I just got to my brother's house after taping the segment for ESPN. And I've got one thing to say. Go easy on me. If you watch, just keep telling yourself, it's only the second time he's been interviewed on TV.
Being in the SportsCenter studio was rather intimidating, not to mention sitting next to Bob Ley, who in my opinion is one of the finest journalists around, TV notwithstanding.
Bristol is in the middle of nowhere, but the ESPN studios are just mammoth in both size and scope. There's even a basketball court in the middle of the campus that has the ESPN logo at center court.
I tried to do AN proud and the interview went fine, but I feel as though I froze up during my first answer and rambled far too much (they asked me about asterisks and I talked about the adverse impact on our nation's youth - guess Maya was on my mind). I think I got it together for the rest of the piece. What hurt me even more is that Juan Williams from NPR was on the panel with me and that guy is one polished television speaker. So I think he'd make anyone look like an amateur. Gwen Knapp was also there and she was good in that she basically made it a confessional and talks about how she should've written about the suspicions about McGwire in 98. That takes guts.
Again, go easy on me. I hope to get better with practice. Lots and lots of practice. Although nothing is more emasculating than caked on makeup. Quick someone get me a shot of Jack and stogie.
The good news is that apparently the A's regained their stroke while I was in the air yesterday. Course it was against Shrek 2 (since Bartolo Colon is Shrek 1).
