Category Archives: Sherman Spotlight

Honored: Deadspin names Sherman Report to list of Top 100 ‘Worst’ Twitter accounts

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On behalf of the entire Sherman Report organ-I-zation (me), I would like to thank Deadspin and editor Tommy Craggs for this honor.

Deadspin has named me No. 35 on its list of the Top 100 Worst Twitter accounts. And as you can see, they had some kind words for me.

This “dreary newspaper hack” likely made the list because I have dared to criticize Deadspin on occasion. You see, Deadspin can knock the snot out of anyone it wants. But if you call them on something, it irritates their sensitive, thin skin.

But hey, I have no problem being on the list. I’m in some elite company.

From Deadspin:

These are listed in no particular order, and the only real criteria for inclusion were 1) working our nerves in some way and 2) coming to mind when we were drawing up a list of terrible accounts. We hope this list is useful to you as you choose sports-related Twitter feeds to avoid.

The list features Sports Illustrated Pete Thammel at No. 1; Shaq is second. SI’s Richard Deitsch actually checks in at No. 7. Who did you tick off over there, Richard?

Others: Dan Levy of Bleacher Reports, 19; Peter Gammons, 22; Jason La Canfora, 25; Bill Simmons, 33; Colin Cowherd, 37; Peter King, 44; Skip Bayless, 56; Jason Whitlock, 58; Dick Vitale, 68.

The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre checked in at No. 70. Deadspin referred to him as “ESPN PR guy.”

Hey Deadspin, I thought that was my job.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Darren Rovell only being ranked at No. 40. You would have figured one of Deadspin’s favorite targets would be placed much higher, especially  for a Twitter list.

At least, Deadspin showed that everyone is fair game. It had Craggs ranked 53rd.

As I write this, the post has had nearly 140,000 page views. So under the heading of “any publicity is good publicity,” hell yes, I am happy to be included on this list.

This is a proud day for Sherman Report.

Thanks, Deadspin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Kaat: Quick-pitch master on how baseball needs to pick up the pace

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My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana features a chat with Jim Kaat on my biggest complaint: The numbing length of baseball games.

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I say to Jim Kaat that he still could pitch a game in two hours, 15 minutes these days.

“I don’t know about that,” Kaat laughed.

Kaat is right. Make it two-and-a-half hours. After all, Kaat is 74.

Nearly 40 years ago, anything over two hours for a game Kaat started was considered a marathon. In 1974, Kaat, then 35, used a quick-pitch approach to revive his career with back-to-back 20-win seasons with the White Sox. He would get the ball and throw it in virtually the same motion.

“The umps loved me and the vendors hated me,” Kaat said.

Here’s why: On May 31, 1975, Kaat and the Sox lost a 2-0 game to Detroit that lasted an hour, 35 minutes. He routinely had games in the 1:45-1:50 range. If you blinked, you missed three innings.

So if you are looking for an expert to discuss one of baseball’s biggest problems–the maddening slow pace of play–you couldn’t find a better one than Kaat.

Make no mistake, Kaat’s passion for baseball is as high at 74 as it was at 20 when he broke in with the Washington Senators in 1959. Kaat will join Bob Costas for Game 2 of the St. Louis-Pittsburgh series Friday at 1 p.m. (ET) on MLB Network. He also is slated to work a playoff game Monday for MLB Network.

Kaat, though, thinks the game would be better if it moved quicker. He hardly is alone here. Game times have become bloated in the last 20 years. For instance, Game 3 of the 2012 World Series took three hours, 25 minutes. A slugfest, right? No, that was for a 2-0 victory for San Francisco over Detroit.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” Kaat said. “It’s not that I want to get the game over with. It’s just that 2-1 game in three hours, 15 minutes is too long. It’s not necessary.”

Television obviously is a culprit by adding more commercials. To show how much times have changed, Kaat told an amusing story of White Sox General Manager Roland Hemond asking him to take more time between innings.

“I worked so fast, a couple of times, they’d come back from commercial, and there would be one, even two outs,” said the 283-career game winner. “I didn’t have compassion for TV back then. My focus was on pitching. I said to Roland, ‘Do I have to?’ He said, ‘No.’ So I didn’t.”

Any chance of that request being turned down today? Ha. No way, not in an era where TV is king. Kaat thinks the long gaps between innings (two-and-a-half to three minutes) have an impact that carries over once play resumes.

