Most of what everyone sees is just the final product from all the work and practice. How much time and how much preparation goes into getting ready for a performance?

It actually takes a lot of time, we practice about 8-10 hours a day. Not every celebrity’s natural ability to dance is the same. For those that struggle, you spend a lot of time trying to get the steps down. For those that are able to do it, you put in extra time because you know they can do that much better. So it takes a lot of work, firm muscles, and sore feet, but the end product usually is what you’re striving for.

Compare preparing for the show with a celebrity partner with preparing for an international competition with a professional partner. Is it about the same type of workload?

It’s similar, but it’s also different. When you’re practicing for an international competition with a professional partner, you kind of understand each other without talking. The level of intensity and detail that goes into practice on a professional level is a lot higher, so going into rehearsal and practicing 10 hours with a professional partner, you’d probably collapse at the end of the day. When you’re working with a celebrity partner, you’re making it a priority to make sure that they look good and that they look like they know what they’re doing.

You’ve worked with a wide range of celebrities. Which genre of celebrity seems to have made the transition to being the best dancer?

Usually it’s either an athlete because they’re used to the discipline and the work that is required to be good at what they’re doing. Also music — usually people who can sing naturally have a sense of rhythm. Like with Mario right now — he’s an R&B singer and he has a natural feeling of rhythm.

You were paired with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last season. We’ve seen him be very skilled in the ring, what was he like as a partner and a dancer?

Honestly, I got to see a side of Floyd that was completely different from what you see in all the 24/7 series or in the boxing ring. He does have a big heart, but he kind of plays a lot into the character he’s portrayed as in the boxing world. It’s hard for him to walk away from that character because then he feels he’s walking away from his comfort zone. He could have been very, very good — he could have been good enough to win this whole thing easily. He does have the ability, he does have the rhythm. But for him to be vulnerable in front of millions of people was not easy, and every time he kind of came across an obstacle or difficult step in dancing, he would say ‘I’m a boxer, what do you want? I’m a boxer.’ So it wasn’t easy, but it was definitely very enlightening and educational.

So would you say he was putting on a front and fitting into a role and character, and that he wasn’t being genuine all the time?

First of all, he’s not used to listening to a woman preach and tell him what to do, so that was a little bit difficult for him to comprehend in the beginning. And then coming into the ballroom world of dancing when you’re not from that world, you have to kind of let someone guide you through it — at least in the beginning. Floyd kind of didn’t fall in love with listening to me tell him what to do. Second of all, as soon as he would get into that competitive mode when it was all couples together, he would kind of stand back.

When it comes to the show, how much is it campaigning for votes and how much is it based on the actual dancing? What was the disappointment like for you and Mario [Lopez] when you lost in the finals?

Mario was hands down a better dancer than Emmitt [Smith] and everybody knows and sees that, but this is not purely a dancing show. It’s as much a personality and popularity contest as it is a dancing show. And as much as I like Mario, he’s nowhere near the popularity as Emmitt Smith — he’s a three-time Super Bowl winner and a household name. The only thing that was weird was they had Emmitt playing the underdog role, and I thought that should have been the other way around. Honestly, I had no idea who Mario Lopez was before the season started, but I knew who Emmitt Smith was, and that says a lot.

Wow, Mario Lopez was in Saved by the Bell, I figure most of the voting audience would have known who he was.

Maybe, but I remember Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell, I didn’t remember A.C. Slater. Now I remember, but when they told me I had Mario Lopez as my partner, I had a picture of George Lopez in my head … I was like ‘Oh shoot.’

So what did Mario think of that? Have you told him this story?

Well, I told him some of it, but I didn’t tell him that I remembered Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell more than him — I didn’t go into all the details. I did tell him that I didn’t know who he was when they told me I had him. I told him that I had a picture of George Lopez because he and George are very good friends. So when I told that story to George, he loved it. He said ‘I can’t believe she knew me but didn’t know you.’

Being on the show, what has it done for you in terms of your celebrity status?

Well, the show’s been amazing for dancing in general. It’s brought out ballroom dancing to the level where people know what it is. Even though dancers knew who I was, I wouldn’t have people come up to me on the street saying ‘We love you, we love the way you dance.’ And now it happens on almost a daily basis and it’s amazing, it’s flattering.

One of those perks it seems like — FHM released its 100 Sexiest list and you made it — what did you think?

I didn’t know — I got an email from a friend saying congratulations. That’s huge, 100 women in the whole world and I made the list? It kind of felt surreal, when I looked at the picture I had to remind myself that it was real.

I know you’re with Mario, but our readers want to know, what is your taste in guys?

I don’t think I have a certain type in men, as long as they are extremely strong personality and character and they know where they’re going and how to get there, I think it’s kind of sexy. It’s like the reason why women love James Bond — he’s so cool and he kind of knows everything and he knows how to read women and treat them. I’ve always been attracted more to darker guys — darker hair and darker eyes, I’ve never been crazy about blond hair, but there’s always a first!

Working with a partner, you spend all that time together, all these hours. How easy is it for stuff to develop romantically?

You know, when producers pair you up with your celebrity they’re actually trying to fit your personalities together so you automatically become good friends if your personalities match. And when you do spend a lot of time in a dance studio with the same person literally attached at the hip, it’s not that hard to develop certain feelings. But you have to remind yourself that it is a show, it is a job, and even if you do find your dance partner attractive, you kind of know that it’s just a three-month relationship and then you kind of move on to the next celebrity. You kind of develop feelings for every person you get paired up with, you pretty much go into a serious relationship three-four times a year.

How many times have you caught someone trying to put a move on you. And be honest here.

Honestly, it’s an old role story — a doctor and a nurse, the teacher and the student — usually it’s up to the teacher to make that decision of not going further than is necessary and keeping it professional. As a teacher, it’s not something new so you know how to handle it.

OK, let me ask you this. What if I were to say it’s just dancing, how hard can it be? People do it in a club, what’s the big deal? What would be your response?

Well first of all, clubs are not prime-time national television with millions watching. And besides that, it’s live, so if you mess up they see it. And then you’re put in a vulnerable position in front of the judges who criticize you and call you names and pretty much make fun of you in front of half the country. So it’s a lot more nerve racking and I don’t think it’s even comparable to going to a club. And on a pure dancing level, it’s not easy. It’s multi-tasking to the beat of the music, doing the right steps, and moving in-sync with another person you’ve just met. So it’s a lot of hard work.

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1. Take us through your career path. When did you start writing about sports and how and when did you get hooked up with all your current gigs?

I started writing at the Daily Illini, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois, during my freshman year there, 1995. I hardly ever wrote about sports, though: The football team was horrible, the basketball team was mediocre and I was more into writing news and feature stories. I worked there all four years I was in college and was the editor in chief my senior year, and it was a great experience.

Although I wasn’t on the sports staff at the student paper, I did, during my junior year, start sending around a weekly e-mail to my friends about my thoughts on the NFL. I really don’t know what inspired me to do that, and I’m sure a large portion of my friends just deleted the e-mail every week without reading it, but some people told me they really liked it, and I knew writing about the NFL was something I wanted to do. At that time, though, I thought it would require the traditional journalism career path: You take a job at a small paper covering high school sports or something, and you work your way up. I didn’t find that particularly appealing.

After graduation, my then-girlfriend (now-wife) and I decided to move to Southern California and become high school teachers in Compton. I lasted one year at Compton High School and found that it wasn’t for me. I spent the next three years at a couple of newspaper jobs in Long Beach, doing some pretty boring work. My wife taught in Compton for four years, and after her fourth decided she wanted to move to Chicago and go to law school, so we went.

That was in 2003, and shortly after moving to Chicago, I came across Football Outsiders, thought it was an absolutely groundbreaking approach to the NFL, and asked Aaron Schatz if I could contribute. He agreed, and although that was more â hobby than a job, I gradually started parlaying my FO writing into paying gigs, with a lot of help from Aaron along the way. I started writing for the New York Sun, which has a great sports section, in 2005, and then started writing for FanHouse in 2006, and by that point I was able to turn what had been a hobby into my only job. Pro Football Talk was the most recent addition to my list of regular gigs; that happened about six months ago when Mike Florio approached me out of the blue about helping out with his site, which I took as a huge compliment because I have a ton of respect for him.

