ESPN

Sports, Marriage & Parenthood: The Life of ESPN’s Mike Greenberg

Bill Thompson

In the popular TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” the character Ray Barone was a popular and very successful sports writer. But at home his wife thought he was an idiot.

Now let’s turn the channel back to real life. Mike Greenberg is a popular and very successful sportscaster on ESPN and ABC. But according to his 2006 book his wife thinks he’s an idiot.

Actually his book was called Why My Wife Thinks I’m An Idiot. It was his first book, and one of his most popular, Perhaps because it is not only about sports, buts about the challenges of being a spouse and a parent.

As one review at the time noted, Greenberg’s was a book about a man tryling to grow up before his children do.

We both had a great time doing this interview in the spring of 2006.

So here now, from 2006, Mike Greenberg.

Mike Greenberg will be 58 later this summer. You can hear him on his podcast #Greeny.

Roy Firestone

Bill Thompson

When he was still in his teens in the 1960s, Roy Firestone got an up-close look at Major League Baseball, as a spring training bat boy for the Baltimore Orioles in Florida.

But instead of following that career path and becoming a bat boy the rest of his life, Roy Firestone cut into television. Starting in Miami, then moving to Los Angeles, Firestone established himself as a skilled Sports commentator and interviewer.

In 1980 he joined ESPN, posting their so-called “Up Close.”

I met him in 1993, what he wrote a book called up close and in your

So here now, from 1993, Roy Firestone.

Roy Firestone will be 68 in December. He is still seen on television on “Good Day L.A.”

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Dick VitaleJoe Garagiola

Dick Vitale

Bill Thompson
Photo: Dave Hogg

You would probably be hard-pressed to find a person with more natural energy and enthusiasm than Dick Vitale — former high school, college, and NBA basketball coach turn sports broadcaster.

Indeed, it’s kind of hard to think of college basketball these days without Dick Vitale coming to mind.

And when I met him, more than 32 years ago now, he seemed as perplexed as anyone by how successful he had actually become.

So here now, from 1988, Dick Vitale:

Dick Vitale wil be 82 in June. And still going strong.