I'm featured in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune as part of the newspaper's weekly "How I Got My Job" series. The article doesn't go over much new ground for anyone who's read this blog for a while, with all the usual topics (AG.com, Rotoworld, NBC Sports, Minnesota Daily, journalism school, working from home) being covered, but I'm very proud to say that I managed to work both Jessica Alba and Elisha Cuthbert into the piece. Seriously.
I was asked to participate in the series way back in February and headed to the Star Tribune offices on a snowy winter afternoon to have my photo taken. Just seven short months later, there's a 491-word article about me in the newspaper. About six months passed between the photo shoot and actually doing the interview for the piece, which took place via e-mail a few weeks ago. I wrote 1,700 words in response to questions from Aimee Blanchette and about 400 of them found their way into print.
In discussing the impact my friend and Rotoworld colleague Gregg Rosenthal has had on my career, some copy editor apparently saw fit to change my correct spelling of "Gregg" to the incorrect "Greg" version. Despite that, I'm very happy to be featured in my hometown newspaper and should note that Blanchette was very nice throughout the process. Any press is good press, but it's amazing to see how much time and planning goes into a 500-word article.
Contrast that to my radio debut earlier this month, which involved showing up at the KFAN studio, sitting next to Doogie Wolfson, and speaking into a microphone for an hour. One thing was literally seven months in the making and can be read in two minutes, while the other thing produced 60 minutes of content and was essentially 65 minutes in the making. Incidentally, I have two more mainstream-media appearances coming soon, so if you're not sick of me already you will be shortly.
In a way, horribly sloppy and uneducated fantasy football "analysis" like this show is responsible for getting me into the Star Tribune, because without it I wouldn't have a job.
After repeatedly mentioning here that I have no clue what the point of MySpace is, someone offered to take over the day-to-day operation of my MySpace page. I'm still no closer to figuring out what the point is, except now I have 250 "friends" (at least three of whom I've actually met) and a song that plays when you load the page.
The newspaper industry has made an awful lot of mistakes over the past few years, but making it so that Stephen A. Smithcan no longer call himself a columnist is a huge step back in the right direction. It took a while, but perhaps some editors will begin to realize that when bad, sensationalistic writers like Smith or Jay Mariotti attempt to go become famous for screaming on television, newspapers should let them.
Former Timberwolves forward Eddie Griffin's troubled life came to a sad end this week:
Officials said Griffin, 25, drove his SUV through a railroad crossing barrier, past flashing warning lights and into a moving train ... Griffin's vehicle burst into flames on impact, burning his body so badly that investigators were unable to identify him until Tuesday, when they used dental records to confirm his identity.
Kevin McHale, who signed Griffin to a multi-year contract despite the fact that he had a major drinking problem and wasn't all that good to begin with, seemed unsurprised by the news.
In other former Timberwolves news, Latrell Sprewellapparently wasn't joking about struggling to feed his family.
Not only is longtime Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate Jenna Fischerprominently featured in the all-important "top 10 moments in boob-grabbing history" (scroll down to No. 5), she's starring alongside John C. Reilly in Judd Apatow's upcoming movie Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which looks very funny.
I didn't really want to see Amy Winehouse in the first place, but her alleged problems with drugs and drinking have cost me a chance to see Paolo Nutiniin concert. (And yes, I continue to have the musical taste of a 17-year-old girl.)
Friend of AG.com and top-notch sabermetrician Tangotiger has launched the always interesting and fifth annual "scouting report by the fans for the fans." After going to his scouting database, you can enter in your personal observations about the players you watch on a regular basis and become part of a huge database of scouting reports compiled entirely by fans. Check it out.
Once you're done here, check out my latest "Daily Dose" column over at Rotoworld.