2. Would you classify yourself as a writer, blogger, writer who also blogs, or vice versa?

To the extent that there’s a distinction between “writer” and “blogger” — and I’m not sure there is — I think I fall more on the “writer” side. Just to give one example, after the Cowboys had to kick two game-winning field goals, I wrote a column in the New York Sun about the controversial tactic of coaches calling timeouts before game winning field goals. MJD wrote a column on the same topic at FanHouse. Reading both of them, I honestly like MJD’s better than I like mine because he’s capable of writing things like, “I was hoping that someone in the Buffalo crowd brought a large javelin into the game with them, and that they’d be willing to shove the entire length of that javelin into Dick Jauron’s ear.” That kind of sentence is perfect for a blogger, and I just don’t come up with stuff like that. I have much more of a newspaper writer’s sensibility.

3. Your range of work varies greatly: on one hand, you’ll break down every single play for an NFL game, on another, you’ll post on Amanda Beard posing in playboy. What do you like or dislike about each end of the spectrum, and which type of writing do you prefer the most?

I like them all about equally, really. What I like the most is writing something that gets good reader feedback, but what gets good feedback doesn’t always correspond to what I think is good. Sometimes I’ll write something that I don’t think is anything special and I’ll get lots of e-mails from people telling me they loved it. Other times I’ll work really hard on something, have a finished product I’m really proud of, and get either no reaction at all or a decidedly negative reaction.

4. You’re clearly one of the busiest men around, writing seven days a week, with your works appearing round the clock, in several different places. What’s a typical day like for you and how are you able to manage it all?

I get up early and make a pot of coffee. That’s extremely important.

Typical day consists of going to the gym with my wife first thing in the morning and then catching up on the day’s news and finding topics that will be interesting to blog about. I generally do most of my blogging in the morning and most of my longer pieces in the afternoon. That schedule just seems to work better. I have either ESPN or NFL Network on almost all day, every day.

I know some people find it strange that I write seven days a week and hardly ever take a day off (I’ve taken one day off so far in 2007), but honestly, if you like what you’re doing, I don’t know why you’d want to take a day off. Some people like listening to music and do it every day. Some people like watching TV and do it every day. Some people like playing video games and do it every day. Some people like reading the newspaper and do it every day. I like writing, so I do it every day. It helps that I have a wife who’s very supportive of what I do, a big enough football fan that she doesn’t mind it being on all weekend, and busy enough in her own job that she doesn’t mind my long hours.

5. Not long ago, you were invited to Bristol to check out ESPN. What was that experience like and what did you learn from it?

The most striking thing about ESPN is its physical size: It’s this enormous campus of buildings with enormous satellite dishes everywhere, and there’s all kinds of construction going on, so it’s going to get bigger. It’s a good thing that when the bright idea to start a cable sports network emerged 30 years ago, it emerged in the mind of a guy in Bristol, Connecticut, and not some TV executive in New York or L.A. ESPN never could have grown in New York or L.A. like it has in Bristol because no one could afford that much real estate in New York or L.A.

What I learned, other than what I wrote, is that ESPN is just like any other big company: There’a no big secret to what they’re doing, it’s just a bunch of people going about their jobs every day.
6. As someone who has no experience in the matter, what’s it like sharing a name with a prominent sports writer, who also happens to specialize in football? Did you always go by all three names, or was that a conscious, professional choice?
Michael Smith is such a common name that I’ve gone by all three to avoid confusion with other Michael Smiths since I first started writing for the college paper in 1995. That was long before I had ever heard of the Michael Smith who now works at ESPN, but there were other Michael Smiths I had been mistaken for, and that’s the reason I started using my full name.

Incidentally, I have a great deal of respect for the Michael Smith at ESPN. I saw him at the scouting combine in Indianapolis in 2006 and was amazed at how hard he worked. Most of the recognizable TV people just kind of sat back and waited for players or coaches to come to them, but Michael Smith was working the room, running from person to person to get information. He’s where he is because of hard work, there’s no doubt about that.

7. It took baseball a while to embrace sabermetrics, and even still, some people don’t respect or pay much attention to them. What do you think the response from the NFL has been in regard to the analytical approach Football Outsiders takes?

The statistical revolution is much further along in baseball than it is in football, but NFL coaches, scouts and general managers are much more receptive to stats than their Major League Baseball counterparts. Successful coaches like Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil have championed statistical analysis, and because of them there’s not that attitude in the NFL that you’re either a football guy or a stat geek.

8. What do you like/dislike about the sports blogosphere, and what would you say its role is in the sports world?

What I like about the blogosphere is its ability to get into details that the mainstream media can’t or won’t explore. Awful Announcing is awesome. Sports fans talk almost as much about the announcers as they do about the players, and there would be a huge gaping hole in coverage of the announcers if Awful Announcing hadn’t filled it. Post Game Heroes does some phenomenal breakdowns of games that blow what most mainstream media writers do out of the water.

As for what I dislike? Well, I’ve always believed that the best way to criticize a writer is to write something better. Unfortunately, I see a lot of bloggers criticizing mainstream media writers, but not a lot of them writing something better. For instance, look at Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback. I see a lot of bloggers criticizing it and I’ve criticized it myself but I really only see one blogger doing something any reasonable person could think is better, as far as a Monday wrap-up of Sunday’s action, and that’s MJD with his Smorgasbord. I’d like to see more bloggers do a long Sunday night or Monday morning post covering everything that happened in the NFL, trying to beat Peter King, not just knock him.

A good example of writing something better comes with the whole Trent Green/Travis Johnson controversy. The initial reaction in the mainstream media was overwhelmingly pro-Green and anti-Johnson. But I saw a couple of bloggers write something better as their response to the mainstream media coverage of the incident. One was Stephanie Stradley at FanHouse, and the other – in a very different way — was Monday Morning Punter at Kissing Suzy Kolber. I wish there was more of that.

9. Word from the grapevine says you and Will Leitch of Deadspin know each other well from your days at Illinois. Is Illinois the Syracuse of sports blogging?

Perhaps. Will would be the Bob Costas and I would be more like the Ian Eagle, though.

Seriously, I owe Will a lot. He was actually the person who convinced me to write for the student newspaper when he was a junior and I was a freshman, and without that I’d probably be setting pins in a bowling alley or something.

10. Who are some of the sports writers, bloggers, and broadcasters whose work you respect and enjoy the most?

My favorite sports writers are King Kaufman and Dan Shanoff. I don’t know if he’d agree, but I consider Shanoff more writer than a blogger.

Bloggers, I’ve already mentioned some of my favorites, and I think many of my colleagues at FanHouse are incredibly talented. Among the other blogs I like are The Big Lead, Fire Joe Morgan, Sports by Brooks, Mr. Irrelevant, Ladies… (the only sports blog my wife reads, other than FanHouse), KenPom.com, and Big Daddy Drew and Unsilent Majority’s stuff, both at KSK and Deadspin. And then there are tons of good team-specific blogs, like Hogs Haven, Burnt Orange Nation, The Jets Blog and Arrowhead Addict. I could go on all day, but I’ve probably named too many already.

Some of the broadcasters I like are Bob Costas, Mike Greenberg, Pam Ward, Ron Jaworski, Tom Jackson, Rich Eisen, Adam Schefter, Mike Mayock and Gus Johnson.

11. What is your dream job?

I’d like to do more pieces like the one I wrote for The New Republic a few years ago about Fritz Pollard and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, pieces that use sports to touch on bigger issues. So I guess something that allowed me to do more of that would be my dream job. But what I’m doing now is pretty close.

Previous Interviews on LBS:
Rachel Specter, RGX Bodyspray Girl
Brian Powell, Awful Announcing
Adam Schefter, NFL Network Reporter
Ben Maller
Boxing Judge Chuck Giampa
Sean Foreman, Baseball-Reference Founder
Zach Landres-Schnur, The Big Picture

How did you get the RGX gig in the first place?