“Players now sit in the dugout and wait because they know they’re going to get two-and-a-half minutes,” Kaat said. “It makes the whole pace, running back on to the field and then playing the game, much slower.”

TV, though, doesn’t get the entire blame here. In Game 2 of the 1965 World Series, Kaat and Minnesota took a 5-1 victory over Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game took two hours, 13 minutes. So let’s add an additional 30 minutes for commercials in the modern telecast. That’s still a game time of two hours, 43 minutes.

Now you’ll be hard-pressed to find a post-season game under three hours. Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s 6-2 victory over Cincinnati went three hours, 14 minutes.

Kaat jokes that he blames Ken “Hawk” Harrelson for introducing the batting glove to baseball. Now every hitter has to step out of the box and adjust his glove after a pitch. He actually charted the numbing routine during a playoff game a few years ago, and it added 35 minutes to the game.

“If Mickey Mantle took a pitch, he’d keep his back foot in place and reset his front foot,” Kaat said. “He’d be ready to go. You never see that today.”

The other “little things,” as Kaat says, bog down the game: Repeated catcher’s visits to the mound; more pitching changes than back in his era; and don’t get him started on theme music for individual hitters.

“Now they all wait in the on-deck circle for their theme music to begin,” Kaat said. “It’s ridiculous.”

The concern, Kaat and others say, is that long games are turning off viewers, especially in the younger demographics. This is a fast-paced society and games that run on at three hours, 30 minutes are too languid to captivate short attention spans, young and old. I see it in my own home. My 18-year-old son, Matt, told me he is more excited about watching early-season hockey games than postseason baseball.

Frankly, I’m not sure why the networks don’t push MLB harder to improve the pace of these big games. More isn’t better here.

Obviously, MLB can put rules in place to speed up the game, but old habits die hard. Kaat contends the key now is for baseball to get players in the minor leagues. Teach them how to play faster.

“You have to go to the minor leagues with the game on TV in mind,” Kaat said. “Encourage hitters to stay in the box. Encourage pitchers to work faster. You do all those little things, and you could knock off 30-45 minutes off a game.”

What MLB really should do is show those minor leaguers old videos of Kaat working quickly and efficiently on the mound. There’s a reason why he won all those games.

Or better yet, have Kaat suit up. Even at 74, I bet he still can work faster than the kids.

For the latest in sports media, follow me at Sherman_Report.

Northwestern braces for ESPN ‘Circus’; GameDay big part of big Saturday in Evanston

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My latest Chicago Tribune column focuses on what might be Northwestern’s biggest regular-season game ever. The 4-0 Wildcats host No. 4 Ohio State in primetime. The game is big enough to merit a visit from ESPN’s GameDay.

You also can access the column via my Twitter feed.

Here’s an excerpt.

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As the crowd goes, so goes the show.

With that in mind, Desmond Howard issued a challenge to the Northwestern faithful with ESPN’s “College GameDay” coming to Evanston on Saturday morning.

“We draw energy from the crowd,” the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan said. “That’s what makes our show special, our experience special. I’m interested to see what Northwestern’s got. If they come out and support the Wildcats, it will be a win-win for everybody.”

Howard, along with Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and a large supporting cast, are bringing “GameDay” to Lakeside Field in advance of the Northwestern-Ohio State game. It marks the first time the show will be on campus since the Wildcats’ Rose Bowl season in 1995; “GameDay” was at Wrigley Field for the NU-Illinois game in 2010.

The “GameDay” production will feature a crew of more than 100 people, nine trucks, 14 cameras and two Jumbotrons. Producer Lee Fitting calls it “a three-ring circus.”

“It’s like traveling with the Beatles,” said Gene Wojciechowski, the former Chicago Tribune sportswriter who does essays and features for “GameDay.”

Back in the early ’90s, ESPN decided to take “GameDay” on the road to capture the mood of being on campus on a college football Saturday. Fitting said fans usually camp out overnight to get the best spots on Saturday morning.

“We do one studio a year, our preview show, and it’s dreadful,” Fitting said. “Just being out there energizes the entire crew. Whenever I’m asked to describe what it is like, I say, ‘You’ve got to be there to really experience it.’ ”

Typically, “GameDay” visits that Saturday’s biggest game. Occasionally, though, it veers off to nontraditional stops. Two weeks ago, more than 15,000 people showed up for the telecast in Fargo, N.D., placing the spotlight on North Dakota State.

“If you wanted to sell (‘GameDay’) to foreign investors who never saw the show, you would show them that show,” Howard said.

