Hey guys, cant you find out in advance if an athlete sucks at being interviewed or not? Lee and Thome have been in the majors for awhile now, I would think you guys would have seen them in some format or heard them enough in post game comments to know if they have absolutely nothing going on upstairs. That Lee interview today was painful to listen to. I could just imagine Mac counting the seconds untill cutting it off. Some athletes, like Derosa, are great interviews, but most are painful to listen to. Do you guys try to research this beforehand, or if an athlete agrees to an interview do you just automatically do it?

EDIT: I know you guys generally dislike athlete interviews, so no need to mention that, thats actually what makes me wonder about this.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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Was the Lee interview any worse than the Ben Gordon interview?

The bar was set pretty high but I actually think it was. There wasnt one question that they asked him that he didnt completely fuck up except the last one about his charity.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't think research is done - if there's an opportunity to get a name player on, I think they just do it.

That was what I was thinking, which I think is a terrible way to go about it, but I was hoping to get some clarification.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yeah, I don't know for certain that's true, but I would guess that if they can get a Derek Lee, Ben Gordon, etc on, they will do it since these guys don't make frequent radio interviews. Most of the time with these guys, thank god for short interviews because these guys don't have anything to say.

it almost seems like the better the athlete, the more horrible interview they are. I know this seems random, but have you ever seen/heard Paul Shirley(NBA) in an interview? The guy has to be the funniest athlete in the world.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They don't know anything about them unless they were in the paper that day.

Or if they bought Harry drinks.

Have you ever made a post yet with any merit? The CSFMB has yet another troll...

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

We do research the players we talk to, and 99% of the time we only go after players that we know will add to the show. Guys that want to join us and will enjoy a conversation.

I take the bullet on D. Lee. I went after him because I thought having the playoff-bound (hopefully) all-star first baseman of the Cubs on our show in the most important stretch of games since 2003 would be good for the show and the listeners. I was wrong. We all knew that D. Lee isn't the best talker...but none of us knew it would bomb the way it did. I have heard him before and he was never that bad.

I make no excuse for it, but it was one segment of 25 hours of MJH a week. Today we'll get back on the bike.

i usually turn the dial for any athlete interview; they're either too political and phony (especially college coaches), or they don't answer direct questions ("what do you think you have to do to turn things around?" "well, obviously we need to change a few things, and we'll get it back on track")...

a few good ones: de rosa, a j pierzynski, norm van lier, dempster, kerry wood, peanut, and any time you can get jimmy piersall is great.

In general, the problem isn't with the athlete. The problem is the questions being asked of him. You get lame answers to lame questions.

Are you interviewing Steve Trout today?

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You know me like that.

I totally agree, except with AJ, he's a tool.

I don't think it's a big deal, but is research is finding out if he's a good interview, not whether the guy's a good player.

Like you said, it's a few minutes of one show.