An Interview With AJ Daulerio

“…come on, you’re telling me Shirley Povich didn’t canvas the titty bars to get inside information on the players he covered?”

“Every Deadspin post doesn’t have to be overly crude, or arched for it to work on the site. Sometimes it’s necessary to let the readership know that you are capable of being a decent human being. If it’s truthful and not stilted, I think the “earnest” stories can be just as successful as those littered with dick jokes and smart-assery.”

“I rarely monitor the comments to see who’s a good or bad commenter. I think what happens down below the post is its own universe and is self-policed…It’s very Lord of the Flies”

An Interview with Elliott Almond

“Sports is a multi-billion dollar business. Sports journalism needs to vigorously report on it as reporters would any institution. Everything is ripe to investigate for the curious reporter…The problem is that editors, readers, et al get bored with a subject and want to move on to the next big thing. Journalists need to resist that and keep serious sports issues in the forefront.”

“Hitting the waves transports you to a different world than chasing down stories without enough time or resources to do it. When you’re chasing waves that is all that matters. If the swell is heavy and you need to charge - surfing lingo here - you don’t have time to worry about anything other than letting your instincts take over. After a good session I always felt clear headed and revived. That makes you a better employee, a better person.”

An Interview with Mike Vaccaro

“I’ve just finished writing a book on the 1912 World Series… On my most productive writing days – and I swear this is true – I would have this eerie sense that I was in a black-and-white world, wearing a fedora, chomping a cigar … and when it was time to end those sessions, and the color returned, and my fedora became a Brooklyn Dodgers cap, it was a terrible come-down…”

“I’m annoyed that TV hasn’t better utilized the sports reporters they’ve lured to TV. I’m glad that my friend T.J. Quinn, for instance, was able to parlay a great run at the Daily News into a gig at ESPN, but I fear his impact there, regardless of the high quality of his work, will never be as broad as the screamers who fill up that channel every day from 4 o’clock on – and those screamers, by and large, are newspaper people whose talents far exceed the ability to out-shout each other.”