Let's do a media survey/poll

[SoCalDude]

Most intelligent: Pat Haden
Biggest asshole: Rod Carew
Most intimidating: Bob Gibson
Most difficult to figure: Barry Sanders, Sandy Koufax (tie)
Classiest: Steve Yzerman
Most competitive: Jerry West
Coolest: deck Butkus

If you don't mind, could you expand on the Koufax point. I'm curious.

Don't mind at all:
Sandy Koufax is a sweet, gentle man. I'm not old enough to remember him on the mound and the fierce competitor he was for the Dodgers.
But, for a few decades, he was a recluse (or extremely private). The Dodgers, and especially Peter O'Malley, always wanted to celebrate Koufax. But, Koufax thought the Dodgers undervalued him when he was a player and held a grudge. So, wasn't till after the O'Malleys sold the Dodgers did Koufax start showing up to Spring Training in Vero and an occasional appearance in Los Angeles.
That work?

I believe what you wrote is accurate except the part about Koufax's relationship with the O'Malleys. He has been showing up at spring training for decades and, in fact, lived in Vero Beach for a while. Me and another writer had dinner with him and his wife in the Dodgertown dining room in 1982.

 

[Lugnuts]

Nicest: Greta Waitz, Matt Franco, Dominique Wilkins, Charlie Villanueva, Jessie Tuggle, Lindsay Davenport

Most Cerebral: Tom Glavine

Funniest: Charles Barkley

Most Professional/Respectful: Joe Torre, Jason Varitek

Biggest Asshole: Cliff Floyd, Calvin Murphy

Biggest Oddball: Turk Wendell

Most Robotic: Derek Jeter

 

[ShiptoShore]

Rex Ryan anyone?

The "Is Who He Is" category.

Last summer at camp in Cortland, I remember him cruising around in a Bobcat, only to park behind one of the PR guys' cars as the dude was trying to get out. Challenged him to get out of the tight parking spot without hitting the Bobcat. The guy got out, and Rex said something to the effect of "Way to go, kid," laughed and took off.

Not an interview, but it was within an hour of his noon presser... And there were no Hard Knocks cameras around.

 

[fishwrapper]

Most intelligent: Pat Haden
Biggest asshole: Rod Carew
Most intimidating: Bob Gibson
Most difficult to figure: Barry Sanders, Sandy Koufax (tie)
Classiest: Steve Yzerman
Most competitive: Jerry West
Coolest: deck Butkus

If you don't mind, could you expand on the Koufax point. I'm curious.

Don't mind at all:
Sandy Koufax is a sweet, gentle man. I'm not old enough to remember him on the mound and the fierce competitor he was for the Dodgers.
But, for a few decades, he was a recluse (or extremely private). The Dodgers, and especially Peter O'Malley, always wanted to celebrate Koufax. But, Koufax thought the Dodgers undervalued him when he was a player and held a grudge. So, wasn't till after the O'Malleys sold the Dodgers did Koufax start showing up to Spring Training in Vero and an occasional appearance in Los Angeles.
That work?

I believe what you wrote is accurate except the part about Koufax's relationship with the O'Malleys. He has been showing up at spring training for decades and, in fact, lived in Vero Beach for a while. Me and another writer had dinner with him and his wife in the Dodgertown dining room in 1982.

Showing up at Vero he did. I agree. He loved/loves working with young players. He just abhorred the attention. And, Vero visits were at Tommy's request and, of course, its convenience.
"A Lefty's Legacy" spells some of this out.

 

[ericwbolin]

Most fun: Eric Byrnes
Least fun: Albert Pujols (pre-game)

Nicest: Ugo Ihemelu (MLS for those who may not know)
Meanest: Mike Shanahan

Gregarious: Clint Hurdle
Standoffish: Jay Cutler

 

[rmanfredi]

I should also point out that Edson Buddle was always great to deal with when I was covering the Galaxy - always had time to talk, even after a loss or when he was dealing with an injury.

 

[Cosmo]

Nicest: Luis Gonzalez, Bernard Langer
Funniest: Shaq in his Laker days is up there
Oddest: Cecil Fielder. As I was interviewing him once, he was pulling himself into a lime green pimp suit.
Friendliest: Mark Grace, Craig Biggio (went to interview him postgame and he had a bucket of beers with him. Offered me one. Very cool.)
Most interesting: Miguel Batista
Surliest: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Mike Jarvis
Most difficult to understand: Shawn Marion. Dude speaks his own language.

Howland was OK when he was just dealing with one or two media members whilst at Northern Arizona, but I could tell he'd be a different guy once he got to Pitt. Not surprised to hear people call him a deck, though he was always good to me.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Most fun: Eric Byrnes
Least fun: Albert Pujols (pre-game)

Nicest: Ugo Ihemelu (MLS for those who may not know)
Meanest: Mike Shanahan

Gregarious: Clint Hurdle
Standoffish: Jay Cutler

I haven't been around Belichick enough to know if he does this, but Shanahan used to spend a lot of time in his press conferences chewing out beat writers by name.

I was witness to Coughlin chewing out Prisco once that made me as uncomfortable as I've ever been in a press conference when the anger wasn't directed at me.

In 1996, Boeheim, right after advancing to the Final Four, tore one of his beat writers a new asshole just before the press conference started.

 

[Precious Roy]

Nicest: Cam Ward (kid was awesome)
Funniest: Martin Gerber (about Detroit forwards) and Michael Ray Richardson (about anything)
Oddest: Richardson
Most interesting: Richardson
Most knowledgeable: Richardson (guy knows basketball)
Surliest: Bob Stoops (the guy just doesn't smile)
Best quote: Richardson (the guy never has a bad quote)
Worst quote: DeMarco Murray (Can't get anything out of him)
Scariest moment: Asking Brett Hedican after the Hurricanes won the Cup if this was a bigger achievement around his house then wife Kristi Yamaguchi's gold medal. Gave a good answer but the smile on his face told the story of him about to take my head off.

 

[lantaur]

Interesting to see some of these answers - especially one person saying something good and another something bad about the same player - and has me thinking back at my own experiences.

Not sure I can remember enough to come up with a good list, but I did interview Cliff Floyd once and he was nothing but nice to me. Ditto Mike Jarvis, although I dealt with him at road games while he was coaching George Washington and with only a couple of other reporters around.

 

[joe_schmoe]

Funniest and Nicest: Jose Lima. Still have no clue what the heck he said, but I know I was laughing and he always seemed to be having a good time.

Most intelligent: Robert Griffin (III). He's still good, but he was much better in his high school days when you could get him one on one.

 

[Shaggy]

Nicest: Cam Ward (kid was awesome)
Funniest: Martin Gerber (about Detroit forwards) and Michael Ray Richardson (about anything)
Oddest: Richardson
Most interesting: Richardson
Most knowledgeable: Richardson (guy knows basketball)
Surliest: Bob Stoops (the guy just doesn't smile)
Best quote: Richardson (the guy never has a bad quote)
Worst quote: DeMarco Murray (Can't get anything out of him)
Scariest moment: Asking Brett Hedican after the Hurricanes won the Cup if this was a bigger achievement around his house then wife Kristi Yamaguchi's gold medal. Gave a good answer but the smile on his face told the story of him about to take my head off.

The Bill Snyder coaching tree is a trip. Snyder was a deck, Mangino was a deck, Leavitt was a deck....Bob Stoops is a little better but not much.

I was stood up by Mike Stoops the only time I was looking to interview him, so I'm not sure if he's a deck or not.