 For the latest in sport media, follow me at Sherman_Report

 

 

Michelle Beadle’s quick ride: From studio host for 2012 Olympics to likely being out at NBC

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With The Crossover being cancelled, Jason McIntyre of the Big Lead reported Michelle Beadle could be negotiating a way out at NBC. It seems like executive producer Sam Flood no longer is a fan. Neither Beadle nor her agent are talking.

This morning, Richard Deitsch of SI.com wrote: 

Under this backdrop, I emailed NBC Sports last Thursday to ask what was next for Beadle in the wake of her show’s cancellation. Here was the nice, neat response from your friendly neighborhood NBC Sports spokesperson: “We expect her to remain a part of the shows she’s done for us in the past such as Breeders’ Cup and Triple Crown horse racing, and potentially adding some other assignments within our sports and entertainment properties. Michelle also continues as a correspondent for Access Hollywood.”

Interestingly, there was no mention in the NBC official statement about Beadle playing a role in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi. If you remember, she was the studio host for NBC Sports Network during its massive coverage of the 2012 London Games. It was a huge assignment and she got strong reviews for marathon duty.

In fact, Beadle was one of the prime faces for NBC during those Games. When the network did its big media preview prior to the Summer Olympics, with all the top NBC executives on hand, who played the host? None other than their new star, Michelle Beadle.

Now, less than 16 months later, Beadle could be on her way out. My, how quickly things change.

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For the latest in sports media and more, please follow me on Twitter at Sherman_Report.

 

Glenn Stout: Long form sports journalism “is exploding”

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My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University points out that there actually is a positive trend occurring in the profession.

Here is an excerpt.

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Myth: The current mode of sports journalism is limited to 140-character snarky sound bites. It’s all fast food consumed by people with shockingly short attention spans.

Reality: The long-form genre in sports journalism not only is thriving, it is reaching new levels on multiple platforms. Surprisingly (shockingly?), there is a growing market for long in-depth pieces with strong prose and reporting.

“It’s really exploding,” said Glenn Stout. “The hunger is there. There is a tremendous appetite for long-form stories.”

Stout speaks from his perspective as a content editor for SB Nation Longform. Since launching a year ago, the site has produced 99 stories, ranging from roller derby to ultimate frisbee wars.

SB Nation Longform hardly is alone. Sites likes Grantland and Sports on Earth have sprouted as outlets for long-form storytelling. ESPN.com has featured several terrific in-depth pieces from Wright Thompson and others. John Branch of the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for a story on skiers caught in an avalanche.

Stout is elated about the revival of long-form sports journalism. As the long-time editor of the annual book, “The Best American Sportswriting” (the 2013 edition comes out in October), he has seen the waves in the industry during the last few years.

“If you look at the last five to 10 years, newspapers have gotten smaller. As a result, they are producing fewer takeouts,” Stout said. “The same with magazines. By the same token, the book industry also wasn’t producing the same amount of compelling non-fiction on sports. It left an open space (for long form stories) that wasn’t being filled.”

SB Nation sought to fill the vacuum. It reached out to Stout during the summer of 2012. He was told the site wanted a vehicle to differentiate itself in the crowded sports market.

“SB Nation was very well established in the blog field,” Stout said. “However, they weren’t known as a destination for good writing. They saw long-form as a way to highlight writing on the site.”

Thus far, SB Nation has had pieces written by authors like Pat Jordan, Peter Richmond, Jeff Pearlman, Michael Mooney, Elizabeth Kaye, Alex Belth and many others. Stout says some stories are assigned, but for some writers, they essentially get a blank canvas.

Stout tells writers, “What’s the one story that you always wanted to do, but nobody allowed you to do it.”

That approach produced a piece from Michael Graff about Earl Badu, the former Maryland player who committed suicide 10 years after hitting one of the biggest shots in the program’s history.

“That story exploded for us,” Stout said.

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Here’s the link for the rest of my column.

 

Why Deadspin’s analysis of SI’s Oklahoma State series really ‘sucked’

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In Deadspin’s world, everything sucks. If it doesn’t suck, the site doesn’t want any part of it.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Deadspin ran a post Tuesday with this headline:

Why SI’s Oklahoma State Series Sucked: The Inside Story

Recently, Deadspin labeled me as “ESPN PR’s favorite sports media reporter.” Now after this post, I am sure that I will be Sports Illustrated PR’s favorite too.

However, I can’t let this pass.

