This'll sound haughty, but he's just plain improved over the last 5 years. The Gable and Jordan and Tiger pieces - all excellent - go down a lot better for me than the India/LeBron's Cleveland pieces did.

 

"Grandpappy's bourbon" is how Boom always described it.

Pearlman has a nice little networking thing going.

 

But the question has to be asked:

Is he one of the best columnists working today, or did he only get to where he is because he is a young, hard-working black woman?

 

"Audience engagement on the Tiger Woods story was insane. I mean, people stuck with it. It somewhere feels like they're running with an 8,000-word story that people aren't reading is because they're running a bunch of shitty 8,000-word stories."

 

My thumbnail test for a story's engagement is if I see people sharing it who haven't shared beers with the writer and aren't seeking to.

 

That's a Twilight Zone episode right there. You make a deal with the devil to have the incredible writing ability and reporting chops of Wright Thompson and draw people in magnetically with your writing, but you have to dress every day as if you're auditioning for a production of Guys and Dolls at a Charleston-area high school for the rest of your life.

 

Did someone say yang?

- Yak loin. Good to keep the Yang up. - Nothing wrong with my Yang.

 

I like his hat. I wear a fedora quite a bit. Not as awesome as his, though.