Hello. I am the Underwire Umpire.
I created this site as a way to release some creative energy after spending four years in the sports department of a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper in San Jose, California and two more at the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.
…Which makes my background seem a lot more interesting than it really was.
My four-year stint at the San Jose Mercury News was spent mainly dealing with (sometimes irate) parents of Bay Area high school athletes to compile a never ending scroll of names and stats relevant only to about 100 people… But holy cow – if you misspelled a 12-letter last name that was thrown at you via crappy cell phone connection from the back of a van filled with screaming high school kids, you sure would hear about it later, on a perfectly clear landline, usually.
Every now and then we lowly agate clerks were thrown a freelance gig, and a byline, to remind us why we were doing such a rewarding craft in the first place. It worked. There’s nothing like seeing your name in print at the top of a (brilliantly written) story on middle school soccer that even the parents didn’t read except to pick out and highlight their child’s name for mailing to grandma.
Eventually I had a few really great assignments through the Mercury News, the Bakersfield Californian (where I did my awesome internship) and the San Jose State University Spartan Daily. I got to cover a Sharks/Canucks game, met and interviewed golf legend Greg Norman and met scores of other professional athletes during my time as a freelancer.
After reading the writing on the wall following three layoffs in two years at my newspaper, I answered the call when ESPN found my resume on the Internet. Six months of interviews, tests, and more interviews, and I finally became a stats monkey. I could say a lot of things to try and make you jealous and act like it was the coolest job ever – it definitely was a very talented group of co-workers – but the reality was that I spent a lot of time basically babysitting computer feeds. Major creativity killer.
That’s me, and this is my blog. Sports and life my way: no editors, no managers, no limits… Finally.