The Deadspin post, written by Dom Cosentino, is based on “a source” who was in the room when Sports Illustrated’s George Dohrmann and B.J. Schecter laid out the series for Oklahoma State officials. Considering that there were a handful of people in the room, SI likely has a good idea of the identity of this person.

Do you think this person had an agenda?

Cosentino writes:

The two sides met for approximately three hours that Tuesday—that conversation was off the record, according to an SI source—then re-convened on Wednesday afternoon for roughly three more hours. These meetings would be the first time school officials were informed specifically and directly about the depth of SI’s investigation.

A report in The Oklahoman described the meetings OSU had with SI as “very professional.” Our source agreed with that assessment, adding that the discussions were “cordial.” At the same time, the source said, “We asked for a lot of information, most of which was not provided.”

There also was some Thayer Evans stuff about being pro-Oklahoma, territory that’s already been covered.

Cosentino later writes:

Our source said the Oklahoma State officials asked for names of any players, coaches, tutors, or professors mentioned in the report. Dohrmann and Schecter did not provide the names of any players making specific allegations, nor did they provide the names of any tutors or professors. Once the stories were published, the source added, it was apparent that SI had talked mostly to “disgruntled” players prior to the meetings—players who the source said posed “very little risk” of informing school officials they were being questioned by a reporter.

“There were inferences made that players would recant,” the source said. “They did not want us contacting them.”

On one hand, SI was being prudent: The magazine clearly did not want OSU interfering with its investigation. Also, the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents schools from releasing transcripts without the consent of a student over the age of 18. But SI’s reluctance to name certain players, tutors, or professors also made it impossible for OSU to verify—or refute—some of the specific allegations being made.

Cosentino then hammered SI for having the wrong information about Fath’ Carter and his academic record. Perhaps that situation could have been rectified, he implies from the source, if SI had been more forthcoming about what it had.

Admittedly, the Carter segment is troubling, giving the school and its supporters a huge target to shoot down the series. It is a big flaw. SI definitely would like to have that one back.

However, does that mean the entire series “sucked?” Hardly.

SI talked to more than 60 former players and numerous assistant coaches and other staffers associated with the program through the years. Even if some of them were labeled quote-unquote “disgruntled,” it leads to a basic question: Why did Oklahoma State have so many disgruntled players? Doesn’t that suggest a trend?

Cosentino writes:

Dohrmann and Schecter also presented the OSU officials with a figure indicating that from 2002 to 2010, 48 percent of football players left the program before exhausting their eligibility. OSU objected to that number and asked about SI’s methodology. Dohrmann and Schecter promised to look into it. That 48 percent figure was subsequently leaked to the Oklahoman, perhaps justifying the magazine’s discretion in dealing with the university.

Actually, the number had to be adjusted down because it included a player who was killed in a car accident.

Cosentino:

By the time SI published the eligibility figure in Part 5 of its series, Vernon Grant had been removed from the list, and the statistic had been revised to 43.5 percent. “They came back and apologized and said they recalculated this number,” the source said. “On their own, they admitted that the 48 percent is wrong.”

Yes, but how much difference is there from 48 to 43.5 percent? Doesn’t that still suggest a problem. Not sure what Cosentino is getting at here.

I’m not saying Cosentino didn’t make some valid points. And to be fair, he might have written a more balanced piece if SI had made its reporters available to counter some of the charges. It didn’t, although SI’s top editors Chris Stone and Jon Wertheim previously did a Q/A chat on Deadspin.

Clearly, though, Cosentino got used by the “source” at Oklahoma State. The crisis management agenda continues at the school, and Cosentino and Deadspin were more than willing to go along for the ride.

 

 

Right call: Fox dumped James because he is too “polarizing”

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I’ll start by saying that I couldn’t disagree more with Craig James’ views.

But that’s not the reason why James was fired after his short stint with Fox Sports Southwest.

In a statement addressing James’ threat to sue over religious discrimination, Fox said:

“At Fox Sports we respect all points of view, and despite reports to the contrary, the decision to no longer use Craig James in our college football coverage was simply because he was not a good fit for Fox Sports. Mr. James, while both experienced and knowledgeable, is a polarizing figure in the college sports community. Regrettably, the decision to use him was not properly vetted, and as a result he will no longer provide commentary on Fox Sports Southwest’s college football coverage.”

Exactly. The key word is “polarizing.”

