Your First Time

if i ever use the term "rocked credentials" please slit my throat.

 

That's funny, Gator. Reminds me of the time I interviewed Pete Rose shortly after he got out of prison. It was a 2-on-1 with a radio lady, on a dark veranda. I grew up enamored of the guy because he was, well, Pete Rose. Know exactly where I was when he slapped the ball into shallow left field off Eric Show for No. 4,192. But I didn't want to sully his greatness and asked, "So what was it like in the ... facility?" He looked at me and said "Facility?! Is that what you guys are calling it these days?"

 

met and interviewed bobby bonds at a triple-A park in, or about in, 2000.

much like your experience, i walked away believing he was a true class act and that barry must not be his biological son or maybe was raised by wolves.

anybody here interview willie mays? if so, tell us about your experience.

 

Tom, I asked Mays if I could interview him -- the same celebrity gathering Rose was at -- so I approached him and extended my hand, introduced myself and asked if I could ask him a few questions. He looked at me and said "No" and walked away.

 

i was afraid it was like that Xan.

as a fan, i HATE the giants, both NY and SF, but i believe willie mays not only is the greatest player ever to strap on cleats, but might have been the best thing ever to happen to baseball. while his career was spent alongside some awesome players, he was THE guy who made baseball fun.

i've heard grumblings from other folks ... and really never have heard a sportswriter say one nice thing about him.

thats a shame.

 

I just took it as a sign that I was some 21-year-old whitebread honky with a bad hairdo. Either that or Rose told him I called prison a "facility" and warned him to stay away. No biggie, though, because I got to interview Paul Gleason (RIP) and that guy could talk up a storm. He called me for weeks asking me to send him the article.

 

Don't Don't Don't Don't Don't You Forget About him

 

One of our interns accompanied our then-SE to a Rangers game a few years ago.

I'm sure it was an experience he'll never forget: He saw A-Rod naked.

"I saw the million-dollar tool," he marveled when he got back.

 

Only if you cut mine when I start menstrating about people's casual use of English in a message board.

 

I fought to overcome a shy nature early in my career, but there was only one person I was flat-out too intimidated to ask a single question. That was Chuck Noll. I was 20 at the time. I just sat there and took notes at a post-game presser.

A few years later, I pissed off Bill Cowher after a training camp practice early in his head coaching career, the first time I'd had at he chance to interview him. I pressed him for an answer on something he had already avoided, and he gave me a hard look and firmly reminded me that the season opener was weeks away.

One that didn't happen to me was with former Pitt basketball coach Paul Evans. I was interviewing him after a practice along with a very inexperienced reporter at the college paper. The other reporter asked him something and Evans just looked at him and said, "Who the hell writes your questions?"

 

one more phrase i will work into my vernacular.

thanks meat.