Author Archives: admin

New Jordan biography: Most comprehensive yet; Tells good and bad of ‘complex’ man

Posted on by

My latest Chicago Tribune column features an interview with the author of a new biography on Michael Jordan. Comprehensive is an understatement.

You also can access the column via my Twitter feed at @Sherman_Report.

From the column:

*************

At nearly 700 pages, you might wish Michael Jordan’s career lasted as long as the new biography on him.

“I actually cut 300 pages,” said author Roland Lazenby. “It was a challenge trying to figure out what to take out.”

The pared-down version, “Michael Jordan: The Life,” is set for its official release Tuesday. Books on No. 23 always make for good business, with previous efforts by Sam Smith, David Halberstam, Bob Greene, and even Jordan himself, rising to the top of the bestseller lists.

Yet Lazenby’s book could be viewed as the first truly comprehensive biography on Jordan—at least the most definitive since he retired from basketball for the last time in 2003. Lazenby begins his story by tracing his family’s roots as sharecroppers and moonshiners in North Carolina and goes through his days as a multi-million owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

“Michael has had a huge, huge life,” Lazenby said. “It’s a business story, a basketball story, a baseball story, a cultural story, a family story, and I could go on.”

Lazenby’s vast research didn’t produce any new stunning revelations about Jordan. It hardly will come as a surprise that he lost $5 million one night gambling in Las Vegas. A bit more surprising is that Lazenby’s source for that information is Adam “Pac Man” Jones.

This book, though, is more about trying to explain what led to him becoming his generation’s Babe Ruth as a sports icon. Lazenby presents a rapid-fire delivery of anecdotes along with insights from those with inside connections that help paint the overall portrait of a highly complex man. The key word for Lazenby is “context.”

“Context helps us understand what we’ve been getting from Michael all these years,” said Lazenby, who previously wrote “Blood on the Horns” about the end of the Bulls dynasty.
“There were many subtle, but sledge-hammer type things that show the urgency that Michael bought to everything.”

Throw out the record: Networks love the Cubs regardless; ESPN will broadcast from Wrigley bleachers

Posted on by

With a 9-19 record, you can be sure MLB’s national TV partners aren’t going to go near the Houston Astros. When was the last time the San Diego Padres got any love?

Yep, different rules apply for different teams. Especially the Cubs.

America’s favorite losers (already on way to 95 losses or more at 9-17) still will get the national treatment this weekend. Saturday, Cubs-St. Louis will be one of two regional games on Fox Sports 1.

Then ESPN is going all in for Sunday night’s game. Dan Shulman and John Kruk will broadcast the game from the rightfield bleachers.

ESPN also is bringing its Baseball Tonight studio show to Wrigley. Karl Ravech and Barry Larkin will work from a set located at Clark and Addison.

For ESPN, the hook is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field. You’ll hear plenty of stories about the old ballpark.

However, the Cubs got the same treatment last year and will again next year when Wrigley turns 101. The networks love doing games from Wrigley, and the Cubs still have national appeal, especially when they are playing the Cardinals.

 

 

 

Tom Hoffarth’s annual review of 30 baseball books (including mine)

Posted on by

Here is Tom Hoffarth’s annual recap of what’s new on the baseball bookshelf. Each April, the Los Angeles Daily News reviews 30 new books on the game, one per day.

It is a huge project. Last year when I asked why he does it, he said, “mostly the result of loving baseball literature, find it to be a pleasure rather than work, and realizing there were so many baseball-related books that seem to come out every spring that it wasn’t possible to give them all their proper due.”

Many thanks to Tom for including a review of my book, Babe Ruth’s Called Shot, and for placing it in the “long shelf life” category.

The list includes many other books worthy of your attention, including:

“Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball” by John Feinstein.

“Nolan Ryan: The Making of a Pitcher” by Rob Goldman.

“Up, Up & Away: The Kid, The Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, Le Grand Orange, Youppi! The Crazy Business of Baseball, & the Ill-Fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos” by  Jonah Keri.

“Bring In the Right-Hander!: My Twenty-Two Years in the Major Leagues” by Jerry Reuss

“1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever” by Bill Madden

 

 

‘Mr. Unreliable’: Oklahoman sports editor apologizes for Durant headline

Posted on by

Considering Kevin Durant is in the midst of a Hall of Fame career with Oklahoma City, labeling him “Mr. Unreliable” in a blaring headline seemed way out of line.

After his phone and computer surely blew up, Oklahoman sports editor Mike Sherman issued an official apology. He wrote:

We take great pride in our headlines about big sporting events and news in Oklahoma. Thursday’s headline in The Oklahoman on Kevin Durant’s performance in the Memphis series missed the mark.

The words were overstated and unduly harsh. The headline and presentation left the impression that we were commenting on Durant’s season, career or even character. We were not. We were referring only to the Memphis series.

The fact the headline and presentation left that impression with so many readers is proof that we failed.

 

Sports Illustrated actually toned 2000 story on Sterling: ‘You’ve demonized him’

Posted on by

In 2000, Franz Lidz did a Sports Illustrated cover story on Donald Sterling, labeling the Clippers the worst franchise in history.

At SI.com, Lidz told the rest of the story:

Shortly after the Clippers made Danny Manning the top pick of the 1988 NBA draft, team owner Donald Sterling invited the player and his agent, Ron Grinker, to talk contract in Beverly Hills. It was recounted to me how Sterling lounged around his mansion in a bathrobe open to his navel, wearing nothing underneath.

At one point Sterling’s preteen son wandered in and was chastised for skipping Hebrew school. The owner commanded the boy, “Go to your room and get undressed.” The child slouched upstairs. Sterling followed. The next thing Manning heard was a belt thrashing and the boy wailing, as Grinker bounded up the stairs yelling, “Stop! Stop! We’ll sign.”

