The Big Lead interviews Bob Kravitz

I'll give TBL some credit. He cleaned up his act a bit, and realized he didn't have to report scurrilous internet rumors just to be popular. (Leinart's second baby momma; here are the names of the suspended FSU players, whoops not really.) Don't think though that the bitching about him here didn't have an affect. It's a little disappointing sports writes are such shameless whores that not of that really mattered in terms of giving him interviews, but he's no longer anonymous, he no longer (at least as far as I can tell) writes shit that is blatantly false, and it's not really worth getting worked up about any longer.

The Fozzy Bear photo, however, will never go out of style.

 

effect

 

first, for the record, i like Kravitz. he's one of those guys i check in on now and then, and he's very good. OK? he's very good. definitely deserves to be a major-metro columnist, no jealousy here. he's on my list.

but is anybody else stunned by this guy's career path? i was floored. pro sports right out of college, stays at a fairly big paper only three months because "I wasn't interested." immediately gets a job in a pro city doing takeouts, then SI at age 25.

THEN he's good enough to work for the Plain-Dealer (dammit!) as a COLUMNIST before he hits 30. (i knew about RMN and the Star, obviously, but i guess i just assumed those came after a career of working one's way up.)

holy crap. were things a lot easier in the old days or was he the ultimate f'n stud of all young f'n studs. it makes some of the wunderkinds this board battles over look like they did 10 years at a weekly taking hate calls from swim moms.

again, he is one of my favorites, but that career path just knocked me for a loop.

were those just different times? or are there cases today that would rival his rise?

 

Oh, there are plenty of people like that today. Kids jumping from Columbia University School of Journalism to the NYT or WSJ or LAT. Kids walking out of Berkeley into Newsweek. In this business, it seems that once you're in, you're kind of in for good.

 

Think even Kravitz might tell you he wasn't ready for SI when he got there that young. Off the field if not on the field.

 

Both. Those were easier times but not easy -- a lot of No. 2 papers in large and medium-size cities folded during the early and mid-1980s, so it was competitive, a lot of talent out looking for work. And he was real good. He wasn't an opinion writer till he got to Cleveland, but his writing style on features and gamers had bounce, a lot of humorous twists, the readers had a good time.