I always wanted to act and grew up doing whatever I could do in Tampa Florida, which is not very much. When I was in college, I spent a couple summers in New York and interned at a talent agency and learned about the whole industry. As soon as I graduated, I moved to LA. I started the way that most people started who didn’t really have any connections because I didn’t know one single person in LA. I started sending head shots and went through the process of trying to get an agent and then started auditioning. With the commercials, I had done a bunch of national commercials before this so this audition was just like any other audition. I went to it and ended up getting it. For the first audition, I read that they had six commercial spots and you had to read all of them. Then it was funny at the callback a lot of these things that you go to you see different versions of yourself just like all these girls that kind of look similar to you. So it was like walking into a room with all these pretty brunette girls. And I ended up getting it which was awesome because it’s been really great for me.

Did you have an idea when you landed it that it would lead to where it has today?

No, I honestly had no idea. People told me that it was going to be huge but I kind of just laughed it off. This industry is so crazy I just take everything as it comes — I never really believe the things that people tell me and get excited about things. So many things don’t follow through so I didn’t really expect anything from it.

Do you think it’s been a stigma attached to your name that you are the RGX Bodyspray girl, or do you think it’s good because it’s helped you gain notice?

I think it’s good because it’s gotten me noticed more. It’s not like I had done nothing other than these body spray ads. I had been working for a while; I had been doing a lot of commercials and acting roles so it kind of happened at a time when I was already being successful as a working actress. I guess it was good because it publicized me more at a time when I was ready to take on more jobs.

You’ve become a celebrity in the sports world because your commercials pop up all the time when guys are watching ESPN and there is this hot girl in these commercials telling you how much she wants you. At what point did it start to catch on for you that “Wow, a lot of people know who I am?

The first thing that made me realize it was when I started getting a crazy amount of Myspace messages. I was like OK, obviously my commercial has started airing, and people have figured out who I am. My brother is pretty internet savvy — he would email me links to things of people saying things about me.

What are some of the upcoming projects you are working on?

This summer I’ve worked on four movies. One of them is called Prom Night — it’s a remake of an 80s horror/thriller movie. That should be out in April. I’m doing a comedy called Deep in the Valley with Tracy Morgan, Denise Richards, and Scott Caan. I’m almost done with this movie called I Know What Boys Like. It’s a Happy Madison, Adam Sandler comedy. It’s the writers of Legally Blonde who wrote it, Katharine McPhee, Anna Farris, and Rumer Willis are all in it — it’s a good female cast.

That title seems very appropriate based on your commercials. Have you always been that girl, or is this sort of a new thing for you?

Growing up I never really got any attention from guys at all. I was very much into reading and that was pretty much it. I remember the first day I got to high school, guys started paying attention to me. I was so confused because that had never happened before. I don’t know what changed, I don’t know. I didn’t always have that attention; I wasn’t the popular girl. I think that’s a good thing because it made me a well-rounded person.

So it did happen at some point because you knew you wanted to go this direction with your career, right?

Well I always knew I wanted to do it. But you’re never really sure if you have the confidence to do it. I come from a very practical family where education is really valued. Nobody really did anything creative like this and they never thought of this as like an actual option.

So what’s it like for your family or friends who see you on a national level with all the popularity, and in essence, fame you’ve gained from it?

I think it’s really exciting for them. I know my parents are really thrilled. My friends from home are really excited and everyone’s really supported me. My parents are funny because they don’t really understand what’s going on in this industry. Sometimes I’ll tell them things that I think are a really huge deal and they don’t really get it. Sometimes they’ll be really excited about things that aren’t a big deal and not be excited about the things I want them to be excited about.

What is your taste in guys?

I like guys who have a really good sense of humor. I think people always say this, but personality is so important because you need to be able to have a conversation with people. I think that’s the most important thing in a guy I would date. Also ambition. Not necessarily success, but just having a lot of motivation and ambition is important.

In your experiences, what are the most important factors for guys?

I think for a lot of people in general, if they’re just looking for a fling, then they just factor in looks. But I think if they’re looking for something more substantial, then obviously intelligence and personality is a key factor.

What is your ultimate goal and how close do you think you are to achieving it?

You know how all the Judd Apatow group of guys are writing their own movies and starring in their own movies and having huge success? I want to be the girl version of that. I would love to write something for me to star in and to be able to work with my friends and be successful together. I don’t know how close I am to that, I have been writing a lot but I don’t know how close I am to getting anything off the ground. But that would be my ultimate.

Previous Interviews on LBS:
Brian Powell, Awful Announcing
Adam Schefter, NFL Network Reporter
Ben Maller
Boxing Judge Chuck Giampa
Sean Foreman, Baseball-Reference Founder
Zach Landres-Schnur, The Big Picture

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Whether it was catching a freeze frame of a pantyless USC Song Girl, or a quote from Matt Vasgersian ripping on the city of St. Louis, Awful Announcing has become a prominent player on the sports blogging scene. It has long been a favorite stop of mine, providing excellent commentary and news in the realm of sports broadcasting. For that reason, I wanted to get in touch with Brian Powell, the founder and man behind Awful Announcing, and find out what makes him tick. Our Q&A session follows.

1.What was the inspiration to start the blog? Was there a particular moment when you were watching a sporting event and the announcer pissed you off to the point where you felt you had no choice?

It was really a combination of things over the years. I grew up with my father just railing on Brent Musburger every single college football game he covered. Commenting and making fun of announcers is just something I’ve just always done.

The moment that made me start the site in particular was during last year’s NBA Playoffs. The Wizards were playing the Cavs and letting Donyell Marshall stand in one place the entire game, and rain threes on them. Hubie Brown described Marshall by saying he has the quality that all coaches love — “Wideopenshotability.” One word made me start the site the next day.

2. Did you intend for the site to have such a narrow focus? Do you feel limited to the scope of announcing/broadcasting news?

Well, a narrow focus isn’t necessarily true. The best part about AA is that people do dumb stuff in the booth and on sidelines year round. That’s where I think some blogs lose an audience. You can kick ass during NBA season, but what do you do when the season ends? That’s why sites like KSK, EDSBS, and Free Darko succeed in the off-season. They have amazing writers and an imagination that I envy.

If I only focused on NBA … AA would never have lasted. I also don’t limit myself to announcing entirely. I want the site to be a place where people can find something they haven’t seen yet or read before. I mean how many Last Night in MLB reviews can you read? If you watch sports as much as I do, you already know what happened by the time you wake up in the morning.

3. Have you received feedback on your site from any sports broadcasters or journalists? If so, what are some of your favorite stories?

There have been a bunch of people that have emailed in and said that they get the site, and enjoy what I’m doing. Most of them I could never mention because I wouldn’t want their employers to know they were associating with the “lesser” media.

I do have my detractors however, and my personal favorite is Spencer Tillman. He took an extreme disliking to my hammering of Charles Davis during the college football Bowl season last year. A commenter had incorrectly identified Tillman as Davis in an open thread and Tillman decided to make his voice heard (very badly as well). Good times.

4. Did you ever have aspirations of working in sports media? Do you think running the site has inhibited your chances of working in sports media?

I’ve had a few jobs in sports and sports management (one step above PE) was my major in college, but I never dreamed of working on the media side of things. First off … I wasn’t a journalism major in school and I am not the best with punctuation (Hence all of the … ). A MSM editor wouldn’t even let me in the door for an interview. I’ve obviously gotten better the more and more I read and write, but I’m happy with what and how I write at the moment. Everyone knows the larger sites are turning to blogs for original content, so you never know. I’m probably not in the running for a position over at the Leader though.

If someone is looking for a poor writing sports media critic … hit me up.

5. In just over a year, you’ve turned Awful Announcing into a sports blogging powerhouse. What do you think led to the rapid proliferation of the site?