I heard this in the course of reporting a profile of Sterling (owner of THE WORST FRANCHISE IN SPORTS HISTORY per the cover) that I wrote 14 years ago for Sports Illustrated (April 17, 2000). Except that much of the anecdote didn’t appear in the magazine. The profile did include Sterling’s hiring a former model to be an assistant GM. And his placing newspaper ads for “hostesses” interested in meeting “celebrities and sports stars.” The women were interviewed in Sterling’s suite. But so much of his behavior — extreme parsimony, discriminatory practices, wild sexual escapades — was deemed too weird, too cruel, too contemptible. An editor told me, “You’ve demonized him.”

 

Sports Illustrated goes all-in with Johnny Football

Posted on by

The hype machine definitely is turned on.

Also, for those asking why Sports Illustrated didn’t put the Donald Sterling on the cover, the quick answer is that it was a matter of timing. The magazine closes on Monday. With the uncertainty of what Adam Silver was going to announce on Tuesday, SI risked looking outdated with a Sterling-related cover.

Plus, they had a Johnny Manziel cover in the works.

Peter Kostis: Trying to raise awareness after battle with colon cancer; Get tested

Posted on by

My latest piece for Awful Announcing on Peter Kostis and the impact he is making after going public with his battle with colon cancer.

From the story:

********

The number that sticks with Peter Kostis now is 18, and it has nothing to do with golf.

As of last week, Kostis has been contacted by 18 people who found out they have colon cancer after getting tested because of the CBS golf analyst spreading the word about his battle with the disease.

“They all have a good prognosis,” Kostis said. “I feel good about that. It shows what kind of impact you can have.”

Kostis, 66, is walking the fairways again for CBS. He says he still isn’t completely back to 100 percent, but he is getting there.

********

Kostis downplays the notion of his celebrity status. However, as one of golf’s top instructors and a high-profile analyst for CBS, he was struck at the people he was able to reach in going public about his condition and message.

“I met a guy at Augusta, and I honestly unfortunately don’t even remember his name,” Kostis said. “He just grabbed me by the arm as I was walking out in front of the clubhouse. He goes, ‘I want to thank you for what you did for going public. I have stage 4 colon cancer.  It’s back and it’s spreading.  I don’t know what the prognosis is going to be, but the fact that you’ve beaten it is helping me hang in there and go through my treatments and stuff like that.’

“Yeah, there’s a lot of negative to being in the public eye, but they pale in comparison to the positives when you can do something like that.”

Posted in CBS

Golf news: First event set for Fox; Begay recovering from heart attack; Big April for Golf Channel

Posted on by

I know golf is being played somewhere. Just not in Chicago, where spring remains a rumor.

*****

Fox golf debut: We will get a sneak peak of how Fox Sports will cover golf with the the Franklin Templeton Shootout. Greg Norman’s tournament will air on Fox and Fox Sports 1 from Dec. 11-13.

Obviously with Norman’s new Fox connections, it was a natural that the event would land on the network. Norman will team with Joe Buck in the 18th tower. By then, we all will know how Fox will fill out the rest of its golf team.

******

Begay recovering: Sorry to hear the news about Notah Begay, 41, who is recovering from a heart attack. According to a report at GolfChannel, Begay’s family has a history of heart disease.

Begay issued a statement: “I’m extremely grateful for the expert care I received from Dr. Jenkins and his staff,” Begay said. “I anticipate a full recovery and feel lucky to be at home resting with my family. I appreciate the outpouring of well wishes I’ve received from family, friends and fans and I will be back covering golf once I’m fully recovered.”

******

Big month: Who needs Tiger? The official release:

Golf Channel scores most-watched April ever, continuing the viewership momentum built upon three consecutive years of record audience growth since becoming a part of the NBC Sports Group in 2011. For 24-hour Total Day (6AM-6AM), 130,000 average viewers per minute were tuned into Golf Channel in April, representing a 2% year-over-year increase compared to April 2013 (128,000), according to data released today by The Nielsen Company.

Golf Channel April Viewership Comparison:

2014                130,000

2013                128,000           +2%

2012                115,000           +14%

2011                101,000           +29%

2010                86,000             +51%

This record month is especially impressive given that April 2014 did not feature Tiger Woods competing at the Masters. Golf Channel’s Masters Week coverage remained the network’s most-watched week of 2014 (160,000) and was surrounded by an average of +30% increase in viewing for the three other weeks in April. Overall, 16.5 million unique viewers tuned into Golf Channel in April, which is a 7% increase over March (when Woods last played) and the most since August 2013 (16.9 million).

Controversy sells: Clippers victory pulls in highest cable rating during playoffs

Posted on by

Yesterday, I wrote the Los Angeles Clippers are going to be ratings gold for ESPN/ABC and TNT during the playoffs in the wake of Adam Silver’s bold decision. The country will rally around the team, and the story is so big, Clippers games now will attract non-traditional NBA viewers.

Sure enough, the rating for Game 5 of the Clippers-Golden State series was huge. According to Turner Sports, the Clippers’ victory did a 3.7 overnight rating, the highest on cable during the playoffs. The rating was up 37 percent from the comparable game on that night in 2013.

Keep in mind, the game started at nearly 11 p.m. on the East coast. An earlier start would have meant a much higher rating.

I would expect another strong rating on Thursday for Game 6 and an even bigger one if there is a Game 7 on Saturday night.

Also benefiting from this mess is TNT’s Inside The NBA. According to John Ourand of Sports Business Daily, the studio show did a 1.7 rating after the game from 1:30-2:30 a.m.