While James has a right to say and believe whatever he wants, he also has to be willing to accept the backlash when it comes to his broadcast career. He has become a controversial figure whose views turn off a significant portion of the audience. I received several extreme anti-James Twitter responses after I published my post yesterday.

Sports networks like polarizing figures when it comes to their views on sports. But social views are a different story. In this case, Fox Sports determined having him as a commentator on college football wasn’t worth the negative fallout.

Obviously, the person who hired him at Fox Sports Southwest didn’t clear it with the upper executives at Fox. When the statement says he wasn’t “properly vetted,” it really means, “No way.”

Surely, James will make more noise here. However, it likely won’t help him.

Given his views, the fact that even Fox doesn’t want him shows that his sports broadcast career is over.

 

 

 

 

Olbermann: Forget about Billy Goat; Cubs cursed by ‘Merkle’s Boner’

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Ah yes, I should have known this was coming.

When I wrote the 100th anniversary story of “Merkle’s Boner in 2008 for the Chicago Tribune and ESPN.com (links below), I knew exactly where to go: Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann has made it one of his life’s missions to vindicate Fred Merkle, the poor New York Giants player whose unfortunate base running incident (note Keith, not blunder) in a game against the Cubs has lived in baseball infamy.

Sure enough on the 105th anniversary of that fateful game, Olbermann weighed in again on poor Mr. Merkle last night. And forget about the “Billy Goat Curse” at Wrigley Field. Olbermann ties the Cubs’ title drought to what happened on Sept. 23, 1908.

From my ESPN.com story:

But was Merkle truly at fault? Keith Olbermann is among those who say no.

Olbermann, formerly of ESPN and now the host of “Countdown” on MSNBC, has been interested in Merkle’s case for more than 30 years. He has proposed Sept. 23 be a national day of amnesty in Merkle’s memory, but not because he did something wrong.

“I was struck by the finality of it,” Olbermann said. “He does something everybody did, for their own safety, as a game ended. He was the first player on whom the rule was ever enforced and he never lived it down.”

Indeed, the real goat might have been O’Day, the umpire. No less than Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem delivered a stinging indictment.

“Evers talked a great umpire into making the rottenest decision in the history of baseball,” Klem said.

The damage, though, was done. Olbermann doubts Merkle will ever be vindicated.

“The goat story is still easier, and more compelling, than the story of the poor rookie victimized by a rule that was never enforced,” Olbermann said.

From my Chicago Tribune story:

The Cubs and Fred Merkle are linked by history. It has been a rough century for both.

Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the controversial play that landed Merkle on the short list of baseball’s all-time goats. The beneficiaries were the Cubs, who without “Merkle’s Boner” almost surely would not have gone on to win the 1908 World Series.

If not for the young New York Giants infielder, the Cubs’ last title would have come in 1907, and their century of futility would have been acknowledged, if not exactly celebrated, last year. Instead they have played the 2008 season against the backdrop of a century without a championship, which attaches a certain urgency to the playoff campaign that gets under way next week.

Merkle was an early version of Steve Bartman, a young man vilified for supposedly costing his team a pennant.

 

Q/A with Verne Lundquist: On appearing in Happy Gilmore; hearing it from angry SEC fans; and bad advice about investing in ESPN

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If you listened to the Alabama-Texas A&M game Saturday, you heard Verne Lundquist put on a clinic on how to call a big game. He nailed all the right notes, and I loved how he mocked the Aggies over not letting him or Gary Danielson do a pregame talk with Johnny Manziel.

Nice to see Lundquist going strong at 73.

Recently, I did a piece for USA Today on the anniversary of Verne Lundquist’s 50th year in broadcasting.

From the story:

Lundquist has been part of the familiar soundtrack for both sports (college football and basketball). His play-by-play features an easy and engaging style that adds a distinctive texture to the telecasts.

“My role model was Jim McKay,” Lundquist said. “He was the greatest storyteller we’ve ever had. I try to do the same thing.

“At the end of the day, I want to give you a reason to have a rooting interest in the game.”

However, there was much more to our 45-minute chat. In fact, everyone should have a 45-minute chat with Verne.

Here are the highlights from the Q/A with one of America’s favorite broadcasters..

On telling his father he wouldn’t be following in his footsteps as a minister. Instead, he got a job as a sports anchor in Austin, Tex.

Lundquist: When I told my dad, rather than being disappointed, he knew I would have access to the Texas games. He said, ‘Can you occasionally take me up to the press box?’