Since I’m very self-deprecating, in my head I think it’s just really good luck. When I step back and look at the whole thing, I’d have to attribute it to hard work. I’ve worked harder on this site than anything in my life. Another aspect is that the site is all-inclusive. Just because I get a larger number of readers per day than other sites that started around the same time doesn’t make AA any better or worse.

A few other keys are to be transparent and appreciate everyone who links/reads your material. From the very beginning, I said I’d give a link to anyone who asked for one. I can’t stand when people only list 7 sites or so in their blogroll, but use stories from other sites all the time. To each his own, but it seems a bit hypocritical to me. Every single person in my “Friends of AA” section has helped me out in some way. Either by linking a story from AA’s leaner years, or by providing me with content for a post. It’s the least I can do to pay them back. I just hope a few people click over from AA to their site(s).

6. You have said in the past that you didn’t want to include any ads on the site. What was the reason for the re-design which now includes ads?

This is the hardest and easiest question rolled up into one. The easy answer is money. You can act hard and underground as much as you want, but when someone offers you multiple hundreds of dollars for a text ad … you start to listen.

The best conversation I’ve had on this subject was with Dan Shanoff. I told him that I hadn’t even considered it because I didn’t want to look like a sellout to the readers, and annoy the crap out of them. His response was, “Do you really want another site with a ton less readers making money while you make nothing?” I think the point is that there are ways to profit from all of the hard work without shoving things down people’s throats.

I think the new layout captures that. Plus I got rid of the depressing gray background — that’s a good thing.

7. What inspired you to continue blogging and do so much of it without compensation up until recently?

That’s a really good question and I don’t think I have an answer. If it’s anything, it’s probably because I have an addiction. I feel an obligation to post a certain number of times a day, and I get mad at myself when there are only one or two comments on a story.

The notoriety I’ve received, new people I’ve met, all the radio and TV interviews, and the people I’ve talked to throughout this past year, hasn’t hurt either.

8. Is there anything in particular about your blog that you’re most proud of?

I’m just proud that anyone enjoys something I put together. I freaked out just as much as when I had 100 people read the site as when tens of thousands come in a day. I’m also very proud of the community AA has built. The commenters are always stellar and the “Channel 4 News Team” that helps out with live-blogs, The Press Buffet, and the Weekend stuff, has helped me more than they know.

(I’m also proud I have kept a full-time, salaried position all while posting 30 some times a week.)

9. What is the ultimate goal of running AA?

This may surprise you, but I don’t set goals. Crazy I know. To let you behind the curtain a bit..I really don’t know what I’m posting until I start the day. I’m a terrible planner and I’m never organized.

I guess if I’m starting to make goals the first one is to actually keep the site running. The second would be to keep giving people stuff they haven’t seen or thought about. To the point above, every top website gives people something they wouldn’t get from the mainstream outlets (Hey, look at that! I think I made my first goal!!!). I’m just going to continue to be different, unapologetic, and never take myself too seriously.

10. What do you think lies ahead in the future for sports bloggers?

As the last year has shown, bloggers and blogs have gained an immense amount of respect. Newspapers have turned regular reporters into bloggers, ESPN began hiring them, and one even got a pitcher to change his approach to the first inning of a game. Amazing stuff has happened, but I’m still skeptical.

I may be wrong, and I’m not going to turn this into a war of the worlds type thing, but I think it’s going to be tougher in the years to come. Newspaper reporters will realize they are a dying medium, there will be more blogs every than before, and credibility issues will be running rampant.

I think the toughest part about the whole thing is convincing the public that an unbiased and honest opinion is more important than any local/national writer can give you. Most aren’t fans of the sport they are assigned to, and some are so bitter that they just don’t even try anymore. A fan, and the viewing public doesn’t deserve that, and I hope people continue to keep figuring that out.

Previous Interviews on LBS:
Adam Schefter, NFL Network Reporter
Ben Maller
Boxing Judge Chuck Giampa
Sean Foreman, Baseball-Reference Founder
Zach Landres-Schnur, The Big Picture

• Adam’s career path
• Writing Shanahan and Terrell Davis’ books, and if that compromised his coverage of the team
• Being first to report that the Texans were considering Mario Williams
• Being first to report the Raiders would fire Art Shell and being personally attacked by the Raiders for the report
• Being first to report the Randy Moss to New England trade

1. How did you wind up at the NFL Network after covering the Broncos for so many years?

I always dabbled in television when I was living in Denver and I always liked it, but I never imagined I would make my living doing it. I remember I was at the Super Bowl between New England and Carolina when the Network started up. They put the media on busses with TVs, and on those TVs they had NFL Network and it was the first time I had ever seen NFL Network. I’ll never forget it — I was riding with the venerable Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune, and he and I were both watching the Network. And the Network had a one-on-one with Tom Brady, and they went home with Antowain Smith for a home-cooked meal, and they had Jake Delhomme for a one-on-one. I’m saying to myself, ‘man, I’m in this newspaper field, and we’re fighting to get a single question in, and the Network is getting these guys one-on-one,’ and I turned to Don and he said to me, ‘that’s the death of all of us.’

After seeing that, I thought I would love the opportunity to get there. I mentioned it to the Network that if they were interested in hiring a reporter, I would love to talk. Eric Weinberger, who runs the Network, called me and we talked for about six months about what I’d do for the Network. I loved my job in Denver and never thought I was going to come until he said the job will be this: doing information like Chris Mortensen and parting shots like Mike Lupica on The Sports Reporters. These are guys I had always watched, admired, and respected, and to be able to do the things that they have done so successfully over time was enough to make me leave my safe haven of newspapers for the Network.

I think about it today and the fact that I vacillated over that decision. Woody Paige left The Denver Post right around that time and the Post talked to me about becoming a columnist and succeeding him. Being a columnist was something I always dreamed about doing. Obviously to turn down your dream job it has to be a pretty significant opportunity. I look back now and think about the fact that I vacillated over the decision and I laugh; there’s no place I’d rather be than the NFL Network.

2. Would you say you’re pretty fortunate that you caught the NFL Network in its infancy?

I feel incredibly fortunate. There are people who told me not to go, that the Network wouldn’t make it — some tremendously influential people and some people I respect. I hope I’m not speaking out of turn here, but I know Rich Eisen had a similar experience when he was deciding about leaving ESPN. Marv Albert, whom he idolizes, told him not to do it, but Rich did. So the Network had its doubters, but my guess would be today that there would be very few of those doubters.

3. You covered the Broncos for 15 years prior to joining NFL Network. What did you do before you covered the Broncos?

It was so hard to get a job. When I was in college, you couldn’t have done more than I did to get a job in journalism. I was the sports editor with Rich Eisen of The Michigan Daily — we were co-sports editors along with some other people. I was working for the Ann Arbor News covering high school games on the weekends. I was Mitch Albom’s research assistant. I was stringing for the Detroit Free Press doing news updates for them from the Michigan campus. I was sending out resumes to every single newspaper in the country and I truly could not get a single job anywhere. I always tell people that there’s a bar on the Michigan campus called Dominick’s that for every rejection letter you have, they give you a drink. I had so many rejection letters I could’ve owned the bar. I went to graduate school at Northwestern to get my masters in journalism only because I could not get a full time job. There was nobody that would hire me.

When I was in graduate school, I went to work on the side freelancing for the Chicago Tribune. They sent me to cover all the things that nobody wanted to cover like fencing, curling, badminton, and gymnastics. I spent every weekend covering all those events. I still was sending out resumes and applications, and it took me two full years before I could get a single sniff. The first paper that hired me was the LA Times. They hired me to be a high school correspondent. I went out celebrating and when I got back, there was a message from the Rocky Mountain News in Denver that they wanted me to cover the University of Colorado and the Denver Broncos and so I thought I’d rather do that than cover high school sports in LA.

4. What do you think the LA Times and Rocky Mountain News saw that they hired you?

I think it was luck. I spent two years looking for a job. I always tell people that it’s a job looking for a job. You couldn’t have been more annoying to these people than I was. I wanted it that badly. I spent all my time trying to figure out how to do this.

