This is where I'm currently at in my blogging career. After Simmons gave his two-weeks notice to the Herald, his plan was to support himself as a freelance writer. He tried this for three months and was eventually broke and bartending. Simmons would bartend for a year, while continuing to take on freelance writing jobs.
Having had a terrible experience writing for newspapers, Simmons believed the Internet was the only real opportunity available to a self-described year-old wannabe sportswriter. There already were a few columns on Digital City including a Movie Guy column, and Simmons badgered the editors of Digital City into giving him a sports column.
Simmons succeeded, and he now had his own "Sports Guy" column. But the column did not mean success for Simmons. Leitch would also turn to new media. Unable to find the right position in Los Angeles, Leitch moved to St. Louis where he wrote for the Sporting News online edition. Leitch was relatively happy at the Sporting News, but he experienced big-fish-in-small-pond syndrome and left to take a job in New York writing for the New York Times Arts and Living section.
Leitch only stayed at the Times for four months, when he decided to throw his hat back into new media, writing for Ironminds, an online magazine. Leitch was unemployed for about a year with a delusion that a job would be handed to him. None ever came. In this time, Leitch had to deal with the reality of bills, rent and no income. Leitch took on some freelance work, but most jobs fell through. Leitch even left New York for a period of time, returning to his hometown of Mattoon, Illinois, to work on a book about his Life as a Loser column and to ask his parents for financial help.
He applied to a variety of jobs, including at a movie theatre, and he was eventually hired as an editor of another online newspaper. Leitch then tried temping, including a gig stuffing envelopes.
In his own words, Leitch described this time as:. People for whom a weeklong job is a huge commitment. People in limbo, between two phases in their life, neither all that appealing, treading water, waiting for life to tell them what to do next.
It was at this point, that both Simmons and Leitch would have to decide whether to continue writing or whether to pursue a new field to earn a steady paycheck. To their credit, neither Simmons nor Leitch gave up on their dreams of becoming a writer. Simmons did not become a real estate broker, and Leitch did not follow his mother's advice and go to law school. What they did do was create something different—something successful—that would change the face of sports writing.
Simmons wrote about sports from a fan's perspective. While this is commonplace today, no one was doing this in the late s. Newspapers were the dominant voice, and the papers wrote in a certain detached and unbiased style. Simmons did the opposite and wrote as the hyper-obsessed fan.
Simmons carefully cultivated the Boston Sports Guy persona, and he slowly began to attract an audience of fans who wanted to read stuff written by fans. The hundred friends Simmons was emailing his column to, slowly began to forward the column to their friends, and their friends to their friends, and so on.
It was a slow process, but Simmons, and his unique and engaging style, eventually attracted the attention of ESPN. After temping for a short while, Leitch eventually got a full-time job as a writer covering the financial industry.
Now he's hugging Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler, and for the first time in my life I'm watching other men hug and feeling wistful about it. The NBA: Where questioning your sexuality happens! Although it was unfathomably frustrating for fans everywhere, now that it's over, you have to admit it's a little funny to think of every Boston bar packed with irate Sox fans who were stuck watching The Steve Harvey Show.
I think it's going to get 0. Recently I found a notebook from last spring that included a skeleton for a Why I Love Sports column that never got written. There were 25 potential candidates jotted down, including and this was exactly how I wrote it "The Inevitable Brett Favre Comeback.
I have to say, I feel a little cheated. By sheer coincidence, the Commish happened to be sitting a few rows behind the petrified courtsiders who were now getting squashed by the likes of Anthony Mason and Patrick Ewing.
The camera caught him watching the melee with an I'm-mortified-and-I-hope-this-doesn't-escalate-or-I'm-either-going-to-have-English-killed-or-do-it-myself look. There has never been a better Stern Face. Number of career games played by English after this fight: You don't mess with The Sternado. Nobody was tougher to knock down, nobody fought more lousy pay-per-views and nobody cost the gambling public more money because it was always more fun to bet against him.
Before last week, his boxing tombstone would have read, "Great but ultimately forgettable. Now his tombstone will read: "Great. I don't ask for much. Now I'm like a shrimp that bottom-feeds on the ocean floor.
Each week, I snatch the "hot waiver guy du jour," hoping to rejuvenate my pathetic team. And you know what? It's been strangely enjoyable. I spend hours online scanning the best newbies as if I were perusing a buffet table. Absolutely, I've never had Kyle Orton!
And when I say "only," that's an understatement. The cost? Really, Gary? That's how you treat your "mostly blue-collar fans who can't afford good seats for games anymore," the ones you've already insulted times over?
Welcome to Wonk Week! They wrap up with a Halloween rendition of Parent Corner and a spoiler-y conversation about the latest episode of 'Succession' Been listening to Bill for a really long time. I struggle with Big Wos when he is a guest, as it feels like he is yelling in my ears, but there are so many other great guests that I can overlook it.
Used to like the show until he started talking politics. Standing up for China while trashing the United States is a disgrace. Maybe he missed the part where China censors free speech Apple Podcasts Preview. Customer Reviews. Top Podcasts In Sports.
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