On how the business has changed:

The explosion in social media is incredible. I’ll never tweet and I don’t have the face for Facebook, but the Internet is marvelous as an information source. You have to be aware of the impact of all these websites.

When I was (the sports anchor) in Dallas, there was no sports department. It was just me. I used to go out with my 16 mm. camera and shoot the first two innings of the Texas Rangers game and then go to shoot the Chaparrals. And then something else. Then I’d come back and develop the film. I can tell you it took 45 minutes to develop 100 feet of film.

On advice to investors thinking of launching ESPN:

In 1979, the Cowboys were playing the Rams in the NFC title game, and Rozelle threw this big cocktail party. I was introduced to this senior executive from Getty Oil. He said, ‘We have a chance to invest in a new 24-hour sports station for $15 million. What do you think?’

I said, ‘Why would you want to throw your money down a hole like that?’ Shows you how much I knew.

On the younger generation associating him with appearing in Happy Gilmore:

It was a happy accident. It’s still a staple on cable TV. The film has helped keep me relevant to a generation, maybe even two. Usually, I get more questions about Happy Gilmore than I do about the game.

One time, I’m doing a North Carolina game with Billy Packer. I’m told Tyler Hansbrough wants me to address the team. I say, ‘No, you want Billy.’ They said, ‘No, they want you.’

So I go down there, and Hansbrough says, ‘We need you to say, ‘Who the hell is Happy Gilmore?’ So I go, ‘Who the hell is Happy Gilmore?’ The players go crazy. I said, ‘If you guys win the national championship, I expect to get credit for giving you a motivational speech.’ They won, but I never got any credit.

On his famous “Oh Wow!” call with Tiger Woods at the 2005 Masters, when his ball sat on the edge before dropping in the hole.

I actually had people ask, ‘Did you plan that?’ Yeah sure, if the ball sits on the cup for 1.8 seconds, I’m going to say, ‘Oh wow.’

On SEC fans accusing him of being biased during his call of games:

Wow. If I do an Alabama-Auburn game, I can count on hearing from Alabama fans who think I’m wearing orange and blue socks for Auburn and then from Auburn fans who think I’m rooting for Alabama. It says something about the passion of the fan base in the SEC.

Eli Gold is a great friend of mine. Alabama fans want the game done on TV like Eli would do it. They don’t understand Gary Danielson and I work for CBS. We only hope we have a great game. People, though, remain unconvinced that Gary and I are impartial. It used to bother me, but not anymore.

On how much longer he wants to work.

I don’t have a timetable for how long I want to work. Gary and I enjoy working together. We’re in our eighth year together, and we have a lot of fun.

I’ll keep working as long as my mouth works, and the airlines don’t conspire to drive me insane.

 

 

 

New book captures greatness of Chicago sportswriting; Even includes story of Cubs winning World Series

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My latest Chicago Tribune column is about a new book celebrating Chicago sportswriting. You also can access the column via my Twitter feed.

Here’s an excerpt.

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Ron Rapoport decided there only was one fitting place to have a signing for his new book on Chicago sportswriters. Thursday at 5 p.m., he will be at Billy Goat Tavern underneath Tribune Tower, the famous newspaper haunt where the ghosts still linger.

“It seems only right to do it at the place where so many of them drank over the years,” Rapoport said. “Where the column logos of the likes of John P. Carmichael, Bill Gleason, David Condon, Mike Royko and many others will be looking down at us.”

Those legends and more are featured in “From Black Sox to Three Peats: A Century of Chicago’s Best Sportswriting.” The new book, published by the University of Chicago Press, is a collection of 100 columns by 59 Chicago sportswriters. They span from Ring Lardner and Arch Ward to David Haugh, Rick Telander and Rick Morrissey.

Rapoport, the former Sun-Times columnist who now lives in Los Angeles, served as the book’s editor. It was a daunting task to distill more than 100 years of Chicago sportswriting into a single book.

“Many of the people who wrote about sports in Chicago over the last century were as good at their jobs, or better, as the players they were writing about,” Rapoport said.

Rapoport viewed part of his mission to use the book as a way to document the history of Chicago sports. Yes, Cubs fans, there’s an actual story of the team winning the World Series: I.E. Sanborn’s account in the Tribune of the 1908 clincher. The Tribune’s Westbrook Pegler wrote vividly of Babe Ruth’s Called Shot homer at Wrigley Field during the 1932 World Series.

“Nor will you ever see an artist call his shot before hitting one of the longest drives ever made on these grounds,” Pegler wrote.