5. How did you end up covering the Broncos?

In Denver, covering the Broncos is like religion; it’s like covering the White House in Washington. The truth was nobody wanted to do it. It takes so much time and energy, and people have better things to do. Plus, the first year I got to Denver, the Broncos were 5-11, and they got about five players arrested, and the guy who was covering them got tired of it. He left after a year. Believe me, I wasn’t their first choice, I wasn’t their second choice, I wasn’t their 20th choice. It was a case of them having nobody who wanted to do it, and them having nobody else to turn to but me.

6. You wound up building some relationships and writing a couple of books, how did that come about?

If you do something a long time, people see whether or not you’re going to be fair or if you can be trusted over time. I went out of my way to try to be fair to people. They didn’t always like what I wrote about them, but I think that they couldn’t complain about it over time. After Terrell Davis’ rookie season, his agent, Neil Schwartz, was mentioning to me that Terrell Davis was going to write a book. I didn’t think anything of it. And then, after the Broncos won the Supe rBowl, and Terrell Davis had a great season, Neil came to me and asked if I wanted to do the book. I was honored and it worked out well.

The next year, the Broncos went back to the Super Bowl, won it again, and the publisher suggested a business-motivational book with Mike Shanahan. I went to Mike and Mike signed off on it, and we did that book. Bill Romanowski paid attention to all this, and when he was ready to do his book, he asked me to write it. Ultimately it just comes back to treating people the same way you would want to be treated.

7. Did this compromise the way you covered the team?

I laugh about that. Right after the book came out with Mike Shanahan, I wrote an article that was critical of him for benching Bubby Brister in favor of Brian Griese. After that, Mike didn’t talk to me for six straight months. I would ask him questions in the press conference and he would literally ignore me. He would answer everyone else with lengthy explanations, and when I asked a question, it was one-word answers.

People think you’re going to be too nice to people when you write books about them. I think it’s just the opposite because you know everyone’s watching you, and you’re held to a higher standard. Because of that, you’re especially careful that your reports reflect what’s really going on. The management at The Denver Post signed off on it. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have done it.

8. Those six months that Shanahan didn’t answer a question for you, how difficult did it make it for you to cover the team?

It actually made me more determined to dig up more Broncos breaking stories. I still remember writing a story that Mike Shanahan was going after Steve Young, which had to surprise Mike. I had the story of Dale Carter getting suspended for violating the substance abuse policy. I was determined to show him and anybody else that I didn’t need Mike Shanahan answering my questions to get stories. When Mike didn’t talk to me, I was more determined than ever to come up with more news than ever to show him that I didn’t need him to talk to me to do my job.

9. Last year at draft time, everyone was so sure that Reggie Bush was going to Houston. You were the first person that reported the news that the Texans were seriously considering taking Mario Williams. There was a lot of backlash from your colleagues for reporting that news. What was it like reporting that story?

You remember those things so vividly. That story was on the Network two Mondays before the draft. I called the Network and I told them that Reggie Bush to Houston was not a lock. They were dismissive of me at my own network! I said there were signs that the Texans were thinking of taking someone other than Reggie Bush, and that that someone was Mario Williams, not Vince Young. I got calls from people saying I got hoodwinked. Here’s the thing — they didn’t know where I was getting my information from. It wasn’t coming from the Houston Texans, and it wasn’t coming from the agent of Mario Williams. I heard it from one GM, and I called another GM, and then I called a coach, and then I called some other agents, and everything kept pointing back to the fact that the Texans were not going to take Bush. My story was that the Texans were considering taking someone else, so even if they took Bush, my story wouldn’t have been wrong.

10. Do you think it was a case that everyone else had the same information but they never put it together the way you did?

No, I can’t explain it. There’s a certain news antenna that you have that goes off on certain stories. I remember my news antenna going off, and I was thinking maybe it’s not going to be Mario Williams. But there was a part of me that said the Texans were really grappling with that decision. Something told me that there was something going on, that it wasn’t Reggie Bush going to Houston as a slam dunk.

11. Last year you came out with the news that the Raiders were not going to bring back Art Shell at the end of the season. You took a lot of heat from the Raider organization and Al Davis in particular for the report. How did you feel about that?

When the Raiders issued their release, I was flabbergasted. I had never seen anything in all capital letters before, single-handedly ripping a reporter. I went on the air and said they could rip me all they want. If they want to embarrass me, all they have to do is say that Art Shell will return as coach in 2007. Al Davis was telling people at that time that he was going to fire Art Shell. He had told at least two people that he had no choice but to fire Art Shell at the end of the season.

But here’s one of the important parts of journalism: you could report a story today and be accurate, and have people change their minds. So things happen and situations change. But at that particular point, Al Davis was planning to fire Art Shell, and he did fire Art Shell. And I never heard back from the Raiders.

12. When you heard that news, did you feel any satisfaction?

You never want to see anyone suffer. Lets not forget that a man lost his job, as well as several coaches under him, and families were displaced. You never want to see that. I felt bad for Art Shell. Now personally, I felt a measure of vindication that my story was right and the Raiders weren’t. Of course, you’re human. How do you not feel it? From that standpoint, that was gratifying.

13. What’s it like if you have a hot story that nobody else has, like on the morning of the NFL draft, when you had Randy Moss traded to New England?

I called my boss and told him that we needed to get this story on the air as soon as possible. I was bouncing off my seat at Radio City Music Hall, I was wound up beyond words — I could have basically run a marathon on fumes. I love news stories, and I really love big news stories. You get a serious adrenaline rush doing that. There are rewards in every job; financial analysts like the big deal, real estate brokers like the big closing, authors like the book releases, and as a journalist, you live for the big stories. To this day, the blood just pulsates through my body when I get a big story.

1. Can you tell me about your radio career, from where and how you started out, to the point of becoming nationally syndicated?

I started out getting coffee for Lee Hacksaw Hamilton at XTRA 690 in San Diego. I would commute from Orange County to San Diego (168 miles roundtrip) several times a week to learn about the radio biz. XTRA gave me a shot at a very young age allowing me to cover high school football games and run the board for San Diego State basketball. I ended up as their LA reporter.

When Clear Channel won the Dodgers radio contract I was transferred to the LA version of XTRA (KXTA 1150). PD Beau Bennett gave me my first break as a weekday talk host. He believed I had the ability to be a big star. I ended up working at KXTA till 2001 when they had a Florida Marlins like firesale.

Fox Sports Radio was just beginning in 2000 when I started working there on weekends. After I was whacked by KXTA, PD Tom Lee gave me a bigger roll at FSR.

2. What about the website, how did that whole thing start?

Being let go from my gig in LA, I had a lot of free time on my hands. My family (mom and brother) encouraged me to play around with the site to help pass time until I found another radio job. The site grew into a sports rumor/gossip link site after a short period of time, but I never imagined it would turn into a full-time job and have millions of readers.

3. You put a ton of time and effort into the site for years without getting anything back in return. What kept you motivated to do it for so long and did you ever expect it to become profitable?

Positive feedback from my colleagues in the media kept pushing me forward. I’ve heard from all the big names at my rivals at ESPN and Sporting News Radio. Well-known sports columnists, national TV personalities, and even some Hollywood types have reached out to me. It’s amazing what word of mouth advertising can do on the web. That’s one of the many great thing about the Internet.

I never expected to make any real money with this and only in the past couple of years have I made a few bucks.

4. When I talk to people they often cannot believe that benmaller.com is a one-man-operation. How are you able to cover so much ground all by yourself?

I take great pride in this. There are some great sports blogs out there like SportsByBrooks and Deadspin that I think do a really good job. Those sites have multiple people helping to add content from around the web. As far as I know I’m the only major sports site that is a one-man-operation.

At least once a week I hear from a publicist who asks to speak with someone on my staff. I get a kick out of that.

Over the years I’ve developed a super secret system to put the site together but it still takes 7 to 8 hours a day. Someday I’ll have to hire someone to help, but nothing is planned.

