The most influential sports journalist working today?

Is anyone truly 'influential'?

There's so much media out there...don't most fans/readers/writers come to the table with preconceived ideas, and then find the media voice that best fits those ideas?

And along those lines, wouldn't you be influenced by different people in different sports? So many specialists...I'd be influenced by (example) Buster Olney in baseball, someone else in football, basketball, etc. I can't think of too many writers whose opinion I value equally on all subjects.

 

In effect, Gary Smith is writing a short book each year for Sports Illustrated, so $600,000 seems reasonable.

 

It's a great deal, but also keep in mind that when you're writing only four stories a year, it comes with a lot of internal pressure to DELIVER. Especially if you care so deeply about the craft as Smith obviously does. Everyone thinks, "God, I'd love to have that gig" and of course you would. Because it's the dream. But a lot of people would buckle or implode with those kind of expectations. I think that's the most overlooked part about what Smith does. Because those kind of expectations have to be suffocating at times, even if you've won a ton of awards and have a stack of BASWs with your stories inside.

I know people who couldn't handle the pressure of writing only once every two weeks.

To write four a year takes a mental discipline and a belief in yourself that I deeply admire.

 

And I have to believe that for every copy of a Feinstein out there on the nightstands of America, there are 100 copies of Mr. Albom's various odes to sentiment. Be interesting to compare their numbers, but there's almost no accurate way to do so. Another mystery of publishing.

 

A year ago I likely would have said Halberstam.

 

Among serious readers, certainly. Of whom there are perhaps 250,000 in the country.

Among folks who buy their lit at the Wal-Mart checkout stand - of whom there are many millions - still Albom.

 

I don't really see Albom as really working as a sports person and his recent books aren't about sports, so I wouldn't count him.

 

Agree, reluctantly, with jgmacg about Albom, ONLY because of the crossover exposure. Fame = influence, like it or not.

 

I had the same thought. First name that popped into my head.

 

From Mr. Albom's website:

Mitch Albom is the author of nine books: two novels, one memoir, two sports-oriented non-fiction bestsellers and four collections of his newspaper columns.

To date, Albom’s books have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, in more than 50 countries and 43 languages.

Like it or not, he swings a heavy bat.

 

20 million copies? Fuckity fuck.

Does Norman Mailer count? He's written about sports. I'm on a huge Mailer kick. I think I'm going to get Rip Torn to bleed open my head with a hammer just so I can live like him a little. The nineteen wives and forty-seven children are probably out of the question.

 

I wish I could say Joe Sullivan, the sports editor of the Boston Globe.

When Vince Doria was there, he was one of the most important sports journalists in the country.

But as much as I hate to say it, the Globe is not as great as it once was.