5. When you first started out doing the site did you envision becoming the “Drudge of the sports world” as people now call you?

I loved the internet but never planned to make this a full-time job. That’s just how things worked out. I’ve got a great deal of respect for Matt Drudge. If I have 1% of the success Drudge has had I’d be thrilled!

6. Do you ever find it that people know you for either your reputation as a radio host, or as an internet mogul, but not both?

Internet hands down. The readership of the site has exploded the last couple of years. I’ve been able to turn some of my readers into fans of the program. I take great pride in the radio show. I feel like we put a great product out 99% of the time. 1% of the time the show sucks, but hopefully that’s only when nobody is listening.

7. What about your radio talk show style, how would you characterize yourself as a radio host?

I don’t take myself or the athletes I talk about too seriously. I’ve been called a cynical, sarcastic jackass. I love my teams and enjoy watching sports, but I like to kid around and have a good time. Some hosts seem to think they are changing the world with a sports opinion. Everyone has a different style but mine would tend to fall on the sarcastic side with lots of hot sports opinions.

8. Who are some of your favorite teams and players, and why?

I’ve been a Dodgers and Clippers fan since I was a kid. I also follow the USC Trojans and Oklahoma Sooners football programs. As for players, I enjoy watching Tom Brady, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, Ricky Williams, Adam Dunn, Juan Pierre and a few others.

9. It’s interesting that you named T.O. as one of your favorite players, even though many people hate him. Why is that?

Terrell Owens is good for the sports talk radio business. How boring would life be if everyone in the NFL were like Colts WR Marvin Harrison? I enjoy guys who spice things up. Now at the same time, that doesn’t mean these guys aren’t knuckleheads and don’t need to be torn apart on radio from time-to-time. But T.O. can play as long as he wants in my book.

10. Who are some of your favorite/biggest influences as talk show hosts, and why?

Los Angeles radio legend Jim Healy inspired me as a kid to get into the radio biz. He did a half hour show with soundbites and news each day at 5:30pm, and it was great radio everyday — a real genius. I’ve also learned from working alongside solid pros like Lee Hacksaw Hamilton, Tony Bruno and Joe McDonnell.

11. Your site is featured on Foxsports.com, and you’re nationally syndicated on Fox Sports Radio’s network. Would you say you’ve achieved your goals or do you feel you have more to conquer?

It’s a nice start, and certainly more than I expected at this point in my career. I have many more things I’d like to accomplish. I’ll never be able to say I’ve achieved all my goals. What fun would that be? I always want a new challenge.

1. How did you first get started getting into judging fights?

I’ve been a fan since I was a little kid. My father had brought Rocky Graziano over to our house when I was five years old the night Graziano knocked out Tony Zale in Chicago Stadium, and I listened to that fight on the radio. So I’ve been a fan since I was five years old, and then I went to Las Vegas in 1980 and I became a local fan. I would be yelling at the officials and someone said ’so you think you can do better, why don’t you become an official?’ And sure enough I thought about it, I said ‘I love this sport, never thought about it.’ So I volunteered at the amateurs, did amateur boxing — judging and refereeing, and in 1984 we started off doing six rounds and they would put us in certain types of fights and attend seminars, and it went on ever since.

2. Did you ever think that you would get to the point of judging World Championship fights?

I thought I would get to the point of doing world championship fights, but never thought I would be doing the caliber of fights that I have done. I have been very fortunate. But no, never in my wildest dreams. Boxing has been very good to me — the friends you meet, the other officials, the traveling, the conventions, the seminars — it’s just been a wonderful experience, more than I could have ever imagined.

3. Is there any training or a school you go to in order to learn what your responsibilities and roles are as a judge?

When they evaluate you to appoint you, if you’re doing the amateur work, they’re going to check your scores and check with the different amateur programs to see how you’re doing. What I personally did was not only in the amateurs, but I would go to all the fights I could before I wasn’t appointed, and I would compare my scores to the officials’ scores and I would turn them into the commission. And then once you’re appointed, you go through a program where they put you through the four rounders and the six rounders where they judge your scores. I probably go to four or five seminars a year, and at this point in my career, I’ve also given seminars. You never stop learning — you want to be prepared for the unexpected and hopefully you walk away with a common philosophy so that you have more unified scoring. A split decision is not the end of the world if that’s the way a judge saw it. But our philosophy is you’re a professional, you have to make a decision.

4. If I could get inside your head, what are you looking for when you’re judging the fight? Are you looking at punches landed, punches thrown, the aggressor, the quality of the punch, what would you say you look at the most when you’re trying to score a round?

The most important thing is effective aggressiveness. Now effective aggressiveness, some people think that’s the person moving forward — that’s not necessarily the most effective person, that’s just aggression. It’s who’s landing the most effective punches, whether it’s just boxing or jabbing, or it could be somebody counter-punching, taking a punch and countering with a harder punch. What I do is break a round into three one-minute segments. I practice watching a fight on TV trying to time things into one minute segments. After one minute mentally, I just say Fighter A is slightly ahead. So let’s say the second minute goes by and the other fighter does the same thing that Fighter A did, then I have Fighter B winning the second minute, and now I have it pretty close to an even round. So then it becomes who wins the last minute. That’s basically how I break it down.

5. I’ve always heard that what a fighter does in the last 30 seconds of a round tends to stand out the most in the judges’ eyes, would you agree with that?

These guys train for a fight — you’re taking away what happened in the first two and a half minutes. Now the fans generally remember what happened in the last part of the round or the last part of a fight, but how can you do that to the fighters? You can’t short-change a fighter as a professional, you have to give credence to the whole three minutes.

6. What about the setup at ringside. Are the judges seeing the fight from different angles?

You’ve got the four sides of the ring, and generally the timekeeper on one side, and one judge at each of the other three sides. There are times when you can only score what you see, but there are times when you’re going to be blocked. If one fighter’s back is to a judge and they’re on the ropes, that judge is kind of blocked out. If he can’t see if the punches are landing, you can’t give credence to it. So that’s a good reason why sometimes there’s a discrepancy in some rounds, because some judges can be blocked out.

7. Knowing your score (116-112) for the (Mayweather Jr./De La Hoya fight) could you see where Kaczmarek wound up giving it to De La Hoya?

We can’t really comment on anybody else’s score. I know that among the three of us, I’ve had almost 120 title fights, Jerry’s [Roth] had about 130, and Tom’s [Kaczmarek] had about 80-90, so you’re looking at about 350 championship fights, so we’re all experienced judges. I can only say what I saw and how I scored my fight.

8. When you judge a fight, it’s business, it’s work for you. Are you ever ringside judging a fight as a fan? Can you ever step back from a fight and give a fan’s analysis of it?

I’m still a fan of boxing, you have to love it, but quite honestly you open yourself to worldwide criticism. I don’t look at it that way anymore. The preparation that we go through, speaking for myself with this particular fight because of the publicity — I usually start preparing myself a day or two before a fight. My diet, my workload, I cut down my business, I usually don’t do anything the day before, I watch what I eat, don’t drink any alcohol. I actually started a week before on this fight. I have a whole routine that I do in listening to tapes and meditating and preparing — clearing my mind, not really following the hype. You know a fighter peaks in the training in the gym? I believe it’s the same thing the officials have to do. When I judge a fight, my level of concentration is at such a point that even if I looked at that fight later on TV, I’m not concentrating the same way. You’re in a different level of focus and concentration when you’re doing the fight, even if you’re ringside watching a fight as a fan. Sitting ringside saying I’m just going to score the fight is not the same as if my butt is on the line when I’m an actual judge for a fight.

9. I had no idea about the preparation and the focus that goes into judging a fight. It seems as if it’s almost like a boxer preparing for a fight.

I assume that the fighters have done everything to prepare themselves for a four round fight. A judge cannot short-change a fighter especially in a four round fight. I prepare for a fight at The Orleans when there’s no title involved the same as I would if I were working the undercard or a championship fight. My preparation is pretty much the same for any fight. For certain fights where there’s a lot of hype, you don’t want to get caught up in it. So I have to do whatever I can to be focused. There’s a lot riding on these fights so they deserve the officials preparing for them properly. A lot of fights are won or lost in the gym — the same thing is with the officials. I’m a firm believer that the referee should be in as good of shape as the fighters both physically and mentally. And the judges, it’s not a physical job, it’s a mental job, so we have to be 100% alert, focused, committed, prior to the fight.

10. What are your thoughts on the scores only being disclosed after the fight has been complete? Would you be opposed to the scores being revealed after each round is in the books just so the fighters know the score as it’s going?

I think that the way it is is the way it should be. There’s a lot of reasons. Let’s say a fighter in a four round fight, he’s won the first three rounds. He’s just not going to make it a competitive fight, he’s just going to dance. The other thing is I don’t believe it’s good for the judges to know where the other two judges are. That’s part of the mystery of boxing. There’s a lot of things that could probably could be changed in boxing, but that’s one of the things that probably shouldn’t.

11. At the same time, if someone knows that they’re down, do you think it would alter a fight for a good reason, giving incentive to a fighter to go for a knock out if he’s losing?

They should be fighting to the best of their ability every round. Or what if a fighter goes the other direction and just dogs it, says ‘the heck with it?’ It takes away the whole excitement of boxing. I see no value to it. I’ve read articles where even the boxers and the trainers don’t want that.

1. Can you give readers a brief background on who you are and what led to the creation of baseball-reference?

I wanted to be able to find Ty Cobb’s stats online. I had done some web design and really enjoyed it, and I thought that the web would be the perfect place for a baseball encyclopedia. The linkability, the infinite amount of storage space and the rest of it really made an on-line encyclopedia a good fit.

I was in grad school at the University of Iowa in Applied Mathematics when I started the site. I had a fellowship and for the year (1999-2000), and I was supposed to be finishing my dissertation. Instead, I took two months to do the basic site and finished the dissertation later.

2. How were you able to do so much of the work by yourself?

Practice and patience. The site launched seven years ago, so I’ve had a lot of time to work out the best way to do things. I figure I’ve written about 150,000 lines of code and a million words. It is really just a matter of plugging away day in and day out. I’ve been full time on the site for the last year and that has made a dramatic difference in my productivity.

3. What would you say is your favorite feature on the site?

The fact that the new Play Index is able to return things like the most home runs by a Yankees against the Tigers or every walkoff hit by a Marlin in 2000 in a few seconds is my current favorite. It took several months of work to get that up and running properly and quickly enough to make it useful. That whole area now has splits, gamelogs and lots of new tools for the last 50 years.

4. Any new features you may be adding soon?

I believe I’ll have 15-20 years of minor league stats up on the site in the next few months. I’m hoping to expand the basic player pages with a lot more data this summer. The challenge will be to do so while not completely overwhelming the user.

5. Any particular player whose page you like the most?

None in particular. Ugueth Urbina used to be my wife’s favorite player, but that hasn’t worked out so well. Rickey Henderson and Wade Boggs were my favorites growing up.

6. Do you sponsor any pages, and where did you get the idea for that? Any particular sponsored pages that stick out to you?

I have sponsored some guys. I have sponsored players who have recently passed away. I don’t like the idea of people sponsoring a page just to get the bump in traffic as people try to find information on the player.

The idea kind of just came to me a few years back. I was trying to figure out how to pay my bills in a market where advertising wasn’t doing that great, and hit upon this idea. It worked out way better than I had imagined. We’ve tried it in football and basketball, but it just doesn’t seem to have the appeal there that it does in baseball.

7. Do you have any particular favorite oracle of baseball combinations?

I was at a game and noticed the guy two rows in front of me had printed out Ichiro to Sisler to show his friends. I felt like I had made it when people were printing that out to show their friends at the ballpark.

8. What do you think will be the hardest record to break?

Obviously the old pitching marks like most complete games, innings etc. aren’t going to fall any time soon. I would like to see the game get back to where we would see 100 SB seasons, but I don’t see that happening soon.

9. Any thoughts on Bonds as he approaches Hank Aaron’s record?

As far as the site goes, I’m a PED-agnostic. I’m just recording what happens on the field. He is clearly one of the greatest players ever. I never thought we’d see Ruthian or Ted Williams-like seasons again, but he has done it.

10. What’s the coolest piece of feedback you’ve ever received for the site?

I’ve gotten lots of very nice notes from users, sportswriters and others like player agents over the years. The ones that always get to me are the ones about them finding the box score of the first game they went to with their father. My son is now almost two, and I know we are going to have a lot of great memories at the ballpark.

1. A few questions about yourself:

Name: Zach

Age: The hot chick I was hollering at Friday night thinks I’m 25, but my driver’s license would say 23.

Location: Seattle/Bay Area

Occupation: Sportswriter, Winner

Favorite team: SF Giants, University of Washington basketball

Links to your all-time favorite posts:

• A letter from Barbaro
• We’ve been put On Notice
• Grimm has six-hour interview with Steelers
• If MLB players were Street Fighter II characters…

Time per day spent perusing the blogosphere: Well, I’ve been dreaming about blogs lately, so we can leave it at that.

2. OK, so you’re probably one of the few bloggers out there who actually writes professionally at a newspaper. How did you get started with that and what exactly do you cover for the paper. And where can readers see some of your work?

My junior year at U-Dub I sorta felt it was time to start looking for a productive job/internship. And by “productive” I mean working towards a career; money wasn’t as a huge of an issue as experience was.

So I emailed The Seattle Times lead sports columnist Steve Kelley and asked what sort of opportunities there were for students. I told him I was a journalism major, worked at the UW paper for two years at that point, and sent him some clips.

He referred me to the assistant sports editor (now my boss) who was in charge of prep sports. He hired people fairly often to take high school sports results over the phones, do some administrative work, etc. It was pretty well paid and a foot in the door.

So I did that my junior and senior years at UW, then, after looking around last summer, fell back on the same job this year, despite being done with school. But within a month or so — probably around October — they put me in charge of covering one of the primary high school leagues, so now I’m covering games, writing features, etc. All high school sports. You can find my stuff here, but I wouldn’t recommend it!

3. Has working at the paper helped you on the blogs? Ever get any good scoops the paper can’t run with but you chose to? How does it differ from what you do at The Big Picture?

Believe it or not, not too many people at The Times even know I have a blog. I’ll sort of mention it here or there.

Not too many good scoops, unfortunately. But I think my work at the paper has helped make my writing at the blog a bit more crisp. And while the content on the blog certainly doesn’t display professional writing, the structure of my posts are relatively similar to a newspaper article: lede, then nut graf, five Ws, etc.

How’s it differ? No hooker jokes in the newspaper.

4. Take us through a typical day of blogging for you. You do it before work, after work? How are you able to fit in a real job, along with your work at The Big Picture, The FanHouse, and UDub Dish?

I work nights at The Times, so I’m up late and sleep in late. I’ll usually work on posts for The Big Pic at night sometime, then usually change the timestamp and post it right before I go to bed around 2 am Pacific. When I get up in the morning, I’m usually checking my sites, other blogs, other blog tools Technorati, Ballhype rankings, etc. for a few hours. I’ll usually do my FanHouse work during the day, head to the gym, get ready for work, and start searching for material for the next day’s posts. UDub Dish has unfortunately slowed a bit since football and basketball are over.

It’s certainly a busy day with work, hitting the gym and multiple blogs. Oh, and I’m supposed to see my girl sometimes. She likes that. It takes discipline and good time management skills, but those were some of my biggest strengths I developed in school.

5. Where did you get the idea to start The Big Picture? You wake up one day in December ‘05 and decide, “hey, I’d like to start a sports blog!”?

Combination of things. When I started getting the, “Oh fuck! What am I gonna do after college?” thoughts in my head, a buddy of mine suggested starting a blog. Shortly after, I was reading SI and saw something on Deadspin.

I didn’t even know what the hell a blog was, but one night I was bored and signed up for a Blogger account.

My first posts — probably the first few months at least — were just awful, awful stuff. I cringe when I re-read some of it. But I eventually found my voice, got a bit of an audience, and now I find it really exciting.

6. You certainly have an affinity for swearing on The Big Picture. Explain.

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me…

Swearing just wasn’t a big deal when I was a kid — I was swearing when I was like six — as long as I didn’t swear at someone, my parents were OK with it. Same deal still. And “fuck” is a fantastic word.

7. The Would You Do… feature seems to be one of the most unique features of The Big Picture, and in the sports blogosphere in general. What gave you the idea to do it? Ever cross your mind that some of the reporters you’ve profiled have actually read your site?

Hate to admit it, but Would you do… wasn’t even created by me. My brother, who posts rarely, came up with it, not really thinking much of it. But I loved the idea and we just sort of ran with it.

As we were approaching 16 women, I got the idea to make it a tourney — not a terribly original idea, but something to bring closure to a cool feature. The tourney coincidentally and conveniently started right around March Madness, so people were already thinking in brackets; it was good timing. I was lucky enough for Deadspin to do a post on it, and it sent like 35,000 people to the site that day. Some of those new readers stuck and the traffic/community in March was really good.

I have a feeling that a few of those ladies have come across their posts. I’d imagine that people Google themselves every so often, right?. And when you Google “Erin Andrews,” her Would you do… post is like No. 2 or 4. I bet she’s seen it! She should be flattered.

8. You’re also known for conducting interviews with some of the biggest names in the sports blogosphere. What was the inspiration for starting that segment? Was it to learn more about each blogger personally? Was it to help people get to know them more? Or was it as you describe, because they deserves some recognition from time to time?

Pretty much all of those things you mentioned led to the creation of Blogger Interviews. Sportswriters often kid that the people who cover sports are far more interesting than the people who actually play them.

Certainly a part of it was my curiosity in some of these guys. And if I was really curious about these other bloggers, I’d imagine other bloggers were too. These interviews are probably pretty boring for non-bloggers, but the big fraternity of sports bloggers out there are likely interested in knowing more about each other.

And I think I have some readers who don’t really read other blogs, so this is my way of suggesting that there’s a lot of other good stuff out there.

9. You just started a Would You Do… of female athletes. What can we expect after that tournament? You plan all this ahead of time or does it just come to you randomly?

I hate to admit, but this next round of athletes is much more planned than the last one. I feel like spontaneity — like the last tourney, for example — is really a good thing, and this round probably won’t be quite as impulsive. I haven’t fully decided the 16 athletes who will make the cut, but you can expect a tourney in a few months!

After that? Ugh, female coaches?

10. If you had your pick to do one of the sideline reporters and one of the athletes, who would it be and why?

Erin Andrews was really popular for good reason! But I also think Michelle Bonner is waaay cute. Kit Hoover too. Athletes, hmm, I’m a sucker for blondes, so Jennie Finch I find pretty hot.

11. There are a ton of blogs and sports writers out there, what are some of your favorites, and influences, both as a blogger and real writer?

So many. I really think MJD from Deadspin, The Mighty MJD, and the FanHouse is probably the best writer out there. Blogs or mainstream media. In addition to being creative as hell, he can make a non-funny story funny, which is a a talent that should be getting him better paid.

Deadspin and The Big Lead obviously have good things going. With Leather too, with more hot chicks and crass humor. Those sites sort of influence my writing a bit, but also just tons of writers — Simmons, Rick Reilly, Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. I read so many sports blogs/articles, I get tons of different ideas and ways to play around with my voice.

Another one that doesn’t always get a ton of pub but deserves it is The Hater Nation. Adam Rank, who writes for the FanHouse, is also a professional writer and he’s great at taking a different angle to a well-discussed story. It’s funny, sophisticated (kind of), and stands out in this cluttered blogosphere.

12. Dream Job? Go.

I really think one of those guys who gets to hire strippers would be pretty cool. You know that guy gets to bang them all. I think I’d really do well in a setting like that.

Kornheiser and Wilbon have a great gig. So does Will Leitch. Both in very different ways, obviously.

There are tons of wonderful things to do in the world. I love talking sports, so a TV or radio show would be unbelievable. Won’t happen, but it’d be awesome if it did.

Full-time blogging, like Deadspin, would also be cool. You wouldn’t have the same interactions you would in an office, but you have a different kind of community.

13. The Big Picture gets a good readership. Any advice to some of the smaller blogs out there how they can build their site up?

It took a long, long time. And compared to some other sites, I still don’t get great traffic. I know most people will say it’s not about how many readers you get, but that you’re doing work you’re proud of. I don’t fully agree with that. I totally think that doing work you’re proud of is the most important thing, but if people aren’t reading it, that’s sort of a kick in the balls.

Obviously, good work will eventually get noticed. Also longevity and consistent posting; I’ve been going for about 16 months and haven’t missed a weekday in probably 15 months or so. That probably helps.

Keep it short too. There are some real popular blogs out there — for good reason — but the posts are just too long for me.

Kind of a minor thing, but something like aesthetics is important. A new site can have kick-ass content, but the blog might look bad or be tough to read. If I have to fight just to read the words, I’m not gonna put in the time. I suspect most blog readers feel the same way.

A big thing now, with so many blogs popping up, is creating a niche. I come across so many new blogs, and there’s nothing that really sets them apart. If there’s a big, blogged about story, I’m probably going to go to Deadspin, The Big Lead or With Leather to read about it because I know that I like their respective voices. An undeveloped blog should try to give me something unique to set it apart. Or do what The Hater Nation does and take a different angle to that hyped up story.

The Big Picture was probably the same way at first. Maybe it still is. But having reoccurring features really helps too. It’s a way to distinguish your site from others. The Would you do… series is largely responsible for The Big Pic’s traffic. I think that feature is really the only thing that gives The Big Pic recognition in the “general sports” blogosphere. Maybe Blogger Interviews too. I want people to know the voice and tone of the site and have that be the distinguishing factor, but I might be dreaming if that’s the case.

Also, and this goes back to good content and writing something you’re proud of, is having a good voice. Your voice.

It doesn’t have to be funny, if that’s not your thing. Dan Shanoff, for example, probably isn’t the best humor writer out there, but he’s a phenomenal writer and has a definite voice. A familiar voice is something that will drive me, and likely man others, back to a site.

14. What do you hope to get out of the whole sports blogging thing?

At first it was a job. In retrospect, that was naive. Is someone from the mainstream media gonna really stop by site, like what they see, and offer me a high-paying job, with a good chance of advancement and look the other way when I try to score with Tiffany from sales? Of course not.

Now, a good day — or bad — at The Big Pic can actually affect my mood. I’ve invested so much time, energy and thought into this blog that a link from a Deadspin, a nice email from a reader or a bunch of comments on a post can actually be a highlight in my day. Getting asked to do this interview was incredibly flattering. It’s kind of dorky, kind of pathetic, I know. But I’ve never built something from the ground up like this, so everything good or bad about the site sort of reflects on me.

So at this point, I think I’d like to build a community. Having a bunch of readers, who start interacting with me and each other would be pretty cool. Like 10,000 readers a day would also be pretty neat.

Getting a chance to meet a lot of these bloggers and readers in person would be awesome. I’ve emailed with a bunch, talked on the phone, but never met anyone. I think getting loaded, talking blogs, and making it rain at a strip joint would be a blast.

And of course getting money for this would be a goal. For all the work that’s put out on blogs, very few have received a penny.

I was at a dinner with my brother, dad and family friend last month and we discussed where blogs are going and how to start making money from it. And I don’t think getting paid for what we all do is that far off.

I lay in bed thinking what’s next with blogs, my site, etc. I want to make a splash, I just haven’t quite figured it out yet. I have some ideas that I think could work, but a lot of things would need to break right for it to actually happen.

But it’s an exciting time and I’m really looking forward to taking The Big Picture to the next step. Whatever that might be. ]]> http://larrybrownsports.com/interviews/interview-with-zach-landres-schnur-from-the-big-picture/354/feed 12